Friday, March 09, 2018

Special Report on the Ain Dara Temple

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Special Report: Current Status of the Tell Ain Dara Temple. ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives (Michael D. Danti, Darren P. Ashby, Marina Gabriel, and Susan Penacho).
ASOR CHI geospatial analysis indicates that an explosion damaged the Ain Dara temple in northwest Syria on or before January 22, 2018. The Ain Dara temple is the best-preserved example of Syro-Hittite religious architecture from the late second and early first millennia BCE. It is elaborately decorated with basalt sculpture and reliefs. Larger-than-life human footprints carved into the temple’s stone thresholds are unique to the building. It is also considered to be a close parallel to the contemporary Temple of Solomon, which is known from descriptions in the Old Testament.

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Background on the Ain Dara Temple is here and, sadly, here.

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