Philistine Cult Stands

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Yavneh is best known as the place where rabbinic Judaism was born after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple in 70 C.E. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was snuck out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin and taken to the Roman general Vespasian. The rabbi so impressed the future emperor with his wisdom (according to one version, Yohanan predicted that Vespasian would become the next emperor) that Vespasian invited him to make any request, which, Vespasian said, would be granted. “Give me Yavneh and its sages,” said the rabbi.¹

Apparently there was a rabbinical academy in Yavneh in the days of the Second Temple. After the Roman destruction, the Sanhedrin was reconstituted here. The new moon was proclaimed here. The calendar was intercalated here. The central 056prayer of the synagogue service (the amidah) was formulated here. Rabbinic law (halakhah) went forth from Yavneh.

After the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 C.E.) was suppressed, Jews apparently no longer lived there. In the Byzantine period, Yavneh was a Christian city. Bishops from Yavneh participated in the Councils of Nicea (325 C.E.) and Chalcedon (451 C.E.), which established orthodox Christian doctrine.

But there was another settlement here at least since Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C.E.) as evidenced by Philistine pottery recovered at the site. Yavneh seems to have been a “daughter” town to the major Philistine cities of the region, Ekron, Ashkelon and Ashdod. According to 2 Chronicles, Uzziah, king of Judah (783–732 B.C.E.), captured Yavneh from the Philistines in the eighth century B.C.E.

There has never been any doubt as to the location of the site, although the name and spelling has varied depending on the time and language and transcriptional conventions—Yavneh, Jabneh, Jamnia, Jabneel, Iamnia, Yibna, etc. They are all the same. The site is located 15 miles south of Tel Aviv and 5 miles from the Mediterranean coast.

But the site has never been properly excavated—that is, in a major long-term archaeological excavation using modern methods. Such an excavation is what scholars would call a desideratum. (A number of archaeological excavations have been undertaken by suggestions such as this in BAR.^a)

The site has been explored, however, in a survey and in so-called salvage excavations—when accidental exposure of ancient remains requires prompt professional excavation. In Israel this is primarily the job of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Under Israeli law, when a development site is likely to contain archaeological remains, a salvage excavation is required—at the expense of the developer.

The excavation report on which this article is largely based lists a total of 25 small excavations around Yavneh’s tell but not on it.² From 1989 to 2002 there have been 13 salvage excavations—an indication of the richness of the site.

The most recent salvage excavation was called for in the usual way: In the fall of 2002, bulldozers retained by the modern city of Yavneh were digging to create a public garden on a small hill already known as Temple Hill, just north of the tell of Yavneh. When the claws of the bulldozer hit ancient remains, the operator nevertheless sank 057two more blows into the pit, revealing—and breaking—a multitude of ancient artifacts. IAA archaeologist Raz Kletter was called in. Kletter immediately led two salvage excavations at the site.

The entire excavation was small, if not tiny—one standard excavation square, 5 meters square. It lasted only three weeks. But it turned out to be unbelievably rich. The bulldozer’s claws had exposed an extraordinary round repository pit full of Philistine cult objects. Instead of bulldozer claws, Kletter used mostly dental tools. He reports that during the first 15 minutes at the site, his team collected four boxes full of pottery fragments, mostly from broken chalices. There was more to come.

The difficulties of the excavation—the lack of facilities, the bureaucratic obstacles, the search for funds (this was at a planned municipal garden so there was no developer to squeeze), the fear of robbers or the just plain curious—all are vividly described in a weighty volume (almost 6 pounds) by Kletter, Irit Ziffer, Wolfgang Zwickel and their colleagues.³

In the end, it was all worth it. In the repository pit, or favissa, the excavators recovered 60 crates filled with artifacts. They included more than a hundred cult stands, most of them restorable, as well as thousands of chalices, dozens of fire pans, a clay altar with horns, a small limestone altar, and other finds apparently discarded from a Philistine temple. The excavators date the objects between 850 and 750 B.C.E.

The most dramatic items in the repository are the 119 clay cult stands. They are horizontal rather than vertical and often have roofs that sag in the 058middle and are sometimes fenestrated with what we might call small sunroofs. Most of the stands are about a foot wide and 8 inches high. Many of them were originally painted red (and black) in geometric patterns over whitewash, but little of this has survived. They are all handmade and often include pillars, windows, palm trees, figurines and rope decorations. The figures may be lions, bulls, goats, musicians, sphinxes or naked women. The figures were fashioned separately and then attached to the stand, sometimes with pegs.

How did these cult stands function? The answer is that nobody really knows. The archaeologists responsible for the explanation have listened to a number of possibilities. Some have suggested they are replicas of buildings, perhaps temples. The excavators have rejected this. Others have suggested the cult stands are really lamps. No, the excavators say. How about plant pots or offering stands or incense altars or libation vessels? No, no, no and no.

The authors of the excavation report opt for votives, that is, “objects given by worshipers to the divinities. The object itself forms the gift. The owner of the object offered it to please a god or goddess.” As Irit Ziffer, one of the chief authors of the report, observes in a chapter written by her, “Cult objects were, by association with the divinity, holy in themselves as well as the means of religious devotion. Dedicating such an icon to the temple created a special relationship between the giver and the divine: It substituted for the presence of the (absent) worshipers in the temple and served as a perpetual reminder to the deity of the donor’s devotion.”

The excavators assume there must have been a Philistine temple nearby. No private house or 059even a few houses could produce so many cult stands. (Perhaps the temple could be located in a future excavation.) When the votives needed to be removed, as new ones were offered, the old ones were thrown into the round repository, usually breaking in the process.

They were probably originally offered under the supervision of a priest and may have been accompanied by some ritual. These cult stands were not particularly expensive offerings. This repository was not made for temple furniture such as large altars or standing stones. It contained no silver or gold or jewelry. These were simple divine offerings.

The archaeologists believe that the images on the stands represent divinities worshiped by the Philistines, but they admit that “we cannot identify the divinity or divinities represented by the human figures.” They speculate that men rather 060than women determined the decoration on the cult stands. “If so, the donors [of the votives], like most men today, preferred an image of a naked lady and may have assumed that the god had similar preferences … The goddess was offered to the god in erotic composition.” One of the stands features a woman with one hand clutching her breast and the other pointing to her pubic area.

In the end, however, the scholars of the report recognize that “we have mute objects that do not tell us much about [Philistine] ideology and beliefs.” These remain a mystery.

In addition to the cult stands, the repository included fire pans for burning incense, as well as chalices for the same purpose. Likewise, both the small stone and clay altars.

If this all seems like “somewhat crude guesswork,” the scholars would agree. It is their language quoted from their handsome volume.

Long known as the birthplace of rabbinic Judaism in the first century C.E., Yavneh is rich in both Jewish and Christian history. We now know that a Philistine temple was located here as well: Recent excavations have produced thousands of eighth-century B.C.E. Philistine cult objects—all found in a repository pit in a single 5-square-meter excavation. What still lies buried here?