For several years, archaeologists have been exploring an ancient site in northern Israel they have identified as Abel-beth-maacah, a city mentioned in the biblical books of Samuel and Kings. Among their finds is an exquisitely sculpted miniature head, made from a material known as faience and likely dating to the 9th century BCE. Naama Yahalom-Mack describes the object’s significance:

The head measures 5.5 by 5 centimeters and has carefully executed features, including glossy black tresses combed back from a headband painted in yellow and black and a manicured beard of similar style and color as the hairdo. The tint of the skin is light green. The almond-shaped eyes and the pupils are lined with black and the pursed lips lend the figure a look that is part pensive, part stern. The tip of the nose and the beard are broken, and it is difficult to say whether the head was broken off at the neck. This is an important question, as it would indicate whether the head was part of a larger figure. . . .

To date, the object remains one of a kind. There are no exact parallels. Other bearded male heads are known in the Iron Age, but these are usually made of clay and are very crude. None are naturalistic like [this] figure. Several contemporary bearded male heads made of faience were found in the north of Israel, in sites such as Tel Dan and Tel Yokn’am. However, these are of different styles and none resembles [this] head in style or quality.

Its naturalistic depiction raises the possibility that a specific individual is being portrayed, but the figure could also very well be a general depiction of how the Egyptians viewed Asiatics, including Canaanites and Israelites—bearded and wearing a striped head band—particularly during the Ramesside period. . . . But unless the head was an heirloom from Ramesside Egypt, [making it] some 300 years earlier than the archaeological context in which it was found, its origin should be sought closer at hand. . . .

Whatever the origin, the question remains of why it was produced. The tidy hairdo with the concealed ears and . . . the high craftsmanship and uniqueness of the object indicate that the head was specially made for something or for someone. Was this the head of a royal figure or a dignitary? And if so, could we be staring at the face of a historical figure from the 9th century BCE?

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.