AIAR and ASOR are collaborating to bring you this year's ASOR Mini-Series. We invite you to join us for the first lecture by AIAR Assistant Director, Shua Kisilevitz. Click here for the full ASOR Webinar Program.
*Please take note: in a departure from our usual Wednesday lecture program, the ASOR Mini-Series reception is at 18:30 IDT and the lecture is at 19:30 IDT*
Schedule:
18:30 IDT - Reception
19:30 IDT - Lecture
Find the lecture time in your time zone:
https://is.gd/323hYc
Zoom ID:
851 8748 3899
Passcode:
707259
Zoom Link
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85187483899?pwd=Q0Pn5O5dkqiZV02bZaH2oCD2txmSWA.1
Lecture Abstract: The recent discovery of not one, but a succession of two temples from the First Temple period at Tel Moẓa—just 7 km from Jerusalem—has reignited debate about how religion took shape in ancient Judah and the wider region. The revelations at Moẓa are especially intriguing when set against the backdrop of traditional scholarship, which was both heavily guided by biblical texts and paradigms and hampered by the rarity of confirmed temple remains in Judah.
At Moẓa, excavations revealed a cultic precinct containing a modest early shrine that was later replaced by a monumental “long-room” temple whose plan, scale, and decoration closely echo the Bible’s description of Solomon’s Temple. Indeed, the similarities between the temples at Moẓa and Jerusalem, and the proximity between the two, sharpen questions of cultic centralization, reform, and practice, and they suggest that Jerusalem’s temple was neither the only one in Judah nor necessarily the “first.”
Because such temple evidence is so scarce in Judah, the Moẓa finds are unusually revealing. They include altars, offering tables, standing stones, sacrificial remains, and cultic paraphernalia that were found in sealed, well-documented contexts that reflect continuous rebuilding and refurbishing of the temples. Altogether, these discoveries provide a rare glimpse into how worship was actually practiced and how traditions formed over centuries. In this lecture, I will trace the development of the two Moẓa temples and the rituals practiced there, setting them alongside biblical descriptions and regional parallels. Through plans, objects, and visual reconstructions, I’ll show how the patterns at Moẓa likely reflect broader traditions that shaped religious life in Jerusalem and across the southern Levant.
Bio: Shua Kisilevitz is Assistant Director of the Albright Institute and a research fellow at Tel Aviv University. She received her B.A.and M.A. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her PhD from Tel Aviv University. She has participated in excavations across Israel and has directed excavations at 15 sites in the region of Jerusalem and Judea. Since 2012, she has spearheaded the research and publication of the Iron Age site at Tel Moza, and she is co-director of the Tel Moza Expedition Project. Dr. Kisilevitz specializes in the archaeology of religion and ritual of the southern Levant in the Iron Age.
You may also like the following events from W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research:
Also check out other
Workshops in Jerusalem,
Trips & Adventurous Activities in Jerusalem,
Virtual events in Jerusalem.
|
