What Is a 2,000-Year-Old Marble Dolphin Doing in the Negev? https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/history-ideas/2015/07/what-is-a-2000-year-old-marble-dolphin-doing-in-the-negev/

July 6, 2015 | Ilan Ben Zion
About the author:

The archaeologists who discovered a statue not far from the Gaza border are themselves unsure how it got there, writes Ilan Ben Zion:

Alexander Fraiberg, head archaeologist [of the team that discovered the dolphin], said he believes the sculpture dates to the Roman era, but was incorporated into a later, Byzantine-era paved floor. . . .

“It’s interesting because the statuette was lying face down, so it was impossible to see its appearance,” he said. Experts believe that the dolphin, standing about sixteen inches high, may have been part of a larger sculpture, possibly a life-size statue of a god or goddess. . . .

“The mystery,” said Fraiberg, “is where the statue came from, who destroyed it, when, and under what circumstances, and who brought the piece with the dolphin to the site.”

Read more on Times of Israel: http://www.timesofisrael.com/2000-year-old-marble-dolphin-surfaces-near-gaza-strip/