*3.7. WT-13*

Some 3 km west of Mudayna Thamad, an open-air site has been excavated (site WT-13 of the Wadi ath-Thamad survey) (Dolan 2007; Daviau 2012, 2017). On a hilltop, a perimeter wall enclosed an area of c. 7 × 14 m. Large stones inside the wall may have served as benches (Figure 7). Inside the enclosure wall, a large collection of ceramic statuettes and figurines was found. Many statuettes hold a disc in their hands, comparable to the figurines of Horvat Qitmit in the Negev and 'Ein Hazeva in the Wadi Araba on the border with Edom. Other finds include architectural models and attached figures, miniature furniture, amulets and scarabs, miniature ceramic vessels, jewellery, marine shells, fossils and exotic geological samples. All in all, more than 500 broken objects were retrieved from this site, along with more than 25,000 pottery sherds. The pottery dates this complex firmly in the later Iron II period, 8th and 7th centuries BC.

**Figure 7.** Plan of cultic complex at WT-13 (Courtesy of Wadi ath-Thamad Project).

An earlier occupation phase consisted of five cooking installations with ashes and a large number of animal bones, dating to the Iron I/IIA period (11th–10th centuries BC). It is unclear whether these finds constitute an earlier phase of the sanctuary or if they are the remains of household activities.

The architecture and large amount of votive objects of the later phase leave little doubt that this is an open-air cultic complex, comparable to Horvat Qitmit; the cultic nature of the earlier phase with the cooking installations is not established.
