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Archaeologists excavating at the site of the ancient Biblical city of Tel Lachish have unearthed a gate-shrine dating to the 8th century BC (First Temple period).
Lachish gate-shrine. Image credit: Guy Fitoussi / Israel Antiquities Authority.
The ancient gate-shrine is about 80 x 80 feet (24.5 x 24.5 m), making it the largest one known in Israel from the First Temple period.
“The size of the gate is consistent with the historical and archaeological knowledge we possess, whereby Lachish was a major city and the most important one after Jerusalem,” said excavation director Dr. Sa’ar Ganor, from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“According to the Biblical narrative, the cities’ gates were the place where ‘everything took place’: the city elders, judges, governors, kings and officials – everyone would sit on benches in the city gate. These benches were found in our excavation.”
The Lachish gate-shrine consists of six chambers. Artifacts discovered in its rooms indicate how they were used in the 8th century BC: in the first chamber were benches with armrests, at the foot of which were numerous finds including jars, a large number of scoops for loading grain and stamped jar handles that bear the name of the official or a ‘lmlk’ (belonging to the king) seal impression.
Two of the handles have the seal impression ‘lmlk hbrn’ (belonging to the king of Hebron).
The word ‘lmlk’ is written on one of the handles together with a depiction of a four-winged beetle (scarab), and another impression bears the name ‘lnhm avadi,’ who was probably a senior official during the reign of Hezekiah, twelfth king of Judah.
It seems that these jars were related to the military and administrative preparations of the Kingdom of Judah in the war against Sennacherib, a king of Assyria, in the late 8th century BC.
A seal impression on a jar handle reading ‘lnhm avadi,’ probably the name of a senior official that was in the Judahite administration. Image credit: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority.
“Steps to the gate-shrine in the form of a staircase ascended to a large room where there was a bench upon which offerings were placed,” Dr. Ganor said.
“An opening was exposed in the corner of the room that led to the holy of holies; to our great excitement, we found two four-horned altars and scores of ceramic finds consisting of lamps, bowls and stands in this room. It is most interesting that the horns on the altar were intentionally truncated.”
“That is probably evidence of the religious reform attributed to King Hezekiah, whereby religious worship was centralized in Jerusalem and the cultic high places that were built outside the capital were destroyed: ‘He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles…’ (II Kings 18:4).”
“Besides cutting the horns on the altar, in order to further intensify the abolition of worship in the gate-shrine, a toilet was installed in the holy of holies as the ultimate desecration of that place. A stone fashioned in the shape of a chair with a hole in its center was found in the corner of the room. Stones of this type have been identified in archaeological research as toilets.”
“Laboratory tests we conducted in the spot where the stone toilet was placed suggest it was never used. Hence, we can conclude that the placement of the toilet had been symbolic, after which the holy of holies was sealed until the site was destroyed.”
The Lachish gate-shrine was destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BC. The excavation revealed destruction layers in the wake of the defeat, including arrowheads and sling stones, indicative of the hand-to-hand combat that occurred in the city’s gatehouse.
Evidence of Sennacherib’s military campaign in Judah is known from the archaeological record, the Bible (II Kings 18 and II Chronicles 32), and the Lachish wall reliefs from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh, depicting the story of the city’s conquest.
