Shua Kisilevitz - The Iron Age Temples at Tel Moẓa and Reflections of Cultic Practices in Judah

00:01 ASOR Announcements
01:30 Lecture Introduction by AIAR Director Jamie Fraser
10:02 Lecture

Holier than Thou? The Temples at Moẓa and Reflections of Ritual Practices in Ancient Judah

Abstract:
The recent discovery of not one, but a succession of two temples from the First Temple peri od at Tel Moẓa—just 7 km from Jerusalem—has reignited debate about how religion took shape in ancient Judah and the wider region. The revelations at Moẓa are especially intriguing when set against the backdrop of traditional scholarship, which was both heavily guided by biblical texts and paradigms and hampered by the rarity of confirmed temple remains in Judah.

At Moẓa, excavations revealed a cultic precinct containing a modest early shrine that was later replaced by a monumental “long-room” temple whose plan, scale, and decoration closely echo the Bible’s description of Solomon’s Temple. Indeed, the similarities between the temples at Moẓa and Jerusalem, and the proximity between the two, sharpen questions of cultic centralization, reform, and practice, and they suggest that Jerusalem’s temple was neither the only one in Judah nor necessarily the “first.”

Because such temple evidence is so scarce in Judah, the Moẓa finds are unusually revealing. They include altars, offering tables, standing stones, sacrificial remains, and cultic paraphernalia that were found in sealed, well-documented contexts that reflect continuous rebuilding and refurbishing of the temples. Altogether, these discoveries provide a rare glimpse into how worship was actually practiced and how traditions formed over centuries. In this lecture, I will trace the development of the two Moẓa temples and the rituals practiced there, setting them alongside biblical descriptions and regional parallels. Through plans, objects, and visual reconstructions, I’ll show how the patterns at Moẓa likely reflect broader traditions that shaped religious life in Jerusalem and across the southern Levant.

Speaker Bio: Shua Kisilevitz is Assistant Director of the Albright Institute, co-director of the Tel Moza Expedition Project, and a research fellow at Tel Aviv University. An archaeologist with broad field and publication experience, she has worked at sites across Israel, primarily around Jerusalem and Judea. Since 2012, she has led the study of the unique economic and cultic Iron Age site at Tel Moza, near Jerusalem. Currently, her research focuses on social organization and religious practice in Iron Age Judah and the southern Levant.

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