First Evidence of Life-sized Divine Statues Discovered in Biblical Lachish

A sceptre about 3,200 years old made of copper and coated in silver leaf found in the biblical city of Lachish could be the first evidence of life-sized “divine statues” in the Levant, as described in ancient sources but never found to date, researchers from the Hebrew University report in the journal of Antiquity.

The discovery in the Canaanite city is one of a kind, says Prof. Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The sceptre is all that remains of what had been a large statue of a god gracing the city’s temple in antiquity, the professor thinks. It was discovered at a spot believed to be the Holy of Holies in the Canaanite temple, he reports in Antiquity. That position is exactly as described in Mesopotamian texts, which say the life-sized statues of gods stood in the most secluded part of the temple.

In fact, though life sized divine statues were described time and again in ancient records, and there is even a Neo-Assyrian relief from Nineveh depicting soldiers looting such a statue from a temple, no intact ones have ever been found in the Levant. Nor has one now, but this remarkable sceptre could have been held by one.


The two sides of the bronze sceptre from Lachish: Note that the silver leaf is only on the insideTal Rogovsky

It bears adding that quite large metal divine sculptures, 36 and 56 centimeters tall, have been found in Cyprus but even ones that size haven’t been found in the Levant. The site of the so-called earliest temple in the world, Gobekli Tepe, also features large stone sculptures from as much as 11,000 years ago. Statues a meter tall made of mud and plaster were found in Jericho and ‘Ain Ghazal from the 9th millennium B.C.E.

The newly reported sceptre, as said from the much later Canaanite period around 3,200 years ago, had actually been was discovered in Lachish some years ago by Hebrew University team headed by Garfinkel at Lachish, a city in the Judean plain. It is just over 11 centimeters long by four centimeters wide, and coated with thin silver leaf on its front, and basically looks like a spatula. It is just over 11 centimeters long by four centimeters wide (4.3 by 1.5 inches), is coated with thin silver leaf on its front, and basically looks like a spatula. This artifact was engraved with dots and lines that do not seem to be figurative, but could theoretically represent an astral or mythical symbol, Garfinkel suggests.

Near it the archaeologists also found two small statuettes of divine entities, apparently representing Baal.