UNKNOWN DEITY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 9 June 1928, Page 11

UNKNOWN DEITY

IMPORTANT and interesting discoveries. continue to bo. made by the Palestine Expedition that is working at Bcisun—the Behhshnn of Biblical lore, situated on the west bank of the Jordan —for the museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Nino sacred buildings of groat- antiquity now'-ib^en-un’eaortlt* ert, among the latest being the remains of a wonderful Canaan,ite temple dedicated to Mekal, a god hitherto unknown to the modern world, whose name may bo translated roughly as .the “Fierce Devourer. ”

The temple is attributed to the times of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thothmes 111. (.1501-1417 8.C.), and is, therefore, probably about 3500 years -old. It is about 138 feet in length, rather less in breadth, and is built of massive brick, with stone foundations.

Near to it, in an area still a potential treasure field for the archaeologist, is a second temple which had evidently been dedicated to a female deity, and which has revealed clear traces of ophiolatry, or serpent worship. Light is thrown on these new Beisan discoveries by Mr Alan Rowe, the field director of the party, in the quarterly statement ox the Palestine Expedition Fund, the patron of which is the King. StructuraiMy, the chief features of Mekal’s temple are the inner sanctuary and the sacrificial altar-room, where the priests performed their ancient blood rites, and the broad southern corridor, which alone was accessible to the laity. 1 ' It was in this corridor, and dose to a stone base on which doubtless it had formerly stood, that, the excavators found -the stele, or statu© of ‘ ‘ the god of Both-slian.’ ’ This ‘ ‘local Baal, ’ ’ aw Mr. Rowe calls him, .is revealed a's a bearded figure seated on a throne, and bearing the sceptre of happiness in his left hand and the symbol of life in his right. The statue .is adorned by floral emblems and numerous hieroglyphs. Two other

OF ANCIENT CANAAN

figures which are seen are assumed to be those of the builder and his son. The ‘ ‘ Fierce Devourer ’ ’ probably owed ■ his name to the Intense summer heat and gentral un healthiness of the city , over which he was the rcigining god. i Hardly less remarkable have been rthe— number- of-small or tokens—rmnany r i cases sacrificial offerings that (have i been collected on the site of the temple. < Among these are a libation cup with ! rich decorations, a two-handled cylindrical stand, a beautiful amethyst scarab, and a gold-ocevered figurine .of a god.

Another valuable find was that of a portable panelled Cretan altar-stand of basalt, with a cross with knobbed ends in high relief —a discovery entirely now to Palestinian archaeology. Standing in the inner sanctuary were two altars and a stone libation basin, fox blood offerings to the deity. Near one of the altars there was found the shoulder-blade of a bull, while elsewhore were two horns and a collar-bone, together with a sacrificial dagger in bronze. It is assumed that the bones were those of the same animal, and that it was the last sacrificial victim within tike temple.

Excavations on the site of. the other temple are not yet completed. In one of, the rooms was a pottery bowl, bearing on its outer side the- figure of an undulating serpent in high relief. This was regarded by the experts as a discovery of the utmost importance. It ■showed, indeed, that thousands of years ago Beisan was the centre of a great serpent cult in Palestine, and that 'ophiolatry, which was Icmown to be prevalent there during the reigns of the later Egyptian Icings, was- actually practised in the time of Thothmes 111.

Prom various figures which have been salvaged it is also fairly clear that the serpent worshippers had a female d'oity, and that this took the form of a. serpent. 'What her name was is not, so far, revealed.