A U.S. teenager visiting Israel found a 3,300-year-old amulet, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. According to Israel Today Nederland, the student, a 17-year-old American Jew named Shiloh who is part of the Jewish National Fund-USA's Muss High School in Israel program, spotted a small object lying on the ground at Tel Gezer National Park in the Shefela. It turned out to be a scarab, an amulet shaped like a beetle, dated to the Late Bronze Age about 3,300 years ago and decorated with two cobras.

Israel Today Nederland reports that Shiloh and his teacher, Benji Hain, reported the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Archaeologist Adam William Asper then collected the amulet. Shiloh received a certificate of recognition for his responsible conduct.

Professor Ido Koch, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, examined the amulet and explained the image, Israel Today Nederland reports. The two snakes sit above a half-round shape. The cobra, known in ancient Egypt and in the Greek-speaking world as the uraeus, was a symbol of protection and rule, and it was widespread both in Egypt and in the southern Levant.

The site itself has a long story, according to Israel Today Nederland. During the period of Egyptian rule, Tel Gezer was among the most important Canaanite cities in the region. The city controlled a key crossroads in the Shefela, the hill country between the coastal plain and the mountains of Judea.

What it means: a school trip became a brush with the ancient world. A small beetle on the ground gives one more piece of evidence of the ties between ancient Egypt and the land of Israel, and a young visitor did the right thing by handing it to the people who can study it.