A large bronze depiction of the Greek god Pan, half-man and half-goat, was unearthed at an archeological dig in northern Israel. The 2,000-year-old bronze mask representing the mythical deity is believed to have been used for religious ceremonies involving drinking, eating and sex. The archeologists found it at the Hippos-Sussita excavation site.
“The place was a scene for rites honoring the cave and field gods, and included ceremonies involving drinking, sacrificing and even ecstatic trances involving nudity and sexual relations,” said head archeologist Dr. Michael Eisenberg, from the Zinman Institute of Archeology.
Initially the archeologists were looking for coins with the help of a metal detector.