Take a Stone and Set It Up as a Masseba; The Tradition of Standing Stones at Hazor

Standing stones are known in the southern Levant as early as the 11^th and 10^th mill. B.C.E. and continue to appear well into the 1^st mill. C.E.¹. The standing stones are understood by many scholars to either represent deities, or representing the ancestral spirits, though some consider them to be markers, used as reminders². This article will present the use of standing stones at Hazor throughout the ages of its settlement-beginning in the Middle Bronze Age and ending in the Iron Age IIa³. It will be shown that the tradition, which was widespread at Hazor during the 2^nd mill. B.C.E., continued to be in use in the beginning of the Iron Age. It will be further shown that their use during the Bronze Age was in ritual complexes which were dedicated to the gods or to ancestral cult and that the stones themselves most likely commemorated individuals or gods. However, during the Iron Age their use was devoted to practices of ruin cult, which took place at Iron Age Hazor following the destruction of the Canaanite city. This paper will not attempt to reconstruct the Canaanite or Israelite cult, but will rather try to show the similarities and differences in the use of standing stones within the ritual contexts of Hazor, by its inhabitants. In other words, this is a so-called longue duree approach to the use of standing stones at Hazor. First, a brief history of the settlement will be described together with a detailed account of the standing stones and their complexes found in the different occupation periods at the site. This will be followed by a discussion regarding the different traditions of use of standing stones at Hazor.