The high place at Dan
A major state sanctuary stood at Dan in the period of the northern kingdom, on the scale of a royal cult centre.
Confirmed by the groundExcavated site9th century BC
A large open-air platform of dressed stone with a monumental stairway and an altar precinct, at the northern edge of Israel. 1 Kings says Jeroboam set up a golden calf at Bethel and another at Dan, and "made an house of high places".
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
- Found
- Tel Dan, northern Israel, 1966 — Avraham Biran's excavation
- Now held at
- In place, Tel Dan Nature Reserve
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The platform is a sanctuary; no inscription names Jeroboam or a calf. The identification with the biblical cult centre rests on place, date and scale.
How historians use it
A standard site for Israelite religion and royal cult architecture.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Biran, Biblical Dan (1994)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.