Kfar Monash Hoard

The Kfar Monash Hoard is a hoard of metal objects dated to the Early Bronze Age (the third millennium BCE) found in the spring of 1962 by the agriculturalist Zvi Yizhar in Kfar Monash, Israel. Kfar Monash is located 3.3 km south-east of Tel Hefer (Tell Ishbar) in the Plain of Sharon or in modern terms 9 km/6 mi northeast of Netanya,[1] which is roughly located along the Israeli coast between Netanya and Haifa.

The Monash Hoard consists of:

object amount
Axes 6
Small Adzes 7
Large Adzes 4
Chisels 3
--square bars (2)
--circular bar (1)
Saw 1
Small Knife 1
Peg 1
Crescent 1
Long curved knives 2
Spear Heads 4
Daggers 4
Mace-Head 1
Copper Plates 800
Silver Mirror? 1
Carnelian Beads? Several
Crescentic Axehead 1

The Crescentic Axehead was found about 5 years later at about 200m distance.[2]

As of June 2006, the Kfar Monash Hoard was on display in the Israel Museum.

Identification of the 800 Copper Plates

There has been conflicting ideas to the purpose of the 800 copper plates. Although they have been assumed to be scales of armor from an Egyptian army unit, as proposed by archaeologist Shmuel Yeivin,[3] recent reevaluations have confuted this claim. Archaeologist William A. Ward proposed that the scales were means of barter or a reserve supply of metal from the Syro-Palestinian area.[4] Ward arrived at this conclusion through several pieces of evidence: the scales were not attached to any jacket, body armor was generally not used by the Egyptians until the New Kingdom, copper was still very rare, and the plates were too thin for body armor.

References
  1. Hestrin, Ruth and Miriam Tadmor. "A Hoard of Tools and Weapons from Kfar Monash." Israel Exploration Journal 13, no. 4 (1963): 263-288.
  2. Gophna, R. "A Crescentic Axehead from Kfar Monash." Israel Exploration Journal 18 (1968): 47-49.
  3. Yeivin, Shmuel (1968). "Additional Notes on the Early Relations between Canaan and Egpyt". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 27: 37–50.
  4. Ward, W (1969). "The Supposed Asiatic Campaign of Narmer". Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph. 45: 201–21.
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