The fortuitous find took place in the south of the Strip
A stone statuette month from 4,500 towhich represents the face of an ancient goddess of beauty, has been discovered in the on the Franja of Gaza, as announced on Monday by the authorities of the Palestinian enclave.
Carved from limestone, the statuette, 22 centimeters long, date of ao 2,500 BC and has been found by a farmer who worked his land in Khan Younis, has indicated the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Hams, the Islamist movement that governs in Gaza.
The farmer has commented that while cultivating he found it by chance. “He was muddy and we washed him off with water,” he said.
“We realized that it was something precious, but we did not know that it had such great archaeological value,” he told the BBC.
“The statue represents the Canaanite goddess Anat, who was the goddess of love and beauty,” Jamal Abu Reda, head of the antiquities section at the ministry, said in a statement.
The object has been discovered in what was once a important “land trade route for various civilizations” who lived in what is now the Gaza Strip, Abu Reda specified.
In February, workers on a construction site in northern Gaza discovered 31 tombs from Roman times, of the 1st century
In Gaza, tourist visits to archaeological sites have been limited due to the blockade imposed by Israel in 2007, after Hams seized power in the Strip.
Israel and Egypt, countries bordering the Gaza Strip, where about 2.3 million people livestrongly restrict entry and exit to and from the Palestinian territory.
Last month, Hams reopened a 5th-century Byzantine church after decades of restoration work, supported by foreign donors.
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