A team of archaeologists uncovered the remnants of a 3,100-year-old temple at the site of Tel Beth-Shemesh. Dr. Dale Manor, professor of Bible whose areas of expertise include Old Testament history and archaeology, has been the field director at this site since 2000. Tel Beth-Shemesh is an important biblical site located near the modern town of Beth-Shemesh about 20 km west of Jerusalem.
“In 2011 we knew we were finding something monumental, something special, but we weren’t sure what it was until last year when we finally zeroed in,” Manor said.
They discovered most of the artifacts in 2012 and began determining what kind of structure they had come across.
The temple is comprised of an elevated, massive circular stone structure and an intricately constructed building characterized by a row of three flat, large round stones, according to an article about the discovery on Sci-News.com.
Besides the large stone structure, a high concentration of bones, ritual artifacts and a plaque figurine were found, which Manor said led him to believe that they had found a temple.
“Around the area of the large central stone is where most of those ritual artifacts were found,” Manor said. “We found decorated, imported chalices, along with imported pieces which would imply elegance. And then we found a portion of a plaque figurine with characteristics of a female fertility god. I postulated that this was a high place, which during the time of the Judges the Bible talks about ‘getting rid of the high places.”
According to Manor, evidence, like a plaque figurine and a seal, interpreted to depict Samson and the lion suggests that the temple dates back to the time of the Judges, when Samson was living and the Israelites were worshipping pagan gods.
“To date this back to the time of the judges, you have a seal that corroborates some sort of element of the story of Samson and the lion, which occurred near the site and then you have the shrine or high place; the fact that you have a shrine is not particularly antagonistic to the Bible, because during the time of the Judges the Israelites were not worshipping the way they were supposed to be,” Manor said.
The site of Tel Beth-Shemesh has been under excavation since 1990. The dig is directed by professors at the Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. Other members of the team include professors from universities across the country, a missionary from Tanzania and students from Tel Aviv University. The dig lasts for about four weeks each summer.
