The Horned Altar at Tel Be'er Sheva

The story

In the excavations of Tel Be'er Sheva the stones of a large altar from the period of the Kingdom of Judah were found, having four horns, built of dressed ashlar stones; on one of them a serpent is carved. This was the first horned altar uncovered in Israel. The stones were found set into the walls of other buildings, and from them the altar was reconstructed. The supposition is that the altar was dismantled in the reform of Hezekiah in the eighth century BCE, and its stones were reused in building. Its very existence attests to a temple or to a religious center in the city. At the site a smaller incense altar from the Persian period was also found, made of limestone and decorated with figures of animals. An altar appears in Beersheba in the stories of the patriarchs: Isaac receives a revelation there and builds an altar there. Even so, scholarship does not identify the altar uncovered at the tel with the altar in the story. The original altar is displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and at the site itself a reconstruction of it stands.

• Archaeology
• Biblical
• UNESCO
• Beersheba