Endnote 2 – Altar-Ed States

In the northern part of Room 244, archaeologists uncovered a square structure measuring about 1 meter by 1 meter and standing 0.27 meters high (about 39 inches by 39 inches by 11 inches) consisting of five horizontal blocks, in the center of which an additional, flat, basalt stone was lying. On the surface of this structure were traces of fire, and the excavators tried to define it, with some hesitation, as an incense altar. See Avraham Biran, “The Dancer from Dan, the Empty Tomb and the Altar Room,” Israel Exploration Journal 36 (1986), pp. 181–183. Seymour Gitin, “Incense Altars From Ekron, Israel and Judah,” Eretz-Israel 20 (1989), pp. 52–57 and n. 2 (pp. 64–65), did not include it in his list and rightly so. Close to that structure were uncovered two jars, sunk in the ground and containing ashes, which probably are of burned bones (Biran, “The Dancer from Dan,” pp. 183–187). The strange structure and the two jars still need an explanation. However, the two altars mentioned above were found at the opposite end of the room, near its southern wall, and certainly have nothing to do with the ashes.