BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Biblical Ataroth

A Temple Site East of the Dead Sea

The site of Khirbat Ataruz (likely biblical Ataroth), overlooking the Dead Sea to the west. Photo: Chang-Ho Ji.

High on a ridge in western Jordan, overlooking the Dead Sea some 6.5 miles away, sits the remarkable site of Khirbat Ataruz, likely the location known in the Hebrew Bible as Ataroth. During the Iron Age, beginning in the early to mid-ninth century BCE, a remarkable temple complex flourished here, and, for a time, control of the site was hotly contested by the competing powers of Israel and Moab. In the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologists Chang-Ho Ji and Aaron Schade detail their findings from two and a half decades of excavation at the site in their article “Sacred Center: The Iron Age Temple at Biblical Ataroth.”

The temple complex at Ataroth consisted of several buildings, courtyards, and high places; plumes of smoke from the various altars doubtless would have been visible from miles away, serving as an important landmark—and destination—for travelers making their way up and down the so-called King’s Highway, which ran north and south along the eastern side of the Dead Sea. The focal point of this complex was the main temple sanctuary, a large building along the site’s northwestern side that consisted of a central main sanctuary and flanking rooms on either side. Thus oriented, the entrance to the temple faced the rising sun in the southeast, similar to the orientation of many other temple structures throughout the region.

Plan of the Khirbat Ataruz excavations. Courtesy of Chang-Ho Ji and Bong-Jae Kim.

Outside this main building were a series of courtyards. Closest to the main temple building was an inner courtyard with no fewer than five stone altars arranged along its southeastern side, the largest of which was a substantial stepped platform. Additional elevated altar sites flanked the temple building at its southwestern and northeastern ends. The altar sites were set up so that visitors to Ataroth could sit or stand and observe sacrifices and other rituals being performed there; indeed, the inner courtyard boasted low benches along one side for spectators. Beyond the inner courtyard were various small buildings and an outer courtyard that was accessible via the site’s monumental staircase entrance. The entire site was surrounded by a dry moat and a substantial circuit wall.

Excavation of the main temple building revealed a number of fascinating and distinctive characteristics. At its inner end, the central sanctuary room featured a standing stone (massebah), likely an aniconic representation of the site’s chief deity, and a raised offering platform where priests could perform rituals such as burning incense and pouring libations. The floor of this sanctuary was strewn with many types of objects: “large storage jars adorned with clay bulls’ heads, incense burners, ring-shaped libation vessels (kernoi), cup-and-saucer vessels, chalices, carved stone bowls, lamps, mortars, and pestles.” Along one side of the central room, a section was partitioned off and likely served as a storage space for objects related to temple operations; here, too, pottery fragments and cultic miniatures were found.

Main sanctuary (right) and “Sacred Fire Room” (left), Khirbat Ataruz. Photo: Chang-Ho Ji.

Flanking the central sanctuary were two large chambers of similar dimensions and layout. On the southwestern side was a room with a fire altar at its inner end. Significant ash deposits were discovered here, but interestingly, no animal bones were found. This led Ji and Schade to surmise that an eternal flame was kept alight here, and accordingly they nicknamed this space the Sacred Fire Room. To the northeast of the main sanctuary was another room of similar size, this time with two altar platforms at its innermost end. This space was extensively reused in later periods, leaving Hellenistic, early Roman, and middle Islamic traces while obscuring the space’s life during the Iron Age.

Inscribed Moabite incense burner from Khirbat Ataruz. Photo: Qais Tweissi.

One small and rather unassuming chamber off the northern part of the outer courtyard offers a remarkable connection to contemporary geopolitics in the region. At some point in the mid-ninth century BCE, Ataroth underwent a violent destruction in which the sacred spaces were deliberately desecrated. Shortly thereafter, a strong Moabite presence at the site became evident, with various architectural changes and adaptations taking place. In this small chamber, a modest incense burner was discovered, apparently indicating that the space was used as a small shrine. On the burner, a fragmentary and badly weathered inscription, dating to the late ninth century on the basis of the early Moabite script, appears to speak to a significant conflict at the site: it references thousands of “foreign men” killed in battle and details bronze goods claimed as spoils from the temple’s destruction. These details strongly suggest a link to the account in 2 Kings 3 of the Moabite king Mesha’s revolt against Israelite rule, which is recounted also in the text of the famed Mesha Stele. It appears, then, that Ataroth stood at the center of this conflict, with Israel and Moab vying for control of an established regional cultic center.

Subscribers: For more on Khirbat Ataruz and the fascinating discoveries made there, read the full article, “Sacred Center: The Iron Age Temple at Biblical Ataroth,” by Chang-Ho Ji and Aaron Schade, in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Inscribed Moabite Altar Mentions Biblical Rebellion

Khirbat Ataruz

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Ataruz Temple in Context