© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAncient Near Eastern Art

Decorative Inlay Fragments from a Wooden Box

Place ExcavatedJericho, Palestine, Asia

CultureCanaanite

PeriodMiddle Bronze Age II

Date1800-1600 BCE

MediumBone

Credit LineJericho Excavations, 1952-1958

Dimensions1 in. (2.5 cm)

Object number1956.061

Label TextAt Jericho, Middle Bronze Age tombs are the sole source for our knowledge of wooden artifacts, including boxes, vessels, and furniture. The partials survival of furniture was especially remarkable, since they present a picture of what the furnished house of Jericho might have looked like. Tables were long and narrow, consisting of a single plank attached by tenon and mortise joints to three legs, a feature which made the tables more stable on uneven earth-covered floors. Stools were of two sizes, seating wither one or two persons. The legs and seat were made from wood, while the seats were made of rushes, suggested by the holes bored in the seat-rails. Decoration was limited to the legs of furniture, which were often carved in a curved geometric from, loosely derived from Egyptian style furniture. Other wooden items used in households included vessels and wooden boxes, often decorated with incised bone inlay.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - February 12, 2018 (18 fragments)
Published ReferencesKathleen Kenyon, Excavations at Jericho II (London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1965), 302, figure 101.8.

ProvenanceExcavated by Kathleen Kenyon (1906-1978), Jericho, Palestine.

Status

Not on view

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