Archaeologists have found a bronze incense shovel and a bronze jug, both carved with ornate designs, in the ancient town of Magdala. Ilan Ben Zion writes:
The 2,200-year-old artifacts were found during excavations being carried out at the archaeological site on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. . . . They were resting one on top of the other on a stone floor in a storeroom near the fishing village’s pier and likely belonged to a local Jewish family, archaeologists said.
Ritual shovels were used in Jewish cultic practice for burning incense in the Temple in Jerusalem. They are depicted in contemporary Jewish iconography as . . . articles associated with the Temple. . . .
“At the beginning of the study we assumed that the shovel was used only as a cultic object for treating coals and incense used in ritual ceremonies,” Dina Avshalom Gorni, [the archaeologist heading the dig], said in a statement. “Over the years, after incense shovels were found with no cultic context, it would appear that the incense shovel was also used as a tool of daily use.”
Read more on Times of Israel: http://www.timesofisrael.com/2200-year-old-bronze-artifacts-found-at-biblical-site/