Browse Items (18 total)

This monumental stairway is all that still exists of the monumental temple that King Herod the Great (37-4 BCE) erected and dedicated to the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. The temple's foundations were laid directly over the top of the palaces of the…

This aerial photograph looking north at Mt. Gerizim, which is located in the northern part of the Central Hill, shows the remains of the Samaritan Temple. The city of Shechem sat in the valley below (a portion of which can be seen on the right and…

These two toy-sized ceramic horses with riders are known from the Persian period. They are usually found in a favissa (a repository at a shrine used for objects that had gained sanctity by use in cult ritual and could not, therefore, be returned to a…

This photograph shows modern Samaritans, one of whom is holding a Torah scroll, on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans still practice their religion in much the same way that ancient Jews practiced their religion prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70…

These three figurines of pregnant women wearing Egyptian wigs and holding one hand on their stomachs are typical of figurines found at other Phoenician sites in Lebanon, Cyprus, and Israel in the Persian period. Scholars usually assume that they were…

This bronze bull was found on a hilltop southwest of Mt. Gilboa, all the way at the northern end of the central hill. When the site was excavated, excavators found an elliptical wall, 70 feet in diameter, inside of which was a large, roughly hewn…

This bronze figurine of Osiris (one of the two traditional Egyptian gods, the other being Isis) was found at Ashkelon and dates to the 4th century BCE. Both Isis and Osiris had become very popular throughout the Mediterranean, and although this…

Six of the eleven altars that were found during the excavation of Tel Miqne (biblical Ekron) stand in front of the excavation's directors, Trude Dothan and Sy Gitin. They concluded that Ekron had a primarily Philistine population in the 7th century…

This faience mask, discovered at the Temple of Hathor near the copper mines of Timna in the eastern Sinai Desert, was made to be a representation of the goddess. The eyes are characteristically Egyptian, and clearly were colored. It was one of more…

This artist's rendition of a cult structure at Horvat Qitmit in the eastern Negev Desert has been identified as being Edomite, and as dating to the 7th-6th centuries BCE, on the basis of its pottery. In addition to the pottery, many fragments of clay…

This photo shows a small one-room temple enclosure near the copper mines of Timna in the eastern Sinai Desert. It was originally built to the Egyptian goddess Hathor in the 14th or 13th century BCE. Later in the 13th or early 12th century BCE the…

This shrine model and pillar figurines were not actually found together, but have been photographed together because they are cult objects from the end of the Israelite period (8th-7th centuries BCE). The shrine model was made from an inverted water…

This slide shows the second monumental gateway (called by the Greek word for gateway, 'pylon') of the great mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu in Thebes. To the left is a relief showing Ramses leading enemy captives, including a row of…

These pottery stands are shown in situ (as they were left in the 10th century BCE), in a shrine next to the main sanctuary. The stands held bowls, which were found with them. They were used in the temple complex for ritual offering of food to the…

The remains of this well-preserved house temple at Tel Qasile, near the exit of the Yarkon river to the Mediterranean in central Israel, dates to the 12th-10th century BCE. Excavators recovered a number of cult objects such as incense stands and…

This aerial photograph shows a huge outdoor altar, up to 5 feet high, that was built in the Early Bronze Age (2850-2650 BCE). The altar was accessed via the steps on the left side of the photo, and excavators found pottery and bones surrounding the…

The round stone mound in this photo—a Canaanite outdoor altar—is also referred to as a 'high place'. It was built around 2,700 BCE and used up to around 1,800 BCE. A 'high place' ('bamah' in the Hebrew Bible) was a place used for worship, in part…

This photograph shows an intact shrine from inside the Holy of Holies of a small broadhouse temple (i.e., the entrance is on the broad side of the building). It dates to the 13th century BCE. The stones were all cut from basalt, a local rock. Eight…