Altar; Chalcolithic epoch, Golan Heights, 4000 BC.
Altar; Chalcolithic period, Golan Heights, 4000 BC.
Basalt.
It has earthy adherences.
It is in an excellent state of preservation.
Provenance: Private collection, Spain.
Measurements: 6.5 x 16 x 10 cm.
Altar carved entirely from a single piece of basalt, from the Near East and dated to around 4000 BC, from the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, the prehistoric period between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. It is rectangular in shape, with a dish-shaped recessed bottom and four rounded truncated cone-shaped legs. In addition, on one of the short sides there are two carved animal heads, possibly bulls, an animal with profound sacred connotations in the Middle East since prehistoric times. Thus, we already find bull skulls with their horns in the sanctuary of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia (8th millennium BC), the bulls that carried the god of time Teshub, called Day and Night, in the Hurrian and Hittite mythologies, the ritual masks made with real bull skulls' skulls in Cyprus, and so on.
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Altar; Chalcolithic period, Golan Heights, 4000 BC.
Basalt.
It has earthy adherences.
It is in an excellent state of preservation.
Provenance: Private collection, Spain.
Measurements: 6.5 x 16 x 10 cm.
Altar carved entirely from a single piece of basalt, from the Near East and dated to around 4000 BC, from the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, the prehistoric period between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. It is rectangular in shape, with a dish-shaped recessed bottom and four rounded truncated cone-shaped legs. In addition, on one of the short sides there are two carved animal heads, possibly bulls, an animal with profound sacred connotations in the Middle East since prehistoric times. Thus, we already find bull skulls with their horns in the sanctuary of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia (8th millennium BC), the bulls that carried the god of time Teshub, called Day and Night, in the Hurrian and Hittite mythologies, the ritual masks made with real bull skulls' skulls in Cyprus, and so on.
