Archeologists Make Rare Discovery West of Jerusalem

Algemeiner ^ | December 26, 2012

[SJackson]

Archeologists made a rare discovery at Tel Motza, to the west of Jerusalem, recently: evidence of the Jewish religious practices and rituals in the early days of the Kingdom of Judah. Among the finds are a ritual building and a cache of sacred vessels some 2,750 years old.

Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, the directors of the excavation, released a joint statement provided by the Israeli Antiquities Authority in which they said: “The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site’s proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom’s main sacred center at the time.”

Their statement continued: “The finds recently discovered at Tel Motza provide rare archaeological evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites, concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem.”

Tel Motza and the surrounding region is known for its archaeological treasures. Many finds have previously been uncovered at the site, from a variety of different periods. The Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting excavations at the Tel Motza archaeological site, prior to work being carried out on the new Highway 1 from Sha’ar HaGai to Jerusalem by the National Roads Company.

[Graybeard58]

Since this is from before the “reforms” I gather it is a pagan ritual site?

My thought too. I don't recall any horse figurines or "Bart Simpson" looking characters being used in the building or furnishing of the Temple. The Old Testament is very specific about the furnishing of the Temple, pagans, on the other hand could have used just about anything in their idolatrous worship-----even Bart Simpson.

[Boogieman]

Yes, they are pagan, obviously, because idols are not used in the proper worship of God. Probably familial idols, often used to honor ancestors by people of those times. There is a scene in the movie “Gladiator” which depicts Russell Crowe’s character engaging in that type of observance, with similar small clay idols.

[Boogieman]

The reforms of Hezekiah mentioned were not against decentralized Jewish worship, but against pagan idolatry. These are pagan idols, and similar ones were common throughout the whole region. They're not simply objets d'art.

For a comparison, here are some Greek and Roman small clay ancestor idols, which I believe are the equivalent of what we see here:

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks NYer. 2,750-year-old temple found near Jerusalem Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NYer and SJackson. One of *those* topics, among other things.

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[SunkenCiv]

for comparison:

https://www.google.com/images?q=mycenaean+figurines

[garjog]

Also found.

[SunkenCiv]

• Did God have a wife? Scholar says that he did
• 2,750-year-old temple found near Jerusalem Finds in Israel add weight to theory God “had wife”