By the first century CE, the Galilee was one of the major Jewish population centers of Judea. In the following centuries, it became the major cultural and religious center as well, where most of the early talmudic rabbis lived and taught. Archaeologists’ recent discovery of a small shovel with a handle in the shape of a duck’s head, designed to be used for incense, sheds light on the history of this important area of northern Israel. Ilan Ben Zion rights:
Current research indicates [that the Galilee] was settled by non-Jewish peoples when the region was ruled by the Persian and Greek empires between 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. Only at the very end of the Hellenistic period, with the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty (of Maccabee fame) did it come under Jewish rule.
Except for later historical accounts and limited archaeological surveys at sites skirting the Galilee, little is known about the region during the Hellenistic period. How and when the Galilee became a Jewish stronghold in the late Second Temple period has been the topic of scholarly debate for centuries.
Khirbet el-Eika, [where the shovel was discovered], appears to have been a short-lived community. . . . Excavations indicate it was built during the 3rd century BCE. . . . Then, around 140 BCE, it was violently destroyed. Whether or not this was the result of a Hasmonean military campaign remains unclear.
Around the same time Khirbet el-Eika was destroyed, Jewish communities began popping up around the Galilee. . . . “We can’t say for sure, but the hints seem to point to a pagan population” [at Khirbet el-Eika, said the archaeologist leading the excavation]. The duck-headed incense shovel is a key clue. “It may be some sort of a cultic object,” he said. . . [It] is clearly of Greco-Roman design, and duck’s heads appear on an assortment of objects from the ancient Levant.
More about: Archaeology, Galilee, Hasmoneans, History & Ideas, Talmud