Zev Radovan

Ancient worship at Hazor. Engraved forearms and hands stretch upward, perhaps in a gesture of supplication, on this basalt stela, or massebah, from Hazor. The hands seem to reach for the symbol of the moon god, a disc within a crescent, representing the full moon and the crescent moon. This stela stood among ten unadorned stelae—all of them ranging in height between 8.5 and 21.5 inches—in a small Canaanite shrine dated to the 13th century B.C.E. Before the stelae lay an offering table, and flanking them stood a lion-shaped orthostat and a small statue, probably of the moon deity. The head of the statue, found separately, had been deliberately chopped off, perhaps by Israelites partially obeying the command to “tear down their altars and dash in pieces their massebah” (Deuteronomy 12:2–3).