Discoveries that include ritual offerings uncovered near Tel Megiddo, an archaeological site in northern Israel, have revealed an ancient Canaanite cult and unique insights into its worship practices.
The winepress at the center of the find is among the oldest ever discovered in Israel, dating back 5,000 years. Next week, the materials will go on display at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem for public viewing.
Canaanites in the Jezreel Valley
Before the Israelites entered the region, the Canaanites inhabited Israel’s Jezreel Valley. Their antiquity makes them one of the oldest known civilizations in the world. The common people of their society performed their own ritual folk worship, which is now revealed alongside new information about early urbanization in the area, corresponding to the Early Bronze Age.
While the discovery sheds light on ancient urbanization, a more modern concern helped to propel the project: upgrades to the nearby Highway 66 roadway. The Israeli Ministry of Transport began the project to carefully excavate the ancient structural remains before laying down modern infrastructure, supported by funding from the government-owned National Road Company of Israel.
An Ancient Wine Press is Discovered
The dig revealed a wine press carved directly into the rock, featuring a sloped treading surface and a collection vat. Previous excavations provided clues suggesting that wine production occurred in the area 5,000 years ago, but this is the first direct evidence. By discovering and dating the winepress, researchers now have a definite timeline for when wine came to Israel.
“This winepress is unique, one of very few known from such an ancient period when urbanization first took place in our region,” said IAA Excavation Directors Dr Amir Golani and Barak Tzin, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. “Up until now, all the evidence for wine production from such an early period of 5,000 years ago, circumstantial evidence. Now we can definitively say when and where its production began in Israel.”
“We were able to date the winepress to the early Bronze I period, and this is a very important time, when local society had no written records yet, but they were just beginning to create cities … what we call the first urbanization,” Dr Golani added.
Surrounding the winepress are many residential buildings that underscore the press’s central importance and suggest that the contemporary Canaanite settlement extended over a wide area, as the find lies outside the central Tel Megiddo site.
Cult Relics Discovered
The dig also uncovered later-era Canaanite religious objects dating to the Late Bronze Age, roughly 3,300 years ago. Archaeologists discovered vessels carefully placed as ritual offerings in ancient Canaanite rites. Those items included jugs imported from Cyprus, ceremonial vessels, and even a small ceramic model of a shrine.
The complete set, including a vessel shaped in the likeness of a ram, likely had ceremonial uses. For these ritual occasions, the Canaanites would have used the vessel’s integrated funnel to fill it with a desirable liquid, which may have been wine, but could also have been milk or oil. After filling the ram’s head, they could tilt the vessel to pour the liquid from its mouth into a small bowl.
Life Among the Canaanites
The burial location provides further suggestions of how this ancient cult operated. A straight path sits between the find and a large temple area at Tel Megiddo. The archaeologists say that this likely indicates that the cult existed beyond the strict limits of the city. Most likely, farmers outside of town would have stopped to offer liquid on their way to the main city gate.
Religion among the Canaanites could take different forms. Although the temple would have been a religious center, not everyone would have entered it. Farmers on the outskirts of Megiddo would have looked toward the temple as they made their offerings from their fields. Therefore, the latest discovery may represent the remnants of a peasant religion.
Now, after unearthing what appears to be a cult of modest means, archaeologists are helping to shed new light on the daily life and beliefs of the Canaanites who lived in the region thousands of years ago.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.