Utensils: Ovens. Baking-trays. Bowls, etc. Feeding-bottles. Glassware. Spoons. Forks or Flesh-hooks. Needles. Spinning “Whorls.” Lamp-stands. Keys. Knives. Saws. Chisels. Awls. Axes. Adzes. Whetstones. Files. Hammers. Nails. Baskets. Arrows. Spears. Swords. Fish-hooks. Styli. Seals. The “Pipe.” Harps. The Dulcimer. Lyres. Children’s toys. Personal Ornaments: Combs. Perfume-boxes. Spatulæ for eye-paint, etc. Fibulæ. Beads. Necklaces. Bracelets. Anklets. Rings.
1. Utensils.—The term “utensil” is of wide application. The utensils of agriculture and the hand-mills for grinding grain have been described in [Chapter VII]. Among the devices used in connection with Palestinian houses one of the most important was the oven.
(1) Ovens.—The ovens of ancient Palestine were of the same kind as those used by the peasantry of that country today. Each consists of a cylinder of baked earth about 2 feet in diameter and 1½ inches thick. It is closed by a cover of the same material, in which a stone or lump of clay has been embedded as a handle. There is rarely any bottom except the bare earth. The loaves, which were flat discs, were usually placed inside, either on the ground covered with clean pebbles or on a baking-tray. Sometimes the loaves were plastered over the outside of the oven. In this case the fire was built inside and might consist of grass (Matt. 6:30; Luke 12:28). The fire was usually heaped about the outside of the oven, and often consisted of dried manure. It is this use of manure as fuel that is alluded to in Ezek. 4:12-15—a passage that has sometimes been greatly misunderstood. Such ovens were frequently found in all the strata. In [Fig. 133] two varieties of ovens are shown. The one at the left hand is made of plain tile; the other is covered over with potsherds, to make it retain the heat longer. Sometimes in large houses groups of several ovens were found together.
Ovens are frequently referred to in the Bible, sometimes as symbols of things that are hot. (See Lev. 11:35; 26:26; Psa. 21:9; Hosea 7:4, 6, 7.) Once a much-used oven is a symbol of blackness (Lam. 5:10).
(2) Baking-trays, consisting of discs of baked clay about 10 inches in diameter, were also found. These were usually turned up at the edges, and frequently perforated in order better to admit the heat to the under side of the loaf. One specimen was found burnt through with constant use. These trays were most numerous at Gezer in the second and third Semitic periods. They were found at Jericho in the Jewish stratum; (see [Fig. 134]).
(3) Bowls, etc.—In [Chapter VIII], under the head of Pottery, the jars, pitchers, clay bowls, saucers, and cups which were used about Palestinian homes have already been described. Bowls and saucers of stone were also employed from the earliest times. They were far less fragile, though more expensive. Probably the dishes used by the common people were in all periods made of clay. After the introduction of metal, however, the wealthy often had dishes of bronze (see [Fig. 135]), and sometimes of silver. A Philistine grave at Gezer yielded some silver dishes of beautiful workmanship; (see Figs. [137], [141]).
(4) Feeding-bottles.—A number of curiously shaped jars with spouts were found at Gezer; (see [Fig. 139]). Mr. Macalister was at a loss to explain their use unless they were feeding-bottles. The only other suggestion that he makes is that they were lamps, but they are so different from the lamps of the time, that that possibility seems to be excluded. Sellin thought similar objects found by him were vessels for pouring oil. This may have been their purpose.
(5) Glassware.—Vessels of glass are very rare in Palestine until Roman times. In the remains of the third Semitic period at Gezer fragments of ornamented glass vessels, which had been imported from Egypt, were found. The ornamentation consisted of zigzag lines. Clear glass first appears in the Israelitish period, but it was rare and inartistic. After the coming of the Romans it became more common. For examples of its use, see the ointment vessels in [Fig. 138].
(6) Spoons.—The spoons of the poor were in all periods apparently adapted from shells, as shown in [Fig. 136], but the more wealthy, especially when under the influence of more artistic foreigners, had ladles of metal that seem very modern; (see [Fig. 141]). These objects are from a Philistine tomb.
(7) Forks or Flesh-hooks.—Forks were in existence, as shown in [Fig. 140], but were used not to eat with, but to handle meat when it was cooking. The one with three prongs in [Fig. 143] reminds one of the “flesh-hook of three teeth” that the servant of Hophni and Phinehas, sons of Eli, thrust into the caldron of seething sacrificial flesh, in order to obtain the priest’s portion (1 Sam. 2:13, 14).