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Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Iron Age administrative center excavated near Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY: Huge Kingdom of Judah government complex found near US Embassy in Jerusalem. Among the 2,700-year-old finds: 120 inscribed seal impressions on jars at storage facility holding food collected as taxes for kings Hezekiah, Menashe in First Temple times (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Nice video. This is an exciting discovery and another illustration of the importance of salvage excavations.

I have one question, regarding this:
A collection of what appear to be clay idols was also discovered at the site. According to Sapir and Ben-Ari, “Some of the figurines are designed in the form of women, horse riders or as animals. These figurines are usually interpreted as objects used in pagan worship and idolatry — a phenomenon, which according to the Bible, was prevalent in the Kingdom of Judah.”
You can see some of these objects in the photo. Why are they interpreted as having religious significance? Why can't they just be decorations? I'm not an archaeologist or an iconographer, but I would like to know what the evidence is for specifying that use, especially since this installation seems to have been an administrative center rather than a temple.

By the way, I hope someone corrects the "27,000 years ago" in the first two photos to "2,700 years ago."

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