An ancient pottery figurine of a woman wearing a scarf, dated about 2,500 years ago, was discovered in the Negev desert in southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Tuesday.

The rare figurine, believed to be used at the end of the Iron Age or in the Persian period, was found by an 11-year-old boy during a family trip to Habesor Stream in northwestern Negev.

The 7-cm-high and 6-cm-wide figurine was made in a mold. It depicts that a woman, with a prominent nose, wears a scarf covering her head and neck, and folds her hands under her chest.

Such figurines are believed to serve as amulets to ensure protection, good luck and prosperity, and even to increase fertility.

"Pottery figurines of bare-breasted women are known from various periods, and were common in everyday life," IAA archaeologists said.

"In antiquity, with the absence of advanced medicine, amulets provided hope and an important way of appealing for aid," they concluded. 

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