The following is from “Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah”, pages 497-499, by William Dever,
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Religion played an important role in all early societies,
and cultic practices (if not beliefs) are often reflected in material culture
remains. In Israel and Judah of the ninth–eighth century [BCE] we have a number
of both public and private cultic installations. …. From Iron [Age] IIB at Dan on the northern
border there is a “high place” that features a raised platform 60 by 60 feet,
with steps leading up to it and remains of a large four-horned altar in the
forecourt. An adjoining tripartite structure (perhaps later) had a small stone
altar and three iron shovels in one room. Also in the sacred precinct was a
large olive-pressing installation, a house with domestic pottery and an oxhead
figurine, a bronze scepter head, a painted offering stand, both male and female
figurines of Phoenician style, and a faience die. A much smaller bāmâ with five
standing stones (maṣṣēbôt) was found in the outer plaza of the city gate.
The only other full-fledged Iron [Age] II sanctuary we have
is the tripartite temple at Arad in the northwest corner of the fortress. The
temple was constructed in Stratum X of the ninth–eighth century [BCE] and was
then altered in Stratum VIII in what may have been attempts at religious
reforms that included abandoning the altar in the outer court and burying the
two or three maṣṣēbôt of the inner sanctum. In the outer courtyard there was an
altar of undressed stones, at the foot of which was found a bronze lion weight
and two shallow bowls with the letters qoph and kaph, probably an abbreviation
for qôdeš kôhănîm, “holy for the priests.” Two stylized horned altars flanked
the entrance to the inner sanctum. … The Stratum X temple went out of use in
the late eighth century. … Among the Arad ostraca was one (no. 15) that refers
to the “temple [bêt] of Yahweh,” which probably refers to this temple [at Arad]
rather than the one in Jerusalem. Other ostraca mention the names of known
priestly families. The temple is out of use by Stratum VII, perhaps as a result
of cult reforms.
In addition to these monumental remains, we have a number of
household shrines of the ninth–eighth century. … They feature various
combinations of small stone altars, cult stands, kernoi and other libation
vessels, rattles, censers, both zoomorphic and female figurines, miniature
furniture and vessels, pots for cooking and feasting, seals, and amulets.
All these vessels are appropriate for the family and
household cults that we have taken to be characteristic of the varieties of
“Yahwism” that characterized Israelite and Judahite religion in the Iron II
period (and earlier). The precise theological concepts cannot always be
inferred from the archaeological remains, even when extensive.
In practice, however, the focus is clearly seen, and it
requires no sophisticated theory to comprehend it. It all has to do with
survival—the ultimate concern of virtually all religions. This entails seeking
the favor of the gods by prayers, invocations, and appropriate rituals,
placating them by sacrifice, returning their gifts and rendering thanks,
invoking their continued blessings by the use of sympathetic magic and
feasting, and, of course, aligning oneself with them so as to participate in
the “good life,” life in accord with nature as the creation of the gods and the
arena of their activity.
It is now clear from the archaeological evidence that it was
not the orthodox Yahwism of the late literary tradition, sometimes regarded
imprecisely as “official” or “state” religion, that prevailed in the Iron II
era. It was rather what Albertz has called “poly-Yahwism,” the “internal
religious pluralism” that is so obvious in the typical family and household
cults.
Now it is becoming clear that a cult of [the goddess] Asherah flourished, in both
domestic and wider contexts, even to the extent of regarding her as Yahweh’s
consort in some circles. Thus the veneration of Asherah can be understood not
as “idolatry” but as one aspect of multifaceted Yahwistic practices.
An increasing number of both biblicists and archaeologists
identify the Judean pillar-base figurines that begin in the late eighth century
(after the 732–721 destructions in the north) as representations of the old
Canaanite mother goddess Asherah. That is, these terra-cotta female figurines,
of which we have hundreds of examples, are not simply votives or human
figurines. They are evidence of a widespread, popular cult of Asherah, no doubt
persistent until the end of the monarchy.
