A NOTE ON AN IRON AGE FOUR-HORNED ALTAR FROM TEL DOTHAN. (December 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gibson, Shimon; Kennedy, Titus; Kramer, Joel
• Is Part Of: Palestine exploration quarterly. Volume 145:Number 4(2013)
• Page Start: 306
• Page End: 319
• Publication Date: 2013-12
• Subjects: Tel Dothan -- four-horned altar -- Iron Age IIa -- 9th century BCE; Excavations (Archaeology) -- Palestine -- Periodicals; Palestine -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Fouilles (Archéologie) -- Palestine -- Périodiques; Palestine -- Antiquités -- Périodiques; Archeologie; 5.225; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1179/0031032813Z.00000000071
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0031-0328

Abstract

Abstract : In a recent visit to the site of Tel Dothan the top of a four-horned stone altar of Iron Age type was unexpectedly observed among the structural remains exposed by Joseph P. Free in Area L of his excavations of the late 1950s. Owing to the location of this find within a well-dated building complex (labelled 'House 14 ') it can be dated with some certainty to the early Iron Age IIa, i.e. to the 9 th century BCE. Dated four-horned stone altars from this period from the northern Kingdom of Israel are extremely rare. 'House 14 ' was identified by the excavators as an 'administrative building, ' but we suggest it probably had a primary cultic function.