5.1.3. An Open Air Sanctuary at Tall al-ގUmayri?

A relatively large, apparently open-air structure with plastered floors was excavated in the Late Iron Age I Strata 11–10 (ca. 11th c. BCE) in Area H at Tall al-ގUmayri. Several fragments of model shrines were found on the floor, and in the middle of the area, there is a stone, perhaps used for presentation or as an altar. Given the religious implications of the model shrine fragments, the excavators suggest the area is an open-air sanctuary (Herr and Clark 2009, p. 89).<sup>58</sup> What is important here is that one of the floors from the following Strata 9–8 (ca. 10th–9th c. BCE) might continue this building into the Ammonite period under consideration here (Herr and Clark 2009, p. 90). While the evidence is not overwhelming for the continuance of this potentially cultic space into the Iron Age II, it is suggestive.59
