This ivory-headed doll wrapped in linen comes from a Byzantine-period (4th–7th century A.D.) Christian settlement in Nessana, in the west-central Negev desert.

The Negev kingdom of Nabatea was annexed by the emperor Trajan in 106 A.D. to become the Roman Provincia Arabia. After around 400 A.D., the agricultural centers of the region enjoyed great prosperity and growth, partly due to the rise of Christian pilgrimage to sites such as St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. One of the Negev’s prospering settlements, Nessana was located on the main route to Sinai and Egypt, and by the sixth century came to house a fortress and several churches. Artifacts discovered there include papyrus texts and textiles, well-preserved by the Negev’s arid climate.