Image Details

COURTESY OF J. A. MARTÍN RUIZ AND J. R. GARCÍA CARRETERO / ISAC MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

RITUAL AND RELIGION. While no monumental or religious buildings have yet been identified at Cerro del Villar, there are indications that the community enjoyed a vibrant ritual life. Rooms paved with pottery and seashells are suggestive of dedicated ritual spaces; possible ritual deposits such as oil lamps and ostrich eggs, as well as evidence for communal feasting, strengthen this assessment. Meanwhile, a small fragment from a painted volute capital (highlighted in a composite image of a nearly identical capital from Megiddo), which was typical of Levantine ceremonial architecture during the Iron Age, may indicate the presence of a religious structure at the site that has yet to be discovered.