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| The bamah (high place) of King Jeroboam I of Israel at Dan, c. 920 BC. Ashley Lauwereins. |
Then Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well revert to the house of David. If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan. He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites. Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he alone had prescribed; he appointed a festival for the people of Israel, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.
—1 Kings 12: 26-33. New Revised Standard Version.
Cultic Practices at Tel Dan – Was the Northern Kingdom Deviant? By Jonathan Greer. Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 38, No. 2 (March/April 2012).
Did the Northern Kingdom of Israel Practice Customary Ancient Israelite Religion? Bible History Daily, February 17, 2012.
BHD:
There is very little archaeological evidence of royal ancient Israelite religion. While excavations throughout Israel have revealed evidence of Israelite “folk religion,” the center of elite ancient Israelite religion—the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—has remained archaeologically inaccessible. In his Archaeological Views column “Cultic Practices at Tel Dan—Was the Northern Kingdom Deviant?” archaeologist Jonathan Greer looks to Tel Dan in the northern kingdom of Israel for evidence of the official ancient Israelite religion.
In 1 Kings 12, King Jeroboam establishes a royal sanctuary for the northern kingdom of Israel in the city of Dan to compete with the Jerusalem Temple. Four decades of excavations at Tel Dan have uncovered myriad evidence of cultic activity at the site’s so-called “sacred precinct,” including temple architecture, the remains of a massive altar, cult stands and metal implements, all of which are associated with rites involving animal sacrifice.
Greer uses these finds to question just how “Israelite” the northern kingdom of Israel really was. Biblical writers often condemn the northern kingdom of Israel for heretical worship of foreign gods, and Greer examined the evidence from Tel Dan to assess these charges. Analyzing textual traditions and archaeological finds, especially faunal remains from animal sacrifice in the sacred precinct, Greer suggests that the northern cultic practices reflect ancient Israelite religion as described in the Bible.
Excavations at Tel Dan have yielded thousands of animal bones in the priestly and common worship areas of the sacred precinct. Greer concludes that the bone fragments indicate the practice of animal sacrifice as described in the Book of Leviticus. The priestly area of the sacred precinct at Tel Dan had a higher proportion of right-sided meaty long bones, while the common worship area featured more left-sided bones. This is consistent with descriptions of animal sacrifice in Exodus 29:27–28 and Leviticus 7:32–33.
Similarly, a high percentage of phalanges (toe bones) were recorded in the priestly area at Tel Dan, furthering the idea that the northern kingdom of Israel practiced ancient Israelite religion as detailed in the Bible. Leviticus 7:8 describes how a priest would keep the skin of a burnt offering, which would include the phalanges and hooves left intact during the skinning following the animal sacrifice. Beyond faunal evidence, Greer reveals further similarities between Tel Dan and the Biblical cult, citing artifacts such as an altar kit reminiscent of those used in Temple and Tabernacle rituals.
Greer’s studies of animal sacrifice and the archaeological evidence from Tel Dan suggest that ancient Israelite religion as practiced in the northern kingdom of Israel was not as deviant as is often thought.
Israelite Temple. Tel Dan Excavations.
Tel Dan Excavations website.
Tel Dan Stela: New Light on Aramaic and Jehu’s Revolt. By William M. Schniedewind. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 302 (May 1996).
Reconsidering the Iron Age II Strata at Tel Dan: Archaeological and Historical Implications. By Eran Arie. Tel Aviv, Vol. 35, No. 1 (March 2008).
Large Horned Altar, 10th-8th century BCE. By Elizabeth Bloch-Smith. The Center for Online Judaic Studies.
Sectionalism and the Schism. By Baruch Halpern. Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 93, No. 4 (December 1974).
Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem? By Yigal Levin. Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 38, No. 4 (July/August 2012).
Tel Dan. By Ashley Lauwereins. This Week in History, July 11, 2011.
Tel Dan. The 80% Blog, April 10, 2010.
Spurned Samaria. By Noah Wiener. Bible History Daily, June 4, 2013.
Site of the capital of the Kingdom of Israel blighted by neglect.
Holy Land archaeological treasure hurt by politics. By Daniela Berretta. AP. Yahoo! News, June 3, 2013.
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| Iron Age gate and plaza at Tel Dan |
