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'Atiqot 112 (2023)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Cache of Astragali from Tel Nagila
(pp. 35-52)
Lidar Sapir-Hen, Joe Uziel, Aren M. Maeir, David Ilan and Matthew Susnow
Keywords: Astragali, Middle Bronze Age, fortifications, cache, divination, game pieces
This paper presents a cache of 31 astragali from the site of Tel Nagila, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. This is the earliest known cache of astragali from the Southern Levant outside tombs, and may be the forebearer of the later caches found in cultic contexts in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper presents the context in which the cache was found, adjacent to a tower that functioned as part of the site’s fortifications; the social mechanisms behind the use of astragali; their deposition in a cache; and how the cache may have related to the function of the context in which it was found.