Twelve standing stones were discovered next to a structure that may have been an altar. This configuration, the author suggests, could be the “altar under the hill, and 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel” that
Exodus 24:4 tells us were erected by Moses at Mt. Sinai.
In this area at the foot of Har Karkom, campsites were built for a long period during the third millennium B.C. Although there is no water source here, a great number of people apparently lived at Har Karkom during the third millennium B.C. The author discovered hundreds of examples of cultic rock art dating to this period, as well as numerous structures that he contends are altars and temples—all evidence that Har Karkom was a site of persisting religious significance.