Pennsylvanla Museum Expedition Makes Finds at Beisan

A great stepped altar at which the Canaanites worshipped their god Mekal nearly 3,500 years ago has been found in Beisan, the Biblical Beth-Shan, by the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s archaeological expedition to Palestine, it was announced today following receipt of a report from Alan Rowe, director of the expedition.

The altar, built of bricks resting upon a foundation of undressed stones in the Mekal temple, is approximately seventeen feet wide and twelve feet deep and is the most remarkable structure of its kind ever found in western Asia, according to Mr. Rowe.

Adjoining the great altar was discovered a small room containing a low seat and also a sloping socket in which a wooden peg once rested. From its appearance and its strategic position it seems obvious that this room was used by the temple guardian who maintained his vigil assisted by a fierce hunting dog, probably tethered to the peg, the archaeologists declare.

During the course of its excavation of the Thothmes III level at Beisan dating from 1501 to 1447 B. C., the Museum’s expedition had previously uncovered the greater part of the vast temple dedicated to the god Mekal, but had not completed the excavation of the western section of the structure. According to the report just received by the Museum from Mr. Rowe which covers the activities of the expedition during the concluding weeks of the 1928-29 season, the excavation of the western section has now been completed and the archaeologists have thus been enabled to obtain for the first time a correct and detailed idea of the temple’s general plan.

In addition, the work in this section has resulted in the discovery of many valuable objects, including three gold pendants, one of which bears the figure of the goddess Ashtoreth; bronze arrowheads; an ivory spindle-whorl; and several Syro-Hittite cylinder seals whose presence seems to indicate a northern influence in Beth-Shan in the time of Thothmes III.