Image Details

Photo by Beno Rothenberg

In a 1966 survey of Timna, Beno Rothenberg discovered a small structure, only about 50 feet on each side and with preserved building remains 5 feet high, built against the base of one of the pillars. The structure proved to be a long-serving sanctuary that had served at one time as a temple to the Egyptian goddess Hathor (late 14th to mid-13th century B.C.E.) and that had also included a Midianite phase dating to no later than the 12th century B.C.E. (shown here, compare with photos of pottery and cliffs of the Timna Valley). The Midianites had systematically defaced the representations at the temple of Hathor, as well as visible hieroglyphic inscriptions. (For more information on Timna, see Suzanne Singer, “‘From These Hills … ’” BAR 04:02.)