In the area behind (east of) these monoliths are entrances leading to
two large underground caverns which appear to have been used originally
for habitation; their maximum diameters are about 40 ft. and 28 ft.,
and they extend nearly the whole length of the alignment. The caverns
were connected by a passage, so short that any sound in one could be
distinctly heard in the other, so small and crooked, that it is easy to
imagine to what use these mysterious chambers could be put. In the
larger cave a jar containing the skeleton of an infant rested upon a
stone, and close by were the remains of an adult. Further behind the
pillars was found a bell-shaped pit containing numerous animal and
human bones. In a circular structure in front of pillars Nos. 7 and 8,
the bronze model of a cobra lay amid {16} potsherds and other debris.
A little distance to the south in a bank of earth were embedded several
broken human skulls, cow-teeth, etc.; the heads had evidently been
severed before burial, and there was no trace of the bodies. Below the
whole area, before and more particularly behind the pillars, several
infants were found buried head-downwards in large jars; they were
mostly new-born, and two, as also two older children, bore marks of
fire. Finally, throughout the debris that had accumulated upon the
floor of the sanctuary were innumerable objects typical of
nature-worship, representations in low relief of the nude
mother-goddess of Western Asia, and male emblems roughly made of
limestone, pottery, bone, and other material.
+Other Sacred Places.+--Scarcely fifty yards to the south of these
pillars was a rock-surface about ninety feet by eighty, covered with
over eighty of the singular cup-marks or hollows which we have already
observed. One little group surrounded by small standing-stones was
connected by a drain which led to a subterranean cave. Here, too, was
another almost concealed chamber, and the discovery of a number of
bones of the swine (an animal seldom found elsewhere in Gezer) gave
{17} weight to the suggestion that mysterious rites were practised.
Although the monoliths of Gezer do not appear to have lost their sacred
character until perhaps the sixth century B.C., they were not the only
place of cult in the city. Above, on the eastern hill, were the
remains of an elaborate building measuring about 100 ft. by 80 ft..
Its purpose was shown by the numerous religious emblems found within
its precincts. In two circular structures were the broken fragments of
the bones of sheep and goats--devoid of any signs of cooking or
burning. Jars containing infants had been placed at the corners of
some of the chambers; and below an angle of a courtyard close by, a pit
underneath the corner-stone disclosed bones and potsherds, the latter
bearing upon them the skull of a young girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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