Image Details

Zev Radovan
Cultic vessels found in a 12th century B.C. house at Tell Qiri. The tallest cultic vessel is made in two separate parts a wide-mouthed bowl with a long, tapered stem which fits into the hollow cylindrical stand.
Archaeologists were puzzled to find these vessels, along with goat leg bones, in a domestic dwelling. The Book of Judges, however, seems to suggest that people in the Early Iron Age (12th century B.C.) did, at times, engage in cultic activities in their homes. In Judges 17:4–5, the mother of Micah, a man from Mount Ephraim, went to an artisan “who made [for her] a graven image and a molten image.” These images were put “ … in the house of Micah … ” who then consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.