Articles of Stone
This small group of jewelry items made of various kinds of stone and even bituminous coal includes miniature pendants, beads and a necklace .

Carnelian   was the most popular among other stones, followed by agate, quartz and others, for instance, dark hard stone or dark colored stone.  Most of these stones belong to the quartz group – cornelian, agate, and quartz itself. Several researchers have suggested that the name quartz comes from the transformed German term “govars”- the term for a mountain top used by miners (see Samsonov Y, Turinge A., Gems of the USSR, Moscow, 1984, p.38). By its classifications, the quartz group belongs to the B category, the second category of precious and semi-precious stones. Quartz as a semi-precious stone can be polished, treated and processed to be used in jewelry-making.  
Carnelian, as mentioned earlier, was associated with Mercury and Venus. The stone was thought to have vision-protective powers and was considered a good luck charm for homes. Other sources name carnelian as the July stone. Ancient legends frequently mention carnelian as the stone that heals wounds and repairs broken skin. Its healing properties were ignored for a long time. However, it has been proven that carnelian’s thin fibers capture and hold tiniest particles of radio-active materials. Currently, carnelian is successfully used by medical workers in several European countries (see Abarchuk S., American Panorama, Amerikanskya panorama, 1992).

Chronologically, the stone items of the Hecht collection include period from the II mill BC to the first centuries of the I mill. (the late Hellenistic or early Roman periods). Early Eastern and Hellenistic-Roman influences prevail in the above-discussed objects of art.

Amulets-Pendants
Amulets of fine stone were used from the prehistoric days onwards. Of the early ones, the bull’s head is the commonest, made of carnelian, hematite or glazed quartz (see “Arts and crafts of Ancient Egypt”, London, 1910). In the Hecht collection’s amulets, the Early Oriental influence prevails. The other one, Hellenistic-Roman, is viewed only in one item with the Aphrodite image

Let us discuss amulets-pendants, followed by the fragments of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic pendant.
 Late Bronze. Agate (black - courage, boldness, victory in games, prosperity). Agates with unusual markings on them were highly valuable. Red - calm, peace, protection against snakebites, scorpions, and other insects, and against lightning and thunder. An eye and brow contours are scratched on the stone.

Eye. Carnelian (Friendship, a cure for depression and pessimism) Height-1.8 c.Gaza.Late Bronze. The amulet may have been decorated with an inset.

 The figurine of mentioned above deity is highly decorative. Only certain recognizable features of the home protector allow us to classify the amulet as the anthropomorphous depiction.

Miniature head of a man. Facial features and a large nose are briefly outlined.

Small figurine of Aphrodite (Goddess of the Moon - In Chaldea the Great Goddess, Magna Dea, who was goddess of the Moon, was worshipped in the form of a sacred black stone - Esther Harding, “Woman‘s mysteries, London, p.41). Depicts a woman holding her head with both hands. Legs are missing. Both her face and the other features are sketched. The goddess is recognizable by her canonized pose.

Zoomorphic Amulets
Bead-amulet. Dark hard stone. Height-1.1 cm. Gaza. Late bronze or Iron Age. Perforated bead in the shape of a beetle. Fine work.

Bird-shaped pendant-amulet. Height -9 mm. Bitimous coal. Sumer. II mill. BCE.
Amulet in the shape of a dove. Height - 0.95 cm. Middle Bronze I. Compare with some objects from Naharia-Temple. Head of the dove is stylized, back is decorated by engravings.

doves were associated with Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, in the Near East, and with the cult of Astarte in Finikia. In Greece, doves were considered symbols of Aphrodite. It is also a well-known emblem of peace.   
                  
Necklace and Bead
Necklace. Quartz. Length -54.8 cm, Middle Bronze I. Length -22 mm-13 mm. The necklace consists of thirty three quartz beads: thirty one white and brown biconical beads (diameter -11 -10mm), and two black and white flat beads (21, 5 mm -19 mm, height-20.0-21 mm).  Found in a tomb near Beth-Lechem together with H-819, H-835
 Bead, Stone. Height -20 mm. Late Bronze. Tel Beth Mirsim. Oval, unfinished bead of dark colored stone. The bead could belong to a stone workshop.

 Necklace consists of seventy one beads. Shumer. III mill. BC. Length – 55.5. Thirty five beads are lapis-lasuli, thirty six beads are red agate. In Mesopotamia, India and Persia (Iran), Lapis-lasuli was used to manufacture not only beads, but also sealing stamps.
 
Lapis-lazuli was considered the symbol of sky, success. Red agate (blood-red) protected against large spiders and scorpions (see “Amulets and Superstitions,” p. 306). In the East, both agate and lapis-lazuli have traditionally been used to make necklaces since the ancient times. Number 71 is sacred and is represented as 70 + 1 – number 1 represented god. Moses said, “Hear o, Israel, the Lord our God (is) One”(Deut.vi,4; Mark xii.29). Seventy appears to have been used, like 40, as a round or general number, and many instances of its use can be found in the Bible “after these things the Lord appointed another 70 also (Luke x.1).