Was a "Gate Shrine" Built at the Level III Inner City Gate of Lachish? A Response to Ganor and Kreimerman

The city gate of Level III at biblical Lachish dates to the Iron Age IIB period and was destroyed in the Assyrian conquest in 701 b.c.e. In 2015-2016, Saar Ganor and Igor Kreimerman excavated the southern wing of the inner gate. In a recent issue of this journal, Ganor and Kreimerman (2019) suggeste...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of ASOR
Main Author: Usishḳin, Daṿid 1935- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: The University of Chicago Press 2021
In: Bulletin of ASOR
Further subjects:B Hezekiah’s reform
B Lachish
B horned altar
B gate shrine
B Iron Age city gate
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The city gate of Level III at biblical Lachish dates to the Iron Age IIB period and was destroyed in the Assyrian conquest in 701 b.c.e. In 2015-2016, Saar Ganor and Igor Kreimerman excavated the southern wing of the inner gate. In a recent issue of this journal, Ganor and Kreimerman (2019) suggested that the innermost, southern chamber of the gatehouse was a "gate shrine," that the "gate shrine" was desecrated during the reform of Hezekiah, that it was turned into a symbolic toilet, and then sealed. The present paper has four aims. First, it presents an integral picture of the inner gatehouse based on all the excavations which took place there. Second, it argues that there was no gate shrine in the gatehouse. Third, it argues that the assumed gate shrine was not desecrated during the time of Hezekiah’s reform. Fourth, it shows that the innermost, southern chamber contained an installation of secular nature that parallels that in the innermost northern side of the gatehouse.
ISSN:2161-8062
Contains:Enthalten in: American Schools of Oriental Research, Bulletin of ASOR
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1086/712425