(3) _At Jericho._--Another building of this period, which the excavators believed might have been built by Hiel, the rebuilder of Jericho, in the days of Ahab (1 Kings 16:34), was uncovered by Sellin. It is the most pretentious building of the Hebrew time at Jericho and may well have been the residence of the governor of the place. It consisted of a number of large rooms, and was throughout constructed of fairly large but irregular stones; (see Fig. 51). (4) _At Megiddo._--Another residence of an Israelitish governor was found at Megiddo. This was a large, irregular building, constructed around a courtyard. Some of the work was of dressed stones of considerable size, in every way superior to the stone-work of the earlier buildings of that city. In this palace a seal of a man named Shema was found, which bore the inscription, “Belonging to Shema, the servant of Jeroboam.” We do not know whether this man served under Jeroboam I or Jeroboam II. The fine character of the stone-work leads one to think the reign of Jeroboam II the more probable date; (see Figs. 53 and 27). One more palace should be noticed, that of Simon the Maccabee (143-135 B. C.), at Gezer. This palace is clearly of the Hellenistic type, and was identified as the dwelling-place that Simon built for himself (1 Macc. 13:48), by the discovery of an ancient curse against Simon’s palace scrawled in Greek on a block of stone. This building was constructed of rather finely cut stone, was of irregular shape (see Figs. 54, 55), had an imposing gate which admitted into a courtyard, and was supplied with a good system of drainage. =6. Foundation Sacrifices.=--When a house was built it was customary to consecrate it by a sacrifice. In early times in Palestine this was often a human sacrifice. In Gezer the skeleton of a woman was found built into the walls of a house. Numerous skeletons of children were also found under the corners of houses. Such sacrificial offerings were more often made under the corners of buildings, since the corners were considered sacred. In Babylonia and Egypt the sacrifice was accompanied with the burial under the corner-stone of inscriptions and other deposits, though in Egypt, as in Palestine, the deposit was not always under the corners.[149] Similar sacrifices were found at Taanach[150] and Megiddo.[151] These sacrifices illustrate, some think, 1 Kings 16:34, where Hiel laid the foundation of Jericho with the loss of his first-born, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son; (see Fig. 56).