I wander on through the archeological displays, lingering beside glass cases, reading the explanations written in Hebrew and English, and I'm pleased somehow that the scrapers and hand axes, mortars and pestles dating to 13,000 B.C.E. could well have scraped hides and ground com in the American southwest.
But also under glass are exotic Middle-Eastern dried barley, chickpeas, ostrich eggs, carnelian beads, alabaster vessels from Egypt, and cuneiform tablets from Babylon.
Delicate bronze oxen and gold jewelry sparkle from the polished cubes of glass.
I pass on to clay images of large-hipped females, and I'm comforted to see that the patriarchy of
Judea revered fecund women.
But then, of course, I see that the images have no eyes or mouths.
