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Sunday, May 24, 2015

Model shrines and the Jerusalem Temple?

THE ALGEMEINER: Surprising Discovery May Prove Existence of the Jewish Temple. This picks up a story from 2012 about the discovery of model shrines (two of them) at Iron Age II Khirbet Qeiyafa. I posted the original press release here and some responses from archaeologists here. They are interesting artifacts, but they aren't unique and they don't prove the existence of a Judean Temple on the Temple Mount in Iron Age II. There is no direct evidence for the Temple, chiefly because Herod's renovations cleared away all its remains, but there is plenty of compelling circumstantial evidence, which I have collected here (cf. here).