Lachish - Excavations

Tel Lakhish, the site of ancient Lachish, was excavated by John L. Starkey (1932-36) and Yohanan Aharoni (1967-68). Starkey found nine occupation levels extending from the third millennium to the third century B.C. To the north of the moshav were found remains of a double ring of walls and a massive gateway with a tower (inside the outer gate, on the right) in which the Lachish Letters (in Old Hebrew, written in ink on clay tablets) were found. In the center of the site was a palace, the seat of the governor; to the southeast was a well-shaft and to the northeast a sun temple (c. 1480 B.C.) which Kathleen Kenyon interpreted as the temple of a Canaanite divine triad. In the temple were found a three-pronged iron fork and a vessel for sacrificial flesh (ninth century B.C.) - pointing to the survival of the Canaanite cult into this late period.