Galit Noga-Banai and Eliezer Stern A steatite icon of a female saint recently found in Acre With plates 13 – 15 Abstract: A fragment of a relief icon, made of steatite plaque, depicting a female saint, was recently found in Acre (Akko) in northern Israel. The plaque has lost the head of the saint, but enough is left of the figure to discern that the pose of the female saint is typically Byzantine. Moreover, the drapery shows stylistic affinities with Komnenian art. The plaque is the first steatite icon found in Palestine and could have arrived in Acre from abroad. The archeological context suggests that it might have been venerated in Acre anytime between the Crusader and the Ottoman periods. Adresse: Dr. Galit Noga-Banai, Dept. of History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel; galit.nogabanai@mail.huji.ac.il Introduction A fragment of a relief icon depicting a female saint was recently found in Acre (Akko) in northern Israel, during a trial excavation conducted in the parking lot of the Old ‘Akko Development Company at 1 Weizmann Street.¹ The icon is made of a thin steatite plaque that measures 4.9 × 2.9 cm (Fig. 1). The smooth surface of the stone is two-toned, pale and opaque green, with one spot of brown discoloration next to the figure’s right elbow. The reverse is rough and unevenly scratched.² The We are grateful to Mandel-Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for its support of this study, which is written in honor of Prof. David Jacoby . We are also grateful to the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA) for the kind permission to publish this find.  E. Stern, ‘Akko. Hadashot Arkheologiyot, Excavations and Surveys in Israel  ( December ). http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx?id=&mag_id= (acces- sed  November ).  The reverse was scratched roughly, perhaps to help the glue adhere to the frame.There are no traces of a gluing agent, however.The classic study on steatite icons was written by I. Kalavrezou- DOI 10.1515/bz-2016-0007 BZ 2016; 109(1): 97–108 - 10.1515/bz-2016-0007 Downloaded from PubFactory at 08/07/2016 08:18:02AM by galit.nogabanai@mail.huji.ac.il via The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Galit Noga-Banai