Archaeological Views: Cultic Practices at Tel Dan—Was the Northern Kingdom Deviant?

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Archaeologically speaking, very little is known of the ancient Israelite cult as it was practiced by the kings and priests of Biblical Israel. While evidence for “folk religion” (e.g., the ubiquitous pillar figurines) is well known, evidence of royal or elite religion is harder to come by. One reason for this is that the center of official Israelite religion, at least according to the Bible, was Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a site that cannot be excavated in the current political climate.

The Jerusalem Temple was not ancient Israel’s only royal sanctuary, however. According to the Bible (1 Kings 12), the infamous Jeroboam, first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, established a sanctuary at Dan intended to rival the Temple in Jerusalem. Over the past four decades, archaeologists working at Tel Dan, especially the late Avraham Biran,^a have uncovered a treasure trove of cultic material from the site’s so-called “sacred precinct.” Here, on the northwest side of the mound, they found temple-like architecture, the remains of a massive four-horned altar, painted cult stands, and a metal bowl and shovels associated with sacrificial rites. Dan, therefore, provides an intriguing—and, at this point, unique—window into the realia of royal Israelite worship. But, since the Biblical writers often condemn the northern kings as religious heretics who had come under the influence of foreign gods, and we know of foreign—particularly Aramean—presence at the site, how “Israelite” were the practices carried out there?

This question, among others, drew me to study the textual traditions and archaeological remains associated with ancient Israelite religious practices at Tel Dan. Under the tutelage of the late faunal expert Brian Hesse,^b I focused one aspect of my recent study on a less-utilized witness to the site’s cultic activities: thousands of animal bones excavated from the sacred precinct.

When I started examining the bones, I wondered if I would find patterns that differed from “orthodox” priestly religion, since Dan was, after all, the cultic center of the apostate kings of the north, according to the Bible. What I found, however, was quite the opposite: In both areas of the sacred precinct—one reserved for priests and the other for common worshipers (as indicated by my reconstruction of the area)—the bone fragments seemed to be similarly indicative of Israelite religious practice as described in the priestly traditions of the Bible, such as those in Leviticus.

For example, in the priestly area of the Tel Dan sacred precinct there was a greater proportion of right-sided meaty long bone fragments, compared to a greater proportion of left-sided bone fragments in the area of ordinary worshipers. This is consistent with the Biblical prescription that priests receive the right hindlimb (or forelimb) of the “fellowship offering” (Exodus 29:27–28; Leviticus 7:32–33).

Similarly, the area of the priests included a much higher percentage of “toe bones” (i.e., phalanges) than in the area of the ordinary worshipers. Again, this pattern is consistent with the Biblical prescription that priests receive the skin of the “burnt offering” (Leviticus 7:8), which typically included the 067 phalanges and hooves left intact during the initial phase of skinning.

These are not the only convergences between the archaeological finds and the Biblical text concerning ritual practice. For example, an “altar kit” found in the sacred precinct includes implements similar to those described for Temple and Tabernacle rituals in the Bible, including a bowl that may have been used in distinctive blood manipulation rites.^c

Some scholars believe that the traditions in the Bible’s priestly literature are hundreds of years later than the evidence at Tel Dan. This evidence suggests, however, that these Biblical traditions may be older than is often assumed.

In addition, the Tel Dan findings suggest that the cult attributed to Jeroboam was not so deviant as is often thought.

With this in mind, we may go back and read the eighth-century B.C.E. prophets who often decry the attitude of the northerners rather than their presumed aberrant cultic rites: Amos’s cry to do away with the cultic festivals of the north—including their associated burnt offerings and fellowship offerings (Amos 5:22)—assumes that the northerners were, in fact, carrying out their cultic duties with regard to Biblical law. Thanks to the bones, it now appears to have been the case.

Archaeologically speaking, very little is known of the ancient Israelite cult as it was practiced by the kings and priests of Biblical Israel. While evidence for “folk religion” (e.g., the ubiquitous pillar figurines) is well known, evidence of royal or elite religion is harder to come by. One reason for this is that the center of official Israelite religion, at least according to the Bible, was Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a site that cannot be excavated in the current political climate. The Jerusalem Temple was not ancient Israel’s only royal sanctuary, however. According to the Bible (1 Kings 12), the […]