IN PHOTOS: Excavating the Great Temple at Motza Near Jerusalem

26.08.2021 | 11:17

Aug. 26, 2021 | 11:17

One isn’t usually grateful for an overpass over one’s head. But if this accoutrement to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway hadn’t been erected, we might never have seen the huge early ninth-century B.C.E. temple at Motza, contemporary with the First Temple in Jerusalem just 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) away. And the archaeologists wouldn’t be able to peacefully and meticulously excavate in the shadow of the bridge as traffic roars by overhead.

Shua Kisilevitz of Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University are leading the 2021 summer dig of the temple at Motza (alternatively spelled Moza). But who exactly was worshipped there is quite the question.

On Monday, the archaeologists unearthed a rather weatherbeaten horse figurine. Another one, that is. The coarsely depicted quadruped was apparently one of many figurines that had squatted on a shelf inside the temple, which was built in exactly the same format as the First Temple (reportedly built by Solomon), according to the biblical account of what that edifice had been like.

And possibly also like Solomon’s temple, this one may have served to worship various deities, including Yahweh.

Among the other finds at the site are silos. A lot of silos. Dozens of them. They probably served to store grain. And lo, in contrast to the great temple in Jerusalem, this one survived the ages, and may survive many more thanks to the shelter provided by Route 1. Here are some of the latest discoveries at the Summer 2021 excavation of the great temple at Motza.

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In the shadow of the Route 1 bridge

The altar in the Motza temple

The altar at the Motza temple, from the early 9th century B.C.E. Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Who exactly was worshiped there is not clear.

Horse figurine discovered this summer

Weathered but unmistakable

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

The temple had a whole shelf of figurines. Asked it could have been a donkey, Lipschits says, No.

Through the gap between the lanes

Dawn light shines on the temple at Motza

Dawn strikes the ancient temple under the highway bridge at MotzaCredit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Yes, the pillars supporting the bridge "trample" part of the ancient temple. Supervisor Vanessa Linares (sitting) documenting finds while Assistant Area Supervisor Nicole Callaway from TAU and Julian Meyer from Osnabruck University remove buckets of earth from the square and Jana Krizova (below) from Charles University in Prague articulates the various floor layers of the temple courtyard as seen in a section remaining from the 2012 season.

The site features dozens of silos

The silos at Motza weren't huge in diameter

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Area Supervisor Jocelyn Burney of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill exposes yet another early silo north of the temple

Food storage goes back over 7000 years

A concentration of silos at Motza

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

A field of silos that predate the temple is exposed to its north, indicating that the site was first and foremost an economic center for the storage of agricultural produce during the early first millennium BCE

A highway bridge was built smack on top of the temple

But on the bright side -

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

If it hadn't been, we wouldn't know about the temple, Oded Lifschits points out.

Stone arrowhead found at Motza

Very finely manufactured, of flint

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

The First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. This one wasn't

First all dug-up dirt is closely examined

And once the dirt is deemed barren - it gets tossed

Credit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Via a human chain passing pails of debris down the line

A first at Motza:

The site was evidently settled during the Persian period

The first Yehud stamp impression found at Moẓa. This impression and additional vessels found in the collapse of a structure south of the temple courtyard prove that Moẓa was still settled during the Persians Period.

The first Yehud stamp impression found at Moẓa. This impression and vessels found in a collapsed structure south of the temple courtyard prove that Motẓa was still settled during the Persian periodCredit: David Raphael Moulis (Charles University, Prague)

Yehud stamp impressions were used for about a century during the Persian and Hellenistic periods

Prof. Martin Prudky of Charles University, Prague

A fragment of a large bowl from the Iron Age

Prof. Martin Prudky with a bowl fragmentCredit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Just one of many pottery vessels the professor retrieved from the collapse of a structure south of the temple courtyard

Lots of pottery was found at the site

Including some large fragments -

Bowl fragment, MotzaCredit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Rim of a storage jar

Some of these were huge

Bowl fragmentCredit: DAVID RAFAEL MOULIS

Talisa Gross from Osnabruck University in Germany, happy with the discovery of the rim of a late Iron Age holemouth storage jar

Team directors see results

Fragments that tell stories

Shua Kisilevitz (left), Oded Lipschits (middle right) studying fragments found at the siteCredit: David Raphael Moulis (Charles University, Prague)

Happiness is -

Finding the base of a juglet in an Iron Age II town near Jerusalem.

Linda Buhmann of Osnabruck University in Germany showing off the base of a juglet from the late phase of the temple courtyard.Credit: David Raphael Moulis (Charles University, Prague)

Linda Buhmann of Osnabruck University shows the base of a juglet from the late phase of the temple courtyard