PREFACE

HE PRESENT work, which forms Part I of The

Four Canaanite Temples of Beth-shan, deals

with the temple of Amenophis III, the tem-

ple of Seti I, and the two temples of Rameses III (pre- viously thought to belong to Rameses II) discovered on the tell at Beth-shan during the 1925 and 1926 sea- sons. It gives a complete account of these sanctuaries and of their contents; the pottery, other than the cult objects, has been dealt with by Mr. G. M. FitzGerald in Part II. Full details of the various levels on the tell are given in my Topography and History of Beth- shan; but it may here be mentioned that it now ap-

(c. 1167-302 B. c.) ; Number III the Hellenistic, Jewish and Roman periods (301 8. c.a.p. 329); Number II the Byzantine period (a. . 330-636); and Number I the Arabic, Crusader, and later periods (636-19th Century a.p.). The oldest temple so far found on the site, that of Thothmes III, is described in de- tail in the Topography and History; compare also the description of Figure 1 in the present work.

The restorations of the four temples as shown in Figures 3, 4, 5 and 9, are the joint work of the Rev. Pere Vincent and myself and are based upon the ex- isting architectural and other evidences. These res-

Figure 1. Temple of Thothmes III (1501-1447 B.C.) at Beth-shan. Dedicated to the Local God Mekal

(As Excavated) Looking Northwest

Pears City-level Number IX dates from the time of Thothmes IIT (1501-1447 3, c.); Number VIII from pre-Amenophis III times (1447-1412 3.c.); Number VII from the time of Amenophis III to the end of the

reign of Horemheb (1411-1314 3.c.); Number VI from the time of Seti I (1313-1292 8. c.) until just be- fore the reign of Rameses HI; and Number V from the time of Rameses III (1198-1167 3. c.). City-level Number IV represents perhaps the very end of the feign of Rameses III and the Philistine era—in this work both periods are collectively referred to as “Late Ramesside”—and also the Israelite, Assyrian, Scyth- tan, New Babylonian and Old Persian periods

[ ix |

torations, together with Figure 1, showing the temple of Thothmes III as it was discovered, were drawn by Mr. I. Reich. The remaining figures, together with the plates of objects, were drawn by Mr. C. Little, while the maps and sections were made by Mr. Teron- tieff after surveys carried out by himself and Ahmed Effendi Abd el-Aziz. The frontispiece and some of the drawings shown in the photographic plates were made by Miss D. Boulton. The letter A jis affixed to the plate-numbers from xi1 onwards, in the present part, so as to distinguish them from the plate-numbers in Part II of this work, which are xx1-11.

In order to make the work as complete as possible,

Tue Four CaNaanttE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

photographs are included of certain important sacred and other objects, found in various levels subsequent- ly to the 1925 and 1926 seasons; many of the “ad- ditional” objects are referred to in The Topography and History of Beth-shan. For the sake of clearness, and in order to indicate that each such object is not also included in the present plates of drawings, an as-

terisk (*) is placed against its description in the De- scriptions of Plates—Photographs. The index of the “additional” objects from the levels of Thothmes III and pre-Amenophis III is now given; the remaining “additional” objects are included in the indices of the objects from the respective levels to which they be- long, namely, at the end of Chapters II, III, IV and V.

LIST OF OBJECTS — THOTHMES III LEVEL.

Bowl fragments. Faience. Lxvila, 4, 5. Inlay (seated Negro). |Ivory. LXXxIA, 6, Cosmetic pot. Ivory. LxxIA, 4, Mould for jewelry. Steatite. LXXIA, 5, Dish (with gazelles). |Pottery (drawing). |:xxta, 2. Scarab (Senwosret I). | Amethyst. LXxIA, 3. Figurine (man’s head). | Basalt. LXIXA, 4, Scarab (Thothmes III). | Steatite. LXXIA, 7. Figurine (man’s head). |Ivory. LXxA, 6, LIST OF CULT OBJECTS — THOTHMES III LEVEL. Altar (portable). Basalt. LXIKA, 12. || Chalice. Pottery. EXxA, 3,4. Ape. Pottery. Lxvita, 8. | Deity (male). Bronze. Lxvuta, 9. Ashtoreth. Glass. LxvuliA, 7. Pendant (lion and bull).| Bronze. Lxxia, I, Ashtoreth. Pottery. Lxvita, 1-4, 6. Pendant (Ashtoreth). | Gold. Lxvurta, 5. Batyl. Basalt. LXIXA, 3. Pot (four curved legs). | Pottery. EXXA, 152, Bowl with serpent. Pottery. TGKAED s LIST OF OBJECTS — PRE-AMENOPHIS III LEVEL.

Amulet. Glass. xxxiv, 37, Pendants. Faience, xxxIv, 35,38,39 Arrow-head. Bronze. eo'air, USy, Querns. Basalt. xxiv, 4, 5. Bangle. Bronze. xxxiv, 18, 19, Reel. Alabaster. xxvir, 10, Bezel. Faience. Pe $8.55 lisp Scarab. Faience, XXXIX, 2, Cosmetic pot. Alabaster. LXIKA)D. Scarab. Steatite. Sexe |. Dagger point. Bronze. XXXII, 4, Seals (cylinder), Faience. Xxx1x, 21-23. Fragments with Seal, Steatite. xxxIx, 20,

human faces, Pottery. xira, 3, 4. Spear-heads, Bronze, xxxur, 5-9, Loom-weight. Basalt. XXVIL, 9, Stopper. Alabaster. xxiv, 2, Mortars. Basalt. EXEV ele oe Stopper. Limestone. XXVII, 2. Needle. Bronze. xxxu, 18, Trumpet. Bronze. LXIxA, 6.

LIST OF CULT OBJECTS — PRE-AMENOPHIS III LEVEL.

Ashtoreth figurine | Dog or lion figurine. _| Pottery. rea6 (,

mould. Pottery. xia, l. Incense stand. Pottery. XLIA, 3, Deities (figurines). Faience and pottery.|xx1, 1, 2; Lion figurine (frag.), | Pottery. EXE, /2

xii, 1; Serpents. Pottery. SING CERRI Oe XXxxiv, 36. XLIA, 2;

As will be seen from the newly-discovered slab of Rameses-wesr-khepesh found by Mr. FitzGerald in Number V city-level in 1931 (Quarterly Statement, Palestine Exploration Fund, April, 1931, page 69), this level must date from the reign of Rameses III and not from the reign of Rameses II, as our previous evi- dence seemed to indicate. From the fact that the slab

[x]

LMA, 2,/5.

was found in a broken position in the lower part of the level and the statue of King Rameses III in an up- right position near the northern temple door in the upper part of the level, we may doubtless assume that the slab belongs to the early part of the reign (when it was perhaps smashed by the Philistines and their allies) and the statue to the time of the reconquest

of the fort by the king in 1187 8. c. — see Topography and History, page 38. Perhaps the temples themselves were rebuilt in the above-mentioned year.

Anyhow, it is quite certain that the two temples in the fifth level do belong to the Egyptian occupation, for the statue of Rameses III and the stele of Seti I and Rameses II were on the floor just to the west of them.

The author craves the indulgence of the reader for any slips that may appear in this publication. The work, solely due to lack of funds, was not published until ten years or more after it was written and there- fore the writer at the time of proof-reading had for- gotten many of the details which were clear in his mind at the time of writing.

PREFACE

However, every possible care has been taken in the revision of the proofs of the publication which, it is hoped, will give the reader a concise account of four of the most interesting Canaanite temples ever dis- covered in Palestine. For other historical details see the section on Aigypto-Canaanite Contacts in my Cat- alogue of Egyptian Scarabs, Scaraboids, Seals and Amulets in the Palestine Archaeological Museum, 1936.

Aan RoweE

Near Giza Pyramids Cairo Egypt

18th April, 1939

ADDITIONS, ETC.

The Topography and History of Beth-shan, 1930

Reference Pace 34. The stela fragment (Figure 8) dates from either the time of Thothmes III or that of Amenophis II. See my Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, etc., in the Palestine Ar- chaeological Museum, 1936, page xxvi, paragraph No. Wie Prats 49, 2 Prate xxviii, 21 of the present volume. This fragment is possibly another part of the stela referred to on page 34 above.

Reference Pace 54. Line 1, read 806 jor 786; line 3, read 190 for 170 cf. G. M. Fitzgerald Beth-shan Excavations 1921-1923, 1931, page 48, where also will be found a correct translation of the inscription. The dates and so forth in my history volume were taken from the reference cited in footnote

112:

[ xi |

CONTENTS

PAGES

DRAWING OF THE sSTELA OF MEKAL, THE “LoRD OF BETH-SHAN,” . erornes J TEMPLE «= °< > = & “= « w «< Frontispiece

Coho Vil

PreFace (with Index of Objects from Thothmes HI and Pre-Amenophis III Levels) ix

Cuarrer I—Generat Description oF TEMPLE STRUCTURES - - - - - 1

APTER IJ]—TEMPLE oF AMENOPHIS III (with Index of Objects) - -~ - 6

‘Cuapter III—Trmpte or Seri I (with Index of Objects) = ee kag E 13

Craprer 1V—SouTHERN TEMPLE OF Ramests III (with Index of Objects) - — - 22

CHaprer V—NortTHern TEMPLE oF Ramesses III (with Index of Objects from the Wemple and from the Late Raniesside Level) -- .- + | -_ = 31

Cuaprer VI—Tur Curr Opyects sae be aoe ae Se. ee Ae 36

Descriptions oF Ficures in THE TEXT 2 gn en _ a es - 58 =

Descriptions or PLates—Frontispiece and Plans - - - - - - - 39

BeEScKIPTIONS OF Prares—Drawings - - - - - +» «=| «= = «= 6087

=F DESCRIPTIONS OF Prates—Photographs - - - - - - - «= = 87-93

Re ee es

PraTes —

Plans a _ 2 e iS a * =e * - - PLATES I-XIII

Mueeeeor Objects - = - = - + » = =|

PLATES XIV-XL

Maospiss = lee RATES SELEATA

CHAPTER I

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE STRUCTURES

HE Four Canaanite temples of Beth-shan with

which this volume deals were all built on the

southern side of the tell, and all lay within the

great outer brick walls that once surrounded the

three citadel levels of Amenophis III, Seti J (and on- wards), and Rameses III.

Very few traces of these walls have yet been found, but what appears to be part of the western walls of the fort of Rameses III, and also the northern wall of the gateway built in the walls, were discovered in 1923 [Figure 2]. This gateway is at the western part of the summit of the tell. Its southern wall was destroyed by the builders of the great Hellenistic-Roman temple. The walls of the gateway project'at right angles from the inner and outer walls of the fort, and are erected on solid foundations of oblong blocks of basalt. Im- mediately to the north of the northern wall of the gateway, and standing one behind the other from south to north,’ are two solid masses of brick, roughly

1 That is to say, they really stood within the angle formed by the outer western wall of the fort and the projecting northern wall of the gate- way. The northern tower is 2.72 metres from narth to south and 2.50 metres from east to west; the southern tower is 2.33 metres from north to south and 2.60 metres from east to west.

2 See the fort erected by Seti I, on the high road to Palestine, shown by Maspero, The Siruggle of the Nations, page 127. Here the gateway, which consists of three large blocks of stone, has two towers on either side of it. Compare also Hélscher, Das Hohe Tor von Medinet Habu, Figure 56 (after Lepsius, Denkmdiler, III, 244), where, in the model of a fort dedicated to a god by Herihor, of the Twenty-first Dynasty, we see the gateway of the fort flanked by two tall towers on the one side, and by one tower on the other side. The door of the Hittite citadel of Sinjirli, in North Syria, was flanked by two towers; compare Hlscher, op. cit., Figures 64, 65. See also the three towers on the front part of the migdol found in the Amenophis Ill level and re- ferred to in our history volume,

3 Sellin and Watzinger, Jericho, page 20 and piatz 1v. The Hittite cit- adels of Sinjirli (Hélscher, op. ciz., Figures 62, 63) and Boghazkcui (Breasted, Ancient Times, page 249) also had double walls, the inner wall being larger than the outer one.

4 Halscher, op. cit., Figures 59, 60.

5 Maspero, op. cit., page 128, Figure and footnote 3.

square in plan. These appear to have been the bases of two small towers, which were doubtless erected for the protection of the entrance to the fort. The west face of the southern tower is in rough alignment with the west face of the gateway itself; while the west face of the northern tower is a little to the east of the same point. It may well be presumed that there were two similar towers at the southern side of the gateway.” Behind and to the east of the outer western wall, and separated from it by a corridor, is another wall, of ir- regular plan, which, from the fact that the gateway connects it with the outer wall, must be the inner wall of the fort. This wall has a thickness in some places of 140 centimetres, and in others of 80 centimetres, as against 100 centimetres of the outer wall. At Jericho it was found that the Canaanite fortification-works were double ones and consisted of a strong inner wall and a smaller outer one.* Also, from the old Egyptian re- liefs, to which we must turn in order to get some idea of the actual external appearance of the Canaanite forts of Palestine, we find that these forts had as a rule a double line of walls, the inner one of which was the higher of the two. Towers were built on the outside of the walls both of which had bulging entablatures (compare the stone cornices from the Rameses III fort shown on PLATE xxvi, 19, 21). Windows were made in some of the fortification buildings.* Some conelike projections of stone from the top of the walls in a migdol in the Amenophis III level are referred to in The Museum Journal, March, 1929, page 54; see also Figure 2 of our history volume. These “cones” were a common feature of Canaanite forts. A compli- cated type of fort is shown in the representation of the Hittite fortress of Dapur, in North Syria. This fort had outer and inner walls, and also interior towers. The fort-standard, which consists of a target, pierced by three arrows, is raised above the highest tower.’

THE Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

A similar standard was the emblem of the Beth- shan fort, as we gather from a cylinder seal of Ra- meses II found in the southern temple [PpLaTE xxxvimt, 3]. It is to be hoped that the future excavations will give more information about the outer walls of the citadels at Beth-shan; a part of the outer walls of the level of Thothmes III was, however, discovered in 1928 (see The Topography and History of Beth-shan, PLATE 57). There is as yet no evidence to indicate whether the space between the outer and inner Ra- meses IIT walls was filled in with rubble and so forth, in order to make one large wall, like the outer wall of Babylon, shown by L. W. King, A History of Baby- lon, page 25. If such were the case, however, the wall would have been about 4.50 metres thick. Perhaps the filling in such a wall, in Palestine, would not extend to the tops of the enclosing brick walls, but would be made at such a height as to enable a protected passage- way to run round the whole of the top of the citadel. In any case, judging from the old representations of the forts, the inner brick wall, whether it was actually connected with the outer brick wall by a filling, or whether it merely stood alone, was always higher than the outer wall. A stable found near the Rameses III gateway is shown in PLATE L1va, 4.

The walls of all the four temples were constructed of large bricks of different sizes. The following are dimensions in centimetres of bricks in the fort of Ra- meses III, which may be taken as a standard for the bricks of the whole of the forts:

Length Breadth Height 64.0 (rare) 40.0 15.0 545 36.0 14.0 53.0 38.0 165 53.0 36.0 15.0 52.6 38.7 16.5 52.5 39.0 16.5 525 38.5 16.5 S75) 38.0 17.0 52.4 38.0 16.5 52.4 375 16.4 52.0 36.2 16.5 52.0 34.0 14.0 51.8 38.0 17.5 51.0 38.0 17.5 51.0 36.0 17.0 50.5 34.5 13.0 49.5 34.5 13.0 495 34.0 18.0 49.0 33.5 15.0 48.5 345 17.0

[2 ]

The bricks were made of light brownish clay, sun- dried, and are exceedingly hard. Smal] traces of straw are seen in some of them. They were set in mortar of the same material as themselves, its average thickness being one centimetre. Figures 3 and 4 in PLATE LVA give a very good idea of the way in which the bricks were laid. Sometimes bricks were found which had on their bases impressions of the dried reeds upon which they were placed in the brickmaker’s field. Certain of the bricks of the time of Rameses III had signs im- printed on them while they were still plastic [PLATE xxvi, 14-17].° Other signs met with are shown in PLATE xxvil, 16, 17. These signs are probably the marks of the different gangs of workmen who made the bricks, each gang having a particular mark, and may well be compared with the much later signs (letters of the Greek alphabet) of the quarrymen on the Byzantine walls on the tell. Even in Ancient Egypt, and particu- Jarly in the Fourth Dynasty, we find quarrymen’s marks on stones in the temples and pyramids. Sée Rowe, The Museum Journal, March, 1931, PLate vt. All the above-mentioned marks, of course, enabled a tally to be made of the number of bricks or stones turned out by the different gangs; compare Exodus, v, 8. The average thicknesses of the walls in the Ca- naanite temples are: Amenophis temple, 120-142 cen- timetres; Seti temple, 115-126 centimetres; southern temple of Rameses III, 102-127 centimetres; and the northern temple of Rameses III, 150 centimetres.

The brick walls of the Beth-shan temples of Amen- ophis III and Seti I rested, as a rule, directly upon the débris of the tell, although in one or two cases a layer of unquarried stones, mostly basalt, arranged to the width of the walls, was placed below them. The brick walls of the two temples of Rameses III, on the other hand, were generally built upon a foundation of stones which often occupied a space considerably greater than the width of the wall. Some walls in these two temples had wooden beams or poles bear- ing upon the stones, principally in order, no doubt, to

6 The first, third and fourth of these signs remind one very much of similar Minoan signs. Compare Evans, The Palace of Minos 1, page 642, Numbers 19, 74, and 64 (or 75), respectively. The second sign is like the Minoan sign for “100”, op. cit., page 279. These Minoan signs are, of course, older than the Beth-shan signs, but in view of the fact that Cretan influence is found in the temples, the comparison is interesting. See also the signs on the bricks found at Tell Ta ‘annek, in Palestine, and published by Sellin, Tell Ta‘annek, Figure 19 (see Vincent, Canaan ad’aprés Vexploration recente, page 32, Figure 8).

strengthen the foundations.’ The wood has in process of time turned black and some of it shows traces of having been burned (?). In other cases the walls in these particular temples rested upon beams alone, without any layer of stones below, or, as was general- ly the case in respect to the Amenophis and Seti tem- ples, directly upon the débris itself. Some of the brick walls of the Canaanite fort at Jericho had wood in them, and also foundations of stones, which were raised to a height of 50 to 80 centimetres,” while the

INT ERIOR

EXPLANATION YLYAA, Brick Walls

a* a" restored

£ —

ENTRANCE -———>

CuaptTer I — GENERAL DeEscripTION OF THE TEMPLE STRUCTURES

has been frequently written elsewhere, no Canaanite building on the Beth-shan tell ever showed any traces of a general conflagration; it is true that ashes, and so forth, have been found below certain walls and in a few rooms but these remains are now seen to have belonged to fireplaces.

‘Apart from the stone used in the foundations of the walls of the temples at Beth-shan, we find that basalt was employed for cornices [compare PLATE xxv1, 19, 21] and column bases, and limestone for door-jambs,”

OF CITADEL

SNSy ~ ‘y

SETAE PRIN

SETA: WINN

Sy 3s

10 Metres.

WEST GATE — CITADEL RAMESES HI

Figure 2

brick walls of the Hittite site of Sinjirli, in North Syr- ia, had layers of wood between them and their stone foundations.” The Hittite buildings at Carchemish, however, possessed no timber courses, but were made of bricks resting upon a foundation of stones. Some of the Canaanite walls at Megiddo were built in the same way.'° Figure 1 (number 10) apparently shows the spaces left in the walls by the removal of wooden strengthening beams. [Compare also PLATE xLmIA, 4.] It must here be emphasized that, contrary to what

TIn some cases small pieces of wood (never burnt) are visible in the upper parts of the brick walls of the temples of Rameses III.

8 Sellin and Watzinger, op. cit., pages 22, 26; Halscher, op. cit.

9 Holscher, op. cit.; Woolley, Carchemish, Il, page 147.

10 Compare Woolley, foc. cit., and Vincent, op. cit., page 35, Figure 12.

11 No door-jambs were discovered however in the northern temple of Rameses III.

in the two temples of Rameses III; limestone for the papyrus capitals, and basalt for the column bases [compare PLaTe vit] in the Seti I temple; and lime- stone and basalt respectively for the capitals and bases (now missing) in the Amenophis III temple. Many of the column bases in the temples rested on unquarried or roughly hewn basalt stones. In all cases the columns themselves must have been of limestone. (Another type of capital, from the late “Astarte Temple” at Megiddo, is published by Fisher, The Excavation of Armageddon, page 71). A small block of limestone was found in front of the lower altar in the Seti I temple, while under the upper altar were two large blocks of the same material, one hollowed out on the under side. In the Late-Seti I level to the north of the temple of Seti I we unearthed a basalt column base,

[3]

Tue Four Canaantre TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

limestone door-jambs and door-sills, which originally belonged either to this level itself or to the Seti I temple. All the Canaanite temples on the tell seem to have had stonework in their doors, Also, basalt was used for the crudely ‘made altar of holocaust in the area to the north of the Amenophis III temple, and for the four column bases in the temporary shrine (?) to the west of the temple.

The walls of the four temples and of other build- ings of the same periods were covered with a layer of plaster; in some cases, signs of white colour are visible on it. The original floors were, in all instances, made of a layer of hard beaten clay, averaging 10 cen- timetres in thickness. That particular layer represent- ing the floor of the upper-altar room in the Seti I tern- ple was painted a bright blue. Except where indicated to the contrary in the descriptions of the temples, and so forth, no original floor was found in any of the structures.

The roofs of the temples and of the private houses were undoubtedly of wood (perhaps covered with a layer of clay in order to make them watertight). In the case of the temples, columns as well as walls were used: to support the roofs. From the positions of the columns in the temples of Amenophis ITI and Seti I, it is evident that the roofs extended only over the northern part of the courtyard and over the whole of the upper-altar room, leaving the southern part of the courtyard open to the sky [Figures 3 and 4]. It seems certain that the two temples of Rameses III were roofed over and such being the case it was very necessary that a clerestory should have been provided [Figures 5 and 9]. The shape of the peculiar models of shrine houses found in the temples seems to sup- port this view, for the upper stage in some of the models may well have been meant to represent the clerestories themselves [Figure 7]. Figure 8 shows a model of a “staged” building from Egypt.

No actual traces of any clerestories have been found; additional lighting was doubtless provided, where required, by means of slots made in the roofs, just as in the temples of Egypt [Figures 3, 4 and 5]. Artificial light was furnished by open pottery lamps of the type we call “Canaanite.”

Although we have found no actual evidence of the presence of mazzeboth (sacred standing stones) or asheroth (sacred wooden poles) in the four Beth-shan temples under review, yet these may well have existed in them, for the objects in question were usually to be

ata

seen in the old Canaanite sanctuaries.” A mazzebah was found in the temple of Thothmes II]I—see The Topography and History of Beth-shan, piate 21. The word asherah is usually translated “groves” in the Authorized Version of the Old Testament, as for example in the II Kings, xxiii, 14. Usually the mazze- bah represented the male deity, and the asherah the female deity.’* The two stone columns, with papyrus capitals supporting the roof in the temples of Amen- ophis III and Seti I, may have been regarded by the local people as sacred columns.

At times the Israelites are said to have departed from the worship of Yahweh and set themselves up asheroth and mazzeboth, as we see from II Kings, xvii, 9 ff. (Revised Version) : “The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places (that is, sanctuaries) in all their cities... . And they set them up pillars and Asherim upon every high hill, and under every green tree; and there they burnt in- cense in all the high places as did the nations whom the Lord carried away before them. ... They ... made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host (that is, the stars) of heaven, and served Baal.”

No discussion of the brick altars with steps leading up to them, mastabahs (that is, low seat-like struc- tures), or temple equipment will be entered into in this chapter, for full details of all these will be found in the chapters dealing with the individual temples themselves. The Egyptian evidence published in my article in the Quarterly Statement, April, 1929, pages 84, 85, indicates that the god, like the king, ruled from his seat on the top of steps, and it seems quite certain that the Canaanites of Beth-shan also believed that their deities sometimes dwelt upon the top of stepped altars, from which, no doubt, like their counterparts in Egypt, they ruled over their extensive domains.

The two uppermost temples, those of Rameses III, were erected side by side, with a corridor intervening; their axes ran from west to cast, and their entrances were at the west end. The temple of Seti I was situ- ated immediately below the eastern end of the south- ern temple of Rameses III. Its axis, however, was from

12 Compare the mazzeboth in the High Place at Tell es-Sah. Handcock, Archaeology of the Holy Land, page 335. 13 Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (one volume edition), page 56.

south to north, and its entrance was at the southwest. The temple of Amenophis III, which is almost identi- cal in plan with the Seti temple, was directly under the latter building, and like it had its axis from south to north and its entrance at the southwest. As a mat- ter of fact, some of the foundations of the Seti tem- ple rested on some of the exterior walls of the Amen- ophis temple. The change in orientation of the axes of the two temples of Rameses III from that of the axes of the older temples is very interesting. It is not impossible that the alteration was due to the intro- duction of some new religious belief. Like the people referred to in Ezekiel, viii, 16, the faces of the wor- shippers were “toward the east,” and, perhaps, like those people, they also “worshipped the sun toward the east.” In any case, it must not be forgotten that Baal was sometimes identified with the sun, and, at least in late times, Baalath with the moon, which also rises in the east. In the former respect, compare Jo- siah’s orders to his people to “break down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images, that were on high above them” (II Chronicles, xxiv, 4, Revised Version).

We know nothing of course about the actual labour that was employed in building the temples, but perhaps A2geo-Anatolian as well as local work- men were engaged in the work. The Mediterraneans would have been the mercenaries introduced into the country by the Egyptians, and would doubtless have carried out the more skilled work. They are possibly the people who placed the marks on the bricks in the

Cuapter | — GeneraL DescrRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE STRUCTURES

temple of Rameses III. The engraving of door-jambs, monuments, and so on, must have been done by Egyptian craftsmen.

Iron fragments, and so forth, have been found in eleven rooms in the fort of Rameses III, namely, 1008 (upper level), 1010, 1011, 1012, 1018 (upper level), 1026, 1027 (one metre above floor level), 1028, 1029 (below base of wall), 1082 and 1083. The earliest ex- amples of this metal, however, are an iron knob and iron nails which were found in the Early-Seti level (PLATE xxx1, 32, 39, 40, 42). But perhaps the knob is intrusive, as the room is near the edge of the tell, where the débris is disturbed. It seems to be quite possible that most of the iron objects in the buildings of Rameses III were introduced cither by the Medi- terranean mercenaries.during Late Ramesside times, or by the Philistines. (See Hall, The Hittites and Egypt, in Anatolian Studies, page 180. Compare also the reference to the iron chariots of Beth-shan in Joshua, xvu, 16.) Three objects of wrought iron were discovered in Tut-ankh-Amen’s tomb. (See Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, Il, page 175; compare also pages xxiii, 109, 122.and 135, op. cit.)

Having thus given a general idea of the temple structures we may proceed, in Chapters I, III, lV and V, to describe the temples in detail. At the end of the description of each temple is a list of objects found in and near the building, together with cross references to the plates at the end of the book. For the full de- scription of the objects the reader is referred to the sections headed Descriptions of Plates.

[5]

CHAPTER II

TEMPLE OF AMENOPHIS III

S WE Have already seen in The Topography and History of Beth-shan, page 19, the build- ing of the temple in Number VII city-level has been ascribed to the reign of Amenophis III chiefly because foundation deposits bearing the name of this king were discovered beneath the walls and upper-altar room of the building. Even if we had not discovered these objects, we should have had a fairly good idea of the approximate date of its erection, on account of the striking similarity of the temple to cer- tain buildings at Tell el-Amarna, in Egypt, a town which was built by Amenophis IV (Akhenaten) the successor of Amenophis III. These. buildings com- prise tomb-chapels; a small shrine in the River Tem- ple (consisting‘of a mud-brick courtyard with a large stone-paved altar approached by a flight of steps, in front of which are two stone columns on bases**) ; and also a shrine in a private house.’® The tomb- chapels are in the form of an oblong building divided into two parts: (1) the court with mastabahs and, sometimes, two columns in it, and (2) the altar room, which is on a higher level than the court, from which it is approached by a flight of steps,

On comparing all these Egyptian buildings with the temple of Amenophis III at Beth-shan no one can fail to be struck with their similarity, for in the Amen- ophis temple at Beth-shan there is also a court with mastabahs and columns, and a flight of steps leading up to an upper-altar room. In fact, so close is the re- semblance that the temple hardly would have looked out of place had it been found among the above men- tioned Tell el-Amarna buildings instead of at Beth- shan."®

The apparent Syro-Hittite and A.geo-Anatolian in- fluences discovered in this temple, which seems to have been in use until the end of the reign of King Horemheb, have already been discussed in our vol-

[6]

ume on the history of the site, so it is unnecessary to give details of them here.

Judging from the figurines portraying a goddess (some of the two-horned type [PLaTE xxxv, 11], oth- ers with headdresses like Qedesh or Hathor, and the rest like the ordinary form of Ashtoreth) ; a limestone stela with the figure of a goddess with two horns [PLATE xxxv, 5]; and an ivory “boomerang” or casta- net bearing the head of a goddess'*"—all found in the temple—it is quite evident that the female deity wor- shipped there was some form or other of Ashtoreth. The male deity was still doubtless Mekal, as in the days of Thothmes III.

The room-numbers alloted to the Amenophis tem- ple and its immediate surroundings are:'®

1068 —Upper-altar room, 1072 —Court.

1086 —Ante-room south of court. 1085 —Room east of ante-room.

1087)

1089 (—Rooms south of ante-room and room 1085. 1090

1088 —Room east of 1085 and 1087.

1069

raat ~-Area west of 1068 and 1072.

1073 —Upper level of area to south of 1072, that is, the area immediately below Early-Seti level (not indicated on the present plan).

14 Peet and others, The City of Akhenaten, 1, pLatEs xxv (tomb-chap-

els), and xt (River Temple),

15 Erman-Ranke, Aigypien, Taf. 13, No. 2.

16 The building seems to bear certain analogies to the un-Babylonian form of cult-room of the archaic Ishtar Temple at Assur, of about 2700 B.C, This cult-room has mastabahs in it, which its discoverer thinks held small figures of deities. The more striking similarity, however, is between the cult objects found in this room and those found in the temples at Beth-shan. Sce Andrae, Die Archaischen Ischtar-Tempel in Assur, 1922.

17 She is Qedesh- or Hathor-headed. See puate xxxv, 13.

18The numbers of the pre-Amenophis III level are 1091, 1092 and 1108. See PLaTe v.

1062 —Room immediately north of temple. (Not to be confused with area of same number in similar position in Seti temple.)

1103

1104 1105'—-Rooms outside temple, to north,

1106 1107

The positions of all these rooms, with the exception of the area 1073, are indicated in pLaTes v and vi.

The overall length of the temple from south to

Cuapter I] —Tempie or AmeEnopuis III

highest wall-base. This floor was presumably more or less level and but few traces of it were discovered during the time we were excavating the temple. The . upper-altar room had been partially destroyed and the altar itself removed, doubtless by the builders of the Seti temple. It is impossible to say what was the maximum height of the temple. The highest wall we found in it was the eastern one, the top of which was 3.30 metres above the floor level. A restoration of the temple is shown in Figure 3; the numbers given in

Figure 3. Temple of Amenophis Il, Beth-shan. (1411 B. C. Onwards) (Restored) Looking Northeast

north, exclusive of the ante-room, is about 14.85 me- tres; while the overall width, at the north, is about 14.20 metres, and at the south, 13.25 metres. All the walls of the building are of brick and rest immedi- ately upon the débris, without any layers of stone or wood beneath. As will be seen from the sections on PLATE vit, the bases of the walls are by no means all on the one plane. The builders seem to have made no attempt to level the ground for the foundations be- fore they commenced to erect the temple, but merely sunk them at different depths in the débris. Then, after the walls were finished, they made a hard clay floor, apparently 10 centimetres thick, in the court, at such a height as to be just above or on a Jevel with the

the figure are referred to in the Descriptions of Fig- ures in the Text.

Ante-room (1086). If we may judge by analogy with the details of the Seti temple, the ante-room of the Amenophis temple had an outer columneéd ante- room to the west of it, somewhat larger in size than the existing ante-room itself. The main door of the outer ante-room was at the north. Thus the visitor would be obliged to walk southwards into the outer ante-room, turn eastwards into the inner ante-room, and then turn northwards in order to reach the great court of the temple. Under the eastern wall of room 1086 was discovered. a cylindrical cult object with the head of a pig or boar on it [PLATE xm, 2].

[7 ]

THe Four Canaanite TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

This recalls a late legend in which a boar was sup- posed to have killed Adonis, the male counterpart of Astarte (Ashtoreth), while he was out hunting. A Cypriote vase is already known, made in the shape of a pig, of which the head bears a striking resemblance to that of the animal figured on our cylinder. (Ces- nola, Cypern, Tafel xv. Compare also the pig in Ev- ans, Palace of Minos, 1, page 676.) Below the floor of the room was discovered a limestone model of a Cre- tan (?) table-altar [pLare x1x, 14]. This had squares painted on its top and sacred trees represented on its base. Its shape is identical with that of the table fig- ured in Cretan sealings, where we find it associated with sacred trees. (Compare Evans, op. cit., page 222, Figure 167. See also the “gardens” of Isaiah, Lxv, 3.) The approximate inside measurements of the anteroom are 3.90 metres from south to north and 6.50 metres from west to east.

Great Court (1072). Walking northwards through the door of room 1086 the visitor would see before him a great court with two columns aligned from West to east near its west-east axis. On the west,’® north and east sides of the court would be visible low mastabahs, and near the east end of the northern side of the court, a small brick altar, and also steps lead- ing to an upper room containing a sloping-topped altar. On the west side of the court he would see two receptacles, somewhat resembling mangers. Near the southern receptacle we found the stela of Ashtoreth of the Two Horns [prate xurxa, 1], who was perhaps originally a sheep-goddess of the nomads. Only the foundations (4.42 metres apart) of the two column bases in the court were found, which consisted in each case of a number of undressed stones of an average height of 25 centimetres. The top of these stones was about 37 centimetres below the original floor level, and the column bases, when placed on them, would have extended above the floor level for about 5 centi- metres or so [see the section in PLATE vit]. It seems quite probable that the papyrus capitals found near the Seti temple were originally placed on the columns once erected on the bases in the Amenophis temple. They were both slotted so as to receive dowels for an architrave supporting the roof of the north- ern part of the temple. Descriptions of the capitals will be given in the next chapter. From an examina- tion of the plan on pLaTE v1, it seems almost evident that the temple has undergone some reconstructions, for neither its lower altar nor its flight of steps is in

[8 ]

the centre axis of the building, but is placed roughly behind the eastern column in the court. In the Seti temple these particular structures are well in the centre north-south axis.

The chief objects from the court are:—(1) From below the lowest steps of the altar-room, north of the court:—a faience amulet with the cartouche of Amen- ophis III; amulets; beads; flint scrapers; pendants, and a base of an alabaster vessel. (2) From thé court proper:—an ivory “boomerang” or castanet with the head of Hathor or Qedesh [pLatE xx, 23]; a small decorated pottery box with a lid [plate xxn, 15]; part of an alabaster cup; faience Egyptian cups (broken) ; heads of pottery models of ducks; a faience figurine of a goddess; a horn of a gazelle;. flint scrapers; a scarab with the figure of a lion, and amulets. (3) From the upper débris, immediately below the floor of the Seti temple:—a scarab of Rameses I.

The internal measurements of the court, between the main walls, are as follows: (a) from south to north, 8.40 metres; (b) from west to east, at the north end, 11.17 metres, and at the south end 10.57 metres. The altar in the court is about 87 centimetres in height, 145 centimetres in width, and 77 centimetres in depth. The average width of the mastabahs is 50 centimetres and their height above the floor level also 50 centimetres.

Upper-Altar Room (1068). This consists of a nar- row room, with an internal measurement of 11.50 metres from west to east; its smallest internal width from south to north is at the west end, where the room is 2.73 metres across. Including the step imme- diately behind the lower altar in the court, and the mastabah to the north of that step, there were seven steps” leading to the floor of the upper-altar room itself, which is 123 centimetres above the floor of the court. In this upper room the visitor would notice be- fore him a low sloping-topped altar,” and on his left-

19 The mastabah on the west side was found to have been demolished when we cleared out the court.

20 Compare the peculiar Apis temple of Amenophis III (in Egypt), and its flight of steps, and so forth—Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations, page 425, See also the later “Phoenician Mastaba at Arvad,” op. cit., page 578; and the Iranian altars of Murgab, Maspero, The Passing of the Empires, page 592. (The five upper steps in the Amen- ophis temple at Beth-shan were each 2.10 metres wide and each be- tween 12 to 14 centimetres high.)

21 Perhaps the altar was used for exhibiting the sacred cakes of Ashto- reth, incense stands, cult objects, and so forth. (Compare Isaich, Lxv, 3: “A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick.”) The altar in the court was possibly used for holocausts.

hand side a small room with a receptacle in it, which was no doubt used for the storage of the sacred tem- ple equipment, such as cult objects, etc. When we excavated the temple we found that the upper altar had been cleared away, but its general appearance may be gathered from that of the upper altar in the Seti temple, which building, as we have already seen, was but a copy of the temple of Amenophis. Most of the floor of the upper altar-room had also been cleared away. Luckily the steps had not been re- moved, for below them we discovered a valuable col- lection of Syro-Hittite cylinder seals; a scarab of queen Hatshepsut and one of Amenophis III; other scarabs; a faience ring seal with the cartouche of Amenophis IV; a small glass pot; pottery ducks’ heads; ornaments; beads; amulets, and so forth, all of which will be found described in the Descriptions of Plates elsewhere in this book. From other parts of the room, and from under its floor, came a bronze Syrian dagger with wood inlay in its handle (compare PLATE xxxu1, 3, and also Wainwright, 4 Dagger of the Early New Kingdom, in Annales du Service, xxv, pages 135-143) ; also a magnificent bronze Hittite axe-head, complete, but broken into three pieces [PLATE XXXII, 2]; a basalt model of a Minoan-like chair or throne with Egyptian emblems on it [PLATE xix, 13]; a scar- ab; a scaraboid; cylinder seals; beads; amulets; orna- ments; weapons; weights; small glass pots; an Egyp- tian faience bottle [pare xx1, 30]; and a bronze fig- urine of a deity (?) [pLaTe xx1, 4]. The axe-head has a curved blade at one end, the other end being in the form of a hand with outstretched fingers, the thumb pointing downwards; it is similar to the axe shown on the face of one of the doors of Boghazkeui, in Anatolia. The throne-model is identical in shape with certain Minoan hieroglyphs representing a throne.” On each side of the throne is a winged ani- mal; on the back of the throne is a vulture with ex- tended wings. Below the vulture is the djed-emblem of stability, having outstretched arms, from which ankh-emblems of life are suspended. Late Phoenician models of thrones, resembling ours, are published by Contenau, La Civilisation Phénicienne, Figure 33, page 112 (discussed on page 178), Figure 27, page

22 Compare Evans, op. cit., I, page 626.

23 Compare Boyd Hawes, Gournia, PLATE x1; Dussaud, Les Civilisa- tions Préhelléniques, page 331 (after Gournia, loc. cit.)

*4On the stela found in the northern temple of Rameses III at Beth- shan, the goddess Antit-Ashtoreth is called “queen of heaven, mis- tress of all the gods”. See pLaTE xiixa, 1.

Cuapter I] — Tempie or Amenopuis III

99, and Figure 34, page 113. The first named, like our example, has winged animals on its sides, and also a bird with outstretched wings on its upper part, on the front (on our throne, the bird is on the back). Pére Vincent draws my attention to the fact that the di- vinised empty throne is found on kudurrus, or bound- ary stones, of the Cassite Dynasty, sixteenth to twelfth centuries s.c. He further compares it with the “votary seat of Abdoubast,” in the Louvre, Pheeni- cian Halls, A. O. 4565. Empty thrones are also found in Anatolia (Contenau, page 179). There seems to-be no doubt whatever that the model of the table-altar discovered in the ante-room of the Amenophis temple [pLaTe xix, 14], and the model of the throne discov- ered in its altar room, were originally associated. Prob- ably the throne represented the seat of a god or the outward and visible emblem of the presence of the god himself; while the decorated table represented the-al- tar, surrounded by trees, on which the offerings were placed. Models of certain altars associated with fig- urines of deities, and with cylindrical cult objects not unlike those found at Beth-shan, are already known from Crete.* From the upper level of room -1068 came several faience cartouches of Rameses I [com- pare PLATE xx1x, 5]; these were foundation deposits of the Seti temple.

Room East of Ante-room (1085). In the west- ern part of this room were traces of a fireplace, and in the southwestern corner, part of the base of a small cement tank. Near it was a disk-shaped pottery stamp with a handle, which was perhaps used for stamping the sacred cakes which were offered to Ashtoreth [PLATE xxxvut, 22]. Compare Jeremiah, xuuv, 19, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven,” and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?” The cakes as- sociated with Ashtoreth remind one of the shew- bread placed on the table in the old Hebrew sanctu- aries. One of the pots near the fireplace had some peculiar signs, as yet unidentified, scratched on it. Other objects from the room were barrel-shaped beads and earrings of gold; a head of an alabaster figurine; a pottery figurine of Ashtoreth; a fragment of a pottery Canaanite lamp; a crescent-shaped gold pendant; silver beads linked together; a scarab of Amenophis III, and a scaraboid.

Rooms South of Temple. 1089: This room was almost destroyed. We found in it a fragment of the

[9]

THe Four Canaanire TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Egyptian limestone stela of the god Mekal showing the lower portions of two male figures [PLATE xxvii,

west side of the column base is 3.83 metres to the east of the altar. The altar consists of two layers of large

CuaptTer [I] — TEMPLE or AmeEnopuis III

LIST OF OBJECTS—AMENOPHIS III TEMPLE, ETC.

19], the other part of which came from the Thoth- basalt stones, roughly hewn, resting on a pile of dé Amulets. Faience. cs eae ee A ; ee ee ae. ee mes III temple [see Frontispiece]; also a stone li- bris, doubtless once covered with plaster; it is 49 cen- 55, 56 a - a Oe = ae cate , bation tank; a pottery model of a serpent lyi i high oe EE . face rat perl me coiled b hi Sal halt 8 timetres high. The top of the altar is 125 centimetres Periulet. Gold. xxxiv, 57, Kohi-sticks. Bronze. xxx1, 48, 49. ued on a base (this came from the upper level) above the floor level; between the stones, and under Amulets. Glass. xxx, 2, 41, Loom-weight, Basalt. xxvil, 8. shown in PLATE xx, 3; pottery figurines of Ashtoreth; some of them, we found some ashes, charred sub- Arm of statuette.| Bronze. xx1, 3. Mortar. Granite. xx, 5. pottery models of ducks’ heads, and so forth. 1087: stances, and some fragments of charred bones, As 2 Arrow-heads. Bronze. Rix. 3, 6, 7; xxx, 14. Nails. Bronze. _| xxx, 36, 38, 41; Traces of an oven; head of a pottery model of a duck; matter of fact, the whole of the floor of the room a ee SU are SS an alabaster cup; a vertebra section (playi : j 1104 : Beads. Carnelian, | xxx, 71, 79; xxiv, 32. Object (peg- ae 3 p ying piece); a was covered with a layer of ashes. Near the altar reads. Faience. Xxxill, 62-66. shaped). | Alabaster. | xxv, 27. ee peaeutie of Ashtoreth, and other objects, were was a cylindrical basalt offering—or incense-stand Beads. Glass. xxxiIL, 55, 57-60; xxx1v, Objects, Bronze. xxx1, 20, 44, iscovered in this room. 1088: The chief thing found —_[PLaTE xxiv, 6]. Taking everything into consideration 25-30. Object (dumb- here ae small clay model of a serpent on a plaque, we may perhaps conclude that the majority of the Bead. Gold. xxxiv, 33, bell shaped). Clay. xxv, 11. with its head broken off [pLaTE xxxv, 7]. 1090: This holocausts, particularly the larger ones, were made on Bead. Shell. XXXII, hs i" Objects. Ivory. XXX, oh 18, _ is a general area to the south of 1089 and 1087. Noth- the altar outside the actual temple, but well within + ae anes hs a ae ae ee 51. ec ; . . 7 a 4 a1ence, AALV, ° . 1 * 7) : BS much came from it, but a bronze bolt is worthy the precincts of the sacred area. (The public, of course, Be rcades Glass. | xxxiv, 20. Pendant. Agate. xxxiv, 68. ei mention. 1073: This represented the area above were not admitted inside the old Canaanite tem- Bezel. Faience. xxxix, 12. Pendant. | Bone. igi oo the rooms to the south of the temple and consisted ples, but had to perform their rites outside it, within “Boomerang” or Pendants. es Bes 20 chiefly of a filling of earth, in which practically no ob- the general precincts.) Very few ashes were found on ae Paty: pee Aiammn 2 jects were discovered. he Al : Bolt. Bronze. KX LS. Pendants. Faience. xxx, 29-33, 35-37, 39, 43- the floor near the lower altar in the temple proper. Be Faie xxr, 30 45. xxxqv. 40, 43-45. 47-54 , 2 West of Temple (1069 and 1070). No walls The above mentioned column base is 40 centimetres a ei. r — 4 5 65.67 a , j ave z . ° . . . . . ¥ z ee oie : a found in this NS which Seats to have high, but only 15 centimetres of it projects through Bowls. Faience. XE, 25,027, 28: x1axA, 3. Pendants. | Gold. xxx, 38, 39, 48; xxxiv, 12, een badly damaged. Nothing was discovered in the floor. It rests upon a roughly circular foundation Bowl. Glass. xx1, 24, 13, 16, 22. the former “room,” but in the latter were lying stone of basalt, 40 centimetres high and 132 centime- Box. Pottery. xx, 15. Pendants. Glass. xxx, 3, 40. a pottery figurine of a lion from some vessel [PLATE tres in diameter. Surrounding the bottom of that part Box-lids, | Pottery. xx, 14, 16, Pendant. Se ilar ae xx, 4] and the head of a pottery duck. of the column base which is above the floor is a col- oo a a a wae cy simaaeh Ses 8 Rooms North of Temple. 1062: This is i lar of hard clay, 4.5 i i “oh es a | ee > page fencys ones 7 ie digcly outside hemos ree : is imme- aN te cay aiewee COOL CLES oe height, and from Buttons. Ivory, xxxiv, 6, 7, Playing piece. Bone. xxx, 65, ately ide the north wall of the temple. When 6 to 8 centimetres in thickness. This collar, no doubt, Cartouches. Faience. xxix, 5 (intrusive) | Pot on trumpet this north wall was cleared away we found below was meant to give a finished appearance to the base, xxxix, I], | _ base. | Pottery. XLIxA, 4. ita Canaanite pottery lamp and also a faience finger- The chief objects found in room 1104 were a frag- ayes. Eaouze. mel. 1, a ad oes ring bearing the cartouche of Amenophis III, the lat- ment of a cylindrical cult object (?); a head of a pot- aati Bory ape | ee Bante ae ter having been placed as a foundation deposit. The tery model of a striped animal (tiger 7); a potter _ al “any are a hole of th : ; Peds / Core. Limestone. | xxv, 25. Rings. Faience. xxix, 6,.7, 8; xxxrx, 15. whole of the excavated area to the north of the tem- Canaanite lamp; an inscribed cylinder seal; a bone Cup. ‘Alabaster. | xx1v, 7 Rod Hanae xxxr, 30 ple had a hard clay floor about 5 centimetres thick sheath (?), and teeth of an ass. From room 1105 Cups, Faience. XXxI, 6, 29, Rope: Gold foil. xxx, 58-60: xxxiv, 3, 4. laid over it, which rose in a gentle slope from the came the following: Above floor—beads; a faience Dagger. Bronze. xxx, 3; xLixa, 6. Scarabs. Amethyst. | xxxvr, 18, 20. south to the north. The floor must be of the same date cup, decorated in blue and yellow; a bowl of a kernos ae eat Bide: Scatab. Carnelian, | xxv, 19. as the temple. 1103: This is just to the west of 1062, [PLATE x1x, 12]; a pottery model of a duck’s head ae Gy ae ae ie eee, Wee ae ° : : te . “AXE {1 a there is nothing special to report about it. 1106 from a bowl or lamp (?); the above mentioned ba- Earrings oe cae : 10 eT iipiofanilt aes? a and 1107: ; ? ; — ; LOL k apis-lazuli. 4 a oo Pek: rooms are to the northwest of 1103 salt offering- or incense-stand [PLaTE xxiv, 6]; and Earrings. Gold. xxx, 33, 35. Rica rahe: Sieatite, xxxvt,'16, 21-24; xxx1x, 3. an ha nothing of particular interest in them (1106 inscribed cylinder seals. Below floor—a fragment of Earrings. | Shell. xxix, 2, 11. Seal. Sone: ree contained what appears to be a fragment of a cult a pottery cult object (?); and an ivory plaque show- Fibula. | Bronze, EM, 57. Seal. | Faience. xxxvir, 20. object). 1104 and 1105: These rooms are to the ing the figures of a lion and a gazelle on either side Bees pone. aoe, Seal, | Glass. gOS north of 1103 and 1062 and contain a roughly-m ade abe pool af weten surrounded = herbage lruage 2 gment, Bronze. xxx, 28. Seal (stamp). Pottery. xxxvit, 22. Meeet6r hol : ammer-head. | Basalt. xxvir, 6, Seal. Stone. xxxix, 17. altar for holocausts and a column base. The altar is Xxxiv, 24]. Hand abOPeS net hoof th ie s Adi€s, Bronze. RKKE IY 24, 25, Seals (cylinder). | Faience. xxxvu, 1-4, 9-12, 14, 15; Y etres north of the temple, while the ai of statuette. Pottery. UTAN 2. xxxvur, 13, 16; xt, 1-20. ; Orns, Horn. xxxt, 51-53, 56. Seals (cylinder). | Glass, xxxvil, 5, 6, 16, 17, 21; ae Flint. xxv, 12, 16, | xxxvit, 14. = ement. Stone. xxvur, 8. | Seals (cylinder). | Steatite. xxxvu, 7, 8; xxxvit, 15, : Ivory. xxx, 5; xxxiv, 23, Seals (cylinder). | Stone. xxxvu, 13, 18; 87 y nlay (?). Gold. xxxiv, 14, xxxvitt, 12. ) [11]

Shells.

Spatula. Spear-heads. Standard-head.

Stela fragment.

Animals’ heads. Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth.

Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth. Bes-headed jar. Bird. Chair or throne (sacred). Crown. Cylindrical.

Cylindrical (Ash-

toreth-headed.) Cylindrical (bull-headed).

THe Four CANAAnire TemMpies OF BETH-SHAN

LIST OF OBJECTS—AMENOPHIS III TEMPLE, ETC., Concluded

Shell. Bronze. Bronze. Bronze and gold. Limestone.

LIST OF CULT OBJECTS—AMENOPHIS III TEMPLE, ETC.

Pottery. Alabaster. Drawing (limestone ). Faience. Pottery. Pottery. Pottery.

Basalt. Pottery. Pottery.

Pottery.

xxxI, 62, 64, xxx1, 18. RRR OORT Olt

XLVIIA, 3. xxv, 19,

xx, 9, 10. xxxv, 22.

RKKV AOA EXLIKAY I),

xxxv, 12.

xxxv, 11, 14-16, 23; xiva, 5. XLVIA, 3, 4.

xx, 19,

xix, 13; xtvuura, 1-4. Xxxv, 6. xviu, 17; xix, 3, 4.

xiva, 1-3,

xivia, 1, 2.

Stopper. Tube.

Vertebra section.

Weights, Weight. Whorl.

Cylindrical (ele-

phant-headed). Cylindrical

(pig-headed). Deities.

Deity. Ducks’ heads. Grotesque jar. Hathor. Incense stand. Kernos cup. Libation tank. Lion of Ishtar. Lion. Serpents,

Table (sacred).

[ 12]

| Alabaster.

Ivory. Bone. Basalt. Stone. Ivory.

Pottery.

Pottery. Bronze. Pottery. Pottery. Pottery. Ivory, Basalt. Pottery. Basalt. Drawing. Pottery. Pottery.

Limestone.

xxiv, 8.

xxx, 14.

xXxxI, 66.

xxv, 15; xxvis, 3; MRVEL 7s

xxx, 1:

XLIVAY dee?

XIX}, 25, REIVA, 3: xxi, 4; La, 4. xxxv, 25,

xx, 13-18; xx, 8. xiv, 1, 2. xxxv, 13; xivita, 4. XxIv, 6.

rape 1)

xxu, 20.

RENV, 21.

xx, 4,

xx, 3; xxxv, 7; xLiva, 4;

XLVA, 4. xix, 14; xzrxa, 2.

CHAPTER III

TEMPLE OF SETI I

S WE HAVE seen in The Topography and His-

tory of Beth-shan, page 24, the date of the temple in Number VI city-level has been

ascribed to the early part of the reign of Seti I be- cause foundation deposits bearing the name of Ra- meses I [ compare PLATE xxrx, 5], with whom Seti was for a little time co-regent, have been discovered be- low the floors and walls of the building. It now seems also probable, in view of the discovery of the slab of Rameses-wesr-khepesh mentioned in our preface, that the temple in question continued in use during the reign of Rameses JI and onwards to just before the time of Rameses III, in whose reign two new temples were erected, that is to say, in Number V city-level. The Seti temple is almost an exact copy of the tem- ple of Amenophis III, the main outer walls of which were just below those of the former building. Thus, as in the case of the Amenophis temple, the visitor to the Seti temple would have to walk southwards into an outer, columned ante-room, turn eastwards into a small, inner ante-room, and then turn northwards through the main door of the temple. Having passed through that door he would enter a large court with mastabahs on the east, west, and north sides; and see two’ papyrus-headed columns and an altar near its centre, and a flight of steps at its north end. These steps would lead him to an upper room, in which he would see an altar with a sloping top. On the west side of the room he would notice a store-room, and on the east side another store-room divided into two Teceptacles. What appeared to be the remains of a small temporary (?) shrine with four columns were discovered in the 1928 season a little to the west of the north part of the temple. (See The Topography and History of Beth-shan, page 24.) Was the stela of

Rameses II (op. cit., pate 46) originally placed in this shrine?

Reference has already been made in the above-men- tioned volume (pages 30 and 31) to the fact that out- side the temple itself there were two distinct strata of houses, which, for the sake of convenience, we have called Early-Seti and Late-Seti, respectively. The Early-Seti level is of the same date as that of the Seti temple. The Late-Seti level probably belongs to a period late in the reign of Seti I or, more probably, to the latter part of the reign of Rameses II and on- wards. As the Late-Seti houses cover no part of the temple, we may assume that religious observances were carried on in it through the whole of Late-Seti times. The débris in most of the Seti rooms near the edge of the tell (south of the temple) seems to have been disturbed at’ various periods.

The foreign influences introduced into the sanc- tuary have already been referred to on page 26 of our history volume and need not be dealt with here.

The only representations of local deities discovered in this temple were pottery figurines of Ashtoreth and a gold-covered figurine of a goddess who has out- stretched hands like Qedesh and like the Minoan Snake Goddess [prate xxxv, 10]. The headdress of the gold figurine, however, is not similar to that of Qedesh, but resembles the conical crown worn by Syrian goddesses. It is quite evident that the temple was built in honour of some form of Ashtoreth and of the local god Mekal. A stone hawk representing Horus [pLate xxxv, 8] indicates that the worship of certain Egyptian deities was by no means absent.

The room-numbers allotted to the Seti temple and its immediate surroundings are:

EARLY-SETI LEVEL. 1034 Temple.—Store-room west of upper-altar room. 1021B Temple—Upper-altar room. 1043 Temple.—Store-room—divided into two receptacles —east of upper-altar room.

[ 13 ]

THe Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BrETH-SHAN

EARLY-SETI LEVEL—Concluded

1032 Temple—Great court (centre, southeast and north- west).

1033 Temple.—Great court (northeast).

1031 Temple.—Great court (southwest).

1036 Temple——Ante-room south of great court.

1042. Temple.—Outer ante-room.

1037. Area north of 1042 and west of 1031.

1030. Area north of 1042 and west of 1031 (upper level).

1035. Area north of 1037 and west of 1034.

1061 Area west of 1037 and 1035.

1044 Room south of 1042.

1057 Room south of 1036.

1059 Room east of 1057 and 1036.

1060 Room east of 1059,

1052 Room west of 1044.

1051 Corridor south of 1044. ;

1058 Corridor south of 1057, 1059, 1060.

1055 Room south of 1051.

1056

1053 Rooms south of 1058.

1054

1062 Area outside north wall of temple (see remarks on the 1062 room in Amenophis temple in list of rooms in Chapter II).

1100. = Area north of 1062.

1102. Area north of *1100.

1101 = Area west of 1100.

2000 Rooms partly excavated on north of summit of tell. 2000 is below room 28, and 2001 below room

2001

{ 1005 (see pLare m1).

1073 See list of rooms in Chapter II.

LATE-SETI LEVEL.

1050

1049

1048 | Rooms above Early-Seti rooms 1057, 1059, 1060, 1045 1058, south of Seti temple.

1046

1047

1097

1095

1094

1099 + Rooms above Early-Seti areas 1100, 1102, and 1101, 1098 north of Seti temple.

1096

1093

The positions of these rooms are indicated in pLaTEs IV, V, and vit,

The over-all length of the temple (exclusive of the inner ante-room) from south to north, is about 14.65 metres; while the over-all width, at the north, is about 14.55 metres, and at the south about 12.67 metres. All the walls of the temple are of brick. Those particular walls which are above the outer walls of the temple

of Amenophis III are clearly indicated in PLATE 1; all the former walls, with one exception, had a layer of débris between them and the corresponding walls below. (The one exception was the east wall of the temple, which was built directly upon the east wall of the under temple.) It is quite clear, therefore, that before they commenced to build the new temple, the workmen of Seti I filled in and covered with débris the whole of the Amenophis temple up to a plane cor- responding with the top of its cast wall. (Compare this wall on the right-hand of Section A-B, PLATE vit.) The only wall in the temple that had a stone foundation was the north wall of the court, which possessed a single layer of undressed basalt stones, about 20 centimetres in height, arranged below it to the width of the wall. We have no means of knowing the original height of the temple; its outer main walls, as we found them, varied between 148 centi- metres and 173 centimetres in height above the floor level. A restoration of the temple is shown in Figure 4; the numbers given in the figure are referred to in the Descriptions of Figures in the Text.

Outer Ante-room (1042). This consists of a rough-

_ly rectangular room with three entrances, one at the

east leading into the inner ante-room of the temple, one at the south leading into a small room (1044), perhaps belonging to the temple guardian, or to a priest, and one at the north, representing the outer entrance to the temple. As will be seen from PLATE vii, there are three stone column bases, all of basalt, in the outer courtyard, two of which are in alignment with its small northern wall, The western base of the two is 55 centimetres in diameter and 46 centimetres in height; the top of it is 21 centimetres below the base of the wall next to it. The eastern base is 73 cen- timetres in diameter and 55 centimetres in height, and its top is 19 centimetres above the top of the west- ern base. The two bases are separated from one an- other by a distance of 2.85 metres, the western one being 60 centimetres from the end of the wall near it. The eastern base is 155 centimetres from the west wall of the temple. Whether the third column base is in its original position cannot be decided as it was found against the outside of the west wall of the tem- ple, about a metre to the northeast of the eastern base already referred to. The former base is 55 centimetres in diameter and 34 centimetres in height, and its top is 4 centimetres below the top of the base next to it. There is no doubt whatever that the two bases in

[ 14 ]

alignment once supported columns and an entabla- ture. Very few objects were discovered in the outer ante-room, but the lion’s head portion of a double- headed (bull-and-lion) vase was found on its floor Jevel [ptates xx, 10; xxm, 1]; the other portion was found on the floor of the central magazine (282) on the south side of the southern temple of Rameses III. The indications are that the vase belongs to the reign

Cuapter II] — Tempe or Serr |

object, and a part of a shrine-house, nothing of much importance was found in it. The internal measure- ments of the room from south to north are: (a), at the west end 3.35 metres, and (b), at the east end 4.12 metres; from west to east the room is 5.45 metres. Great Court (1031, 1032, 1033). This court, like the great court in the Amenophis temple, is roughly rectangular, with its western and eastern walls nar-

Figure 4. Temple of Seti I, Beth-shan. (1313 B.C. Onwards) (Restored. Part of Roof Removed to Show Upper Altar) Looking Northeast

of Seti, and that it was broken in two and its pieces separated during the time when the temple of this king was being filled in by the builders of the temple of Rameses III. The internal measurements of the outer ante-room from south to north are 4.67 metres; and from west to east (a), at the north end, 7.15 me- tres, and (b), at the south end, 7.70 metres,

“Inner Ante-Room (1036). This is a small room at the south of the temple proper. It has three en- trances: one at the west opening into the outer ante- room; one at the north leading into the great court; and one at the east communicating with storerooms (?), which were destroyed in later times. Excepting for a few basalt dishes, a base of a cylindrical cult

rowing in towards one another at the south. Its in- ternal measurements, between the main walls, are as follows: (a), from south to north about 8.35 metres; (b), from west to east at the north end, 11.80 metres, and at the south end, 10.45 metres. Traces of its orig- inal hard clay floor, about 10 centimetres thick, were found here and there, particularly at the north end of the room, The southeastern corner of the court- yard had been smashed by the builders of a large Hellenistic reservoir, who had sunk its foundations through the southern temple of Rameses III right into the temple of Seti] [pLaTE x]. During the course of this work a basalt column base from the upper temple was thrown down into the lower temple,

[15]

THe Four CaNnaanire TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

where we found it in the position indicated in PLATE vit. This base is about 78 centimetres in diameter and 28 centimetres in height. In pLaTE x it is shown re- stored to its original position. On the west side as well as on the east side of the court there is a mastabah, which continues for a small distance on the north side of the room [PLate vin]. That on the west is 65 centi- metres wide, and slopes gently upwards from the north where it is 48 centimetres above the floor; at the south it reaches a height of 60 centimetres, but here it has a small ledge above, of the same width as itself, 92 centimetres in length and ‘about 52 centi- metres above the top of the mastabah. The mastabah at the east is 53 centimetres wide and its top is 50 centimetres above the floor, The two column bases in the west-east axis of the court are 2.92 metres apart, and were found to rest directly upon the débris and not upon a foundation of stones. The column at the west is about 80 centimetres in diameter and 51 cen- timetres in height; that at the east is of the same di- mensions; its top, however, is 5 centimetres lower than the top of the former base. The two limestone papyrus capitals belonging to these columns were found (in an upturned position) to the west of room 1062, just to the north of the temple. As will be seen from PLATE xxv1, 20, each capital is made out of two blocks of stone which are joined together by a thin layer of cement. The diameter of the whole capital, at the top, is 137 centimetres, and at the base, 42 centi- metres. Its lower stone, which has a diameter at the top of 62.5 centimetres and a height of 40 centimetres, possesses a slot in it at the base, 7.5 centimetres in di- ameter and 12 centimetres in depth, for the purpose of inserting the dowel which connected it with the top part of the column below.” The capital is 75 cen- timetres high over-all, and the edge of its greatest diameter is 50 centimetres above the base. On the top of the upper stone there is also a slot, 9 centimetres in diameter and 18 centimetres in depth, for the pur- pose of holding the dowel ‘of the architrave of the roof. Both slots have rounded ends and appear to have been drilled out; there are traces of white ce- ment in them. Cement is also visible on the tops of the capitals themselves. The roof of the temple has already been referred to in Chapter I. Immediately behind the column’ bases in the great court is the lower altar which is 73 centimetres in height, 140 centimetres in width, and 107 centimetres in depth. This ‘is made entirely of brick. Before it is a small

block of limestone, 20 centimetres high, 61 centi- metres wide, and 29 centimetres deep, the use of which is not clear. Behind the lower altar, and with its back resting against the north wall of the court, is a flight of six steps, made of brick, and originally covered with a thin layer of plaster. The average width of the steps is 3.08 metres and the top of the sixth step is 72 centimetres above the floor of the court, or 17 centimetres below the floor of the upper- altar room. The steps vary from 10 to 15 centimetres in height. Practically no objects of interest were found in the great court, but a kernos or hollow ring of pottery with vases attached to it, which came from the floor near the bottom of the flight of steps, and a cylinder seal showing the figures of four men, each holding a stick, and some fragments of gold foil, may be mentioned.

Upper-Altar Room (1021B). The maximum in- ternal measurements of the upper-altar room proper are 4.0 metres from south to north and 6.05 metres from west to east. As will be seen from the section on PLATE Ix, the room possesses a hard clay floor (orig- inally painted a bright bluc), about 8 centimetres thick, which, after running horizontally from south to north, for the width of that part of the north wall of the court which is below its entrance, commences to slope upwards until it reaches the base of the south- ern side of the upper altar, where it is 5 centimetres above its horizontal plane at the south. The floor im- mediately to the west and east sides of the altar was found to be destroyed. The width of the altar, at the north, is 2.45 metres and, at the south, 2.29 metres; its depth from south to north is about 130 centimetres. Owing to the way in which the top of the altar slopes from south to north, its height above the floor of the room at the former point is 45 centimetres and at the latter point 55 centimetres, The altar is made almost entirely of bricks, and of two large blocks of lime- stone, the positions of which will be seen in PLATE vit, Section C-D in pPLate 1x indicates the way in which the blocks were laid among the bricks. The block on the west side of the altar is 132 centimetres in length from south to north, 56 centimetres wide at its south end, and 64 centimetres wide at its north end. This block is about 26 centimetres thick and has a hole bored through it at its northwestern corner.

25 Tt is evident, however, that there was a third stone belonging to the capital proper, which was attached to, and below, the two stones above described. See the restored capitals in Figure 4.

[ 16 ]

The hole increases in diameter as it goes down, from 8 centimetres at the top to 10 centimetres at the bot- tom. The other block looks like an inverted libation (?) tank,’ and is 152 centimetres in length from west to east, 77 centimetres in width from south to north, and 25 centimetres in height. It was originally much higher than this.*’ The sides of the tank are about 15 centimetres thick, while its floor” is about 12 centimetres from the present top of its sides. Be- tween the western stone and the bricks below it are a layer of thin plaster, about 5 centimetres thick and a little earth. The tank rests immediately upon the bricks and has earth inside it.”” The two stones have a layer of plaster about 2 centimetres thick covering them. Minute fragments of pottery were found between the bricks. The base of the whole altar rests upon earth and débris. From the floor of the room came the following objects: four straight-sided bronze incense cups, with traces of charcoal inside [ptate xxu, 3]; a four-handled basalt bowl; a very large sixteen-handled pottery bow]; part of a base of a cylindrical cult object; and a portion of a baking tray with holes along the sides. The tray may well have been employed for baking the sacred cakes of Ashtoreth which were possibly offered up, together with drink offerings and incense, on the upper altar of the temple. (See the reference in Jeremiah, xu1v, 19, mentioning the incense, drink offerings, and cakes which were offered to Ashtoreth.) Immedi- ately to the west of the altar was lying a coloured fig- ure of a life-sized stone hawk, wearing the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and standing upon a base [PLATE xxxv, 8]. From under the floor, and at the west of the room, came the small gold figure of a goddess with outstretched hands [Late xxxv, 10]. Store-Room West of Upper-Altar Room (1034). The internal measurements from south to north of this small room are 2.90 metres; and from west to east, 2.02 metres at the north, and 176 centimetres at the south. The floor level of the room is the same as that of the altar room. Practically the only thing that was found in the room was the fragment of a cylin-

26 Doubtless the tank originally belonged to the Amenophis temple.

27 The sides are much broken at the top and indicate clearly that por- tions of stone have been removed from them.

#8 The floor is very uneven and has a small hollow in it at one end.

29 Tn the section, for sake of clearness, the elevation of the inside of the western side of the tank is shown.

89 Both these measurements are to the south side of the small wall at the north. This wall is 21 centimetres wide.

Cuapter II] —'TeEmMpuie or Set I

drical cult object.

Store-Room East of Upper-Altar Room (1043). The internal over-all.measurements of this room are as follows: (a), from south to north, at the west end 2.10 metres, and at the east end 190 centimetres;*° (b), from west to east, at the north end, 184 centi- metres and at the south end, 175 centimetres. The room is divided into two receptacles by a small wall, 25 centimetres thick, running from west to east. The width of the southern receptacle is about 95 centi- metres, and that of the northern receptacle about 80 centimetres. The floors of the receptacles are on the same level as the floor of the altar-room. At the west- ern end of the northern receptacle lay a pottery box with studs on it to which the lid was tied [PLATE xxn, 13]; this box must have been used for holding sacred objects. Just to the northeast of the box we found a cylindrical cult object, two-handled, which has paint- ed decorations on it, including figures of birds preen- ing themselves [PLATE xiv, 2]. Nearby was a Canaan- ite lamp with a single spout.

Early-Seti I Rooms South of Temple. 1044: This room is immediately to the south of the outer ante- room (1042), from, which it is entered by a small door. The room is divided into two chambers, one larger than the other; it seems to have been used as a residence for a temple guardian or a priest. The smaller chamber looks like a sleeping apartment. A quantity of Byzantine objects was found in it, the presence of which is accounted for by the proximity of the room to the foundations of a bottle-shaped Byzantine reservoir, which penetrates into room 1055 [prate 1v]. 1057: This room, which is to the east of 1044, has its entrance at the south and, in its north- ern wall, a small niche the use of which is not clear. A small figurine of Ashtoreth (head and feet missing) came from the room. 1059: This room lies to the east of the ante-room (1036) and room 1057, and has its entrance at the east, in the southeast cor- ner of the ante-room. Exactly what the northeast cor- ner of the room looked like we cannot say because its walls were broken by the builders of the Hellen- istic reservoir [PLATE X]. There is a small niche in the west wall at the south end of the room, which is sim- ilar in appearance to that in room 1057. The remains of an oven lie to the north of the niche; this oven is made of hard clay and is circular in shape. Nothing of much interest was found in the room. 1060: This is a long narrow room to the east of 1059. On its floor

[17 ]

THe Four CANnaAAniTE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

was lying an alabaster jar with two handles in the form of the head of an ibex [pLatTE xxur, 2]. I know of at least three jars similar to this example: (1) In the Cairo Museum, Room T, Case I, Number 46706. This was found by Lord Carnarvon, in 1920, in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and belongs to about the time of Rameses II or Merenptah. (2) One published by Davis, The Tomb of Siphtah, page 46 and plate. This also dates from the time of one or other of the above-mentioned monarchs, and came from an un- named tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. (3) One published in the Catalogue of an Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art, Burlington Fine Arts’ Club, London, 1922, page 1, and prate xxx. This example is in the.Carnarvon collection and bears the name of Merenptah. It was discovered in a cache near the king’s tomb, also in the same valley. We further found in the room under discussion a knob of iron [PLATE xxx, 42], but this may be intrusive as the room is near the edge of the tell, in disturbed débris.. 1052: This room, which is to the west of 1044, contains intrusive Byzantine remains. 1051 and 1058: These numbers are given to the corridor south of rooms 1044, 1057, 1059, and 1060. The chief things found in 1051 were a basalt weight and a bowl with two loop handles in- side it. Some painted pottery fragments and a jug came from 1058. 1055: This number is given to two small rooms south of the western end of the corridor (1051). The western room had the above-mentioned Byzantine bottle-shaped reservoir sunk into it, which cut through its northern wall |PLaTe 1v]. Some frag- ments of mosaic and two rolled-up lead “impreca- tion” tablets (now in Philadelphia) were found in the reservoir. 1056 and 1053: These rooms seem to have been used as cooking places; there is a small circular oven made of clay in the -former room. Among the objects found in the latter room may be mentioned stone weights; arrow-heads; charred bones; flint scrapers; and fragments of bricks with small flutings on them (made by the reed mats in the brickmakers’ field). 1054: This room is to the east of 1053 and had its entrance at the north blocked by a small wall. As it is very near to the edge of the tell, its débris has been considerably disturbed. On the floor level we found a nice breccia bowl, somewhat resembling Predynastic Egyptian bowls of the same material [PLate t11, 6]. In the upper débris was lying a small part of the basalt stela belonging to an official, apparently named Amen-em-Apt, already published

in The Topography and History of Beth-shan |PLate 49, 1]. The other, and the larger part of the stela, was discovered in the corridor (1010) which is just to the west of the southern temple of Rameses III; its position is indicated in PLATE 111.

Early-Seti I Areas West of Temple. 1037: This is just to the north of the outer ante-room of the tem- ple (1042). From its upper débris, which was really none other than the disturbed floor débris of the southern temple of Rameses III, came a right-hand door-jamb from the latter temple (see prate 48, 1, of our history volume). This valuable monument 1s of limestone and is 97 centimetres high, 48 centime- tres wide, and 20 centimetres thick. Its right-hand side is rough-dressed, and shows traces of the brick wall against which the jamb had been built. The left-hand side is smooth-dressed, and formed part of the inner face of the door. Judging from the position in which it was unearthed, the jamb must have belonged to the outer door of the Rameses temple. It has part of two perpendicular lines of Egyptian text on it which read from left to right. The three dividing lines con- taining the columns of the text are 10 centimetres, 21 centimetres, and 33 centimetres, respectively, distant from the left-hand side of the jamb. What exactly is the meaning of the weathered text in the first column it is difficult to say, but a granary is certainly men- tioned in it. The second line reads: ... menfyt, thes pedjwt en neb tawy, nesw sesh, imy-r per-wer, Rameses-wesr-khepesh, sa nesw tha meht her wenmy en ..., that is, “[Overseer] of soldiers, commander of bowmen of the Lord of the Two Lands, royal scribe, great steward, Rameses-wesr-khepesh, son of the fan-bearer at the right hand of [the king]”. His father’s name is Thothmes, whose full titles are “Fan- bearer at the right hand of the king, chief of the bowmen, and overseer of foreign countries” | Figure 6]. Rameses-wesr-khepesh was probably the com- mandant of Beth-shan during the time the fort of Ra- meses III was being built, as the cartouche of that king was found on another slab, belonging to the former individual, in 1931. 1035: This is to the north of 1037 and just west of 1034. Practically nothing of importance came from it. 1061: This is to the west of 1037 and 1035. With the exception of a smooth block of basalt, which may have been intended for a stela [it seems to bear very faint traces of a figure (?)] and was later reused as a baking-slab, some pot- tery fragments, and weights, the objects found here

[ 18 ]

were of no great interest.

Early-Seti I Areas North of Temple. 1062: The chief objects unearthed in this area were the two lime- stone capitals already referred to in the description of the great court of the Seti temple. 1100: This area is to the north of 1062, and had some interesting objects in it, including a pottery model of a red-coloured hip- popotamus on a base [PLATE xxi, 13]; the head of a model of a horse with a headstall [pLate xx, 14]; a fragment of a large kernos;-a lump of blue pig- ment; a model of a serpent on a base [PLaTE xx1, 15]; and the teeth of some animal, which have been iden- tified by the British Museum as those of an ass. Both the hippopotamus and the ass were associated with Seth. 1102: This is to the north of 1100, and noth- ing was found in it. 1101: In this area, which is to the west of 1100 and 1102, were discovered a pottery crucible containing particles of bronze, and the teeth of an ass.

Late-Seti I Rooms South of Temple ** [PLATE 1v]. 1050: The chief object of interest from this room was a plain cylinder of porphyry (?), bored, and in ap- pearance like a cylinder seal. 1049: The only thing that was unearthed here was an inscribed steatite seal. 1048:In this room we found some clay loom-weights, a lid of an alabaster vase, fragments of a vase of the same material, pottery, and the like. 1045: A good number of clay and alabaster loom-weights came from this room. 1046: In the western part of this room is a brick-lined bin, which contained a quan- tity of flour. The top of the east wall of the bin is 64 centimetres below the top of the rest of the walls of the' room, while the bottom of the bin itself is 177 centimetres below the top of the east wall referred to. Among the objects found in this room were a fragment of a pottery tripod brazier; the horn of a gazelle; alabaster, mud, and basalt loom-weights. 1047: This room yielded no objects.

Late-Seti I Rooms North of Temple” [ptaTE v]. 1096 and 1093: These numbers are given to a large room north of the Early-Seti room 1062, 1096 rep- resenting the western part of the room. At the eastern

31 All these rooms were undoubtedly part of a large store-room. They were built immediately on top of the Early-Seti rooms to the south of the temple, which were filled with earth to the top of their walls. The highest wall of these Late-Seti rooms is 141 centimetres and the lowest wall, 90 centimetres.

32 The bases of the walls of these rooms are almost on the same level as the bases of the Late-Seti walls south of the temple. The maximum height of the former walls is 2.67 metres.

Cuapter II] — TEmpte or Seti I

part of 1096 we came upon a basalt column base 46 centimetres in diameter and 27 centimetres in height, evidently not in its original position, and some broken limestone blocks, forming the sill, jamb, and other parts of a large door. Two of the fragments were found to be inscribed, and no doubt belonged to the left-hand side of the door. Each block was about 43 centimetres high, 50 centimetres wide, and 25 centi- metres deep. The text on one block reads, “Praises be to thee, O beautiful one [the sun-god], who pos- sesseth everlastingness thou didst fashion the Nile ... ”. The text on the other fragment reads: . em khet nebt, “ . everybody” (or simi- lar). These jambs were found just to the east of the column, and are dealt with on page 31 of our history volume. The column base and the jambs probably belonged either to the Late-Seti level itself or to the temple of Seti. If the latter is the case, the text on the jamb provides evidence of the fact that the Egyp- tian sun-god was revered in the above-mentioned temple. (Compare the limestone hawk of Horus from the upper-altar room.) A little to the north of the jambs were three rough-dressed stones, all basalt, but to what they belonged is not clear. 1093: This yielded no objects. 1094: Only some fragments of pottery, including the ledge-handle from a large bowl, were found in this room. 1095: Below the south wall.of this room we unearthed a valuable treasure in the shape of a solid mass of silver ingots, earrings, pieces of wire, and a gold armlet [Ppratss -xxxtv, 17, 21; rxvma, 1-3]. Before we broke up this mass, the weight of which was about two pounds, fifteen ounces, we noticed that its exterior bore traces of a cloth in which it had originally been kept. The ingots from the southern side of the hall of the Ra- meses III southern temple [compare PLATE xx1x, 17, and so forth] were also once wrapped in cloth. 1097: In the west side of this room is what appears to be part of the cement base of a small reservoir or tank, the exact significance of which is not certain. 1099: A fragment of gold foil was the only thing dis- covered in this room. 1098: A limestone block, 70 centimetres high, 52 centimetres wide, and 22 centi- metres thick, was lying on the floor; it has incised lines and drill-holes in it, and looks as if it were being prepared for the reception of some kind of design. Finally, in connection with the level under discus- sion, we must draw attention to-the fact that A. Saar- isalo in The Boundary Between Issachar and Nap-

[ao 4

THe Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

thali, pages 112 ff., and maps on pages 85, 86 and 87, identifies the Yenoam of the Beth-shan stela of Seti I with Tell-en Na‘am, a little west of the south end of the Sea of Galilee. This identification, in our opin- ion, is not so likely as Tell ‘Ubeidiyye (see Alan Rowe,

Amulets,

Amulet. Amulet. Arrow-heads. Bead. Beads, Beads, Bead. Bead. Bead (?)- cylinder. Bolt. Bowl. Bowl. Bracelet. Capitals. Chisels. Circles, Cylinder. Dish. Disk. Disk. Door-sockets. Fragments. Fragments, Handle.

Horse’s head.

Implements. Jar, Knob.

Ashtoreth.

Box.

Bread votive- offering.

Cylindrical.

Deity. Deity.

Dog. Duck’s head.

Goose’s head.

Faience.

‘Glass. Steatite. Bronze. Crystal. Faience. Glass.

Steatite (?).

Stone.

Glass. Bronze. Breccia,

' Faience.

Bronze. Limestone. Bronze. Ivory. Shell. Basalt. Clay. Pottery. Basalt. Bone. Bronze. Ivory. Pottery. Flint, Alabaster. Iron.

LIST OF CULT OBJECTS—EARLY-SETI I TEMPLE, ETC.

Pottery. Pottery.

Pottery. Bronze and gold. Bronze, Ivory. Pottery.

Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, etc., in the Palestine Archaeological Museum, 1936, page xxx, footnote 1). I no longer hold with the identification given in To- pography and History of Beth-shan, page 26, footnote

33:

LIST OF OBJECTS—EARLY-SETI I TEMPLE, ETC.

xxx, 9, 10, 14, 16, 25; xxxiv, 71, 72.

xxx, 1.

Xxx, 6,

MXM. 4p; OO LD,

xxx, 78.

xxx, 67, 68.

xxx, 53, 6].

xxx, 69.

xxx, 73.

xxxvil, 10. xxx1, 22.

LUA, 6.

xx1, 31.

xxx, 21.

xxvi, 20; Lua, 4. xxx, 19, 20. EKG, 13: xxxvut, 11. xx, 21.

XXVI, 3.

XXxvI, 4.

xxi, 9, 14. xxx, 67, 69. xxx, 27, 30, 62. xxx, 9.

xx, 14; tia, 3. xxvit, 1, 9, xx, 2; Lima, 1. xXxxI, 42.

xxxv, 17. xxi, 13; via, 2.

LIMA, 7.

KIVie2 NVI RV INE XIXS D410) LO: tetany Ie, xxxv, 27.

xxxv, 10; Lia, 6. Li, 5. LIIA, 2. XxI, 12;

Mortars.

Mould for jewelry.

Nail. Nails, Ornament. Ornament. Ornament. Pawn (?). Pendant. Pendants. Pendant (or inlay ?). Pendant.

Plaque fragment.

Polisher.

Ring.

Rods. Scaraboid.

Seal (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Shaft. Spear-heads. Spoon-bowl. Statuette.

Stela (defaced).

Stopper, Stopper.

Stopper. Trays.

Weights. Weight.

Hippopotamus. Horus (hawk). Incense cup. Incense stand. Kernoi,

Leg votive- offering. Serpent,

Shrine house. Vase (lion

and bull).

[ 20 |

Basalt.

Serpentine.

Bronze. Tron. Bronze. Faience. Gold. Glass. Carnelian. Faience.

Glass. Gold. Ivory. Basalt. Bronze. Bronze.

Gold.

Limestone.

Stone. Basalt. Bronze. Bronze. Bronze. Basalt. Alabaster. Mud. Wood. Pottery. Basalt. Stone.

Pottery. Limestone. Bronze, Pottery. Pottery.

Pottery. Pottery. Pottery.

Pottery.

XIII Os

Lita, 8.

xxx1, 35.

xxx1, 32, 39, 40.

XXK, Ol:

xxx, 50,

xxx, 54,

xxxIv, 34.

xxxut, 81,

xxi, 34, 42; xxxiv, 70.

xxx, 46,

xxx, 41,

xxx, 4.

xxi, 22.

xxx, 34.

XxXxI 26; 27, xxxvi, 13.

XXXVI, 9,

xxxviu, 8.

xxv, 28,

Senn, 10s socki, 12. eed Alle

redty ll hs

xxvii, 17,

xxv, 24,

XXIV, 9,

xxx, 24.

xxu, 5, 12.

xxv, als lesexxvil, 1: xxv, 10.

xxi, 13; Lima, 4.

xxxv, 8; ra, 4.

reais 5

xix, 7,

KUM Mex 22 eA aos LIPTAY Se

Lia, 6,

Mi, LALA, 52

xvi, 1.

See List of Cult Objects Ram, IH. S. T.

Bangle. Door-sockets. Earring. Horn. Implement. Ingots. Loom-weight.

Gold. Basalt.

Gold.

Horn. Bronze.

Silver, etc.

Alabaster.

Crapter II] — Tempe or Seti I

LIST OF OBJECTS—LATE-SETI I LEVEL pa a a nS

xxxiv, 17; rxvia, 1, 3. xxut, 13; xxvu, 11. xxxiv, 11,

) xxx, 50.

xxxu, 22. Lxvita, 1. xxv, 4.

Loom-weight. Ornament, Playing-piece. Seal (cylinder). Seal.

Wire,

[ 21 J

Stone. Steatite. Alabaster. Porphyry. Steatite. Gold and silver.

| xxv, 7.

xxxiv, 21; uxvita, 3. xxvir, 12. XxXxvit, 7.

XXXVI, 6.

xxxiv, 10.

CHAPTER IV

SOUTHERN TEMPLE OF RAMESES III

HEN WE wrote our text for page 30 of

The Topography and History of Beth-

shan, there was every reason to sup-

pose that the southern temple in Number V city- level, in common with the northern temple and all the other buildings in the level, was erected by Rame- ses II in the ninth year of his reign, about 1283 B.c. Actually, there are two objects bearing the name of the king which were found in this city-level previous to 1931. One of them, discovered in 1923, is the large stela dated “year IX”, which was set up a little dis- tance to the west of the entrance of the corridor be- tween the southern and northern temples (see PLATE 46 of our history volume). The other is the serpentine cylinder seal showing the figures of Rameses II, the god Seth (not Resheph), Canaanite captives, and so forth, and discovered in 1925, in room 1021, in the north end of the southern temple [Plate xxxvm, 3]. The local commandant at the time the fort was built in the level was probably Rameses-wesr-khepesh, an overseer of soldiers, commander of bowmen of Pharaoh, royal scribe, and great steward, the son of Thothmes, a fan-bearer at the right hand of the king, a chief of the bowmen, and overseer of foreign coun- tries; and as the recently discovered slab bearing the name of the commandant (unearthed in 1931) has also the cartouche of Rameses III, it is now obvious that Number V city-level dates from the reign of this monarch and not from the reign of Rameses II. Both temples were perhaps in use from the time of Ra- meses III until the end of the domination of the Philistines, who were apparently driven out from Beth-shan about 1000 .c. by King David. The latter part of this period, namely, the very end of the reign of Rameses III and the Philistine era, is represented

by the earliest reconstructions and remains in Number’

IV city-level, a level which ran on to the Old Persian period, ending in 302 B.c.

The southern temple consists of an oblong build- ing, divided into three main divisions: (1) A long hall with two low walls and six columns in it, having two entrances at the west end [pLate x]. The “main entrance”, as it is called on our plan, is in the outer west wall of the temple, and the room from which it led (1013) was perhaps originally reserved for the temple guardians or priests [PpLaTE 11]. The “side en- trance” leads from the eastern end of the corridor be- tween the two temples, and is in exactly the same po- sition as the only entrance to the northern temple [PLATE x1]; it was undoubtedly the original general entrance. In Late Ramesside times** the side door was blocked up. The altar, which must have once ex- isted at the east end of the hall, was destroyed by the builders of a Hellenistic reservoir. (2) A series of store-rooms to the north of the temple; two of these rooms were reconstructed in Late Ramesside times. (3) A series of store-rooms to the south of the temple. There are also some small rooms immediately to the east of the temple, which do not, however, appear to have formed any part of the sacred building itself.

The foreign influences associated with the cult ob- jects and so on, chiefly introduced by the Mediter- ranean mercenaries of Rameses III, have been men- tioned on page 33 of our history volume; they con- tinued to exist in the temples until the time of the Philistines.

The figures of deities depicted on objects in the southern temple are the god Seth [pLate xxxv, 4]; a bearded god (Resheph ?) wearing a conical cap [PLATE Xxxv, 9]; and a goddess, evidently Ashtoreth, represented twice on a shrine-house and also by pot- tery statuettes [PLATE xxxv, 1 and 2; and elsewhere]. As mentioned on page 32 of the history volume our

33 7, ¢,, in the time of city-level Number IV, the early part of which, as we have seen, includes (a) probably the very end of the reign of Rameses III, and (b) the Philistine era.

Teal

evidence indicates that a god was worshipped in the temple. He was probably Resheph (or Reseph-Seth) who was doubtless but another form of the older lo- cal deity Mekal. During the occupation of the Philis- tines his place was taken by their chief god (op. cit., page 41) for it seems probable that the building is the “temple of Dagon” mentioned in I C hronicles, x,

10. The room numbers allotted to the southern temple

of Rameses III and its immediate surroundings of the

same date are:™*

1026 Temple—Hall, west end, near main entrance,

1029 Temple—Hall, central aisle, and part of hall to the

south of the same. 1028 Temple—Hall, whole of east end. 1019 Temple—Hall, north of central aisle, west of hall. 1027. Temple—Hall, north of central aisle, east of hall. 299 Temple—Southern store-room, south of 1026. 282 | 264 1010 ‘Temple—Side entrance; also northern store-room north of 1019.

1021 Temple—Northern store-room, east of 1010, and north of 1019.

1021A Temple—Northern ‘store-room, east of 1021, and north of 1027,

1022 Temple—Northern store-room, east of 1021A, and north of 1028.

1013 Ante-room, west of temple.

1012

1015 + Rooms west of 1013,

1014 300 Room south of 299,

289 Room south of 299. Upper level.

1038 Lower level of room 289. (Number not on plan.) 187 Room south of 282. Upper level.

1039 Lower level of west end of room 187. (Number not

on plan.)

1040 Lower level of east end of room 187. (Number not

on plan.) 265 Room south of 1028, Upper Level.

1041 Lower level of room 265, (Number not on plan.) 252 268 274 253

34The LATE RAMESSIDE rooms—city-level Number IV-—excavated

during the 1925 and 1926 seasons are:

, Temple—Southern store-rooms, south of 1029.

i, {Room south of 1028. )

1071 —Northern part of area immediately east of southern temple of Rameses IJI—upper level.

1109 —Southern part of same area. Upper level.

1124

1125 Rooms east of temples of Rameses IT (1124 and 1125

1126-1138$ are numbers given to the two upper levels of the late 1140-1150) Ramesside area at this part of the tell). 1152-1155,

Cuapter IV — SourHerRN TemMpie or Ramesses III

1018 Corridor between two temples of Rameses III, west end.

1020 Corridor between two temples of Rameses III, centre.

1023 Corridor between two temples of Rameses III, east end.

1009 East end of room west of corridor.

1017 West end of room west of corridor.

1016 Room west of 1017.

The positions of these rooms are indicated in PLaTEs 111 and x.

1074-1084 Rooms of Rameses IH, immediately east of south- ern temple, partly excavated in 1925 season and finally cleared in 1926 season. (Not shown on the present plans.)

1110-1117 ) Rooms of Rameses III, east of the two temples of

1151 , the king, excavated in 1926 season. (Not

1156-1166 {| shown on the present plans.)

The over-all length of the temple from west to east, that is to say from the outside of the western wall at the south of the hall, to the outside of the eastern wall of the hall, is 24.10 metres; between the last men- tioned point and the outside of the western wall at the north of the hall is a distance of 21.62 metres. The over-all width, from the outside of the south wall of the southern store-rooms, to the outside of the north wall of the northern store-rooms, is about 18.40 me- tres. All the walls of the temple are of brick, and all, with exception of the two walls inside the hall into which the column bases are set, rest upon a layer of unquarried basalt stones, 20 centimetres to 30 centi- metres in height, arranged in some cases to the width of the wall, and in other cases to a space greater than that. Slight traces of wood (having a black and burnt appearance, due to natural decay) were seen between the stones and the bricks in a few instances, but wood was not found in this temple to the extent that it was found in the northern temple. The eastern wall of the southern temple is just above the eastern wall of the temple of Seti I [ptate mt]. The latter building and its surroundings were entirely filled in with earth and débris before the new building was laid on top of it. This filling, which was practically unpro- ductive of any objects, was more or less levelled, the consequence being that the bottoms of the bases of the walls erected on it are almost on the one hori- zontal plane. The highest wall of the building is the main east wall, which is 3.47 metres from its stone base to the top of the bricks. Looking at the plan on PLATE X, it will be observed that the two walls and column bases in the great hall are not in alignment with the outer wall of the hall, which fact seems to indicate that the position of the former walls and

[ 23 ]

Tue Four CaNAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

bases was due either to bad workmanship on the part of the original builders of the temple or to a recon- struction of the temple carried out by later builders. A restoration of the temple is shown in Figure 5; the numbers given in the figure are referred to in the Description of Figures in the Text.

Temple Hall (1026, 1029, 1028, 1019, 1027). This is an oblong room containing two inner walls and six

parently in Late Ramesside times, when the northern store-rooms seem no longer to have been used as part of the temple proper. There is also another small door, 120 centimetres wide, at the east end of the hall, but this is on its south side, and communicates with the southern store-rooms, leading from 1028 into 264. The main door of the hall was originally 2.55 metres wide, but after the Late Ramesside block*®

quite probable that the eastern wall of this entrance originally extended much further to the south, in fact, to a point south of the main entrance, just as in the case of the inner western wall of the northern temple of Rameses III. The extension of the wall in this way made it impossible for anyone standing in the outer entrance to have an unauthorized view down the centre aisle of the temple towards the altar at the east end of it. But in any case, as stated above, we may assume that ingress to the temple, in the time of Rameses III, was controlled by a guardian stationed in room 1013 at the place marked “main entrance”

Cyaprer IV — SouTHERN TEMPLE OF Rameses III

great for unsupported wooden beams. Both inner walls, as well as the basalt bases, were erected directly upon the débris, and had no stone foundations be- low them. No traces of the columns were discovered.

Southern Inner Wall. This is 85 centimetres wide and 39 centimetres high, at the west; and 95 centi- metres wide and 43 centimetres high, at the east.*” The distance between the wall and the southern in- ner side of the hall, is 2.78 metres at the west end, and 2.92 metres at the east end. The western face of the column base at the west is 5 centimetres*® east of the end of the wall at this point; its eastern face is 4.55

OR &

| Arrant I ee 0

jase

Figure 6. Door-jamb Showing Figure of Rameses-wesr-khepesh, the Builder of the Temples of Rameses Ill at Beth-shan, and Giving the Name and Titles of Thothmes, His Father

Figure 5. Southern Temple of Rameses Il (1198-1167 B.C.) at Beth-shan; in Use Until About 1000 B. C. (Time of King David) Perhaps the “Temple of Dagon” of I Chronicles, x, 10 (Restored. Part Removed to Show Interior) . Looking Southeast

basalt column bases. Its eastern end, which must have originally contained an altar, has been badly smashed, first of all by the foundations of a Hellenistic reser- voir, and later by a Byzantine reserveroir which had been placed nearly over the ruins of the older reser- voir’ [pate x]. The maximum internal measure- ments of the hall are, from west to east, that is, at the south of hall, 21.77 metres, and from south to north, across the centre, 7.87 metres. (The maximum south- north internal measurements of the whole temple are 16.60 metres.) The minimum internal west-east di- mension, at the north of the hall, is 18.92 metres. There is a small door, 95 centimetres wide, at the east end of the hall on the north side, which leads from 1027 into 1021A; this door was blocked up, ap-

was added between this door and the side entrance, its minimum width was 116 centimetres. The width of the side entrance was 134 centimetres, and it seems

35 Both these reservoirs are made of basalt blocks, roughly dressed, and have an internal lining of cement about 4 centimetres thick. The over-all measurements of the Hellenistic reservoir are 8.26 x 5.22 metres, and of the Byzantine reservoir 9.30 x 5.70 metres. The inside measurements are 6.50x 3.72 metres, and 7.80 x 4.22 metres, 1e- spectively. The bottom of the base of the Hellenistic reservoir is about 179 centimetres below the base of the brick walls of the temple near it; the base itself is 42 centimetres thick, while the height of the reservoir walls, as excavated, is 2.10 metres. The base of the By- zantine reservoir rests immediately over the latter. walls, and is 61 centimetres thick. The walls of the last-mentioned reservoir are 67 centimetres high; the stones from the tops of its sides seem to have been removed by the people of early Arabic times.

36 The peculiar shape of this block is accounted for by the fact that its southeastern corner is broken away.

[ 24 ]

on PLATE x, We must now deal with the inner walls between the columns in the hall, the use of which is clearly seen in Figure 5. The columns themselves evi- dently supported a clerestory, the existence of which seems to be indicated by the staged shrine-houses. Without these columns it would have been impos- sible to have roofed in the centre of the temple, for the span between the outer walls of the hall is too

37 By the “cast” of this wall we mean the eastern end of the wall where it is broken"away near the centre column,

38 The south face of this base projects 20 centimetres beyond the south face of the wall,

39 This arbitrary datum line, which equals 107.11 metres below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, was the figure upon which ‘all the Beth-shan levels were calculated for the seasons 1921-1925. It was not until the 1926 season that we calculated the sea-level figure. See PLATE I.

metres from the other column base in the wall. The former base is 90 centimetres in diameter and 32 cen- timetres in height, while the latter base is 66 centi- metres in diameter, and 52 centimetres in height. The top of the base at the east of the existing wall is 9 centimetres below that of the base at the west. Our reduced levels (based on an arbitrary datum line of 100 metres®) for the wall and its column bases, give a good idea of the various relative heights:

West End Centre (present East End) Metres Metres Toprot twallisreee.ss ce: 95.26 95.17 Baseeotawallbmeemees 94.87 94.74 Top of column base. .... .95.06 ‘94.97 Bottom of column base.%4.74 94.45

[ 25 ]

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

As we have already.seen in Chapter III, the third col- umn base which once existed in this wall was found in the Seti temple below the Hellenistic reservoir [PLATE viii]. Its actual diameter is 78 centimetres, and its height 28 centimetres. In the plan on pLaTE x, however, the base is shown restored to the same di- ameter as that of the column to the north of it, which is accounted for by the fact that the plan was prepared before we knew the dimensions of the missing base.

Northern Inner Wall. This is 56 centimetres wide and 34 centimetres high, at the west; and 85 centi- metres wide and 43 centimetres high at its existing

ASSUR ¢ 2700 Bc

BEISAN. W292 .ne.

The relative base levels of the outer and inner walls of the hall are indicated in the sections on PLATE XI. The width of the corridor between the inner walls, at the west, is 150 centimetres and at the centre, 155 centimetres. The north-south distances between the column bases themselves are: (1) Western bases, 198 centimetres; (2) centre bases, 2.06 metres, and (3) eastern bases, 2.06 metres (?).

Among the objects found in the hall may be men- tioned the following: Room 1026: End of an iron blade; two small fragments of iron; stone weights; a scarab with a scroll design and the head of a faience

Figure 7. Ancient Models of Shrine-houses, etc. (Compare Figures 5, 9)

end at the east. The distance between the southern face of this wall and the northern side of the hall, at the west, is 2.67 metres, and at the east, 2.50 metres. Between the base at the west (which projects 66 cen- timetres to the north of the wall) and the centre base (which projects 64 centimetres), is a distance of 4.54 metres, while between the latter base and the base at the east is a distance of 4.80 metres. The base at the west is 90 centimetres in diameter and 33 centimetres in height; that in the centre is 90 centimetres in diam- eter and 27 centimetres in height; while that at the east is 85 centimetres in diameter, and 30 centimetres in height. The reduced levels (not sea-levels) for this wall and its bases are: West End Centre East End

model of an ape [PLaTE xx, 20]. 1029: A fragment of iron (from below the base of the wall); an ala- baster bottle; a four-handled basalt bowl]; a basalt dish ; fragments of a bronze bracelet; a cylindrical cult object with serpents and doves; a cylindrical cult ob- ject with geometrical patterns; fragments of cylin- drical cult objects; a fragment of a shrine-house; a foundation deposit consisting of a pot containing gold and silver ingots, and jewelry [PLATE xxrx, 32-44], from the east side of the centre column base, on the north side of the hall (weight of gold, 17 ounces, avoirdupois; weight of silver, 5 pounds, 54 ounces) ; a foundation deposit consisting of a pot con- taining silver ingots and jewelry [PLaTE xxix, 12-31], from the east side of the centre column base on the

se Bag Mone Metres south side of hall (weight of ingots, 5 pounds, 24

oO Witt ee eterna: ‘ : ; 5 .

fot eet 94.94 0461 ounces; weight of jewelry, 33g ounces); an ivory

Tops eokuiia bases, 6516 94.85 95.10 spoon; a fragment of a baking tray; a kernos; stone

Bottom of column base .94.83 94.58 94.80 weights, and so forth. 1028: North of the intrusive [ 26 |

Cuaprer [V —SouTHERN TEMPLE or Ramesses III

reservoirs—a fragment of iron; beads of carnelian, glass and faience; a bronze bracelet; two decorated cylindrical cult objects; a hand of an ivory statu- ette; a Canaanite pottery lamp with a single spout; a part of a large pottery bowl with twelve handles (other parts of the same bowl came from room 1021B); a pottery baking tray; weights, and so forth. From under the reservoirs—a fragment of a shrine- house; and the top of a cylindrical object. Among the stones in the west wall of the Hellenistic reser- voir was a limestone block, badly broken and de- cayed, with a cornice on its top. Only the tops of six lines of Egyptian hieroglyphs (reading from right to left) and the heads of three human figures (facing

flint scrapers; a scarab with figures of a hawk and a ureus; an inscribed limestone cylinder; and stone weights,

Southern Store-Rooms*’. 299: This is 5.35 metres in length, and 2.87 metres in width (internal measure- ments); its door at the east is 109 centimetres wide. What lay beyond it to the west we do not know as the building has been badly damaged at this point. No objects were found in it. 282: This is 2.85 metres in length, and 2.82 metres in width. On its floor was lying the bull’s head portion of the double-headed (bull-and-lion) vase [pLates xx, 10; xxu, 1], the other portion of which was discovered in room 1042 in the Seti temple (see last chapter). The east door is 112

Figure 8. Model of Staged Building from Egypt (After Perrot & Chipiez, Histoire de V’Art, I, p. 486)

to the left) are to be seen on it. The words visible are, line (1) sesh, “scribe”; (2) en nebt per, “of the lady of the house”; (3) en Imen, “of Amen”; (4) en ka en, “for the double of”; (5) en, “for”; and (6) en Imen, “of Amen”. These words are mostly parts of titles of persons. See PLATE xxvim1, 20; also our history volume, page 38, From the débris of the base of the Byzantine reservoir came the limestone block with the Seleucid inscription bearing the names of Euboulos, son of Epicrates, . . . sos, and Heraclides, son of Sarapion, referred to on page 45 of the above- mentioned volume. These persons were probably priests of the Hellenistic temple on the tell. 1019:

. Part of a basalt offering or incense stand; four dec-

orated cylindrical cult objects (two of them being parts only); and a portion of a baking tray. 1027: Two fragments of iron, one fragment being a metre above the floor level; a bronze arrow-head; beads;

40 These rooms, judging from their size and position, certainly appear to have been store-rooms,

centimetres wide. 264: This is 5.82 metres in length and 2.86 metres in width. The width of its eastern door is 120 centimetres.

Northern Store-Rooms. 1010: This is 4.05 metres from south to north; and from west to east, 3.70 metres at the north and 3.86 metres at the south (in- ternal measurements). In the plan on PLatE X, its en- trance has been restored. The most important objects found in the room were: Lower level — two frag- ments of blades of iron knives; flint scrapers; a jar- handle of pottery with a seal showing the figure of a man; an alabaster pot; and stone weights. Upper level—a limestone cylinder with a hatched pattern; a head of an Ashtoreth figurine; and stone weights. 1021: From south to north this room is 4.02 metres, and from west to east, 3.35 metres at the north and 3.25 metres at the south. Its eastern door has been re- stored in the plan. The most important object found in the room is a serpentine (?) cylinder seal bearing the cartouche of Rameses II. The seal shows the figure

[ 27 ]

Tue Four Canaanire TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

of Rameses II, who is wearing the battle helmet, shooting arrows at his local foes, two of whom are tied up below a Canaanite fort-standard. His name is above him in the cartouche. The standard consists of a target on a pole with three arrows piercing it. Be- hind the king is a vulture. On the other side of the standard, and facing the king, is the figure of the warrior-god Seth, who is wearing a conical crown with the head of a gazelle attached to it. In the right hand of the god is a scimitar and in his left hand the ankh-sign of “life” [pate xxxvim, 3]. A fuller de- scription of the seal (and a Jater and more correct drawing) is given on pages 252, 253.and parE xxvii of my Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, etc., in the Pal- estine Archaeological Museum, 1936. Other objects of interest from the room comprise the fragment of a pottery model of a dove; parts of cylindrical cult ob- jects and shrine-houses, some with figures of serpents and doves on them; bronze handles; flint scrapers; pottery Canaanite lamps (mostly in fragments) ; stone weights; and part of a basalt libation tank. 1021A: This room seems to have been reconstructed in Late Ramesside times, when its door at the south was blocked up. The original internal measurements from south to north were 3.98 metres, and from west to east, that is, to the east side of the door, 4.75 metres. The bases of the Late Ramesside walls in the room were laid at about the same level as that of the original walls. The following are the most important objects found in the lower level of the room: faience amulets; bronze bracelets; a great quantity of beads; pottery models of doves; fragments of rectangular cult ob- jects, some with serpents on them; a cylindrical cult object with serpents and doves; a shrine-house with serpents and figures; small pieces of gold foil; ivory handles; horns of gazelles; flint scrapers; Canaanite pottery lamps (mostly fragments); a bronze saucer; four inscribed scarabs, one bearing the cartouche of Thothmes III; a large quantity of small shells; and stone weights. A most interesting object is a bronze seated figurine of a bearded god who wears a con- ical cap and holds a spear (or sceptre) with a bi- furcated butt [pLatr xxxv, 9]. The end of the butt is similar in shape to that of a bronze spear- butt belonging to one of the Mediterranean mer- cenaries buried in an anthropoid sarcophagus in the local northern cemetery; see also The Museum Journal, June, 1928, pages 162, 163. From the upper level of the room came some small gold earrings;

some small silver rings; and a crystal scaraboid. 1022:The original internal dimensions of this room from south to north were 3.25 metres, but what the west-east measurements were it is difficult to say, owing to the Late Ramesside reconstructions that took place in it. The brick bases of the Late Rames- side additions are on about the same level as that of the bases of the walls of Rameses III. The floor of the small door in the west wall is 23 centimetres above the floor of the reconstructed room, and 187 centimetres above that of room 1021A; the width of the door is 77 centimetres. From the appearance of both these rooms, as they existed in Late Ramesside times, it looks as if they were used as granaries, but there is no direct evidence of this. The additional walls as excavated, were the same height as that of the older walls near them. From the lower level of the room came two heart-shaped amulets of carnelian; many beads; a tiny silver box containing a scaraboid [PLATE xxx, 47]; an ivory comb; fragments of an ivory plaque; flint scrapers; a small agate cube pierced by bronze wires and having a bead attached to it (a pendant) [PLATE xxx, 46]; three scarabs, one of them bearing the name of the Hyksos king Ra-aa-kha [PLATE xxxvi, 1]; and a Mesopotamian diorite cylin- der seal, with designs. From the upper level came a bronze bracelet and a very small fragment of a By- zantine inscription [see PLaTE 31, 3, of our history volume].

Corridor West_of Temple (1010). The width of this corridor is 134 centimetres; and the length of its east wall, as excavated, is 10.22 metres. The only ob- ject that was found in it was a large part of a private Egyptian stela mentioning Amen-em-Apt, a small fragment of which came from room 1054 in the Seti level (see Chapter III). This stela was lying in the corridor (1010), just outside the western entrance of room 1018. The stela originally had an upper register which has not yet been found. It is fully described in pages 37 and 38 of our history volume.

Corridor North of Temple (1018, 1020, 1023). This corridor lies between the southern and northern temples of Rameses III, and is about 19 metres in length. 1018: This is a little room, with two niches, at the east end of the corridor; it must have formed part of a pylon gateway between the two temples in the level. (Compare Figure 9.) The eastern and west- ern doors of the room are 2.25 metres in width. The northern niche is 2.12 metres in width and 62 centi-

[ 28 ]

Cuaprer [VY — SouTHERN TEMPLE or Rameses III

metres in depth; the southern one is 2.05 metres in width and 118 centimetres in depth. It looks very much as if royal stele originally stood in these niches. The chief objects found in the room are as follows: Lower level—two uninscribed pottery tablets [PLATE xx, 24]; flint scrapers; basalt mortars; and a frag- ment of a shrine-house with the figure of a lion (the other and greater part of this shrine-house, with fig- ures of a goddess and her two lovers, came from room 1024, that is, inside the northern temple). [Compare pLaTE xvii, 2.]| Upper level of room—a fragment of an iron bangle; a small clay model of a single-spouted pottery Canaanite lamp and stone loom-weights. 1020: This is 4.85 metres in width at its western end. The chief objects from the lower level of this room were a four-handled basalt bowl; flint scrapers; and loom-weights. From the upper level came a faience amulet of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet; a frag- ment of the’stela of Seti I found in 1921 in Number II city-level [see pLate 45, 1, of our history volume]; and a rectangular limestone libation tank. 1023: In the eastern end of this room are two Late Ramesside walls the bases of which are a little above the floor of the Rameses III walls. Very few objects were found in the room, and apart from a pottery single-spouted Canaanite lamp and a fragment of a snake from a cult object, nothing is worthy of special mention. The corridor is 4.20 metres wide at the east of this room.

Rooms East of Corridor Between Temples. 1009: xxv, 19, 21), came from this room. A statue of Ra- meses III was found here in 1923. See pLate 51 of our

41 See list of room numbers at the commencement of this chapter for an explanation of the double numbers.

history volume. 1017: A small clay tablet bearing a sign something like the Egyptian men-sign (com- pare Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, page 518, Y5), but evidently not Egyptian itself, and hav- ing its face broken away immediately above the sign, was the most important object discovered in this room [PLATE xx, 26]. 1016: Contained: nothing of special interest except the two important basalt stele of Ra- meses II and Seti I discovered in 1923 [piare mm], the tops of the bases of which are 64 centimetres below the top of the later reconstructed floor of the northern temple.

Rooms West of Temple. 1013: A rectangular limestone libation tank was found here. 1012: From the upper débris—a brick with a cross (+) made on it while wet. On the top of the north wall was lying the missing fragment of the stela of Seti I found in 1923 to the west of room 1017. The fragment mentions the country of Kharu, which seems to be part of Pales- tine. See pLaTE 47, 3, of our history volume. Near the floor was a fragment of an iron (blade ?). 1015: A limestone libation tank similar to that found in 1013. 1014: A single-spouted Canaanite lamp of pottery.

Rooms South of Temple. With the exception of some loom-weights from rooms 1040 (=187)* and 1041 (=265), nothing much of interest came from any of the rooms south of the temple; the numbers of the other rooms at this place are 300, 1038 (=289), 1039 (=187), 252, 268, 274, and 253.

We are not here specially concerned with the re- maining rooms of Rameses III mentioned in the list at the commencement of this chapter (that is, 1074- 1084, and 1110-1117, 1151, 1156-1166) for they lie out- side the temple proper.

LIST OF OBJECTS — RAMESES III SOUTHERN TEMPLE, ETC.

Amulets. Faience. | xxxim, 18, 19; xxx1v, 74. Bead, Silver. | xxix, 21.

Arm (?). Pottery. xxvi, 10. Beads. Stone, etc. | xxxim, 75, 80. Arrow-head. Bronze. Xxx, 1. Blade. Iron. mxxD., 1D) Attachment, Bowl. | Basalt. xxut, 2, cup-shaped. Ivory. xxx, 16. Box-amulet. Silver. xxx, 47; txvia, 4. Attachment, Bracelets. Bronze. 58.8.) VIR IBY MOBY bell-shaped. Ivory. xxx, 19, Bracelets. Silver. xxix, 37, 41.

Bar fragment. Silver, xxix, 16. Bricks. Mud, xxvi, 14; xxvu, 14. Beads. Carnelian. | xxxitr, 77. Button. Pottery, | xxvi, 7.

Beads, Crystal, etc.) xxxum, 72. Cluster. Silver. XxIx, 34,

Beads. Frit, etc, | xxxm, 51. Comb. Ivory. xxx, 3.

Beads. Glass. i xxx, 52, 54, 82. Cornices, Basalt. xxvii, LOM Lxvanese Beads. Gold, etc. | xxx, 47-50. Dishes. Basalt, sx, 1175 23: Beads. Shell, etc. | xxxt, 57. Disks. Silver. xxIx, 13-15.

[ 29 ]

Disks.

Door-socket.

Earrings.

Earring.

Earrings.

Fibulz.

Foil.

Fragment.

Fragments (cylin- drical).

Hand of statue.

Handle (?).

Handle,

Horn.

Implements.

Ingots.

Jug.

Knives. Kohil-sticks (?). Loom-weights, Mortars. Nails.

Nails.

Object.

Object. Ornament. Ornaments,

Pendant. Pendants. Pendant. Pendant. Plaque. Plaque.

Altar, Ape’s head. Ashtoreth.

Birds. Box-shaped.

Cylindrical.

Deity. Deity.

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Pottery. Basalt, Gold. Ivory. Silver. Bronze. Silver.

‘Bronze.

Gold. Ivory. Bronze. Ivory. Horn. Flint.

Gold.

Silver, Pottery. Iron. Bronze. Alabaster. Basalt. Bronze. Tron. Tron. Ivory. Pottery. Agate, Shell.

Bronze. Carnelian. Faience. Ivory. Ivory. Limestone.

LIST OF CULT OBJECTS—RAMESES III SOUTHERN TEMPLE, ETC.

Basalt. Faience, Pottery.

Pottery, Pottery,

Pottery,

Bronze. Limestone.

) xxu, 10,

| xxix, 36, 38, 39, 42-44;

i xxxv, 9; yxva, 2.

XXVIp Ly 2s

KKK dl, 50s xxix, 1. xxix, 22-24, xxx, 55, 56. xxix, 35, xxx, 31.

RK S255:

xxx, 6.

XxxI, 21.

Xxx, 7.

XXKIN OD:

xxvun, 2-4, 6, 7,10) 14, leh Jib).

LXVIA, 2. xxix, 27-31; cxvia, 3. xxix, 40; rxvia, 1, 2, xxx1, 14, 17. xxx, 47. KRVAZ, > xxi, 1, 4, 8, 11. 0-04) oy oa xxx, 37. XK: Ol. xxx, 10. xxvi, 12. xxx, 46; Lxvia, 4. xxx, 45, 52; xxx1, 57, 59, 61. SOKA Ye xxx, 77, 85, 86. xxx, 38. xxx, 20. SSS Py xxxtv, 73,

LXIIA, 4.

xx, 20.

xxi, 17; xxxv, 19; LXIVA, 2.

xx, 6-9; Lxiva, 1.

RIV, 4,5; XVI, 0; XVII, 3, 4; tvua, 4,

xivy 15, 3;nxv, 1-93)xvi, 2- 4, 6; xvi, 5-9; xvi, 5- 8, 10, 12-16; tv, 4;

tvua, 3, 4; tv, 1-3; Lixa, 1-4; txa, 1, 2;

LxiA, 1-4; cxia, 1-4.

xia, 1-3.

Polisher. Polishers. Pot. Quern. Rings. Rubbers.

Scarab.

Scarabs. Scaraboid. Scaraboid. Scaraboid,

Seals (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Seal (cylinder). Seal impression. Sheet.

Shells.

Spatula, Spindle-whorl. Spindle-whorl. Spoon. Statuette.

Stela or block. Tile ( ?) fragment. Trays.

Vases.

Weapon (frag.) Weights. Weight. Weight. Weights. Whistle.

Wire fragments.

Deities.

Deities (figurines). Deity (figurine). Dogs.

Dove’s head, Duck’s head. Kernos.

Leg of male deity (?) Libation tank. Libation tank. Seth.

Shrine-houses.

Vase (lion and bull).

[ 30 ]

Pebble. Stone. Pottery. Basalt. Silver. Pumice stone, Crystal. Ivory. Steatite. Agate. Glass. Steatite. Alabaster. Diorite. Faience. Limestone. Serpentine. Stone. Clay. Silver. Shell. Ivory. Alabaster. Limestone. Ivory. Pottery. Limestone.

Pottery. Pottery, Alabaster. Iron, Basalt.

| Bronze.

| Marble.

Stone. Bone. Silver.

Pottery. Pottery. Faience. Lead. Pottery. Pottery. Pottery. Pottery. Basalt. Limestone. From seal, Pottery,

Pottery.

LIST OF OBJECTS—RAMESES III SOUTHERN TEMPLE, ETC., Concluded

xxi, 20.

xxut, 24-26.

RKIK, 173 EXVIA, 3. xxiv, 10. - xxaeorp, 225:

lexRItT dy, ll, 25:

XXXVI, 8. XXxvi, 9. xxxvi, 1-5, 10, 11. EXXVI5, 7s XXXVI, 6,

ove Le

xxxviir, I, 2. XXxviul, 4. XL, 215 xxxvil, 5. XXxvil, 3, xxxix, 16. xxxix, 14. XxIx, 26. 593. DNA dole xxxr, 19, Sevaele Save xxx1, 45. xx, 16, xxvii, 20 (intrusive). xxv1, 18, xxu, 4, 6-11. xxiv, 11, 12. xxxel6, xxv, 14, 20. xxx, 43, xxv, 9.

Rave al seb, 195 Xxx, 26. xxix, 18-20,

xxxv, 24, 28.

peeaye Ie

Xxx, 8.

LXIIIA, 5,

xx 2s

yore dul

Oe, PAN We

Xvi, 9.

xxi, 24.

xxu, 18, 19,

Xxxv, 4.

xvi, 1, 2; xvi, 2-4; Lvia, 1-3; tv, 1, 2. xx, lOxxan, 2; Exay 4 (lion part from E.S.1)

CHAPTER V

NORTHERN TEMPLE OF RAMESES III

HE NORTHERN temple of Rameses III, as we

have already seen in Chapter IV, probably

continued to be used as a sacred building until at least the end of the domination of the Phil- istines, who were apparently expelled from the city about 1000 8.c. by King David. During the whole of this time the temple cults were of course subject to the same foreign influences as those of the south- ern temple. Some time after it was built, and perhaps subsequent to the Philistine era, reconstructions and alterations were carried out in the northern temple, for its columns were removed and a hard clay floor placed in it at such a height as to cover the basalt bases of the columns.

The figures of local deities found on objects in this temple are Antit, the warrior-goddess dressed as Ash- toreth | PLATE xxxv, 3]; and a goddess, evidently Ash- toreth, represented on a shrine-house*” [PLATE Xxxv, 1], and also by a pottery figurine [PLATE xxxv, 26]. Our evidence indicates that Antit-Ashtoreth was the chief deity worshipped in the temple during the Egyptian occupation. Under the time of the Phil- istines a form of Ashtoreth was still revered in it, for the building seems to be the “house of Ashta- roth” of I Samuel, xxxi, 10. From the fact that the armour of Saul was placed in her temple, we may as- sume that Ashtoreth was, at this time as in the past, in the form of Antit, mainly regarded in Beth-shan as a war goddess.

The room numbers allotted to the northern temple

42 The male figures represented on the shrine-house are perhaps the divine lovers of the goddess [pLare xvi, 2].

43 The Assyrians, who were essentially a warrior-nation, naturally dwelt upon the martial aspect of the goddess (whom they called Ishtar) al- most to the exclusion of her milder side as a mother-goddess, and accorded her a position next to Ashur, their national god. Hastings, op. cit., page 58.

of Rameses III and its immediate surroundings of the same date are:

1024 Temple—interior.

1064 Room west of temple. 1063 Room west of 1064.

1066 Room northwest of 1063. 1067 Room northeast of 1063.

1001-1008 | Rooms northwest of temple, cleared in 1925, 1011 J

The positions of all these rooms are shown on PLaTEs

i and xt.

The temple, as it existed in the time of Rameses III, consisted of an oblong building with four columns in its interior; its only entrance, which was on the west side, was placed in a position similar to the side en- trance of the southern temple of Rameses HI [com- pare pLates x and xm]. When the reconstructions took place the columns were removed from their bases and a hard clay floor laid over the latter. The whole of the temple was originally roofed in, natural light evi- dently being provided by means of clerestories. [See Figure 9.] The probable use of the niche in the out- side of the south wall as receptacle for a stela has al- ready been referred to in the preceding chapter.

The maximum over-all length of the temple from west to east, that is to say from the outside of the outer western wall to the outside of the eastern wall, is about 19.50 metres; while the over-all width, be- tween the outsides of the southern and northern walls, is about 11.22 metres. The maximum internal dimen- sions from west to east are 16.14 metres, and from south to north 8:24 metres. The minimum over-all lengths, that is, between the Jonger western wall and the eastern wall are, outside, 15.45 metres, and in- side, 12.50 metres.

The following comparisons between the dimen- sions of the southern and northern temples of Ra- meses III are of interest:

[ 31 ]

THe Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Proportions of Northern Temple to Southern Northern Southern Temple. Temple. Temple.

metres, metres, (approx.)

Maximum external West-East

lenothie oe eee 24.10 19.50 4/5 Minimum external West-East

len othien. espe eet 21.62 15.45 5/7 Maximum external South-North

WGN ane eennaooos sae 18.40 11.22 3/5 Maximum internal. West-East

lengthtenreer er er 217 16.14 3/4 Minimum internal West-East

[erty there ee 18.92 12.50 23 Maximum internal South-North

Wigleldit Oe a anne Open on anos 16.60 8.24 2

Thus it will be seen that the length of the northern temple is four-fifths of the length, and its width, one- half of the width, of the southern temple. The north- ern temple is more substantially built than the other Canaanite temples on the tell, for the average thick- ness of its walls is 150 centimetres as against the small- er thicknesses of the walls of the other buildings (compare Chapter I).

All the walls of the temple are of brick and all, with the exception of the eastern wall which is built upon débris, rest upon layers of unquarried basalt stones, 60 centimetres to 80 centimetres in height, ar- ranged to about the width of the walls. Traces of wood are visible between the stones and the bricks, and in one or two instances small fragments of wood are even seen in the wall itself, embedded between the bricks. The outside of the eastern end of the southern wall was partly removed by the builders of the Late Ramesside wall in room 1023 [pate m1]. The highest extant wall of the building is the inner west wall, the top of which is 2.0 metres above the stone founda- tions.

The relative heights of all the basalt column bases (with the exception of the overturned base) and walls of the temple are shown clearly in PLATE xm and need not be given here. The bases rest upon founda- tions, almost rectangular, made with large roughly- squared blocks of basalt, of a maximum height of 42 centimetres. The dimensions of the bases are: north- west base, diameter 77 centimetres, height 47 centi- metres; northeast base, diameter 61 centimetres, height 38 centimetres; southwest base, diameter 92 centimetres, height 68 centimetres; and southeast base, diameter 92 centimetres, height 38 centimetres. The northeast base is 2.15 metres from the north wall,

3.91 metres from the east wall, and 2.52 metres from the southeast base. The southeast base is 3.72 metres from the east wall, 2.02 metres from the south wall, and 3.36 metres from the southwest base. The south- west base is 3.56 metres from the west wall and 2.12 metres from the south wall. The northwest base was overturned when the reservoir was made, so we have no means of fixing exactly the measurements of its original position.

The clay floor, which is 8 centimetres to 10 centi- metres thick, is laid about 10 centimetres above the column bases at the east of the temple and about 5 centimetres above the base at the southwest of the building [compare PLATE xm].

As will be seen from piate m1, the northwestern corner of the temple was broken by the Byzantine reservoir (made of stones and lined with cement, 4 centimetres thick) which was let into this part of the

-building. The over-all external measurements of the

reservoir are 7.89 metres from west to east and 4.17 metres from south to north; the internal measure- ments are 6.10 metres and 2.62 metres, respectively. The base of the reservoir is 21 centimetres thick; the bottom of the base is 5 centimetres below the base of the north brick wall of the temple and 24 centimetres above that of the west brick wall. The tops of the walls of the reservoir, as excavated, were 42 centimetres above its floor; most of the stones of the structure were removed in early Arabic times.

The width of the inner door of the temple is 102 centimetres and that of the outer door 2.20 metres. A restoration of the temple is shown in Figure 9; the numbers given in the figure are referred to in the De- scriptions of Figures in the Text.

Among the objects found in the temple (room 1024) may be mentioned the following:

From Under the Plaster Floor. Fragments of a cylindrical cult object with serpents and doves [PLATE xvi, 1]; part of a shrine-house [pLate xvm, 2], the other part of which was found in the corridor south of the temple (1018); a part of a box-shaped cult ob- ject with serpent on it;** a pottery fragment, possibly from a cult object, showing a lion’s claw with the head of a snake resting on it [PLATE xx, 5]; a torso of a pot- tery figurine representing a goddess holding a jar*

44 From below the foundations of the southwest column base. See PLATE xix, 8.

45 Compare Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, II, PLATE ccxx1, 2, where is shown the figure of a goddess holding a plate (?).

[ 32 ]

Cuarter V — NortHeRN TEMPLE OF Ramesses III

| PLATE XXXV, 26]; a horn of a gazelle; a flint scraper; fragments of pottery Canaanite lamps; stone weights; a gold bead and gold foil; a limestone libation tank; and a steatite scarab with geometrical pattern.

From the South Wall. Bricks bearing signs | PLATE xxvu, 16, 17].

From Below the Floor of the Byzantine Reservoir. Three important basalt objects were found here. (1)

age (head and feet missing), who is holding a staff in each hand [prate xxvi1, 18]. Compare the some- what similar statue of Kha-em-Wast, son of Rameses II, in the British Museum,** and also one of Meren- ptah in the Cairo Museum.*’ (2) A fragment con- taining two or three signs from two of the lines of text on a large royal Egyptian stela. The text reads from right to left. The fragment perhaps belongs to a

Figure 9. Northern Temple of Rameses Ill at Beth-shan; in Use Until About 1000 B.C. (Time of King David). Perhaps “The House of Ashtorath” of I Samuel, xxxi, 10. In Right Back- ground is Part of the Temple Shown in Figure 5. Note the Statue of Rameses III Near the Pylon Gateway (Restored. Part Removed to Show Interior)

Looking Southeast

Part of a statue representing a royal Egyptian person-

46 Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum, page 246.

47 Maspero, Art in Egypt, (Ars Una), page 156, Figure 294.

48 This is what the name appears to be, but the signs comprising it are badly weathered.

49 Compare Jeremiah, xliv, 19, “And when we burn incense to the queen of heaven,” etc.

50 Antit is elsewhere invariably represented as seated on a throne, and holding a battle-axe in one hand and a spear and shield in the other. Compare Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum, PLATE XL (opposite page 249), and W. Max Miiller, Egyptian Myth- ology, page 157, Figure 165. The usual form of Ashtoreth (Astarte) is shown in Miller, op. cit., page 156, Figure 161; here she is dressed exactly in the same way as Antit is dressed on the Beth-shan stela.

51 This is the usual conical crown (resembling the white crown of Upper Egypt) of Syrian deities, to which are attached Egyptian emblems in the shape of plumes. Compare Max Miller, op. cit., pages 155 and 411, note 6.

stela erected either by Thothmes III or Amenophis II—see end of Preface [PLaTE xxviu, 21]. (3) Upper part of a private Egyptian stela dedicated by a man apparently named Hesi-nekht* (?), or perhaps, “The singer (?), Nekht”. The stela is about 44 centimetres high, 39 centimetres wide, and 13 centimetres thick, and has vignettes, and so on, enclosed in an outer grooved line, which is arranged so as to form a vault at the top of the monument. On the left-hand side is the figure of the warrior goddess Antit, “the queen of heaven,” the mistress of all the gods”. She is dressed as Ashtoreth, with whom she is therefore to be identified.*° She wears on her head a plumed crown,” holds in her left hand the was-sceptre,

[ 33 J

THe Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

and in her right hand the ankh-symbol of life. Opposite to her stands the figure of the dedicator, with hands raised in adoration to the goddess. Be- tween the two figures is an offering-stand with a li- bation pot and a lotus on it. On the top of the stela are five lines of hieroglyphic text, three of which (those on the right) read from left to right, the re- maining two reading in the opposite direction. The three lines commence with the usual formula hetep- di-nesw,” and read: “An-offering-which-the-king- gives to Antit, that she may give all life, prosperity and health to the double [of] Hesi-nekht ? (or, the singer Nekht ?)”. The remaining lines read: “Antit, the queen of heaven, the mistress of all the gods.” [See pLaTE ixva, 1.] In the story of the voyage Wen-Amen, of the eleventh century B.c., we meet with an Egyptian female singer. Wen-Amen says the prince of Byblos, in Syria, “brought unto me. . an Egyptian singer that was with him, saying unto her: ‘Sing unto him; let not his heart harbour cares’ ”. (Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, English edition, pages xxix, 184.)

Rooms West of Temple. 1064: This has a hard clay floor in it, about 10 centimetres thick, the top of which is about 95 centimetres below that of the re- constructed floor in the northern temple. Below the

floor we found several bricks bearing signs impressed on them while still plastic [pLate xxv1, 15-17]. 1063: In this room are two basalt stele bases” the tops of which are 41 centimetres below the top of the stele bases of Seti I and Rameses II in room 1016, to the south, and 105 centimetres below the top of the recon- structed floor in the northern temple. The stelz that once stood on the bases were removed by the builders of the large Hellenistic reservoir to the east of them [PLATE 11]. Near the bases we found a fragment of a rectangular cult object with a serpent on it; a pot- tery figurine of Ashtoreth holding a child [priate xxxv, 20]; a basalt door socket; and stone weights.

We are not here specially concerned with the re- maining rooms of Rameses III mentioned in the list at the commencement of this chapter, namely, 1066, 1067, 28, 1001-1008, and 1011.

At the end of the following list of objects from the northern temple of Rameses III, is given a list of ob- jects from the Late Ramesside level.

52. On this formula see Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, pages 170-172.

53 The southern base is 117 centimetres long, 67 centimetres wide, and 32 centimetres high; the northern base is 115 centimetres long, 52 centimetres wide and 52 centimetres high.

LIST OF OBJECTS — RAMESES IIT NORTHERN TEMPLE, ERGs

Bricks. Clay. xxvi, 15-17; xxvu, 16, 17; uxva, 4. Disk. Basalt. xxvI, 5. Door-socket. Basalt. xxi, 15, Fragment, Bone. xxxI, 68, Fragment. Mud. xxv, 13. Handle. Bone. Xxx1, 46. Handle (loop). Iron, XXxI, 28. Horn. Horn. xxx, 54, Implement. Flint. xxvii, 14. Loom-weights. Alabaster. | xxv, 1, 3, 6, 8. Object. Iron. xxxt, 43. Pendants. Steatite. xxx, 4, 5,

Pin, Tron. xxx1, 29,

Polishers, Pebble. | xxi, 16, 28. Polishers, Stone. xxi, 18, 19, 27. Ring. Pottery. xxv, 8. (intrusive). Scaraboid. Steatite. XXXIX, 7.

Shells. Shell. xxxt, 58, 60. Spindle-whorl. Limestone, | xxv, 22. Spindle-whorl. Steatite. XXvI, 6 (intrusive), Statue of king or

prince. Basalt. xxv, 18.

Stela fragment. Basalt. xxv, 21,

Tablets. Pottery. xx, 24, 26.

LIST OF CULT OBJECTS—RAMESES III NORTHERN TEMPLE, ETC.

Antit. Drawing Cylindrical. | Pottery, xvi, 1, 9 (intrusive). (basalt), | xxxv, 3; rxva, 1. Fragment. Pottery. xx, 5. Ashtoreth. Pottery. xxxv, 18 (intrusive), Libation tank. Limestone. | xxiv, 13, 20, 26; uxiva, 2. Shrine-house. Pottery. xvu, 2. Box-shaped. Pottery. xix, 8, 9; xx, 1 (intru- sive), 2. [ 34 ]

Bead. Bricks. Capital. Dog. Face-mask. Fibula. Implement. Lamp. Ornament,

CuapTer V — NorrHern TEMPLE OF Rameses III

LIST OF OBJECTS — LATE RAMESSIDE LEVEL.

Glass. xxx, 56, Scaraboids. Glass. Clay. xxvar, 13; 15: Scaraboid. Faience. Limestone. | xxiv, 14: Seal (cylinder). Alabaster. Bronze. Lx, 6, Seal (cylinder). Onyx. Pottery. xxi, 18; txiva, 3, 4. Seal. Pottery, Bronze. xxxiv, 8, 9, Shell. Shell. Flint. xxv, 5, Tablet. Pottery.

| Iron, XXXL, 29. Weight (?). Pottery. Bronze. REX, OOo:

[ 35 ]

axxxix, 8, 9. xxxix, 10. xxxix, 19,

RL 226

xxxux, 1/8;

xxx, 63. KK.

XXvVI, 9.

CHAPTER VI

TEE CULT OBJECTS

HE First part of this chapter is chiefly con-

cerned with the five main classes of pottery

cult objects discovered on the tell at Beth- shan during the 1925 and 1926 seasons only, namely (1) Cylindrical stands, (2) Shrine-houses, (3) Sacred “boxes”, (4) Plaques with serpents, and (5) Kernoi, or hollow rings with small vases and other objects attached to them. Classes (1), (2), and (3) have open bases and tops, the only exception in this re- spect being the cylinder with the pig’s head which has a closed top [PLATE xrx, 2] found in the Amen- ophis temple. Class (1) has a bell-shaped base, and (with the exception of the pig’s head cylinder) a ring-shaped top, while the top of class (2) also ap- pears to have been ring-shaped. The second part of the chapter gives details of similar cult objects found elsewhere, and is the only list of its kind in existence.

To give the reader an idea of the classes of cult objects found in each temple during the 1925 and 1926 seasons, complete lists of them, grouped accord- ing to periods, are now presented. Where an object has figures of deities, animals, serpents or birds on it, this is specially indicated. The full accounts of the objects will be found in the Descriptions of Plates. The following abbreviations are used: Hell. Res. (for Hellenistic Reservoir); L. Ram. (Late Ramesside) ; Ram. III (Rameses III); Ram. III N. T. (Rameses III Northern Temple); Ram. III S. T. (Rameses III Southern Temple); L.S. I. (Late Seti I)3,£. S. I. (Early Seti I); Amen. III (Amenophis III); P. Amen. III (Pre-Amenophis III); and Thoth. II (Thothmes III). The other abbreviations are obvious. The numbers in parentheses in the lists are those of the rooms in which the objects were discovered.

Cutt Osyects. — Pre-AMENoPHISs III Leven

The only cult object of any of the above classes that was found here comprises a plaque (broken) with a

serpent in low relief coiled round the upper part of it. This is shown in PLATE xix, 1.

Cutt Osyects. — AMENopuis III Tempte, Etc.

(1) Cyrpers. (2) Surine-Hovsts. 1. Almost complete, with | pig’s head. (1086, be- low east wall). Pl. xrx,

round aperture. (1106). Pl. xrx, 4.

3. Central frag. with two round apertures, like No, 2. Reg. No. 26-9-

. Central frag. with | 103, (1062). No Plate. |

(3) Sacrep “Boxes”.

(4) Pragues witu \(5) Kerno: (Hoitow- SERPENTS. Rinc Type).

1. Coiled serpent lying] 1. Vase of Kernos. flat on oblong base; (1105). Pl. xtx, 12.

Head missing. Gl089)s Bh xx, ,.3.

Apart from the objects mentioned in the first column there were two more cylindrical objects found in this level. One of them (from room 1105, below the floor) is like the stand partly filled with charcoal found in the Early-Seti level (room 1100), and shown on PLATE XIX, 7, and so is probably an incense stand. The use of the other stand (room 1104, below floor) is un- certain; see PLATE XIx, 3. What may be part of a cylin-

CuapTrer VI— Tue Cutt Osyjects

drical (?) or a box-shaped cult’ object (?) from the Amenophis level (room 1073) is shown on PLATE xvint, 17; this has designs in relief on it.

Cult objects discovered in the Amenophis III level subsequent to the 1925-1926 seasons are: An elephant- headed cylinder [pLaTe xuiva, 1, 2]; an Ashtoreth- headed cylinder [pLaTE xiv, 1-3]; and a bull-headed cylinder [pLaTE xxvia, 1, 2].

Curr Osyects. — Set1 ] Tempre, Erc. (Earty-Sett Lever ONty).

(1) Cyinpers.

1. Complete except top. 2 | 1. Stage frag. with win- handles. Decorations: dows or doors. painted birds and hori- (1036). Pl. xvi, 1. zontal bands in red and black. (1021B & 1043). PI. xiv, 2.

2. Base portion, Round apertures 11 cm. above bottom, (1036). REEXVIng).

3.-Central frag. 2 oval ap- ertures one above other. Small frag. fitting on this found in room 1021, S. Temple of Ra- meses IIT. (1034). Pl. XVI, 7.

4. Base frag. (?). (1021B). Pl. xvin, 11.

. Base frag. 2 round ap- | ertures side by side.

(1100). Pl. xrx, 5.

. Central frag. (?). (1100). PI. xix, 6.

In addition to the above cylindrical objects, we found: (a) Part of what appears to be a cylindrical pottery incense-stand—it contained pieces of charcoal (room 1100), [PLATE xix, 7]; and (b) part of a cylin- drical stand, probably an incense-stand, showing traces of burning on the outside (room 1100), [PLATE

(2) Surinz-Hovszs. | (3) Sacrep

(4) Pragurs with |(5) Kernoi (Hottow-

‘ ‘B IF OXES”. SERPENTS. Rine Type).

Nil. 1. Undulating serpent; 1. Frag. vase of kernos.

on oblong base (1042). Pl. xx, 22. Head_missing.

(1100). Pl. xxs, 15.

2. Kernos; only one vase remaining (or- iginally 7 vases, etc.) Reg. No. 25-10-27. (1033). No plate.

3. Vase and frag. of ring of kernos. (1100). Pl. xix, 11.

xix, 10]. No cult objects were discovered in the Late- Seti level.

Cult objects discovered in the Early-Seti level sub- sequent to the 1925-1926 seasons are: A cylindrical cult object [pLaTE L1A, 5]; a Rernos [PLATE L1A, 3]; and a fragment of a kernos [PLATE LIA, 3].

[ 37 ]

(1) Cyxinpers.

Complete except base. 2. handles, dove on each. 4 oval apertures ar- ranged in 2 rows, with dove in each aperture. 4 serpents, their heads confronting doves.

(1021A). Pl. xiv, 1.

. Complete except rim. 2

handles with dove on each. 8 triangular aper- tures (in 2 rows) with dove in each; bases of triangles downwards. 4 serpents, their heads confronting doves in upper apertures, and their tails near lower apertures. (1029 and 1027). Pl. xiv, 3.

. Nearly complete except

base. 2 handles. Be- tween handles, traces of rectangular aperture with something in -re- lief above it, broken off. See right-hand upper portion. Below handles, triangular —_ apertures; bases of triangles down- wards (? number). Painted geometrical de- signs in red. (1019, T0217, 1029). Plexy, 1.

. Almost complete ex-

cept base. 2 handles. 4 triangular —_ apertures; bases of triangles up- wards. Painted geomet-

rical designs in red. (11029): Bloxv, 2:

. Complete. 2 handles. 2

oval apertures, Painted horizontal bands and wavy line in dark red. (1028). Pl. xv, 3.

3. Stage frag. with traces of windows, etc, (1021).

4. Frag. from figure of

5. Central frag.; pan-

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Curr Osyects. — Ramestss III SourHern Tempte, Etc.

(2) Surine-Hovses.

1. Rectangular, in 2 stages, with ring- shaped top. Upper stage, 2 doors and 2 windows. In each door, standing fig- ure of goddess hold-

ing 2 doves. Nothing in windows. Lower stage, 4 empty win- dows. Serpent is on each of 2 long sides of stage, with its

head near feet of de-|’

ity in upper stage. (1021A). Pl. xvu, 1.

2. Stage frag. with 2

windows or doors. (1028). Pl. xvin, 2.

Pl, xvi, 3.

deity on _ shrine- house (?). (1023). Pl. xvii, 9.

elled. Cult

(?). (1021). Pl. xvi, 4.

object;

(3) Sacrep “Boxes”.

with head and neck of serpent. (1021A). Pl. x1v, 4.

1. Frag.

2. Frag. with head and

part of body of ser- pent. (1021A). Pl. xiv, 5.

3. Frag. with head and

part of body of ser- pent; and dove rest- ing in oval (?) ap- erture. Head of ser- pent confronting dove. (1019).

Pl. xvz, 8.

4. Bottom corner frag.

with part of body of serpent, (1021A). Pl. xvu, 3.

5. Complete except top.

2 handles. 2 oval ap- ertures. (1021A). Pl. xvu, 4.

[ 38 ]

(4) Pragues witH

SERPENTS.

Nil.

(5) Kerno: (Hottow-

Rine Tyre).

1. Kernos with one bull’s head attach- ment and 5 vase at- tachments (one miss- ing). (1029). Pix, 2

2. Frag. of Rernos with

vase. Reg. No. 26-12-22. (1156). No plate.

. Small

(1) Cyinpers.

Frag. upper part. 2 handles. One row of apertures triangles

triangular

(bases of downwards); only 3 visible. Painted decora- tions (in red) showing 2 horned animals, sa- cred tree, etc. (1019). PL. xv, 4.

central frag. Parts of 2 apertures, shapes uncertain. Paint- ed chevron pattern in red, (1019).

Pl. xv, 5.

. Small base frag. Wavy

line in relief. (1029). Pl. xv, 6.

. 3 small frags. Painted

horizontal bands, etc., in purple. (1029). Pl. xv, 7, 8, 9.

. Complete except top.

Handles missing, 2 oval! apertures with dove in each. 2 serpents, heads confronting doves.

GUOZD SP! xvi, 2.

of side, with serpent and top of oval aper- ture. (1021),

Pl. xvi, 4.

. Nearly complete except

top. 2 handles. 2 trian- gular apertures (bases of triangles do w n- wards), with dove in each. 2 serpents, heads confronting doves.

(1080). Pl. xv, 3.

. Central frag. Has part

of aperture; shape un- certain, Painted bands in purple. (S. Temple, Rameses III). Pl. xv1, 6.

. Small top frag., com- | prising handle and part |

CuaptTer VI — THe Curr Osjects

(2) Surine-Houses.

Cutt Osyects. — Rameses III’ SourHern Tempte, Etc., Continued

(5) Kernoi (Hotiow-

yi ‘3 (4) Pragues witH (3) Sacrep “Boxes”. | Rinc Type).

| SERPENTS.

[ 39 |

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Cutt Osyects. — Rameses III SourHern Tempe, Erc., Continued

(1) ‘Cytinpers.

14. Central portion. Trian-

15;

16.

17,

18.

19;

20.

“Al

gular apertures (bases

of triangles do w n- |

wards). Horizontal rib- bing. This portion fits below frag. No. 25, which has portion of aperture in it. There- fore, this cylinder had 2 rows of apertures. (1021). Pl. xvi, 5.

Base portion. Horizon- |

tal grooves, incised. (1019). Pl. xvi, 6.

Central frag. 2 triangu- lar apertures (bases of triangles downwards), and one oval aperture only visible. Incised chevron pattern; rope pattern in relief; and incised grooves. (1019). Pl, xvu, 7.

Complete, except top. 2 handles. 2 triangular apertures (bases of tri- angles downwards). Painted horizontal bands in purple-red. (1028). Pl. xvi, 8.

Central frag. 2 handles. 2 triangular apertures (bases of triangles downwards) visible. Painted geometrical de- signs in purple. (1029). Pl. xvu, 9.

Top frag.; unusual shape. (1028).

Pl. xvi, 5.

Frag. handle and side. Apertures (?). (1019). PL. xvi, 6.

Central frags. Painted geometrical designs in purple and black.

(1029). Pl. xviu, 7, 8.

(4) Pragues wiTH

(2) Surinz-Houses. SERPENTS.

(3). Sacrep “Boxes”.

[ 40 ]

(5) Kernoi (Hotiow- Rinc Type).

25.

26.

27.

(1) CYLINDERS.

_ Neck frag. (S. Temple

Rameses IIT). Pl. xvi, 10.

Rim frag. with projec- tions (broken off). (1027). Pl. xvi, 12.

Neck frag. with pro- jections (S. Temple Ra- meses III). Pl. xvi, 13.

Shoulder frag. with top of aperture (shape of aperture doubtless tri- angular). Fits on to No. 14 above. (1021).

Pl. xvii, 14.

Neck frag. (S. Temple Rameses III). Pl. xvi, 15.

Neck frag. (S. Temple

Rameses III). Pl. xvi, 16.

Cuapter VI — Tue Curt Osyjects

(2) Surine-Housss.

(3) Sacrep “Boxes”.

(4) PraguzEs wiITH SERPENTS.

Curt Osyects, — Ramesses II] SourHern TEMpte, Etc., Concluded.

(5) Kernoi (Hottow- Rinc Tyee).

Curt Osyecrs. — Rameses III] NortHern Tempe, Etc.

(1) Cyzinpers.

(2) Surine-Houszs. |

(3) Sacrep “Boxes”.

(4) Pragues wiTH SERPENTS,

(5) Kernoi.

Nearly complete, ex- cept top. 2 handles. 2 oval apertures with dove in each. 2 serpents, heads confronting doves. (1024, under plaster floor).

Pl. xvz, 1.

. Central frag. with part

of serpent. Part of ap- erture, shape uncertain. (From débris, base cf large Hellenistic Reser- voir, W. of N. Tem- ple). Pl. xvz, 9.

1. Incomplete, 3 stages. Upper stage missing,| except for lower part of a goddess. Second stage broken. Had originally 2 doors in front, with male fig- ure in fighting atti- tude (?) in each, (These are below goddesses in first stage). Near feet of male figure on left was dove. On the only other remain- ing side of this stage is part of figure of lion. Third stage per- haps originally had 2 windows in’ each side. Figure of ser- pent coils from right- hand window on} front of this stage to-|

1. Part of side and end frag, Entirely plain. (From débris, base large Hellenistic Reservoir, W. of N. Temple). Pl. xx, 1.

2. Side frag, with head and part of body o’ serpent, Traces of 3 apertures on edges (shapes uncertain). (1063). Pl. xx, 2.

3. Side frag. with part of body of serpent. (Under fdtn. stones of S. W. col. base, 1024). Perhaps be- longs to No. 4 be- low, Pl. xrx, 8.

[ 41 ]

Nil.

Nil,

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN Cuapter VI — Tue Cutr Opjects

Cutt Osyects. — Rameses IIT NortHern TEMPLE, Etc., Concluded (1a) Main CLassIFIcaTION OF ALL THE PorTIONS: AND FRAGMENTS OF CYLINDERS FROM BETH-SHAN.

(1) Cyzinpers, | (2) Surine-Housss. | (3) Sacrep “Boxes”. (4) Pragues witn (5) Kernoi. SERPENTS. | wards male figure] 4. Corner frag., plain. | and bird on left- (Below fdtn. stones ; APERTURES VISIBLE. Apertures Nor VisiBxe. hand of second} of S. W. col. base, q —— —_- - °° °»+« °° °«-, 4 “ahi. ya - = Soe stage. (Lion part] 1024), Perhaps be- yi ~ f 2.55 Amenophis II. Round aperture. 4. Seti I. a from 1018; rest from| longs to No. 3! "q hi i 2 III. Round tures. 6. Seti I. x G below plaster floor in above. Pl. xix, 9. 3. Amenophis ound apertures eti x x - he ye 1024). Pl. xvu, 2. 4 . £2. Seti I. Round apertures. 8. Ram. III S. T. Wavy line in relief. yv |G ie 3 Seti I. 2 rows of oval apertures. 9. Ram. III S. T. Painted horizontal bands, etc. xv 4D, q, i) GK. mos, seti I. Round apertures. 15. Ram. III S. T. Horizontal grooves incised. Al oe (1) Matn CrassiFicaTIon oF ALL THE COMPLETE AND THE PARTLY COMPLETE CYLINDERS From BETH-SHAN. rx ‘ v , : Ca 7. Ram. III S. T. Apertures visible, shapes uncertain, Painted] 19. Ram. Ili S. T. Kvic ae aya 2 = a) ere pene rae ave P a | a chevron pattern. 21. Ram. III S. T. Painted geomet. design. 1M + 7 Wirn Two Hanotes. Wirnour Hanptes. ee, 11. Ram. II S. T. Oval aperture. Handle and part of serpent. < “a | = yi Ni: : ae : 22. Ram, Ill S, T. Ke YN he Wiru APERTURES. WirHout APERTURES. Wirth APERTURES. WitHout APERTURES. xn J13. Ram. III S. T. Aperture visible, shape uncertain. Painted 230 Ram, (10'S. T. AG She =Wdee _ bands, —_— 54 . . . . 5 aes (a ik Ram. III S. T. Oval apertures] 1. Seti I. Painted birds, Nil. 1. Amenophis III. Pig’s yuu i Ram, Ill S. T. Two rows of A, apertures; cf. No. 25. 24. Ram. Il S. T. A pe vie Ss Az in 2 rows. Modelled figs.,| — etc. head. Closed top “ 26. Ram, III S. T i. A : : ; ‘ 26. am, uae AS vav i AT doves and serpents. open base, & © (16. Ram. III S,'T. Oval and (A apertures, Incised chevron; rope — 2, Ram. III S. T./\ apertures in yee r pattern in relief, and incised grooves. 27. Ram, 1 S. T. AM xvid AG 2 rows. Modelled figs. doves WL 25. Ram, TIES. T. A\ apertures; cf. No. 14. and serpents, —' e . FRAT SST ca oceee oF nek! ° ke _ 2, Ram. III N. T. Aperture visible, shape uncertain. Modelled apertures above, and A aper- *u° > see Rent ee Painted geomet. (1b) CrasstricaTion or ALL THE BeTH-sHAN Cy.inpers (1) anp CYLINDER FracMENTs (la) INro THE ; Groups oF ANIMALS, Birps, SERPENTS, Etc., REPRESENTED ON THEM. 4. Ram. III. S. T. VW apertures. Painted geomet. designs. : | Birpvs (Not Doves)|ty 4x xp Animazs| Wirdour Anas, Birps aNp SERPENTS. 5. Ram. Il S.:T, Oval apertures. wo. ackoe Rea a P ae oe AND SacreD TREE. ee horizonal bands and : ; S No hice ieee Wits APERTURES. | Wirn APERTURES No APERTURES, | wavy line. ie : 6. Ram. Ill S. T. Traces of A Ye 2 1.56 Amenophis | 1. Ram, HIS. T. | 1. Seti IL. 6. Ram. III S. T.| 3. Ram. I] S. T. |As per second column are Paiaeed d ; a If. (oti wd o 4. Ram. Ill 8. T. in list (1a) above. pertures. Painted decorations 2. Ram, UI §S. T. Ye A. ; : of 2 horned animals, sacred | 10 Rar “Tl 5. Eee te tree, etc. pie > J : 17, Ram. III S. T. 10. Ram. III S. T. 2 oval apertures. 12. Ram. UI Sa 18. Ram, III S. T. las | e RY ) Handles missing. Modelled ; ie Rene DAN, T. 20. Ram, III figs., doves and serpents. P XY-A Saul ce) 11, Ramedil S$. T enna 12, Ram, Il S. T. A apertures. OOM ian 2. Amenophis IIT. Modelled figs., doves and ser- 2. Ram. IJIN. T. | 3, Amenophis III. | pents. “-. : > What ¥ 2. Set I. 17, Ram. Il S. T. A apertures. A =| 3.5 ; I Painted horizontal bands. ’ a ; | 18. Ram. If. S. T. A, apertures. | | ae | Painted geomet. designs. oe aera So 20. Ram. III S, T. Apertures (?). 1 Reng ut S. Tt 1. Ram. III N. T. Oval apertures. Pelee es Modelled figs. of doves and ser- | 16. Ram. Il S. T. pents. | 25, Ram. III S. T. Bape ee ee eee

———— eee 54 The numbers preceding the descriptions refer to the numbers preceding the descriptions of the cylinders in the chronological list above. “Ram. IH Compare footnote 54, page 42.

S. T.” = Rameses III, Southern Temple; “Ram. Il] N. T.’ = Rameses III, Northern Temple. 56 Compare footnote 34, page 42.

[ 42 ] [ 43

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

(1c) CrassiFicaTION OF THE BeTH-sHAN Cy.inpers (1) anp CYLINDER FracMents (la) WirH

APERTURES.

Rounb OvaL RECTANGULAR TRIANGULAR APERTURES, SHaPe oF APERTURE APERTURES. APERTURES. APERTURES, BAsE /A\ Down. Base VV Up. UNCERTAIN. 2° Amenophis (ly Ramy {1h S; 1.) "3. Ram S$. 7) 4 2) Ram. WeS)"TS "4. Ram. 10'S: T. 20." Rame dls. ths sees | TERS) 0 ets 7. Ram, Ul S, T. Spee at Ram. Wael Ce ee ae 13. Ram, III S. T.

Ill. ture also). 2. Seti L 1. Ram. III N, T. 6 hae MS 2. Ram, III N. T. 5. Seti 1. Sree 12)Ram, 1S,

LS Ranieaiiles. Ti:

-/16, Ram. III S, T. (Has A also).

17. Ram. III S. 18. Ram. III S. 14. Ram, Ill S, 16. Ram. III S. T.

(Has oval aper- ture also).

25, Ramelies) is

(1d), List of THE BeTH-sHAN CyLinpeErs (1) AND CyLinpER FracMEnts (1a) WirH Parntep DEcorATIONS.

8 Seti I,

1 3. Ram, II S. T. 4, Ram. III S. T, 5. Ram. Il S. T. 6. Ram, Wiles. 1. For particulars of colours on each object see above, in the lists of cult 7. Ram, II-S, T. p objects arranged in chronological order, The colours mostly used 9. Ram. III S. T. are red, dark red, purple, purple-red and black. 13. Ram. II S. T. ‘17. Ram. HI 8S. T. 18. Ram. III S, T. 2A Rams LHS: ole (2) CLAssIFICATION OF THE BETH-sHAN SHRINE-HousEs. 3-STAGED, 2-STAGED. FRAGMENTS.

1,59

Ram. II N. T. Figs. cf goddess and 2 gods (?) in fighting attitudes (?) Doves,

1. Ram. IIIS. T. 2 figs. of god-

1, Seti I. Stage frag. with windows or doors,

desses holding doves. 2 ser- pents. Windows and doors.

au A . ]

serpent and lion. Windows and doors,

~ 1}

Top of object ring-shaped.

3, Ram. III S. T. Stage frag. with traces of windows. 2-

4, Ram. II S. T. Frag. from fig. of deity on shrine. ae A house (7). AY™ - 9

5. Ram. III S. T, Central frag. from shrine-house (?),

| a

5% Compare footnote 54, page 42.

58 Compare footnote 54, page 42.

59 The numbers preceding the descriptions refer to the numbers preceding the descriptions of the shrine-houses in the chronological lists above.

[ 44]

2. Ram, III S. T. Stage frag. with 2 windows or pet x ), 2

y¥

} Viiv

x ey

Wirnourt SERPENTs AND Doves.

| i cay

Wir 2 Hanpies AND APERTURES.

5.69 Ram, III S. T. Complete

except top. 2 oval aper- tures,

Cuapter VI — Tue Cutr Osyjecrs

(3) CLAssiFICATION OF THE BETH-SHAN SACRED “Boxes”.

i ee a Ss

Wiru SERPENTS, oR SERPENTS AND Doves.

ie as ae 5 |

Without HANnpLzes AND i

frag.

APERTURES.

1, Ram. II N. T. End and side

4, Ram. III N. T. Corner frag. (Perhaps belongs to 3. Ram. Il N. T.).

Wirnout HanpLes AND APERTURES.

1. Ram. III S. T. Frag. with

head and neck of serpent.

. Ram, IDI S. T. Frag. with

head and part of body of

serpent,

. Ram, III S. T. Bottom cor- ner frag. with part of body,

of serpent.

. Ram. III N. T. Side frag.

with part of body of ser- pent. (Perhaps belongs to

Witrnout Hanpotes Bur

witH APERTURES,

3. Ram. III S. T. Frag. with

head and part of body of serpent; and dove resting in oval (?) aperture.

. Ram. III N. T. Side frag.

with head and part of body of serpent. Traces of 3 apertures, shapes uncer- tain,

4 Ram. IN. T.).

The sacred “boxes”, as we have already seen above, have no bases or tops. They may be really divided into (a) “boxes” with serpents, (b) “boxes” with serpents and doves, and (c) “boxes” without serpents and doves; all having apertures or no apertures, handles or no handles, as the case may be. During October, 1925, in the course of a visit to et-Tabigha, near Ti-

berias, I saw in the house of Father Tapper a small

rectangular sacred “box” with two rectangular aper- tures, one on either side of the “box”. This “box”, like our examples, has no base or top to it, and was found in its present owner’s district. It is, I should say, speaking from memory, roughly 15 centimetres high; and it is probably of about the same date as our “boxes”.

(4) CLasstFIcaTION OF THE BETH-sHAN PLAQUES WITH SERPENTS.

SERPENTS Ly1nc Fiat on Basts.

| |

SERPENTS IN UnbuLatine Position on Base.

Pre-Amenophis III. Pl. x1x, No, 1. 1.7 Amenophis III.

1. Seti I.

(5) CLassiFicaTIon OF THE BeTH-sHAN Kernoi (Att Hottow-Rinc Type).

Kernoi wrea 7 ATTACHMEN'S.

Kernoi wira 6 ATTACHMENTS.

Kernoi FRAGMENTS.

2.8? Seti I. Kernos; only one vase re- maining. (Originally 7 vases, etc.).

1. Ram. III S. T. Kernos; with one bull’s | 1. head attachment, and 5 vase attachments 1

above.

one now missing). 6 ( to] KA 2 4

For meanings of abbreviations, see footnote 54, page 42.

[45]

Amenophis III. Vase of Rernos.

. Seti I. Frag. of vase of kernos.

. Seti I. Vase and frag. of ring of

kernos.

Ram. Ill S. T. Frag. of Rernos with

vase,

60 The numbers preceding the descriptions refer to the numbers preceding the descriptions of the “boxes” in the chronological lists above.

81 The numbers preceding the descriptions refer to the numbers preceding the descriptions of the plaques with serpents in the chronological lists

82 The numbers preceding the descriptions refer to the numbers preceding the descriptions of the kermoi in the chronological lists above.

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

Having thus described the five classes of cult ob- jects found at Beth-shan during the 1925 and 1926 seasons, we may now add examples analogous to some of them found elsewhere in Palestine, and also in Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Susa and probably Anatolia.

Crass (1).—CyLrnpers.

Dates (a) Ecyprran Examptes. According to the Discoverers. . Petrie & Quibell, Nagada and Ballas, | Late Predynastic.

pl. xur. Cylinder with triangular aper- tures; bases of triangles in various po- sitions. (Cf. also Petrie, Corpus of Pre- historic Pottery, etc., pl. 11.)

. Quibell, Hierakonpolis, I, pl. xxxv. Pottery cylinder with triangular aper- tures, Bases of triangles downwards. Cf. Fig. 10 (1) of the present work.

. Petrie, Abydos, II, pl. xu. Four pot-- tery cylinders with triangular aper- tures. Bases of triangles downwards. The fourth cylinder has the figure of a ram, and also a wavy line pattern on it. Cf. Fig. 10 (2) of the present work.

. Petrie, Abydos, T, pl. xxxv. Pottery cyl- inder with triangular apertures. Bases of triangles in various positions.

. Petrie, Abydos, II, pl. xiv. Pottery cylinder with triangular aperture. Base of triangle downwards.

. Quibell, The Tomb of Hesy, pl. xv1. Wall scene showing pottery and ala- baster cylinders with triangular aper-

tures. Bases of triangles downwards. Cf. Fig. 10 (3) of the present work.

. Petrie, Meydum and Memphis, Ill, pl. xxv. Pottery cylinders with triangular apertures. Bases of triangles down- wards,

. Petrie, Dendereh, pl. xvi. Pottery cyl- inder with triangular apertures in two rows. Bases of triangles in lower row downwards, and those of triangles in upper row, in the reverse direction. Cf. Fig. 10 (4) of the present work.

. Petrie, Joc. cit. Pottery cylinder with tri- angular apertures in five rows. Bases of triangles alternately upwards and downwards. Cf. Fig. 10 (5) of the pres- ent work.

O Dyn. (7. e., be- tween late Pre- dynastic and Ist Dyn.)

1st Dyn. (Com- menced c. 3400 B.C.)

Early Dyns.

IInd-Vth Dyns.

Wrd Dyn.

IIrd Dyn.

IlIrd-Vith Dyns.

TWIrd-VIth Dyns.

11.

128

13.

14.

15).

[ 46 ]

(a) Eoyptian ExaMpies.

with triangular slot. Base of triangle downwards. A pottery stand of sim- ilar shape, etc., is shown on pl. xxx, op. cit. THESE EXAMPLES ARE THUS OF ABOUT THE SAME DATE AS THOSE FOUND IN THE ARCHAIC ISHTAR TEMPLE IN ASSUR (2700 B.c, or slightly ear- lier).

Mace, Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der, Il, pl. tvu. Pottery cyl- inder with. triangular apertures. Bases of triangles downwards,

Petrie, Diospolis Parva, pl. xxxin. Pot- tery cylinder with rectangular aper- tures,

Petrie, Gizeh and Rifeh, pl. xxxtv. Representation of Old Kingdom cyl- inder, etc., on a wall scene of a XXVIth Dyn, tomb. A man pours out a liba-

tion into the cylinder which has a tri-

angular aperture (base of triangle downwards) near its base. While it is probably the case that the Egyptian cylinders were generally used as stands for bowls, etc., this example shows that they also had other uses, Cf, Fig 11 of the present work.

Peet and others, The City of ARhena- ten, I, pl. xivt. Pottery cylinders or jar stands. The tall ones were found most- ly in the tomb chapels, the plans of which resemble the plan of the Beth- shan temple of Amenophis III.

Dates According to the Discoverers.

10. Petrie, Medum, pl. xxix. Basalt stand |[Vth Dyn.

(c. 2900-2750

B.C.)

c. VIth Dyn, (c. 2625-2475

BACs)

c. VIth Dyn. (c. 2625-2475

B.C.)

XXVIth Dyn. copy of Old Kingdom example.

XVIlIth Dyn.

Garstang, Burial Customs of Ancient |Not given.

Egypt, pl. x1, fig.205. Three pottery cyl- inders with figure of goddess on each. Aigean importations (?). On these cylinders the triangle clearly represents the pudenda, which is doubtless also what the triangles on some of the cyl- inders from Palestine, Egypt, and Bab- ylonia are meant to represent. Cf. also the goddess in the Beth-shan shrine- house, I. Ram. III N. T. [pl. xvu, 2], and the “naked goddess”, Ward, The

Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, p. 161, |

fig. 422. (On an ivory plaque of the Ist Dynasty, belonging to King Mer-pibia of Egypt, we also see a triangular sign

17.

—

(a) Ecyprian Examptes. (Continued )

(base downwards), between the heads

of two horned animals sacred to the

goddess Hathor. Cf. Petrie, Royal

Tombs of the Ist Dynasty, I, pl. xvi).

See Fig. 10 (6) of the present work.

. Garstang, op. cit., pl. x1, fig. 211. Two

pottery cylinders with goddesses on them similar to those referred to in the second sentence of No. 15 above. The right-hand cylinder has round ap- ertures in it as well. A.gean importa- tions (?). See Fig. 10 (6) of the pres- ent work.

Garstang, op. cit., pl. x1, fig. 210. Two pottery cylinders with remains of fig- ures of animals (?) on them. Round apertures in right-hand cylinder, and possibly also in left-hand example.

(b) Cretan Examp.es,

. Evans, The Palace of Minos, I, p. 143.

Pottery cylindrical drain-pipes, with and without handles. Note the triang- ular-shaped patterns on lowest exam- ples. Cf. Fig. 10 (10, 11) of the present work,

. Evans, op. cit., frontispiece, and p. 501.

Cylindrical crown of goddess with ser- pent on it. Cf. Fig. 10 (12) of the present work.

. Boyd Hawes, Gournia, pl. x1, figs. 11,

12, 13 (cf. also Hall, Zgean Archae- ology, p. 154, fig. 55, and Dussaud, Les Civilisations Préhelléniques, p: 331:

fig. 240, where the same objects are re- |

ferred to). Three pottery cylinders with figures of serpents and sacred horns on them. Fig. 7 on the same plate shows the base of a cylinder resting on a tri- pod. (Cf. the doves shown in figs. 3 and 4 on the plate referred to.) See Fig. 10 (13) of the present work.

- Boyd Hawes, op. cit., pl. u, fig. 78,

and p. 30. Pottery cylinder, open base and top, with two circular apertures in sides, one opposite the other.

Ward, The Scal Cylinders of Western Asia, p. 159, fig. 419. (C£, King, A History of Sumer and Akkad, p. 68.) Cylinder containing small tree with fruit, Man pouring water into it from spouted pot,

Dates According to the Discoverers,

Not given.

Not given,

Middle Minoan I.

(2100-1900 8. c.)

Middle Minoan ll. (1700-1580 8. c.)

Late Minoan I. (1580-1450 3. c.)

Late Minoan

(?).

c. 3000 8. c.

ios)

10.

[ 47 ]

CuarTeR VI — THE Curr Osyjecrs

(Continued) King, op. cit., p. 140, Cylinder with small trees inside. A person nearby is probably pouring out water into it. From the “Stela of the Vultures” of Eannatum.

. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands,

p. 475, Cylinder with plants in it. Pre- Sargonic, from Nippur.

. Andrae, Die Archaischen Ischtar-Tem-

pel in Assur, pl. 20. Thirteen pottery cylinders, some with triangular aper-

tures (bases of triangles downwards), |

and one with a rectangular aperture. From Assur. These cylinders are re- markably like cylinders from Beth- shan and Egypt. (Cf, also pl. 11, op. cit.) See Fig. 10 (7-9) of the present work,

. Andrae, op. cit., p. 35. Cylinder stand-

ing on shrine-house. The cylinder has a small tree in it, A man is pouring water into the cylinder (cf. the Egyp- tian example above, No. 13, and some of the other Mesopotamian examples).

From a Babylonian relief of Gudea. |

See Fig. 11 of the present work.

. Ward, op. cit., p. 22, fig. 32. Cylinder

with fruit inside. A patesi of Nippur, under Dungi, is pouring water into it. (Cf. Maspero, The Dawn of Civiliza- tion, p. 623.)

. Ward, op. cit., p. 22, fig. 31. Altar stand

with small trees, etc., in it. Time of Dungi.

. Ward, op. cit., p. 27,-fig. 51a. Cylinder

with small trees (?) in it. Time of Dungi.

. Legrain, The Stela of the Flying An-

gels, in The Museum Journal, March, 1927, pp. 84, 85. Four cylinders, each with a small tree and fruit in it. King Ur-Nammu is pouring water into the cylinder, From the Stela of Ur-Nam- mu.

Ward, op. cit., p. 361, fig. 1235. Cylin- der with small tree and fruit in it. A man is pouring water into the cylinder. On a bas-relief from Susa. (That fruit

is represented there seems to be no|

doubt; cf. p. 84, fig. 239, and p. 138, fig. 388, op. cit.)

Dates According to the Discoverers,

c. 3000 8. c.

Before Sargon. (i. e., before 2872 B.C.)

2700 3.c. or slightly earlier.

c. 2600 B.c.

c. 2456 B.C.

c, 2456 B.c,

c. 2456 B.

c. 2300 B.c.

Like Babylonian

work, tempus Khammurabi. (2123-2081 B.c.)

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES. OF BETH-SHAN

II.

12:

13.

14.

into incense-stands. Compare, for instance, Jastrow,

(Continued)

Ward, op. cit., p. 134, fig. 379. Two cylinders with man pouring water into them. In front of cylinders is a god holding a plough.

Ward, op. cit., p. 160, fig. 421. Cylin- der with small tree and fruit in it. Near the cylinder is a seated an) holding what Heuzey pees as “the weapon of seven serpents”.

Ward, op. cit., p. 360, fig. 1234. Cylin-

der with small tree in it,

Gautier and Lampre, Fouilles de Mous- sian, in Mémoires Délégation en Perse, VIII, p. 137, figs. 278, 279. Two short cylinders, or stands, with triangular apertures (bases of triangles down- wards). From Susa.

. Gautier and Lampre, op. cit., p. 79.

Three cylinders (probably incense- stands) with triangular and diamond- shaped decorations.

The later types of cylinders seem to

Bildermappe zur Religion Bab. u. Assyriens, PLATE xxix, Figure 89, tempus Ashur-nasir-pal II (884-859 Bice):

(d) Paresrinian Exampves.®

. Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer,

III, pl. cin, figs. 4, 13. Two. pottery cylinders, one with circular aperture near base, Cult objects (?).

. Macalister, op. cit., II, p. 166, fig. 327.

Pottery cylinder with open base and top.

. Macalister, op. cit., IT, p. 337, fig. 460.

Pottery cylinder with cup at top, prob- ably for incense. Triangular decora- tions.

. Sellin, Tell Ta‘annek, pls. xu, xi (cf.

also Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, I, p.

Dates Discoverers, Early Period. Early period. 5 Early period. Not given. 6 | Not given. 7 have developed 8 9

IInd Semitic Era. (1800-1400 8. c.) 10

II[rd Semitic Era. (1400-1000 B.c.)

[Vth Semitic Era. (1000-550 3. c.)

c. 700 B.c,

345, fig. 114 and figs. 115, 116). Pot-|

tery stand or altar of incense, roughly pyramidal in form, with flat top. “It has upon each side three figures with beardless face, the body of a beast, and wings, and which apparently stride to-

(d) Pavestintan Examp tes. (Continued)

wards the -person standing in front of the altar. Lions lie between them (four altogether), whose front paws rest upon the head of the nearest monster. Upon the left side a boy wrestling with a serpent. . . . A relief upon the front wall shows the tree of life with two ibex”.—Jeremias, loc, cit.

. Macalister, op. cit., I, pp. 353-354; III, pl. cv1, fig. 6. Upper part of pottery cylinder with two rows of rectangular apertures and painted decorations (some triangular-shaped). Cf. also the plain cylinder shown in fig. 4 on the same plate.

. Sellin, op. cit., p..66, fig. 81. Pottery cylinder, with rectangular apertures; stands on bowl-shaped base. Incense-

stand (?).

. Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, I, p.

128, fig. 190. Pottery cylindrical stand with bowl on top. Painted with geomet- rical figures and schematised leaves.

. Schumacher, op. cit., p. 87, fig. 125. |

Upper part of pot-shaped incense vessel of pottery with sloping apertures in side,

. Macalister, op. cit., III, pl. cxxtv, figs. 26, 27. Fragments of figures of pottery serpents, doubtless from cylinder.

. Vincent, Canaan d’aprés l'exploration

récente, p. 342. fig. 236. Three short

cylinders, one with circular apertures; |

doubtless used as jar supports.

. Albright and Rowe. 4 Royal Stela of

the New Empire from Galilee, in Jour- nal of Eg. Arch., XIV, p. 285. Top por- tion of a pottery cylinder, with circular holes in its sides. Bears the incised rep- resentation of a stag. From Tell el- ‘Oreimceh.

. A. Mallon, Les fouilles de l'Institut

Biblique Pontifical dans la Vallée du Jourdain, in Biblica, XI, part 2, pl. v, p. 147. Part of a cylindrical cult ob- ject (?). From Teleilat Ghassill.

Dates According to the Discoverers,

c. 600 B.c.

Not given,

Vith city layer.

TVth city layer.

Not given.

About the time of Rameses II.

c. 2000 8.c. (?)

63 In view of our discoveries it may be that the dates given to some of

[ 48 ]

these objects may: have to be revised.

CuaptTer VI

Dates (d) PavestiniaAn Examptes. According to the (Continued) Discoverers,

13. Cook, The Religion of Ancient Pales-| Not given. tine in the Light of Archaeology | (Schweich Lectures, 1925), pl. xv, No. | 1. A cylindrical incense-stand shown | on a seal said to have come from Beth- shan. Republished from the Quarterly | Statement, 1907, p. 130.

(ec) PropasLe ANATOLIAN Examptes.

1. Genouillac, Céramique Cappadocienne | Not given. (Musée du Louvre), I, pl. 9, No. 10098. Fragment of pottery cylinder (?) with head and part of body of ser- pent in relief, from Boghazkeui. The official description is: “Fragment de trés grand vase au relief de téte et d’échine de serpent. Pate sableuse, trés bien cuite. Simple poli 4 la main jaune blanc” (p. 124, op. cit.).

2. Genouillac, op. cit., I, pl. 19, No. 9873. | Not given. Fragment of pottery cylinder (?}) with part of body of serpent in relief, from Kara-Huyuk. The official description is: “Fragment de grande poterie 4 re- lief de serpent.—PAte grossiére; terre cuite rose bien cuite. Poli” (p. 90, op. cit.).

Attention may be drawn to the pottery cylinder with a triangular aperture in it, evidently an incense- stand, found at El-Mishrife, near Homs, in north Syria. Compare Les Ruines d’el-Mishrifé, in Syria, VIII, page 19, Figure 55. See also Vincent, Canaan, page 343, figure 241, for a jar-shaped incense-stand with circular apertures.

Crass (2).—Surine-Houstes. (a) Cretan (Minoan) Exampces.

1, Dussaud, Les Civilisations Préhellén-| Late Minoan, iques, p. 413, fig. 302. Shrine-house or | (1580-1200 8. c.) altar, with small tree on top of it. This resembles the examples shown on Mes- opotamian cylinder seals (see below). (CE£. also the altars shown on pused, fig. 282; p. 411, fig. 300; and p. 418, fig. 308, op. cit.)

2. Evans, The Palace of Minos, I, p. 306, | Middle Minoan fig. 225 (cf. also p. 220). Pottery| IL. shrine-house, with windows. See also | (1900-1700 s. c.) the faience tablets representing fronts of houses, shown on pp. 304, 305, and

[ 49]

rr"

nos

“I

[o =)

. Andrae, Die Archaischen Ischtar-Tem-

. Andrae, op, cit., pl. 17. Pottery shrine-

— THE CuLt Osyjects

(a) CreTan (Minoan) Examp es. (Continued) pl. opposite p. 306, op. cit. These houses

have rectangular windows, and some. are three-storied.

(b) MrsororaMiaN ExaMPLes,

pel in Assur, pl. 11. Three pottery shrine-houses, or altars, in situ. These- have rectangular and triangular aper- tures, and figures of lions, serpents and doves on them. From Assur.

house, or altar (larger scale drawing of one of the shrine-houses shown in pl. 11, op. cit.).

. Andrae, op. cit., p. 35. Shrine-house, or

altar, bearing a cylinder containing small tree, and also various offerings. From a Babylonian relief of Gudea. Cf. Fig. 11 of the present work.

. Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western

Asia, p. 360, fig. 1229 (cf. also Con- tenau, La Glyptique Syro-Hittite, pl. 1, fig. 3). Shrine-house, or altar, bear-

Dates According to the Discoverers,

2700 B.c., or slightly earlier.

2700 B.c., or

slightly earlier.

c. 2600 B. c.

Early period.

ing offerings: A man standing be-,,

hind the altar is pouring a libation | over it. In front of the altar is a “dragon” harnessed to a four-wheeled. chariot, in which a deity rides, while a nude goddess stands on the dragon’s back, between its wings.

. Ward, op. cit., p. 360, fig. 1230, Shrine-

house, or altar, with offerings on it. In front of the altar is a seated goddess holding three stalks of wheat. Behind it is an attendant holding a plough. (Cf. p. 134, op. cit.)

Ward, op. cit, p. 360, fig. 1231. Shrine- house, or altar, with incense cup on it,

In front of the altar is a seated deity with two horns.

. Ward, op. cit., p. 360, fig. 1232. Shrine-

house, or altar, with no offerings on it. Behind the altar is a seated deity.

. Ward, op. ciz., p. 360, fig. 1233 (cf. also

Maspero, The Dawn’ of Civilization, p. 681). Shrine-house with an animal’s head and an incense cup on it. Behind the altar is the goddess Ishtar, and in front of it, the worshipper perauns a goat as an offering,

Early period.

Tue Four CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN

In addition to the shrine-houses mentioned in the shrine-house lists (a) and (b) above, attention must be drawn to a rectangular-shaped object which ap- pears to be a kind of shrine-house or altar, published by Gautier and Lampre, Fouilles de Moussian, in Mémoires Délégation en Perse, VIII, page 80. This object which is of the archaic Susian period is stepped and has rows of incised triangles (bases downwards) on it. See also the stepped altar shown on a bas-relief from Susa, republished by Vincent, Canaan, page 144, figure 93. Near the altar are sacred trees (asheroth), and a sacred stone (mazzebah). The representation of another object not unlike a shrine-house, or altar, was found at Boghazkeui, in Anatolia. See Winckler, Vorldufige, Nachrichten iiber die Augsgrabungen in Boghaz-ké1, in M. D. O. G., 35, pages 57, 58.

Another kind of pottery shrine (Palestinian), with open courtyard, door, seated figures of deities with high-peaked caps and lavers for ablutions, is pub- lished by Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, Il, pages 437, 438. This is dated from the IInd Semitic Era (1800-1400 B. c.). In vol. III, op. cit., PLATE ccxxv, fig- ures 3, 4, 6, are shown what appear to be small shrines (3 and 4 are possibly from one and the same object; 6 is Egyptian in style), which came from the Hellen- istic stratum of Gezer. These are described in vol. II, op. cit., page 439, Fisher (The Excavation of Arma- geddon, pages 70, 71, and figure 48), records having found at Megiddo “fragments of two [late] terra- cotta incense altars, representing shrines with win- dows. One had animal figures on the sides and heads of Astarte at the front upper corners; the other was smaller and simpler. Possibly they belonged together, forming a two-storied model of a temple”. Compare further the late stone shrine with doors and win- dows found in Egypt—Petrie, Nauwkratis, I, PLATE xvi, figures 1, 3, and page 40 (date not given).

Crass (3).—Sacrev “Boxes”. (a) Pacesrintan ExampLes.

1, Rectangular sacred pottery box with two apertures, open base and top, in possession of Father Tapper (see above, notes at end of section headed “(3)~Classification_of the Beth-shan Sacred ‘Boxes’ ”).

2. Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, I, p. 123, fig. 185. Frags. of the sides of a pottery box, with part of the body of a serpent in relief on it,

3, Schumacher, op. cit. I, p. 123, fig. 186. Upper part of a pottery box, with lentil-form ornaments in relief, and painted “rectangular” designs,

4, Sellin and Watzinger, Jericho, p. 141, fig. 150. Frag. of upper part of a pottery box, with part of body of a ser- pent (?) in relief.

The pottery box published by Sellin, Tell Ta‘an- nek, page 41, figure 40, appears to be an ordinary receptacle, as it has a bottom to it.

Crass (4).—Pxagurs wirH SERPENTS.

Dates

According to the Discoverers.

1. Mariette, Monuments Divers, p. 21, pl.| Amenophis IIT. txi (b). Long narrow stela-shaped up- | (1411-1375 B.c.) right stone, round at the top, and a little drawn in at its lower part, with a figure of serpent in high relief on it. The serpent stands on its tail. This monument is of black granite, and is 160 cm. high; its maximum width is 58 cm. From the temple of the god Horus-Khenty-Chety at Athribis (Del- ta). This stone was set up by Ameno- phis IIT, and in general appearance is like the plaque with the serpent coiled round its top [Plate x1x, 1] found in the Pre-Amenophis III level at Beth- | shan. (Cf. also the shape of the sacred serpent, Plate xxi, 5, from the same level.) The text on the right hand side of the stone reads: “The good god, the Lord of the Two Lands, ‘NEB-MAAT- RA’ (= prenomen of the king), be- loved of the beautiful 444—Serpent of the temple. of Horus-Khenty-Chety.” The text on the left hand side reads: “Son of Ra, of his body, ‘AMENO- PHIS-RULER-OF-THEBES’ (= cog- nomen of the king), beloved of the beautiful 444¢—Serpent of the temple of Horus-Khenty-Chety.” The name | of the god means “Horus at the head | of Chety (a district of Athribis).”

. Naville, The Festival Hall of Osorkon,| XXII Dyn. Il, pl. 1v dis., fig. 12, and p. 16. Repre- | (874-835 B.c.) sentation of a serpent on a stone—ex- actly like the serpent-stone of Amen- ophis III at Athribis mentioned above.

(Cf. also pl. 1x, op. cit., fig. 8.) From the temple of Osorkon II at rarer

(a) Eoyprian Examp ces.

Serpent-stones such as those mentioned above ap- pear to have been erected at the doors of some of the temples in Egypt, where the serpents acted as guard- ians of the doors. We meet with similarly shaped stones (without serpents on them) in various pass- ages of the Pyramid Texts. For a full account of the

[ 50]

serpent-stones in Egypt see Kees, Die Schlangensteine und ihre Bezichungen zu den Reichsheiligtiimern, in Zeitschrift fiir Agyptische Sprache, 57, 1922, pages 120-136. Complete references to the above-men- tioned passages in the Pyramid Texts will be found in Speleers, Les Textes des Pyramides Egyptiennes, Il, Vocabulaire, page 17, under irt. Further informa- tion on objects with serpents on them (but from Elam) is given by Toscanne, Etudes sur le Serpent dans Vantiquité Elamite, in Mémoires Délegation en Perse, XII, pages 153-228.

Crass (5).—Kernoi.

Dates According to the

(a) EcypTian Examptes, Discoverers,

1. Petrie and Quibell, Nagada and Ballas, \ Predynastic. pl. xxxvi, and p. 41 (cf. also Petrie, Corpus of Prehistoric Pottery, etc., pl. xxxvi1)}. Pottery ring-kernos with one vase attachment. |

(b) Aiczan or Aicro-Cypriore ExaMpLes ImporteD 1NTo Ecypt (?).

1. Petrie, Diospolis Parva, pls. xxv, xxxv1.|Not given. Frags. of a pottery bowl-kernos with three vase attachments, and‘of a ring- kernos on legs, with vase attachment.

2. Petrie, Abydos, II, pl. xvi. Pottery | Not given. ring-kernos with vase attachments.

3. Garstang, Burial Customs of Ancient Not given. Egypt, pl. x1, fig. 212. Pottery bowl- kernos with vase attachments.

4. E, A. Gardner, Naukratis, Il, pl. vir, | Late period. No. 3, and p. 41. Pottery ring-kernos on three legs, with vase-and-loop-at- tachments.

1. Xanthoudides, Cretan Kernoi, in An- nual of Brit. School at Athens, XI, pp. 9-23. This article refers to various types of pottery kernoi, including the following:

(a) “A hollow ring supporting small | “Prehistoric”, vases . . . prehistoric, . . . observed| 7. ¢., one of the at Eleusis and elsewhere”,—p. 18. three Minoan

Eras,

(b) Ring-kernos, with six vase at- | Late Minoan III.

tachments, and three small human fig- (1375-1200 8. c.)

urines,—fig. 3,

‘(c) Bowl-kernos, with ring attach- Late Greek or

‘ments,—figs, 4, 5, Roman.

Cuarrer VI —THE Cutt Osjecrs

Dates (c) Creran anp CycLapic Exampies. According to the (Continued) Discoverers,

2. Evans, The Palace of Minos, I, p..76, | Not given.

fig. 44. Bowl-kernos of pottery with | vase attachments (bowl rests on base). Inside the bow! is a lamp which is a! characteristic feature of the later Rernoi (cf. op. cit., p. 78, footnote 1, and the Roman ernos mentioned below in the Palestinian examples).

3. Forsdyke, Catalogue of Vases in the\Early Cycladic. British Museum, I, part I, p. 60, pl. v.| (3400-2100 3. c.) Pottery kernos, consisting of a ring of seven vases resting on a hollow cylin- drical stand with splayed foot.

4. Forsdyke, op cit., p. 63, fig. 75. Two| Middle Cycladic. pottery Rernoi, each consisting of a] (2100-1580 3.c.) double ring of vases resting on a hollow | cylindrical stand with splayed foot.

. Dugas, Le Céramique des Cyclades, p:| Not given. 29, Pottery kernos consisting of a ring. of vases resting on a hollow cylindrical stand with splayed foot.

. Dussaud, Les Civilisations Préhellén-| Not given. iques, p. 110, fig. 80. "Fwo pottery Rer- not, each consisting of a ring of vases on a hollow cylindrical stand with splayed base. From the Cyclades.

A late Helladic [II (1580-1375 3.c.) kernos was found in Cyprus (compare E. Gyjerstad, Studies on Prehistoric Cyprus, plate on page 212, Ring-vase I, and page 211). This consists of a ring with three vases attached to it and a bull’s head projecting on its edge. |

» (d) Cypridts Examp.es.

1. Forsdyke, Catalogue of Vases in the\ Not given. British Museum, I, part II, p. 58. Pot- tery kernos consisting of a ring resting on three legs. On top is a handle, and. around the edge six pierced ear-han- dles.

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