Move Over, Rodin: 4,000 Year Old “Thinker” Discovered In Israel
Auguste Rodin’s “Thinker,” a ubiquitous image in high-art circles and meme-generating communities alike, has new competition: Haaretz reports an archaeological dig in Yehud has uncovered a Bronze Age ceramic jug featuring a “Thinker”-like figure. (Make that old competition.)
Quoted by Haaretz’s Nir Hasson and Ruth Schuster, Gilad Itach, directing the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said it appears the jug and figure were created separately. “It seems that at first the jug, which is typical of the period, was prepared, and afterwards the unique sculpture was added,” he said. The jug is estimated to be close to 4,000 years old.
Aside from its resemblance to Rodin’s famed sculpture, Itach said the newly uncovered figure is remarkable for the clarity of detail it features, uncommon in the era during which it was created. He hypothesized the site at Yehud, which has yielded weapons and animal bones from the same era as the jug, might have been associated with funerary practices. Artifacts dating back 6,000 years were also found at the site, including a butter churn, tools, and shards of pottery.
Fingers crossed the next great find will be a pre-Common Era “Pieta;” that would really throw us for a loop.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO