ARCHAEOLOGY:
Find of the century in Yavneh sheds light on ancient religious cult in Palestine. Small pit contained 7,000 cult artifacts from the pre-Christian era; ancient population used different substances to induce hallucinations (JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ press release).
After several years of work, the second and final volume on the excavations at Yavneh, located about 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv in Israel, has just been released. This covers what was probably one of the smallest digs ever performed as it was restricted to a repository pit that was only roughly 2 meters across and 1.5 meters deep. "Nevertheless, what was found here can truly be described as one of the finds of the century," said Professor Wolfgang Zwickel of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). A total of 7,000 cult items dating back to the 8th to 9th centuries BC were discovered, some of which have already been restored and are now held by various museums. "Absolutely unique are the approximately 120 small cult stands that were intended to imitate temples," added Zwickel, who was involved in publishing on the finds. Another unusual aspect described in the second volume is the fact that scientific analysis has shown that the vast number of vessels that were deposited as cult objects in the pit once contained substances that the ancient population of Yavneh would have used to induce hallucinations.
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Nice photo of a cult stand. The finds are published in the new volume:
R. Kletter, I. Ziffer, W. Zwickel, Yavneh II: The "Temple Hill" Repository Pit, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Series Archaeologica 36, Academic Press Fribourg/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen, 2015
Background and some comments
here.