Sacred Center: The Iron Age Temple at Biblical Ataroth
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Footnotes
1. See Ephraim Stern, “Pagan Yahwism: The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel,” BAR, May/June 2001.
2. See André Lemaire, “What Does the Mesha Stele Say?” Bible History Daily (blog), November 18, 2022.
Endnotes
1. For more on the excavations, see Chang-Ho Ji, “The Early Iron Age II Temple at Ḫirbet ‘Aṭārūs and Its Architecture and Selected Cultic Objects,” in Jens Kamlah, ed., Temple Building and Temple Cult: Architecture and Cultic Paraphernalia of Temples in the Levant (2.–1. Mill. B.C.E.) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), pp. 203–221; Chang-Ho Ji, “Moabite Sanctuary at Khirbat Ataruz, Jordan: Stratigraphy, Findings, and Archaeological Implications,” Levant 50 (2018), pp. 173–210; and Chang-Ho Ji and Aaron Schade, “The Iron IIB Period at Khirbat ‘Ataruz,” Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 14 (2022), pp. 267–285.
2. It is possible that the “Sacred Fire Altar” is related to the “hearth altar” of Ataroth mentioned in line 12 of the Mesha Stele. See Aaron Schade, “‘RYT’ or ‘HYT’ in Line 12 of the Mesha Inscription: A New Examination of the Stele and the Squeeze, and the Syntactic, Literary, and Cultic Implications of the Reading,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 378 (2017), pp. 145–162.
3. For more, see Adam L. Bean et al., “An Inscribed Altar from the Khirbat Ataruz Moabite Sanctuary,” Levant 50 (2018), pp. 211–236.