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Artifact: Spear Head Location Discovered: Jerusalem Date: c. 2000 - 1100 B.C. Material: Bronze Height: 13.5 inches Width: 1.5 inches |
This bronze spear head was discovered near Jerusalem and has been dated to the Middle Bronze Age, between 2000 and 1100 B.C. A wooden shaft would have been tightly fitted into the socket on the bottom of the spear head. Spears were relatively cheap to produce and easy to use and were thus some of the most commonly used weapons in Near Eastern warfare (1).
Spearmen typically fought with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. While in the wilderness, Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, used a spear in Numbers 25:7-8 to kill an Israelite man and Midianite woman who had broken the law. It is likely that the Israelites had taken many Egyptian spears with them during the Exodus, recorded in Exodus 12:35-36, which would have been used in the great battle against the Amalekites in Exodus 17.
Spearmen typically fought with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. While in the wilderness, Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, used a spear in Numbers 25:7-8 to kill an Israelite man and Midianite woman who had broken the law. It is likely that the Israelites had taken many Egyptian spears with them during the Exodus, recorded in Exodus 12:35-36, which would have been used in the great battle against the Amalekites in Exodus 17.
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(1) Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands: In the Light of Archaeological Study (New York: McGraw Hill, 1963), 10.
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