Zev Radovan

ON THE COVER: This young bull, the largest ever found in Israel, stands five inches high and seven inches long. In about 1200 B.C. Israelites from the tribe of Manasseh who had recently settled in Canaan used this statue in a religious ritual at a cult center in Samaria. Did these Israelites worship the young bull? Or was it a votive offering to Israel’s God Yahweh? In “Bronze Bull Found in Israelite ‘High Place’ from the Time of the Judges,” the excavator of this cult center, Amihai Mazar, describes this unique find and its implications for understanding Israelite religious practices during the time of the Judges.