Home : Complete Site List : Search : What's New? : Permission to Use : Contact Us

Basalt Lion

< Prev | 7 of 12 | Next >
Basalt Lion
Click Photo for Larger Version
Please read before you download

Images and/or text from holylandphotos.org are NOT TO BE USED ON OTHER WEB SITES, NOR COMMERCIALLY, without special permission. To request permission contact us at holylandphotos@gmail.com.

Photo Comments

This is one of a pair of basalt Lions that were found at Hazor.  They originally decorated the entrance to the "Orthostat Temple" in the Lower City.  They date to the Late Bronze Age (15th–13th Centuries B.C.).

Note the rear haunches and curdled tail, the mane, the ears, the eyes, and the snout.  This lion was not discovered in the Temple but in the foundations of a building in the upper city that was constructed some six hundred years after the Orthostat Temple was destroyed.

The design seems to be based on Syrian and/or Hittite prototypes.  See here for an example from Tell Tayinat in Turkey.   Or Here from Zincirli (Sam'al) in Turkey.

This lion is on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.