These silver Torah finials are from Corfu and were made between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by an artist whose initials were A.Z. They were used in the Scuola Greca synagogue, which served Corfu’s Romaniote Jewish community. Raised vines, chased (delicately hammered from the front of the metal to refine the design), run the length of these opulently decorated finials.
In this terra-cotta plaque figurine from Tell Beit Mirsim, 6 inches (15 cm) high, the pregnant woman’s arms cradle her belly and her navel and genitalia protrude. Incisions indicate the eyes, the hair…
Lampstand (menorah) depiction from Jerusalem in a plaster engraving (1st century BCE–1st century CE). It is difficult to reconstruct what the lampstands of Exodus 25:31–35 and 1 Kings 7:49 looked like…