*4.3. Iron Age Temples outside the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah*

As part of the context in which we will evaluate the evidence from Israel and Judah, it is also worthwhile to examine the situation in other Iron Age polities and regions, outside the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Although the polities surrounding Israel and Judah were excavated to a much more limited extent than the latter, temples are a relatively frequent find in those regions. In Philistia (i.e., the Philistines cities and their periphery, including, probably, Canaanite settlements; see also Ben Shlomo in this issue), for example, series of Iron Age temples were found at Tel Qasile (Mazar 1980), Ekron/Miqne (Dothan 2003; Gitin 2003), and another one was unearthed at Nahal Patish (Nahshoni 2009a; 2009b). Recently, a temple was also reported at Tell es-Safi/Gath (see, e.g., Dagan et al. 2018). It is likely that a temple existed also in Yavneh, but since only the favissa was excavated, and not the actual structure, we cannot discuss it here (Kletter et al. 2010, 2013, regardless of the ethnicity of the inhabitants).5 Temples therefore seem to be a typical feature in sites in Philistia and its surroundings. Notably, Ekron, and Gath are the only sites of the above-mentioned four sites that existed in the Iron II, and are therefore the only ones which yielded also Iron II temples (Iron I temples were unearthed in three of the sites).

Although excavations in Moab are extremely limited, a cultic building was recently found at Khirbat al-Mudayna (Daviau and Steiner 2000), and another at Ataruz (Ji 2012). Another late Iron Age temple was discovered in Tell Damiya (Petit and Kafafi 2016), whose population was most likely Canaanite, and another in Rujm al Kursi in Ammon (for a recent overview, see Steiner, Tyson, in this issue).

Cultic structures were also found outside settlements, such as at Wadi Thamad site 13 in Moab (Daviau 2006), at Kh. Qitmit in the Negev (Beit Arieh 1991, 1995) and also just outside the fort of 'En Hazeva in the Aravah (Cohen and Yisrael 1995, pp. 224–28). Whether those structures should be associated with the Edomites (e.g., Beit Arieh 1991, 1995; for Qitmit) or any other group is of less importance (we tend to associate the phenomenon with the Arabian trade), and it is clear that the relevant group(s) in the southern parts of Israel and Jordan built special structures for cultic purposes.

Temples are also known in the Iron Age polities to the north of Israel and Judah. Despite the limited exposure, Iron II temples were unearthed in various sites in the Aramean states to the north, e.g., at Tell Tayinat, 'Ain Dara, Aleppo, and Hama (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003, pp. 370–75, and references). The same is true for the Phoenician cities—while excavations are extremely limited in number and scope, Iron Age Phoenician cultic buildings were exposed at Sarepta, Tell Sukas, Tell Arqa, and probably at Kition (e.g., Markoe 2000, pp. 125–29).6

<sup>5</sup> Some scholars identified a temple also at Ashdod (e.g., Wright 1985, p. 224; Dothan 1993, p. 100; Alpert Nakhai 2001, p. 197). Still, it is likely this was only a cult room, part of a larger building (Mazar 1992a, p. 186), and in order to err at the side of caution, it will not be discussed here.

<sup>6</sup> For a longer list of suggested non-Israelite temples, see (Alpert Nakhai 2001, p. 197, note 26), but the cultic nature of some is not certain.

Although most of these regions were only sparsely excavated when compared to the situation in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the finds there include many temples, which seem to be a common feature there.
