SACRED SITES
+The Sanctuary of Gezer.+--Of the excavations in Palestine none have
been so prolific or so fully described as those undertaken by Mr.
Macalister on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund at Gezer. This
ancient site lies about eighteen miles W.N.W. of Jerusalem, and,
between its two knolls, on a commanding position, one of the most
striking which Palestine can offer, were found the remains of a
sanctuary whose history must have extended over several centuries.
Gezer itself has thrown the strongest light upon the religion of the
land, and a brief description of its now famous 'high-place' will form
a convenient introduction to the cult and ritual of the period.
Looking eastwards we face eight rough monoliths, which stretch in a
slightly concave line, about 75 feet in length, from north to south.
They are erected upon a platform of stones about {14} 8 feet wide; they
vary from 5-½ ft. to 10 ft. in height, and have uniformly a fairer
surface on the western (front) than on the eastern side. Number 1, on
the extreme right, is the largest (10 ft. 2 in. high, and 4 ft. 7 in.
by 2 ft. 6 in.). Next (No. 2), stands the smallest (5 ft. 5 in. high,
1 ft. 2 in. by 1 ft. 9 in.), whose pointed top with polished spots on
the surface speaks of the reverent anointing, stroking and kissing
which holy stones still enjoy at the present day. No. 7, the last but
one on our extreme left, is of a limestone found around Jerusalem and
in other districts, but not in the neighbourhood of Gezer. Under what
circumstances this stone was brought hither can only be conjectured
(see p. 80). The pillar (7 ft. 3 in. high, 2 ft. 10 in. by 1 ft. 3
in.) bears upon its front surface a peculiar curved groove; No. 1, too,
has a groove across the top, and four in all have hollows or cup-marks
upon their surfaces. Nos. 4 and 8 are more carefully shaped than the
rest, and the latter stands in a circular socket, and is flanked on
either side by the stumps of two broken pillars. Yet another stone lay
fallen to the south of No. 1, and there is some reason to suppose that
this and the unique No. 2 belonged to the earliest stage in the history
of the sanctuary. In front of Nos. 5 {15} and 6 is a square stone
block (6 ft. 1 in. by 5 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in.), with a cavity (2 ft. 10
in. by 1 ft. 11 in. by 1 ft. 4 in.); a curved groove runs along the
front (the western side) of the rim. It is disputed whether this stone
held some idol, stele, or pillar; or whether it was a trough for ritual
ablutions similar to those which Professor Petrie recognised at Serabit
el-Khadem, or whether, again, it was a sacrificial block upon which the
victim was slain.
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.
At the north-east edge of the plateau of Tell es-Sāfy the
excavations brought to light a building with monoliths; in the debris
at their feet were the bones of camels, sheep and cows. At the east
end of the hill of Megiddo, Dr. Schumacher found pillars with cup-marks
enclosed in a small building about 30 ft. by 15 ft.; a block of stone
apparently served as the sacrificial altar. Besides several amulets
and small idols, at one of the {18} corners were jars containing the
skeletons of new-born infants. The structure belonged to a great
series of buildings about 230 ft. long and 147 ft. broad. At the same
site also was discovered a bare rock with hollows; it was approached by
a step, and an entrance led to a subterranean abode containing human
and other bones. At Taanach, Dr. Sellin found a similar place of
sacrifice with cavities and channel; the rock-altar had a step on the
eastern side, and close by were a number of flint-knives, jars with
infants (ranging up to two years of age), and the remains of an adult.
Continued excavation will no doubt throw fuller light upon the old
sacred places, their varying types, and their development; even the
recent discovery of a small pottery model of the façade of a shrine is
suggestive. It represents an open fore-court and a door-way on either
side of which is a figure seated with its hands upon its knees. The
figure wears what seems to be a high-peaked cap; it is presumably
human, but the nose is curiously rounded, and one recalls the quaint
guardians of the temple-front found in other parts of Western Asia.
+Their Persistence.+--Whether the choice of a {19} sacred place was
influenced by chance, by some peculiar natural characteristic, or by
the impressiveness of the locality, nothing is more striking than its
persistence. Religious practice is always conservative, and once a
place has acquired a reputation for sanctity, it will retain its fame
throughout political and even religious vicissitudes. The history of
Gezer, for example, goes back to the neolithic age, but the religious
development, to judge from the archæological evidence, is unbroken, and
although there came a time when the city passed out of history,
Palestine still has its sacred stones and rock-altars, buildings and
tombs, caves and grottoes, whose religious history must extend over
untold ages. At both Gezer and Tell es-Sāfy a sacred tomb actually
stands upon the surface of the ground quite close to the site of the
old holy places.
At Serabit the caves with their porticoes had evolved by the addition
of chambers, etc., into a complicated series sacred to the
representative goddess of the district and to the god of the Egyptian
miners. It is estimated that the cult continued for at least a
thousand years. In the neighbourhood of Petra several apparent
'high-places' have been found. They are perched conspicuously to catch
the rays of the morning {20} sun or in view of a holy shrine; and the
finest of them is approached by two great pillars, 21 to 22 feet high.
Although as a whole they may be ascribed to 300 B.C.-100 A.D., their
altars, basins, courts, etc., probably permit us to understand the more
imperfect remains of sanctuaries elsewhere.[1] But independently of
these, from Sinai to North Syria an imposing amount of evidence
survives in varying forms for the history of the sacred sites of
antiquity. In the rock-altars of the modern land with cup-marks and
occasionally with steps, with the shrine of some holy saint and an
equally holy tree, sometimes also with a mysterious cave, we may see
living examples of the more undeveloped sanctuaries. For a result of
continued evolution, on the other hand, perhaps nothing could be more
impressive than the Sakhra of the Holy Temple at Jerusalem, where, amid
the associations of three thousand years of history, the bare rock,
with hollows, cavities, channels, and subterranean cave, preserves the
primitive features without any essential change.[2]
[1] G. Dalman, _Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer_ (Leipzig, 1908).
[2] R. Kittel, Studien zur Hebräischen Archäologie und
Religionsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1908), chap. i. Chap. ii. illustrates
primitive rock-altars of Palestine and their development.
+The Modern Places of Cult.+--Notwithstanding {21} the religious and
political vicissitudes of Palestine, the old centres of cult have never
lost the veneration of the people, and their position in modern popular
belief and ritual affords many a suggestive hint for their history in
the past. Although Mohammedanism allows few sacred localities, the
actual current practice, in Palestine as in Asia Minor, attaches
conceptions of great sanctity to a vast number of places. The shrines
and sacred buildings dotted here and there upon elevated sites form a
characteristic feature of the modern land, and there is abundant
testimony that they are the recipients of respect and awe far more real
than that enjoyed by the more official or orthodox religion. Although
they are often placed under the protection of Islam by being known as
the tombs of saints, prophets, and holy sheikhs, this is merely a
disguise; and although it is insisted that the holy occupants are only
mediators, they are the centre of antique rites and ideas which
orthodox Mohammedanism rejects. Their power is often rated above that
of Allah himself. Oaths by Allah are freely taken and as freely
broken, those at the local shrines rarely (if ever) fail; the coarse
and painful freedom of language, even in connection with Allah, becomes
restrained when the natives visit their holy place.
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The religious life of the peasants is bound up with the shrines and
saints. There they appeal for offspring, healing, and good harvests;
there they dedicate the first-fruits, firstlings, and their children,
and in their neighbourhood they prefer to be buried. No stranger may
intrude heedlessly within the sacred precincts, and one may see the
worshipper enter barefooted praying for permission as he carefully
steps over the threshold. The saint by supernatural means is able to
protect everything deposited in the vicinity of the tomb, which can
thus serve as a store or treasure-house. He is supreme over a local
area; he is ready even to fight for his followers against the foe; for
all practical purposes he is virtually the god of the district. Some
of the shrines are sacred to a woman who passes for the sister or the
daughter of a saint at the same or a neighbouring locality. Even the
dog has been known to have a shrine in his honour, and the animal
enters into Palestinian folk-lore in a manner which this unclean beast
of Mohammedanism hardly seems to deserve. As a rule the people will
avoid calling the occupant of the shrine by name, and some
circumlocutionary epithet is preferred: the famous sheikh, father of
the lion, rain-giver, dwarf, full-moon, or (in case of {23} females)
the lady of child-birth, the fortunate, and the like.
The shrines are the centres of story and legend which relate their
origin, legitimise their persistence, or illustrate their power. In
the course of ages the name of the saint who once chose to reveal
himself there has varied, and the legends of earlier figures have been
transferred and adjusted to names more acceptable to orthodoxy. Some
of the figures have grown in importance and have thus extended their
sphere of influence, and as difference of sect is found to be no
hindrance to a common recognition of the power of the saint, the more
famous shrines have been accepted by worshippers outside the original
circle. In course of time, too, isolated figures have gained
supremacy, and have superseded earlier distinct authorities, with the
result that the same name will be found under a number of locally
diverging types. Most conspicuous of all are St. George and the
ever-youthful prophet Elijah, who have inherited numerous sacred places
and their cults, in the same manner as St. George has become the
successor of Apollo in the Greek isles. Similarly the Virgin Mary, in
her turn, has frequently taken the place formerly held by the female
deities of antiquity.
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