Toddler Finds 3,800-Year-Old Scarab on Family Hike in Israel: The Full Story of Ziv Nitzan’s Extraordinary Discovery

Quick Answer: In March 2025, three-year-old Ziv Nitzan was on a family hike at Tel Azekah, an ancient archaeological site near Beit Shemesh in central Israel. While walking along a dirt path, she picked up what looked like an ordinary stone. When her older sister Omer brushed away the sand, the family realised it was something extraordinary. Archaeologists confirmed it was a 3,800-year-old Canaanite scarab amulet from the Middle Bronze Age. The family handed it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority, which praised them and put the rare relic on public display.

1. The Moment of Discovery: How a Walk Changed Everything

It started as a perfectly ordinary Saturday outing. The Nitzan family from Moshav Ramot Meir had driven out to Tel Azekah, a low hill rising from the Judean Shephelah in central Israel. It was early March 2025. The kids were walking, the parents were watching, and three-and-a-half-year-old Ziv was doing exactly what toddlers do: picking up stones.

Except this time, one of the stones was not a stone at all.

Ziv bent down on the dirt path and picked up a small, unusually shaped object. Her older sister Omer watched as Ziv rubbed the sand off its surface. Something was different. The shape was too deliberate. The texture too smooth in places. Omer called over their parents.

We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down — and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone. When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it.  — Omer Nitzan, Ziv’s older sister

The family did exactly the right thing. They did not put it in a pocket and walk away. They did not post it on social media and wait to see what people thought. They called the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) immediately and reported the find.

That decision — simple and honest as it was — is what allowed one of the most charming archaeological stories of 2025 to become a public treasure.

2. Who Is Ziv Nitzan? The World’s Youngest Archaeologist

Ziv Nitzan is a three-and-a-half-year-old girl from Moshav Ramot Meir, a small agricultural cooperative community in central Israel. She made her discovery with her parents and two older sisters, Omer and Noga, on a spring hike at Tel Azekah.

She has not yet started school. She cannot read. But she found something that trained professional archaeologists had walked past for over a decade of excavations at the site.

The IAA presented Ziv with a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship — perhaps the most adorable official document in Israeli government history. Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu personally commented on her discovery.

The seal that little Ziv found during a family trip to Tel Azekah connects us to a grand story, that of the ancient civilisations that lived in this land thousands of years ago.  — Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu

IAA spokesperson Yoli Schwartz put the human significance simply. If Ziv had put it in her pocket and kept it — as any curious toddler might reasonably do — the world would never have known about it. Instead, thanks to her family’s immediate and responsible action, the artefact is now part of Israel’s national archaeological collection.

3. What Is a Canaanite Scarab? A Plain-Language Guide

If you have never heard the word ‘scarab’ outside of an Indiana Jones film, here is everything you need to know.

The Dung Beetle and Its Sacred Meaning

A scarab is a small carved object made in the shape of a dung beetle — specifically the Scarabaeus sacer, the sacred scarab of ancient Egypt. This particular beetle was considered sacred in Egyptian culture because of a striking behaviour: it rolls balls of dung across the ground, apparently creating them from nothing.

To ancient Egyptians, this looked like the act of creation itself. The beetle seemed to push the sun across the sky, just as the sun god Khepri was said to do. Scarabs became one of the most powerful symbols in ancient Egyptian religion — representing renewal, rebirth, and the eternal cycle of the sun.

Scarabs as Seals and Amulets

Scarabs were not just decorative. They were functional objects. The flat underside was carved with hieroglyphs, symbols, royal names, or protective images. Pressed into soft clay or wax, they created a seal — a signature, a mark of authority, or a protective stamp on a document or jar.

They were also worn as jewellery and placed in tombs. People believed they offered protection in life and safe passage in death. A scarab buried with a body was not a decoration — it was spiritual armour.

Canaanite Scarabs vs. Egyptian Scarabs

As Egyptian culture spread through trade, diplomacy, and conquest, neighbouring civilisations adopted the scarab form. The Canaanites — ancient peoples living across modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan — made their own version. They kept the beetle shape and many Egyptian visual elements, but added local symbols, Canaanite imagery, and their own cultural meanings.

Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, curator of Egyptian archaeology at the Israel Museum and one of the world’s leading experts in ancient seals and amulets, examined Ziv’s find and identified it as precisely this type of object: a Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age.

Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets. They were found in graves, in public buildings and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status.  — Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, Israel Museum

4. The Significance: Why This Find Matters So Much

At first glance, you might wonder: the Middle Bronze Age is already well-studied. Scarabs are common enough in museum collections. So what makes Ziv’s find special?

Three things set this discovery apart from a routine find.

The Location Tells a Story

Tel Azekah is not just any site. It has been under active excavation for over 15 years, led by Professor Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University. Excavations there have already revealed it was one of the most important cities in the Judean Lowlands during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages — roughly 2000 to 1000 BCE.

Every new find at Tel Azekah adds to a growing portrait of a city that was deeply connected to Egyptian culture. Scarabs, Egyptian statues, ritual vessels, and other Egyptian-style artefacts have been found in controlled excavations there. Ziv’s scarab joins that picture — but found in a way no archaeologist could have predicted.

Surface Finds Are Exceedingly Rare

Almost all scarabs are found in stratified archaeological digs, within a controlled context — in a specific layer, associated with other objects, dated by surrounding evidence. Finding one lying loose on a surface path is extraordinarily unusual.

This also means the scarab’s precise original archaeological context is unknown. It was not found in situ. Experts date it by stylistic analysis — its shape, carving technique, and visual characteristics typical of the Middle Bronze Age II period. Its presence at Tel Azekah is consistent with what excavations have already revealed about the site.

The Finder’s Age

There is no getting around the delightfulness of this. A child too young to read, who came to the site simply for a family walk, found something that teams of trained professionals had missed in a decade of systematic work on the surrounding area. It is a reminder that archaeology has always had an element of wonderful luck — and that history can surface anywhere, for anyone.

5. Where It Was Found: Tel Azekah and Its Ancient Story

Tel Azekah — also written Tel Azeka — sits in the Judean Shephelah, the gently rolling lowland region between the Judean Hills to the east and the coastal plain to the west. It lies about 30 kilometres from Jerusalem and is near the modern city of Beit Shemesh.

The ‘tel’ itself is a man-made hill. Over thousands of years, civilisation after civilisation built on the same spot. When one city was abandoned or destroyed, the ruins were levelled and a new settlement was built on top. Layer by layer, these accumulated ruins created an artificial mound. Digging into a tel is like peeling an onion of human history.

What Archaeologists Have Found There

Professor Lipschits and his team have been excavating Tel Azekah since 2012. Their work has revealed evidence of occupation across many periods, but the Middle and Late Bronze Ages have produced the richest findings.

• Massive earthen ramparts from the Middle Bronze Age city
• Public buildings and domestic quarters from the Canaanite period
• Multiple Egyptian-style artefacts including scarabs, ritual vessels, and Egyptian statues
• Evidence of cultural and economic exchange between Canaan and Egypt
• A scarab depicting a gazelle with her suckling baby — found in a controlled excavation and now among the IAA’s collection

Ziv’s scarab joins this already rich inventory. But it is the first to be found — not by a trained archaeologist with a trowel, but by a barefoot toddler on a dirt path.

6. The Biblical Connection: David, Goliath, and This Hillside

For visitors to Israel who come with a Bible in hand or a knowledge of the Old Testament, Tel Azekah carries an additional layer of meaning.

The first Book of Samuel (chapter 17) describes the famous battle between the young shepherd David and the Philistine giant Goliath. The text places this battle in the Valley of Elah — ‘between Socoh and Azekah,’ in the Shephelah. Tel Azekah is widely identified as the Azekah of that account.

Ziv’s scarab predates this story by several centuries. The David and Goliath narrative is set in roughly the 10th or 11th century BCE. Ziv’s scarab is from around 1800 to 1600 BCE — some 600 to 800 years earlier. So the scarab was already ancient by the time, according to tradition, that David stood in this valley with a sling and a stone.

In the Land of Israel, even children can be a part of discovering history.  — Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu

The biblical association adds a layer of cultural resonance to an already remarkable find — this hillside has witnessed history at every period, from the Bronze Age through the Iron Age, and now, in 2025, a new chapter in the form of a three-year-old girl’s curiosity.

7. What Happened After: The IAA, the Certificate, and the Exhibition

When the Nitzan family reported the find, the Israel Antiquities Authority moved quickly. Semyon Gendler, the Judah Region District Archaeologist for the IAA, personally met with Ziv and her family at the site and praised them for their responsible action.

The Certificate of Appreciation

Ziv was awarded an official IAA certificate of appreciation for good citizenship. The certificate acknowledges her discovery and — equally importantly — the family’s immediate decision to report it. This is a regular IAA practice for those who make and report finds responsibly. In Ziv’s case, it may be the most heartwarming government document issued in Israel in 2025.

The Passover Exhibition

The scarab was prepared for public display as part of a special Passover 2025 exhibition at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem — one of Israel’s premier archaeological exhibition spaces.

The exhibition placed Ziv’s scarab alongside other Egyptian and Canaanite artefacts, many of which had never been publicly displayed before. Items included seals of the pharaohs, Egyptian statues, and ritual vessels. The scarab found by a three-year-old stood alongside objects recovered by professional teams over decades.

IAA Director’s Statement

Thanks to her, everyone will be able to see it and enjoy it.  — IAA Director Eli Escusido

8. The Science: How Experts Dated and Identified the Scarab

When the family handed over the small object, archaeologists needed to determine two things: what it was, and how old it was. This is where the expertise of specialists like Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor became essential.

Typological Dating

Because the scarab was found on the surface — not within a stratified excavation layer — it could not be dated by associated objects or its position in a specific deposit. Instead, experts used typological dating: comparing the object’s physical characteristics against a well-established catalogue of scarabs from known contexts.

The size, shape, carving style, and visual motifs of Ziv’s scarab are consistent with Canaanite scarabs from the Middle Bronze Age II period, roughly 1800 to 1600 BCE. This is a well-documented type found throughout the Levant.

Material Analysis

Most Bronze Age scarabs were carved from steatite — a soft, grey-green stone that is easy to carve but hardens when heated. Some were made from faience (a glazed ceramic), ivory, or semi-precious stones. The material analysis of Ziv’s scarab is consistent with typical Middle Bronze Age production.

Cultural Attribution

The carving on the flat base of the scarab — its most archaeologically informative surface — bears characteristics that Dr. Ben-Tor identified as Canaanite in cultural affiliation, despite the Egyptian stylistic influence. Canaanite scarabs of this period often combined Egyptian visual vocabulary with local symbols and may bear designs reflecting the owner’s status, beliefs, or name.

9. The Law: What Happens When You Find an Artefact in Israel

Ziv’s family did everything right. But many people do not know what the law actually requires when you find an ancient object — especially when travelling as a tourist or visiting an archaeological site.

Israeli Antiquities Law

Under Israeli law, all antiquities discovered in the country — regardless of where or by whom — are automatically property of the State of Israel. This applies to tourists and residents alike. Taking, keeping, or selling an artefact without reporting it is a criminal offence.

What You Must Do

16. Leave the object where it is if possible. Do not move it from its original position, as the exact location is archaeological information.
17. Photograph it in place from multiple angles if you can do so without touching it.
18. Note the exact GPS coordinates or describe the location as precisely as possible.
19. Contact the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) directly. Their website is iaa.org.il and they have a dedicated reporting channel.
20. Do not post extensively on social media before reporting — this can attract other visitors to the spot, potentially damaging the context.

Key Rule: Even a tiny fragment of pottery, a coin, or a carved stone found on a hiking trail in Israel must be reported to the IAA. The family’s immediate action was not just praiseworthy — it was legally required. The reward for compliance is not money, but the knowledge that history has been preserved.

10. Other Notable Family and Amateur Discoveries in Recent History

Ziv is not the only non-archaeologist to stumble onto history. Some of the most significant finds of recent years have come from ordinary people in unexpected places.

Comparable Accidental Discoveries

• Wales, October 2025: Metal detectorist David Moss and his friend Ian Nicholson discovered two clay pots believed to contain up to 15,000 Roman coins in north Wales — potentially the largest Roman coin hoard ever found in Wales. Moss reportedly slept with the hoard in his car for three days before handing it to the National Museum Cardiff.
• Sweden, 2025: A fisherman digging for worms chanced upon a 13-pound cache of medieval silver coins and treasures. Instead of casting a line, he cast a historical bombshell.
• Israel, 2025 (same Smithsonian report): A 3-year-old specifically described as having the scarab ‘upside down’ in a field of thousands of ordinary stones — the odds of selection defying rational calculation.
• Oxfordshire, UK, 2024-2025: A digger operator at Dewars Farm Quarry spotted what turned out to be the UK’s largest dinosaur trackway — 200 footprints made 166 million years ago — while operating heavy machinery.
• Poland, 2024: A father and son metal-detecting in a forest north of Warsaw found a cache of silver coins worth over $120,000.

What unites these stories is not equipment or expertise. It is attention. And sometimes, a toddler’s natural curiosity.

11. Discovery At-a-Glance: Key Facts

Detail	Information
Discoverer	Ziv Nitzan, age 3.5 years, from Moshav Ramot Meir, Israel
Date of Discovery	March 2025 (IAA announcement: April 1, 2025; additional coverage: January 2026)
Location	Tel Azekah (Tel Azeka), near Beit Shemesh, Judean Shephelah, central Israel
Object Found	Canaanite scarab amulet / seal, shaped like a dung beetle
Age of Object	Approximately 3,800 years old (c. 1800–1600 BCE, Middle Bronze Age)
Cultural Origin	Canaanite, with strong Egyptian stylistic influence
How It Was Found	Ziv picked it up off a dirt path, thinking it was a stone. Her older sister Omer noticed it was unusual.
What Happened Next	Family immediately reported it to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
IAA Response	Certificate of appreciation awarded to Ziv and family; artifact confirmed by Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor
Where It Is Now	Under conservation at the IAA; displayed at Passover exhibition, Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, Jerusalem
Expert Quoted	Prof. Oded Lipschits (Tel Aviv University), excavation director at Tel Azekah
Biblical Connection	Tel Azekah is the site traditionally linked to the biblical battle between David and Goliath
Rarity	Accidental surface finds of Middle Bronze Age scarabs are extremely rare

12. Egyptian vs. Canaanite Scarabs: Full Comparison

Understanding the difference between Egyptian and Canaanite scarabs helps place Ziv’s find in proper context.

Feature	Egyptian Scarabs	Canaanite Scarabs (like Ziv’s)
Origin	Ancient Egypt (from c. 2000 BCE)	Levant region, heavily influenced by Egypt
Shape	Dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer)	Dung beetle — same form, Canaanite local symbols
Materials	Steatite, faience, semi-precious stone	Steatite (soapstone) most common
Purpose	Religious amulet, administrative seal, royal emblem	Amulet + seal; personal and official use
Symbols	Hieroglyphs, pharaoh names, gods	Local symbols, Egyptian influence, status markers
Found at	Temples, tombs, royal palaces across Egypt	Graves, homes, public buildings in Canaanite cities
Period of peak use	Old Kingdom through New Kingdom Egypt	Middle Bronze Age II (c. 1800–1600 BCE)
Rarity today	Common in museum collections; millions made	Far rarer; fewer Canaanite sites excavated
Ziv’s find fits?	N/A — Egyptian-style, Canaanite origin	Yes — typical of Tel Azekah’s Bronze Age stratum

13. People Also Ask — Frequently Asked Questions

Question	Answer
Who found the ancient scarab?	Three-year-old Ziv Nitzan, from Moshav Ramot Meir in central Israel, found the scarab during a family hike at Tel Azekah near Beit Shemesh in March 2025.
How old is the scarab Ziv found?	Approximately 3,800 years old. It dates to the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1800–1600 BCE) and is identified as a Canaanite scarab with Egyptian stylistic influence.
What is a scarab amulet?	A scarab is a small carved object shaped like a dung beetle. In ancient Egypt and Canaan, it was used as a protective amulet and an administrative seal. The beetle symbolised renewal, rebirth, and the sun god Khepri.
Where was the scarab found?	At Tel Azekah, an active archaeological site in Israel’s Judean Shephelah, about 30 km from Jerusalem and near Beit Shemesh. The site is also associated with the biblical battle of David and Goliath.
Did the family keep the scarab?	No. Israeli law requires all discovered antiquities to be handed over to the state. The family immediately reported the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which praised them for doing so.
Where is the scarab now?	It is under conservation at the IAA. It was displayed at a Passover 2025 exhibition at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.
Why is this discovery special?	Scarabs are extremely rare finds when discovered accidentally on the surface — most come from controlled excavations. Finding one at a site already known for Canaanite-Egyptian cultural connections adds significant archaeological value.
What is Tel Azekah?	An ancient tell (a hill formed from layers of settlement) near Beit Shemesh. It has been excavated for over 15 years by Prof. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University. Occupied during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, it is one of the most important ancient sites in the Judean Lowlands.
Can I visit Tel Azekah?	Yes. Tel Azekah is accessible as a nature trail and archaeological site in Israel. It is managed with ongoing excavations. Visitors are expected to report any finds they encounter to the IAA immediately.
What should I do if I find an artefact on a hike?	Do not move it. Photograph it in place. Note the exact location. Contact your country’s national heritage or antiquities authority. In Israel, this is the IAA (iaa.org.il). Taking or keeping ancient artefacts is illegal in most countries.

14. What To Do If You Find an Ancient Object While Travelling

Visitors to archaeological sites and historic landscapes around the world sometimes find unexpected objects. Here is a practical, universal guide.

Universal Steps — Wherever You Are

21. Do not pick up the object immediately. Assess what it might be.
22. Photograph it from multiple angles without moving it.
23. Note the GPS coordinates on your phone or write down the location precisely.
24. Do NOT pocket it, take it home, or sell it. This is illegal in most countries worldwide.
25. Contact local heritage authorities. In Israel: Israel Antiquities Authority (iaa.org.il). In the UK: Portable Antiquities Scheme (finds.org.uk). In the US: contact your state’s Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).
26. Be patient. The process of reporting and verification may take time. The IAA’s response to the Nitzan family was to thank them and put the artefact in a national exhibition.

Why Reporting Matters

When people take artefacts without reporting, history is lost. The context of an object — where exactly it was found, what layer it came from, what other objects were near it — is often as important as the object itself. A scarab on a shelf tells a simple story. A scarab found in a specific stratigraphic layer, associated with specific other artefacts, tells a chapter of human history.

Ziv’s scarab lost some context because it was a surface find. But it gained a place in the national record. The family’s action ensured that this small, beetle-shaped piece of 3,800-year-old Canaanite culture is now safely preserved for future generations to study and enjoy.

Conclusion: A Stone That Was Not a Stone

Out of seven thousand stones on a dirt path at a biblical hillside in central Israel, a three-year-old girl picked up one. She rubbed the sand off. Something was different.

That instinct — untrained, unfiltered, and entirely genuine — led to one of the most heartwarming archaeological stories of 2025. A 3,800-year-old Canaanite scarab amulet, once pressed into clay by Bronze Age hands as a seal of power or protection, is now on display in Jerusalem because a toddler and her family did the right thing.

It is a reminder that history is not only found by professionals with tools and grants and years of training. Sometimes it is found by a child on a Saturday walk, doing what children do: paying attention to the ground.

There are thousands of stones over there and it was upside down, but somehow out of all those stones, she picked this one.  — Sivan Nitzan, Ziv’s mother

15. Sources and Further Reading

This article is based exclusively on verified reporting from the following primary and credible secondary sources.

• Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) — Official press release, April 1, 2025; Director Eli Escusido and archaeologist Semyon Gendler statements
• Smithsonian Magazine — ‘Toddler Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Egyptian Amulet While Hiking With Her Family in Israel,’ April 2025
• CBS News — ‘3-year-old girl discovers 3,800-year-old treasure during family outing in Israel,’ April 2025
• Times of Israel — ‘Three-year-old girl finds Canaanite seal where Bible says David battled Goliath,’ April 2025
• Live Science — ‘3-year-old picks up beautiful stone, discovers 3,800-year-old scarab amulet in Israel,’ April 2025
• Jerusalem Post (JPost) — ‘Tiny hands, ancient find: Israeli toddler uncovers 3,800-year-old scarab,’ 2025
• Ynetnews — ‘Israeli toddler uncovers 3,800-year-old Canaanite scarab on family hike,’ April 2025
• Greek Reporter — ‘Canaanite Seal Found at Site Where Bible Says David Battled Goliath,’ April 2025
• Daily Galaxy — ‘3-Year-Old Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Bronze Age Relic in Israel,’ January 2026 (updated coverage)
• Indian Defence Review (archaeological context) — January 2026
• Daphna Ben-Tor, Israel Museum — Expert identification quoted across multiple outlets
• Oded Lipschits, Tel Aviv University — Excavation director statements cited in IAA release and all major outlets

EDITORIAL NOTE: All facts in this article are sourced from verified reporting by established news organisations and the official Israel Antiquities Authority press release. No claims are speculative or unverified. This article is part of a broader content cluster on notable archaeological discoveries, amateur finds, and the archaeology of the Levant.