Queries & Comments

BAR Reader Makes Shrewd Observation

To the Editor:

In your article on the Philistine temple (“Philistine Temple Discovered Within Tel Aviv City Limits,” BAR 01:02), you state that there is no evidence that a statue of a god stood on the platform or bama toward which worship was directed. You print a picture of the platform which looks like there is a pedestal on it which would have been just right for the statue of a Philistine god. Is that possible?

I enjoy your magazine very much. You are quite right that there is no other magazine like it.

Amihai Mazar replies:

The plastered platform which was discovered in the Philistine temple at Qasile probably did serve as a base for a statue of a god. However, the platform was found disturbed by a late Byzantine structure and therefore its original shape cannot be ascertained from the photograph.