Queries & Comments

Beno Rothenberg Answers Query on Midianite Tented Shrine

To the Editor:

I read with interest your report that archaeologist Beno Rothenberg found a “Midianite tented shrine which provides a parallel to the tent shrine of Israel’s desert wandering” Was this Midianite tent preserved for more than 3,000 years? If it wasn’t, how does Rothenberg know a tent shrine was there? And how does he know it was Midianite?

Also would it be possible to print a picture of the gilded snake which he discovered at the same site?

I enjoyed your first issue and wish you much success in this new endeavor.

Beno Rothenberg replies:

I was pleased to receive Ms. Weil’s letter asking how we know that there was a Midianite tent over the older Egyptian temple of Hathor at Timna. The answer is simple: We found the tent cloth lying in heaps along the walls of the temple in the layer attributed by stratigraphy to the Midianite phase of the sanctuary. It was extremely difficult to save this tent cloth but we did preserve very many fragments and these have been investigated by experts in ancient textiles.

I enclose a photograph of the copper serpent, also found in the Midianite layer of the temple.