Tel Motza or Tel Moẓa is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

Motza Motza, also Mozah or Motsa, (, ) is a neighbourhood on the western edge of Jerusalem. It is located in the Judaean Mountains, 600 metres above sea level, connected to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway, Highway 16, and the winding mo ...

, on the outskirts of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. It includes the remains of a large

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

settlement dated to around 8600–8200 BCE, and

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

Israelite 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 ...

settlement dating to around 1000 to 500 BCE and identified with the biblical ''Mozah'' mentioned in the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

. In 2012, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

from the Iron Age IIA levels at Motza, contemporary with the

First Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it was commis ...

in Jerusalem.

Neolithic

A 9,000-year-old

site was discovered at Motza. Archaeologists found at Tel Motza remains of a settlement dated to the Neolithic period (about 6000 BCE), indicating that Motza was part of an ancient economic center.Temple and sacred vessels from Biblical times discovered at Tel Motza
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2012, accessed 29 July 2019 The site was called "Big Bang" of Prehistory because of the preservation of the artefacts and the size of its area. It has been discovered that the area was home to about 3,000 residents. This Neolithic settlement is considered the largest ever discovered in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, and changed the beliefs about this area being uninhabited during that period. "This is most probably the largest excavation of this time period in the Middle East, which will allow the research to advance leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today, just by the amount of material that we are able to save and preserve from this site", reported archaeologist Lauren Davis from the IAA. Excavations at Tel Motza took place in 2012–13 and 2019. The area was excavated by the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA) because of the highway construction, and the researches are conducted by IAA archaeologists Hamoudi Khalaily and Jacob Vardi. Flint tools (arrowheads, axes, blades and knives), figurine of an ox made of clay, a stone-carved human face, seeds, stone bracelets, animal bones and other objects have been found from the site. According to the archaeologists, "Amongst others, unique stone-made objects were found in the tombs, made of an unknown type of stone, as well as items made of

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

(volcanic glass) from

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, and sea-shells, some of which were brought from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and some from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Tel Motza: Iron Age temple

Excavations in Motza (2012) unearthed the Tel Motza temple, a large building revealing clear elements of ritual use, dated to the 9th century BCE. A rare cache of ritual objects found near the building included tiny ceramic figurines of men and animals. An analysis of animal bones found at the site indicated that they belonged only to

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

animals.Israeli archaeologists uncover ancient temple just outside Jerusalem
''Haaretz''. Excavations at the site continued as late as 2013, led by archaeologists Shua Kisilevitz, Zvi Greenhut, and Anna Eirikh-Rose on behalf of the

(IAA). Some finds, such as the possible presence of a Canaanite storm god, have been interpreted as further evidence that

era Judahite religion ("

Yahwism Yahwism, also known as the Israelite religion, was the ancient Semitic religion of ancient Israel and Judah and the ethnic religion of the Israelites. The Israelite religion was a derivative of the Canaanite religion and a polytheistic re ...

") was markedly different from the monotheistic

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

depicted much later in the Bible. Tel Motza Temple

Excavations at Tel Motza carried out prior to construction on Highway 1 revealed a public building, storehouses and silos dating to the days of the monarchic period ( Iron Age IIA). A wide, east-facing entrance in the wall of the public building is believed to have been built in accordance with temple construction traditions in the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

: the sun rising in the east would illuminate an object placed inside the temple, symbolizing the divine presence. An array of sacred pottery vessels,

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...

s and small figurines of men and horses were found near the altar of the temple. The cache of sacred vessels has been dated to the early 9th century BCE, that is before the centralizing religious reforms of Kings

Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...

(reign ca. 729–687 BCE) and

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

(reign ca. 640–609 BCE) of Judah. The temple dates back to the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

of the 9th century BCE, and appears to have operated alongside the First Temple in nearby Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the centre of the Kingdom of Judah and, according to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

and

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

. Many historical finds have been discovered in the area of Tel Motza, dating from different periods, and archaeologists have sought to identify it as the Biblical settlement of ''Mozah'' mentioned in the

(). The archaeological site directors said the discoveries provided evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures throughout the

before the religious reforms centralized ritual practices at the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

. The temple was a rare find of remains from the

First Temple period The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millennium BCE, to the establishment and subsequent downfall of the two Israelite kingdoms in the mid- ...

. Animal bones were found at the site, and show signs of having been cut, possibly indicating that they were sacrificed.

Neolithic findings in temple area

Occupation earth with one of the first remains of buildings, statuettes and bones of

domesticated animals This page gives a list of domesticated animals, also including a list of domestication of animals, animals which are or may be currently undergoing the process of domestication and animals that have an extensive relationship with humans beyond simp ...

in the temple's area and nearby goes back to about 7,000 BC. This older part was to be buried by Highway 16 in 2019 after development-led excavation.

References

External links

Temple and rare cache of sacred vessels from Biblical times discovered at Tel Motza
Israel Antiquities Authority December 2012
Temple and sacred vessels from Biblical times discovered at Tel Motza
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 26 December 2012. Republication of the IAA article but with an aerial view of the site instead of a general view {{Holy sites in Judaism 8th-century BC religious buildings and structures Establishments in the Kingdom of Judah Religion in ancient Israel and Judah Tabernacle and Temples in Jerusalem 2012 archaeological discoveries Destroyed temples

Neolithic

Tel Motza: Iron Age temple

Neolithic findings in temple area

See also

References

External links