The so-called Bull Site is a 12th-century BCE open air ancient

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

installationBloch-Smith & Alpert Nakhai (1999), p. 76. found at Dhahrat et-Tawileh (also spelled Daharat et-Tawileh), in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The site is named for the bronze

sacred bull Cattle are prominent in some religions and mythologies. As such, numerous peoples throughout the world have at one point in time honored bulls as sacred. In the Sumerian religion, Marduk is the "bull of Utu". In Hinduism, Shiva's steed is Na ...

statuette which was found at the site in 1977.

Location

The site is located on the Dhahrat et-Tawileh ridge in the hills of the northern West Bank in

Jenin Governorate The Jenin Governorate () is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. It covers the northern extremity of the West Bank, including the area around the city of Jenin, which is the district capital or ''muhfaza'' of the district. According to the Pale ...

, 75 meters above the ancient road through the Zababdeh valley between Dothan and Tirzah. It lies approximately 6 km south of

Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...

, and 4 km east of

Qabatiya Qabatiya (, also spelled Qabatia, Qabatya, and Kabatiya) is a city in Jenin Governorate, West Bank, Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, the town had a population of 19,197 in 2007 and 24,439 by 20 ...

. The site provides commanding views of other high points in northern Canaan including

Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...

to the west,

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( ; ; ), sometimes spelled Mount Thabor, is a large hill of biblical significance in Lower Galilee, Northern District (Israel), northern Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bi ...

and

Mount Meron Mount Meron (, ''Har Meron'', renamed after ancient Meiron; , ''Jabal al-Jarmaq'') is a mountain in the Upper Galilee region of Israel. It has special significance in Jewish religious tradition and parts of it have been declared a nature reserv ...

to the north,

Mount Gilboa Mount Gilboa (; ''Jabal Jalbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in the West Bank. It overlooks the Harod Valley (the eastern part of the larger Jezreel Valley) to ...

to the northeast, and to the south Jebel TamunMazar (1982), p. 33. (also spelled Jabal Tammun, 'Mount Tammun', some 2 km SSE of the town of

Tammun Tammun () is a Palestinian town in the Tubas Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 13 kilometers northeast of Nablus and five kilometers south of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank. Tammun had a population of approximately 10,795 inhabi ...

, altitude 588 m, prominence 291 m).

Discovery

The site was discovered in 1977 by Ofer Broshi, a member of Kibbutz Shamir and soldier in the

Israeli army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

, where he unearthed an ancient bull statuette. He brought the figurine back to his kibbutz where it was put on display with other antiquities owned by the kibbutz. While on display it was spotted by archaeologist

Amihai Mazar Amihai "Ami" Mazar (; born November 19, 1942) is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in Haifa, Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine), he has been since 1994 a professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, h ...

who arranged its transfer to the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

where it is now part of the permanent collection. Based on Broshi's description Mazar was able to locate the discovery site at Dhahrat et-Tawileh and begin

excavations In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

Excavation history

Two short excavations were conducted by Mazar in April 1978 and September 1981 on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Results of the excavation show that the site was single-phase ( Iron IA) and was abandoned after only a short period of use. The archaeological evidence indicates the site's use as a cultic installation though the

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

and

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

assemblage discovered potentially indicates domestic use.

Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein (; born March 29, 1949) is an Israelis, Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the a ...

's dating of the site to the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

is, according to Mazar, based on a misreading of the pottery evidence and as such an early 12th-century dating should be retained.

Cult installation

Though there are a number of Iron Age I settlements in the area, the Bull Site lacks any evidence of settlement. Instead it sits on the summit of Dhahrat et-Tawileh and is thought to have served as a cult site for the surrounding settlements due to its hilltop location.Mazar (1983), p. 39. Built on

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

in the 12th century, the site comprises a perimeter wall made from large boulders brought in from elsewhere, and what is thought to be a standing stone or

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

with a paved area in front of it next to the enclosure's eastern entrance. Mazar, the excavation director, speculates that a

sacred tree A sacred tree or holy tree is a tree which is considered to be sacred, or worthy of spiritual respect or reverence. Such trees appear throughout world history in various cultures including the ancient Hindu mythology, Greek, Celtic and Germanic m ...

likely grew within the site's walls. There is no agreement on the

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

of the local settlers who used the site, with suggestions ranging from the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

due to the site's location in Mannaseh's tribal allotment (), the Canaanites,Coogan (1987), p. 1. or migrants from north of Canaan.Ahlström (1990), p. 81. Alternative views are that the site could have been a home for a family and their animals, or an

enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...

for

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

Calf statuette

The statuette, found close to the western wall of the site,Ahlström (1990), p. 79. is of a

Zebu The zebu (; ''Bos indicus''), also known as indicine cattle and humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of Bos taurus, domestic cattle originating in South Asia. Zebu, like many Sanga cattle breeds, differs from taurine cattle by a fatty hump ...

bull measuring 17.5 cm long by 12.4 cm high and is made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

.Mazar (1982), p. 27. It is notable not only for its naturalistic ears and eyes, but for being the largest such bull statuette found in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Though Mazar suggests it may be the product of a local Israelite craftsman, other scholars such as Ahlström believe it came either from

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, or further north again above the land of Canaan. There is no consensus about which deity the statuette represents; it could be an image of

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

Yahweh Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...

.Bloch-Smith & Alpert Nakhai (1999), pp. 76-77.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Sites of the Israelite Settlement 12th-century BC establishments 1977 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in the West Bank Collection of the Israel Museum Sculptures of cattle Sacred bulls El (deity) Baal Yahweh