BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Another Lion Statue Discovered at Tell Tayinat in Turkey

Bible and archaeology news

Archaeologists excavating at the Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat in southern Turkey have unearthed a 4-foot-tall statue of a roaring lion. The newly excavated lion is one of several to have been discovered at the site over the years. (Below is a pair of lions excavated at Tayinat nearly 80 years ago.) The lion dates to the eighth century B.C.E., when Tayinat was the capital of a small independent kingdom, possibly called Palastin. According to reports, the lion may have come from one of Tayinat’s main temples.^*

Archaeologists excavating at the Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat in southern Turkey have unearthed a 4-foot-tall statue of a roaring lion.

* For more on the temples at Tayinat, see Victor Hurowitz, “Solomon’s Temple in Context,” BAR, March/April 2011.