PAGAN SHRINE AT DAN

After the death of King Solomon, the country he had ruled was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. 

King Jeroboam  of Israel decided to set up administrative bases at the northern and southern extremities of his kingdom - and Dan became the northern capital. It also became a religious center, and this is what worried the Bible writers.

Sacred area at Dan

Jeroboam's plan was to wean his subjects away from the glamour of Solomon's Jerusalem Temple by reviving the sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan. This would mean expelling the priestly Levites who were loyal to Jerusalem, and replacing them with local priests.

The Bible says Jeroboam

'made two golden calves and told the people: 'You have gone up to Jerusalem for long enough. Here is thy God, Israel, who led thee up from the land of Egypt.'  (1 Kings 12:28)

THE GOLDEN CALF

Jeroboam's Golden Calf was a wooden statue covered with gold plate - see similar statues at ANCIENT RELIGIONS

Originally, there was no confusion about what it was: the animal was not the god, only a symbol of it. The statue was merely a 'house' for the god.

The Golden Calf?

After all, the Temple of Jerusalem had the Ark, and the Cherubim above it formed the throne of Yahweh. Everyone knew the Ark was not God himself. So too with the Golden Calf: it was a throne for the invisible godhead who, as Jeroboam said, 'led them up from the land of Egypt'. 

But the choice of a bull, even as a 'throne' of the god, had its dangers. The bull was the symbol of the great Canaanite god Baal. Ordinary people were bound to confuse the bull of Yahweh and the bull of Baal, especially in a part of the country that depended on agricultural fertility, as the city of Dan did.

Maybe Jeroboam was aware of this, and tried to merge the two concepts of God. Maybe he wanted to cater to different religious groups by extending the notion of what God is. Instead, there was a resurgence of Canaanite religion, and worship of Yahweh was threatened.

Pagan Altar for Sacrifice

Nearly all archaeologists agree that this excavated podium was the one that Jeroboam built to house the Golden Calf at Dan.  It is called a 'bama', a high place, and was a platform for altars and a shrine. There were other religious objects at Dan: three iron shovels used to remove ashes from the altar and an iron incense holder. 

There were solid city gates to guard this sanctuary. The inner gate had four guard rooms, two on each side of a paved passageway. If you go to Dan and look carefully at the threshold stone, a massive slab of basalt, you will see the doorstop and hinge-sockets which once supported the great wooden doors.

THE KING-JUDGE'S THRONE

Throne/Seat of Honor

Just inside the gate were four squat, carved stones. These were probably used as the base for pillars supporting a canopy, a sort of open-air throne or seat of authority for a king or judge -   

'Then the king arose, and sat in the gate and they told all the people, saying behold, the king doth sit in the gate. And all the people came before the king'. (2 Samuel 19:8)

The wooden columns for this structure were smooth and polished, either stained or painted a bright color. The dais was covered by a roof, and there was an ornate seat where the judge/governor sat.

Click on the thumbnail (above right) to see an Egyptian version of this portable throne - admittedly much grander than the one in Dan, but with the same design and purpose.

Eventually, Dan fell on hard times. Its treasures were lost, its altars destroyed.

The City Walls at Dan