The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is presenting a virtual exhibit of ancient masks and rattles,fair in time for Purim, when both are used to commemorate the holiday. The virtual exhibit displays finds that were discovered in archaeological excavations around the state.

Included among the artifacts are masks that portray humans and animals, the oldest of which is reportedly from the Stone Age.

Clay rattles that contain small stones or other materials for making noise were found, in a assortment of shapes, some decorated with a painted or engraved decoration. According to the IAA, most were found in a cultic context or inside tombs.

Rattles are frequently found in excavations throughout the country, stated the IAA, partly since they are small objects that were relatively easy to manufacture and were used by the general population.

It is believed that the clay rattle was an necessary musical instrument in the religious practices of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah throughout the First Temple period. In the photo above is a clay rattle found at Hazor. (Israel news photo: Clara Amit, courtesy of IAA)

The use of rattles through the reading of the Booklet of Esther on the holiday of Purim is a symbolic expression of the annihilation of Amalek, the first people whom the Israelites combated while wandering in the desert (Exodus 17:8-13). This is connected to the ancestry of the Persian prime minister, Haman (4th century BCE), who was a descendant of Amalek and who, as it is told in "Megillat Esther" (the Scroll of Esther), unsuccessfully tried to wipe out all the Jews in the Persian Empire and loot their property.

The Jews were originally commanded by G-d in the Bible to ruin every last member of the people of Amalek for attacking them in the desert; Jewish Sages said that it is due to the failure to carry out that command to the letter that their descendants periodically reappear to cause distress for the Jewish People.

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