Gary Lipton

Iron Age houses at the base of the stepped stone structure, center right. This artist’s reconstruction of seventh- to sixth-century B.C. buildings in Area G (see plan) shows the House of Ahiel and the Burnt Room on an upper terrace, and on a lower terrace the scant excavated remains of the Bullae House. Shiloh’s excavation team named the Bullae House for a collection of 51 bullae, or clay seals, found on a plastered floor here.

Parts of stairways in both of the upper terrace buildings indicate that upper stories once existed in these buildings. Four pillars supported the upper story of the main room of the House of Ahiel. A portion of a third stairway can be been next to the upper wall of the Burnt Room, opposite the base of the stepped stone structure. This stairway led to an additional terrace of buildings higher up on the slope.