IN PALESTINE IN RRLATION TO THE BIBLE. 



231 



ami other offerings to the gods of the iinderworkl. In the cave to 

 whieli it led were found a considerable number of bones of pigs, 

 Avhich we know were sacred animals among the early Semites. 

 What the " cup marks " represented, what their use, one cannot 

 guess. They may have been symbolic of the sun or moon, or 

 they may have had practical use in the details of the sacrificial 

 rites. 



The gi'eat Semitic (Canaanite) " high place " of Gezer, about 

 120 feet north of the last mentioned, occupied a prominent 

 place in the centre of the hill. The temple, as now uncovered, 

 consists of eight monolith pillars varying from 10 feet 

 9 inches to 5 feet 5 inches in height, but in line with these 

 are the broken bases of two other pillars. These Masscbdtli 

 (n^2!i*2) — to use the Hebrew name — are mostly roughly 

 hewn masses of limestone, and all of similar rock to the local 

 limestone, except one, the seventh, which, according to the 

 distinguished geologist Dr. Blanckenhorn, is of a different 

 formation, and is indeed of a kind found around Jerusalem. It 

 has been suggested that possibly this masschah was brought from 

 Jerusalem, and, if so, the others may have come from other 

 shrines, trophies perhaps of victories. 



In the middle of the series of monoHths — between stones V 

 and VI — is a great rock-cut socket or trough over 6 feet long 

 by 5 feet broad ; it lies a little to the west of the alignment 

 of the pillars. It is carefully squared and hollowed out, leaving 

 an inside space (2 feet 10 inches long by 1 foot 11 inches 

 broad by 1 foot 4 inches deep). It is difhcult to decide with 

 assurance for what purpose this could have been made. It 

 may have been an altar hollowed out, like one found in Petra* 

 to receive the blood of the victims,^ a trough to receive water 

 for lustrations — an essential part of Semitic worsliip — or, as 

 Mr. Macalister and several experts who have visited the spot 

 think, a socket to hold the pole or Asherah, which we know from 

 the Old Testament was an essential religious symbol at Canaanite 

 high places. If this last was its use, the Asherah must have 

 been an imposing piece of timber to need such a socket, and one 

 not unworthy of standing beside the mighty monoliths. That 

 the Asherah was often large, is implied in Judges vii, 26, 

 where Gideon offers a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the 

 Asherah. 



* See article on tlie " High Place at Petra," Biblical World, Jan. 1901. 

 t The bones of many victims, human and animal, were found thrown 

 pell-mell into a cave close by. 



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