The dismantled horned altar of Beersheba
A monumental sacrificial altar at a Judahite provincial centre was deliberately dismantled and its stones reused, in the eighth century.
Confirmed by the groundObject8th century BC
A large four-horned altar of dressed stone, found not standing but taken apart, its blocks reused in a later wall. Kings describes reforming kings removing the high places and breaking down altars outside Jerusalem.
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves.
- Found
- Tel Beersheba, Israel, 1973 — Yohanan Aharoni's excavation
- Now held at
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem (reconstructed); replica on site
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The dismantling is clear from the reuse; tying it to a particular king's reform is an inference from date, and is debated.
How historians use it
A recurring exhibit in discussion of cult centralisation in Judah.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Aharoni, "The Horned Altar of Beer-sheba", Biblical Archaeologist 37 (1974)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.