A crown from the hoard (replica), Hecht Museum, HaifaA photo of the discovery
The Nahal Mishmar hoard is the hoard of archaeological artifacts found by a 1961 expedition led by Pessah Bar-Adon in a cave by Nahal Mishmar in the Judaean Desert near the Dead Sea, Israel. The collection wrapped in a straw mat found under debris in a natural crevice contained 442 objects: 429 of copper, six of hematite, one of stone, five of hippopotamus ivory, and one of elephant ivory. Carbon-14 dating of the mat suggests the date at least 3,500 BCE, i.e., it places the hoard into the Chalcolithic period.[1][2][3][4][5]
The goat wandObjects made from hippopotamus tusks, cut lengthwise in the shape of a scythe and pierced with three rows of round holes, in the center of which is a hole surrounded by a raised rim.