When the kingdom split, 1 Kings says Jeroboam set up a golden calf and a sanctuary at Dan to keep his people from Jerusalem. At the north end of Tel Dan, excavators uncovered exactly that kind of place: a monumental raised platform with a great horned altar in a walled forecourt, in use across the life of the northern kingdom. Mazar called it about the only structure named in the Bible that has been positively identified in excavation.
- What it is
- An Israelite royal cult precinct: a large ashlar platform (bamah), a four-horned stone altar, and flanking ritual rooms
- Date of artifact
- built late 10th century BC, enlarged in the 9th; destroyed 732 BC
- Discovered
- Tel Dan, at the northern edge of the mound (Avraham Biran's excavation)
- Where it is now
- In situ, Tel Dan, Israel
- Related to
- The rival sanctuary Jeroboam set up at Dan
- Scripture
- 1 Kings 12:26–33 · Judges 18:30–31
What this find showsA major royal Israelite cult centre at Dan, matching the sanctuary the Bible attributes to Jeroboam.
What it does not proveNo “golden calf” was found; the identification rests on the location plus the biblical text, and the platform's superstructure is gone.
Contested: The excavator first read the platform as an open-air high place, then as a temple foundation — a reinterpretation worth noting, since the building above no longer survives.
Sources & further reading