NEW FINDS AT ASKELON

For several years archaeologists have been excavating at the ancient port of Askelon, one of the five cities of the Philistines (1 Sam. 6:17). An exciting recent discovery there was a small calf figurine. It is only 12½ centimetres long and is made of bronze which may have been burnished to a gold colour. It was found well preserved in a clay pot.

The calf figurine was discovered in a temple. Pottery finds in this temple enabled Professor Lawrence Stager of Harvard University, the director of the dig, to date the figurine to about 1550 B.C. This was just about at the time when Israel were leaving Egypt for their journey to the Promised Land.

Evidence of calf worship has been discovered elsewhere in the Holy Land, but not from the same time as the Israelites were leaving Egypt. Archaeologists regard the figurine as Canaanitish, and speak of calf-worship as being a phenomenon of Canaan rather than Egypt. Traditionally we have thought of the golden calf as being Egyptian in origin, but it is possible that it might have been connected with the false worship going on in the land. Given that Egypt often dominated the coastal plain where Askelon lies, it is possible that the calf worship may have spread to this area from Egypt originally.

A most unusual find at Askelon was a cemetery in which the bones of many different dogs were discovered. This has baffled the archaeologists, but the suggestion has been made that this is associated with worship. In Deuteronomy 23:18 we read: “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God”. “A dog” in this passage has been thought to apply to a male temple prostitute, but the suggestion is now being made that the reference is to false worship of some kind involving dogs.

Excavations are planned to continue at Askelon for some years to come, and further exciting finds may well be made.

Tony Benson