Tel Rekhesh (Tell el-Mukharkhash) is located on the northern side of Nahal Tabor, five miles (8 km) southeast of Mount Tabor. Yohanan Aharoni identified it as biblical Anaharath (Josh 19:19), a city also mentioned in the records of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, as well as in the Amarna Letters.
From The Jewish Press.com:
An archaeological discovery in the Tel Rechesh excavations at the Tabor River Reserve in northern Israel: a joint archaeological expedition, which included researchers from the University of Tenri, Japan, and the Institute of Archaeology of Galilee Kinneret Academic College, have unearthed a Canaanite cult altar.
The excavations in this area have been going on for six years now.
The same excavations also revealed large parts of a Jewish farmhouse dating back to the Second Temple. Researchers were able to establish that this was a place of Jewish dwellers based on typical stone tools, oil lamps and coins minted in the city of Tiberias.
“The diggers received a big surprise,” said Chairman of the Institute of Archaeology of Galilee Kinneret Academic College Dr. Mordechai Avi’am. “In the ruins of the second floor of the farmhouse, they discovered a Canaanite cult statue, similar to a statue that stood in the sanctuary of a temple which is yet to be located.”
2 thoughts on “Canaanite Altar Discovered at Tel Rekhesh”
Curious…they said in the article that the Canaanite alter stone was later used as a doorframe. Would this be a sign that people who used that for worship were replaced by people who didn't care about the stone for religious purposes?
(I'm not any sort of expert…just conjecturing).
Gale – I think that is a reasonable conjecture.