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Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient...
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Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient Israel and the Surrounding Cultures

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 2644

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Stephanie Selover

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Washington, Seattle, MA 98195, USA
Interests: the prehistoric cultures of the Middle East, evidence of violence on ancient human remains, the origins of violence and warfare in the ancient world, and the effects of modern politics on archaeology
Dr. Monique Roddy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of History and Philosophy, Walla Walla University, College Place, WA 99324, USA
Interests: Iron Age households at Khirbat al-Balua; history and philosophy of the ancient Near-East; households and communities of the Iron Age Southern Levant circa 1200 B.C.

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Religion and concepts of the divine have been at the center of study within the archaeological scholarship of ancient Israel and its environs since W.F. Albright headed to Palestine for his first excavations and G.E. Wright began publishing Biblical Archaeologist to keep scholars abreast of archaeological discoveries relevant to biblical studies. The study of the religions and ritual lives of the people of the Levant during the Iron Age has remained a topic rife for scholarship. The prevailing motives of those interested in the Bible and archaeology have shifted in this time from a desire to “prove” the historical accuracy and integrity of the biblical accounts to a desire to better understand the foundations of modern monotheistic religions and the reality of worship in the past, both in and beyond what is known from the Bible. Scholars have considered and studied biblical and extra-biblical texts, inscriptions, architectural remains, foodways, and artifact assemblages as a way to better understand ancient religions.

In this Special Issue, we look into the study of religion and ritual in the Iron Age I and II (ca. 1200–586 BCE) in Israel itself and in the environs, including the wider Levant and southwest Asia. We welcome studies that are taking new looks at this important time period, using fresh eyes and methodologies to explore an old topic that is ripe for revisiting after a century of scholarship. Beyond what is known from the texts, what can we know about the personal space of religion and ritual? How did domestic religion differ from that of the larger centralized institutions, as represented in monumental or dedicated structures? How did religious practices differ between the various cultures of the Levant in this time period and what did they share?

We welcome contributions that consider questions of the place of domestic religion versus state or centralized religion, the place of religious ceremony in terms of burial practices, personal religion via the study of names and naming practices, iconographic representations of the divine, or even the meaning of ritual and religion in feasting practices or psychotropic ritual practices to reach the divine. How can older records be revisited via new studies utilizing databases and GIS? Through this Special Issue, we hope to find new methods to add to our knowledge of this time period and the people who lived and worshiped.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Iron II national religions
  • Levantine ritual practices (Northern and Southern Levant, Iron I or Iron II);
  • Archaeology, philology, sociology, history;
  • Domestic religion, public religion, burial practices, personal religion (names), iconographic representations of the divine, feasting and dietary patterns, psychotropic ritual practices, and data analysis.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 150–200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors, Dr. Stephanie Selover (sselover@uw.edu) and Dr. Monique Roddy (monique.roddy@wallawalla.edu), and CC the Assistant Editor, Ms. Joyce Xi (joyce.xi@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blinded peer-review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stephanie Selover
Dr. Monique Roddy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Israel
  • Levant
  • Iron Age I
  • Iron Age II
  • religious architecture
  • religious practices
  • feasting
  • material culture of religion

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 4898 KB  
Article
Ritual Kitchens and Communal Feasting: Excavating the Southeastern Sector of the Ataruz Temple Courtyard, Jordan
by Chang-Ho Ji, Choong-Ryeol Lee and Vy Cao
Religions 2025, 16(10), 1272; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101272 - 5 Oct 2025
Viewed by 118
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the 2010–23 excavations of the southeastern sector of the Iron II temple at Khirbat Ataruz, Jordan, revealing a purpose-built kitchen complex and a rock-cut libation and animal slaughter feature. Abundant animal bones were collected from the eastern [...] Read more.
This paper presents the results of the 2010–23 excavations of the southeastern sector of the Iron II temple at Khirbat Ataruz, Jordan, revealing a purpose-built kitchen complex and a rock-cut libation and animal slaughter feature. Abundant animal bones were collected from the eastern section of the area. Zooarchaeological analysis reveals that faunal remains are dominated by sheep and goats—species central to sacrificial rites—with smaller yet consistent contributions from deer and cattle, and a notable absence of pig bones. Together, these exceptionally well-preserved remains provide rare evidence of integrated cultic architecture, encompassing culinary, sacrificial, and communal feasting, and shed new light on the design of sacred space, religious practices, and temple meals in the southern Levant during the 9th–8th centuries BCE. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient Israel and the Surrounding Cultures)
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22 pages, 1093 KB  
Article
Composite Female Figurines and the Religion of Place: Figurines as Evidence of Commonality or Singularity in Iron IIB-C Southern Levantine Religion?
by Erin Darby
Religions 2025, 16(9), 1181; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091181 - 13 Sep 2025
Viewed by 508
Abstract
Much attention has been paid to female, pillar-based figurines from Iron II Judah, and the veneration of a major goddess in that territory. Similarly, female figurines throughout the Levant have largely been treated as evidence of goddess-worship, writ large. While the focus on [...] Read more.
Much attention has been paid to female, pillar-based figurines from Iron II Judah, and the veneration of a major goddess in that territory. Similarly, female figurines throughout the Levant have largely been treated as evidence of goddess-worship, writ large. While the focus on goddesses and fertility has been critiqued by contemporary scholarship, the prevalence of female terracotta figurines remains a productive ground for critical inquiry. There is still no consensus explaining the dissemination of female figurines throughout Levantine states during the Iron IIB-C and how to interpret the similarities and differences among these corpora. Do the similarities that distinguish the Levantine figurines from those of other regions indicate a widespread diffusion of similar praxis across Levantine religion? Do the unique features of figurine design, technology, and deposition that demarcate the corpora of one Levantine state from another provide evidence for a “religion of place” on a more local scale? How should scholars approach iconographic similarities when interpreting the use and function of figurines in different locales? In an attempt to address these questions, this paper uses Levantine composite female terracotta figurines as a test case to explore the way archaeological data both support and impede a geographically contextualized approach to religious praxis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient Israel and the Surrounding Cultures)
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30 pages, 5772 KB  
Article
Texts, Architecture, and Ritual in the Iron II Levant
by Timothy Hogue
Religions 2025, 16(9), 1178; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091178 - 12 Sep 2025
Viewed by 510
Abstract
Studies of ancient Israelite religion have long assumed that texts played some role in its public expression. This role is often reconstructed using depictions in the Hebrew Bible and ritual texts from neighboring regions or the Bronze Age Levant. However, no such ritual [...] Read more.
Studies of ancient Israelite religion have long assumed that texts played some role in its public expression. This role is often reconstructed using depictions in the Hebrew Bible and ritual texts from neighboring regions or the Bronze Age Levant. However, no such ritual texts have been uncovered in the Iron Age Levant. Nevertheless, an analysis of architecturally embedded texts alongside their associated assemblages makes it possible to reconstruct ancient Levantine ritual practices and the roles of texts within them. As components of built environments, texts drew attention to particular areas, directing traffic along particular routes and halting it at waypoints. Texts of various genres occasionally prescribe specific ritual actions to carry out at these waypoints. Even texts lacking prescriptions were often accompanied by iconography depicting ritual practices or functional artifacts implying them. Analyzing architectural, textual, iconographic, and artifactual evidence together allows us to reconstruct ritual sequences performed in ancient built environments. This article demonstrates this method using case studies derived from four Iron Age Levantine sites: Karatepe, Karkemish, Kuntillet ʿAjrud, and Deir ʿAlla. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient Israel and the Surrounding Cultures)
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18 pages, 10811 KB  
Article
Compositional Analysis of Cultic Clay Objects from the Iron Age Southern Levant
by David Ben-Shlomo
Religions 2025, 16(6), 661; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060661 - 22 May 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 881
Abstract
Compositional analysis conducted on pottery and other ceramic items can shed light on their place of production and in certain cases, on technological aspects of the production sequence. The methods used, petrography and chemical analysis, can also be employed on cultic terracotta such [...] Read more.
Compositional analysis conducted on pottery and other ceramic items can shed light on their place of production and in certain cases, on technological aspects of the production sequence. The methods used, petrography and chemical analysis, can also be employed on cultic terracotta such as figurines, cult stands, models, or other clay objects. Several studies of such analyses of items from various periods in the Southern Levant have been published, mostly from temple contexts. This paper focuses particularly on two groups of items: clay models from the favissa at Yavneh and pillar figurines and other (mostly horse) figurines from Jerusalem and Tell en-Nasbeh in Iron Age Judah. These two groups are both roughly dated to the time span between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. While the former group is of objects representing a temple context in Philistia, the latter is likely related to a domestic cult in Judah. The analysis of these objects is also examined against the background of a robust compositional analysis of regular pottery from the sites. The compositional analysis can indicate whether these objects were locally produced or imported from various regions (thus possibly brought by pilgrims), as well as whether they were “mass-produced” in a single workshop. The results can shed light on aspects of religious and cultic conducts in these occasions as well as compare domestic and temple-related cultic behaviors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Cult and Modern Methods: Unearthing the Religions of Ancient Israel and the Surrounding Cultures)
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