Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007260174
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By The New York Times
DATELINE: ASHKELON, ISRAEL LENGTH: Medium
The tiny image of bronze and other metals was recovered almost intact, with legs, ears, tail and one of its two horns still in place, even though the temple in which it was housed was reduced to rubble during a conquest of Ashkelon in about 1550 B.C., midway through the Bronze Age.
The earliest legends of Judaism show the religion's fathers inveighing against the worship of golden calves.
In the Bible, golden calves, similar in form but considerably larger than the Ashkelon find, are referred to in the story of Aaron during the Exodus, in ancient Jerusalem's rivalry with the northern, calf-worshiping Hebrew king Jeroboam, and in other Old Testament accounts.
According to the American team that discovered the calf on June 26, it is the only one of its kind ever found and provides important evidence to help explain religious development in this region.
It was dated by examination of the pottery and other artifacts found alongside it, a standard archaeological practice.
"It was a totally unexpected find," said Dr. Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot professor of the archaeology of Israel at Harvard and head of the team at work at Ashkelon.
"We were just cleaning down the side of the stone ramparts, and the last thing we thought we would find was this temple. We haven't found any precedents for this."
The calf is about 4 1/2 inches long, 4\ inches tall and weighs just under 1 pound.
The figure is well articulated and was formed in parts. The arms, legs, horns, tail and other parts were attached in sockets. The body was of bronze, and burnishing marks show that it was probably kept polished to a high sheen so that it resembled gold. The legs, head and genitals are of a metal believed to be silver.
The horns and tail were formed from copper wire. Since the animal has suffered corrosion, the bronze parts are dark green and the silver is a rough lead color.
The animal is filled with a heavy metal, believed to be lead, and was found on its side next to a shattered pottery shrine in which it was mounted while in use. The pottery vessel had an opening with doors.
"We believe it was displayed looking out, emerging from this cowshed, which was a shrine to the milk goddess," Stager said of the calf.
The early Israelites are believed to have been a breakaway Canaanite sect.
They forged their own identity, Stager said, "by being in opposition to the Canaanite religious matrix" that prevailed in the region until it was swept out by the Philistines in about 1180 B.C.
The golden calf is believed to have been the central object of worship for the Canaanites for 1,000 years or longer.
By Stager's interpretation, accounts of condemnation of the worship of calf-deities were born of the early Israelites' efforts to purge the Canaanite influence of their forebears and establish themselves as a separate people.
The Ashkelon calf was believed to have been in use several hundred years before the first Israelite kingdom was founded, until Ashkelon was conquered by the Egyptians in about 1550 B.C.
Historians and archaeologists believe it was not the animal itself that was the object of worship. Canaanites believed that their pagan gods rode on these strong and sacred beasts. So the temples showed the calves as representations of the deities, and worshipers made sacrificial offerings to the animals.
by CNB