PRESENTATION ABSTRACT

Between Israel and Moab: 
Temple, Conquest, and Cult at Khirbat Ataruz

Khirbat Ataruz in central Jordan has been systematically excavated for over twenty-five years under the auspices of La Sierra University, revealing one of the largest and best-preserved temple complexes from the biblical period in the Levant. The site is explicitly mentioned in the Mesha Inscription as a temple center built during the Omride dynasty and violently destroyed by the Moabite king Mesha in the late ninth century BCE. The temple’s core included three parallel long rooms, with the main sanctuary positioned centrally; at its rear, there was a standing stone set on a stone base, flanked by a significant offering platform from which many cultic objects were recovered. Next to the sanctuary was a hearth room… 

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