Tell Tayinat Temples

Long-room temples beside a palace, like Solomon's Temple next to his house

Shaul, David & Shlomo · temple / altar, palace / house · Accepted by scholars · found 1936

How Tell Tayinat Temples was found

The Chicago team found a small temple (Building II) attached to a bit hilani palace. Harrison's team found a second, larger temple in 2008 with a cache of cuneiform tablets in its inner room, including a copy of Esarhaddon's succession treaty (2009).

What it is

Building II is a three-room long temple about 25 by 12 m with a porch of two columns on lion bases, a main hall, and a raised inner shrine, standing beside the royal palace. Building XVI has the same plan and held cuneiform tablets and cult objects in its inner room.

Why it matters for the Bible

Tayinat's Building II was the first excavated temple to match the plan of Shlomo's (Solomon's) Temple: porch with two columns, hall, and inner shrine. Just as important, it stood next to the king's palace, matching the Bible's picture of the Temple beside Solomon's house. Building XVI showed that such temples stored treaty tablets in their holiest room, an echo of the covenant tablets kept in the ark. These temples are a century or more later than Solomon, so they show the tradition continued rather than proving Solomon's Temple existed.

The Hebrew word: hay-CHAHL

הֵיכָל

הֵיכָל is pronounced hay-CHAHL and means the main hall of the Temple; palace (Strong's H1964).

People this discovery connects to

• Solomon — שְׁלֹמֹה (Shlo-MOH) — his peace

Places

• Calno / Calneh — כַּלְנֵה (Kal-NEH) — uncertain (identified by some with Kunulua/Tayinat)

Events

Building of Solomon's Temple and palace · Covenant tablets stored in the sanctuary

Tell Tayinat Temples in Scripture

Genesis 10:10 One of only 3 verses that name Calneh.

Isaiah 10:9 One of only 3 verses that name Calneh.

Amos 6:2 One of only 3 verses that name Calneh.

Questions people ask

What is Tell Tayinat Temples?
Building II is a three-room long temple about 25 by 12 m with a porch of two columns on lion bases, a main hall, and a raised inner shrine, standing beside the royal palace. Building XVI has the same plan and held cuneiform tablets and cult objects in its inner room.

When was Tell Tayinat Temples discovered?
It was found in 1936 by Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Syrian-Hittite Expedition (1935–1938); renewed by Timothy Harrison (University of Toronto), Tayinat Archaeological Project, 2004–present; second temple (Building XVI) found 2008–2009, at Tell Tayinat (ancient Kunulua), Amuq Plain, Hatay Province.

Where is Tell Tayinat Temples today?
In situ; finds in the Hatay Archaeology Museum, Antakya, and the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.

Which Bible verses does Tell Tayinat Temples relate to?
Genesis 10:10, Isaiah 10:9, Amos 6:2.

Related discoveries

• אוּלָם
  Ain Dara Temple
  A Syrian temple that is the closest surviving parallel to Solomon's Temple
• צְלָעוֹת
  Khirbet Qeiyafa Model Shrines
  Two miniature shrines with architecture echoing Solomon's Temple
• שְׁבָא
  Axum Chapel of the Tablet
  Ethiopia's claim to hold the Ark of the Covenant
• דְּבַשׁ
  Tel Rehov Apiary
  The oldest industrial beehives ever found, in a 'land of honey'
• עַמּוּד
  The Nuweiba Granite Column ('Solomon's Pillar')
  An unmarked column on the beach said to have been raised by Shlomo to mark the crossing
• אַבְנֵי גָזִית
  Megiddo Ashlar Palaces (Stratum VA–IVB)
  Two fine-stone palaces claimed for Solomon's district capital

Sources

• Harrison & Osborne, 'Building XVI and the Neo-Assyrian Sacred Precinct at Tell Tayinat', JCS 64 (2012)
• Haines, Excavations in the Plain of Antioch II (OIP 95, 1971)
• Wikipedia: Tell Tayinat

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