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A Late Bronze Age (1500–1400 B.C.) temple has been discovered at Tall al-’Umayri, Jordan. The find, at one of very few settled sites from that time in the central hills of Jordan, lends support to the belief that the area was more heavily settled than was previously thought. The structure’s unusually well-preserved state and its cultic function make it an even rarer find. The discovery was described by its excavators, Larry G. Herr and Douglas L. Clark, in the Daily Star, a Beirut-based newspaper.
Excavated as part of the Madaba Plains Project, the building was first uncovered during the 2000 season. Until this summer, however, archaeologists only knew that it was some sort of public structure, possibly a palace, because of its location, size and the thickness of its walls. Not until a large, dome-topped standing stone was uncovered this summer in a niche in an interior mudbrick wall was there reason to believe the building might be a temple. With the discovery of four smaller standing stones set into the wall, two on either side of the larger stone, the excavators concluded that the room is a shrine.
On top of the stones they found carinated bowls, a lamp, a pedestal-based chalice and an unfired clay figurine. Several similar figurines were found last season in the room behind the niche, which has now been identified as a storage place for sacred objects. However, no signs of sacrificial activity have been found, although this is also true of firmly-identified temples at other Late Bronze sites. Two other rooms in the building, previously excavated, were completely empty and cannot be identified. Were they simply additional temple rooms, or was the room with the niche merely a shrine within a multi-functional structure such as a palace? Further excavation down to the floor of the room may provide the answer.
Another unanswered question involves the identity of the deities represented by the stones. Il (or El) was the major deity of the time and could conceivably be represented by the larger stone, while the four smaller stones could be his children. So far no inscriptions have been found to confirm this. Also unknown is the identity of the temple’s builders.
A Late Bronze Age (1500–1400 B.C.) temple has been discovered at Tall al-’Umayri, Jordan. The find, at one of very few settled sites from that time in the central hills of Jordan, lends support to the belief that the area was more heavily settled than was previously thought. The structure’s unusually well-preserved state and its cultic function make it an even rarer find. The discovery was described by its excavators, Larry G. Herr and Douglas L. Clark, in the Daily Star, a Beirut-based newspaper.
