Cult practices revealed at Bronze Age Temple complex in Levant

Harvard University educated archaeologist and president of the Paleontological Research Corporation, Dr. Joel Klenck, states that recent archaeological discoveries are revealing new aspects of cult practices of ancient inhabitants in the Levant.

At Tel-Haror, a site with strata dating to the Middle Bronze II period (1,800-1,550 B.C.), archaeologists led by Professor Eliezer Oren from Ben Gurion University excavated a temple complex with a “migdal” or tower temple.

Here, Klenck directed the removal and excavated the skeletal remains of dozens of juvenile dogs, ravens and crows in various states of articulation. In 2011, the animal bone data was compared to the unique material assemblage at the site that includes serpent figurines, the upraised arm of a statuette, and a pentagram design in preparation for a forthcoming manuscript. Many of the puppies, ravens and crows surrounded a square altar with a mudbrick base several meters away from the main sanctuary...

The Archaeology News Network

Reference: BAR –S1029, 2002 The Canaanite Cultic Milieu The zooarchaeological evidence from Tel Haror, Israel (2000-1500BC) by Joel D. Klenck. ISBN 1 84171 407 0. £37.00.