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Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com

EDOMITE ASSEMBLAGE. A cache of Edomite ritual vessels was excavated from a repository (a storage pit) next to an Iron Age II fortress at the site of Ein Hazeva, which is located about 14 miles south of the Dead Sea. The site may be Biblical Tamar at the southern boundary of King Solomon’s empire. The cache includes ceramic incense stands, statues and other objects, as well as stone altars, which were used in the site’s open-air Edomite shrine from the seventh century B.C.E. Some of the incense stands feature human limbs and faces. The bowls on top are decorated with buds and would have been used for burning incense or other offerings.