Evidence for the material culture of ancient Israel comes mostly from artifacts and archaeology and attests to the influence of the great empires that surrounded Israel.
Though few musical instruments have survived from the biblical period, the archaeological record includes numerous depictions of people performing music, song, and dance.
Hybrid creatures with four wings supporting deity in Persian seal impression, 6th or 5th century BCE. Biblical imagery and ancient Near Eastern iconography offer some parallels to the creatures…
The evolution of the Hanukkah candelabra of the Pinne (Pniewy, Poland, near Posen) goatskin dealer Cohn into the Christmas tree of Conrad the businessman on Tiergartenstrasse (Berlin W.), satirizes…
This detail appears in a relief from the palace of Sennacherib, king of Assyria (r. 705–681 BCE), in Nineveh depicting the Assyrian conquest of Lachish in 701 BCE. (For the full relief, see "Conquest…