The 1,500-year-old African figurines discovered at Tel Malhata in Israel’s Negev Desert likely indicate the presence of an African community in the region during the Byzantine period.
They suggest a multi-cultural, religious, and commercial link to regions like Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, or southern Arabia, used as ancestral mementos or personal, symbolic items worn by Christian converts.
According to Israel Antiquities Authority research published in 2025 the figurines, featuring distinctly African facial features and made from rare ebony/black wood, were likely worn as personal pendants by members of an African community who migrated to the area.
Researchers believe the carvings did not represent deities, but rather functioned as ancestral representations that allowed early Christian families to maintain links to their heritage and identity.
Tel Malhata served as a commercial crossroads. The material (ebony) likely originated from India or Sri Lanka, indicating that the objects were part of an established international trade network linking Asia, Africa, and the Levant.
The figures were found in Christian graves along with other burial goods like glass vessels, showing how traditions merged with newly adopted faith, possibly supported by the expansion of Ethiopian Christianity during the reign of Emperor Justin I.
These findings, along with other similar, smaller, and less common finds from local archaeological digs mentioned on Fox News, suggest the area was much more diverse than previously understood.
Lacking other evidence (none presented in the article), that's quite a jump. Could be simply an indicator of trade, or just one or a few individuals serving, perhaps, as middlemen.
Anthropologists sure do a lot of wild speculation based on wishful thinking or a need to sensationalize their finds.