Overview
Yohanan Aharoni's excavation of the Tel Arad fortress mound, which began in 1962, uncovered a small shrine inside the Iron Age Judahite fortress. It had a courtyard with a sacrificial altar, and two limestone monoliths interpreted as incense altars were found inside it. Aharoni's results appeared in preliminary form (e.g. Biblical Archaeologist 1968; Arad Inscriptions 1981). Ze'ev Herzog's 2002 interim report in Tel Aviv revised the stratigraphy of the fortress sequence.
In 2020 Eran Arie, Baruch Rosen and Dvory Namdar published organic residue analyses of dark material on the tops of the two altars. On the smaller altar they found cannabinoids (THC, CBD, CBN) with residue attributed to animal dung, which they read as cannabis burnt at low heat. On the larger altar they found frankincense markers (boswellic acid, norursatriene) with animal fat.
The Arad ostraca come from the same fortress. One, ostracon 18, has the phrase byt yhwh, 'house/temple of YHWH' (line 9), but it dates to about 597 BCE, when the Arad shrine was already out of use. Lemaire (2024), following Aharoni (1981), takes it to mean the Jerusalem temple.
What the text says (summary)
Arad ostracon 18, line 9, contains the phrase byt yhwh, 'the house (temple) of YHWH', in a letter whose context is otherwise unclear; the ostracon is dated to early 597 BCE.Paraphrase based on the reading and dating in Lemaire, Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 7 (2024): 50, citing Aharoni, Arad Inscriptions (1981): 37. No public-domain translation exists (found 1960s).
What the evidence shows
- Two limestone monoliths interpreted as altars were found in the shrine, each with dark residue on its upper surface (Arie, Rosen and Namdar 2020, abstract).
- Smaller altar: Delta9-THC, CBD and CBN plus terpenes, and residue attributed to animal dung (same).
- Larger altar: boswellic acid and norursatriene (frankincense markers), plus animal-fat compounds (same).
- Two unrelated laboratories ran the analyses using similar extraction methods (same).
- Arad inscriptions 102 and 103, plates with two incised signs starting with qoph, came from the shrine courtyard near the sacrificial altar, Locus 394, Stratum X (Lemaire 2024: 54).
- Arad inscription 104 is a vessel inscribed qdsh, 'holy' (Lemaire 2024: 52-53, citing Aharoni 1981: 118).
- Ostraca 50-52 were found in the sanctuary and bear single personal names. The Meremoth name is on no. 50, and a Pashhur name is on no. 54 (Lemaire 2024: 56, citing Aharoni 1981: 85).
- Ostracon 18 names byt yhwh (line 9) and dates to early 597 BCE, after the shrine went out of use (Lemaire 2024: 50).
Open questions
- How long was the shrine in use? Aharoni ('Arad: Its Inscriptions and Temple', Biblical Archaeologist 31, 1968) placed it in a long sequence of fortress strata. Herzog's interim report (Tel Aviv 29, 2002) re-dated the fortress strata, and the 2020 residue study (Arie, Rosen and Namdar) treats the altars as 8th-century, reported as c. 750-715 BCE. Neither Aharoni 1968 nor Herzog 2002 has been reviewed in full for this entry, so their exact stratum assignments for the shrine are not restated here.
- What was the cannabis for? The chemistry shows cannabis burnt on the smaller altar. That its use was psychoactive and 'central to the cultic rituals' is the lead author's interpretation (Arie, quoted in the 2020 release), not something the residue itself shows.
- Which temple is 'the house of YHWH' in ostracon 18? Aharoni (1981: 37) and Lemaire (2024: 50) read it as the Jerusalem temple, because the Arad shrine no longer existed in 597 BCE. The letter's own context does not name a place.
- What do the qoph plates (nos. 102-103) say? Readings compared by Lemaire (2024: 54): q(d)sh 'holy' (Cross 1979); qrbn 'offering' (Aharoni's later view); q(dsh) k(hnm) 'holy to the priests' (Herzog et al. 1984; Herzog 2002; Maeir). The second sign is ambiguous.
Since 2024
- 2024Lemaire's survey of Judahite cult inscriptions re-reads the Arad shrine plates (102-104) and ostracon 18 and holds that the Arad temple no longer existed by 597 BCE. [3]
- 2024Vainstub reads seven Arad ostraca as records of agricultural tax-in-kind from the Arad valley (bearing on the fortress's administrative role, not the shrine directly). [6]
Sources
- Arie, E., Rosen, B. and Namdar, D. 2020. "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad." Tel Aviv 47(1): 5-28. doi:10.1080/03344355.2020.1732046 link study
- ScienceDaily (release from Taylor & Francis). "New research reveals cannabis and frankincense at the Judahite shrine of biblical Arad." 29 May 2020. link study
- Lemaire, A. 2024. "Judahite Hebrew Epigraphy and Cult." Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 7: 43-72. doi:10.52486/01.00007.3 link study
- Aharoni, Y. 1968. "Arad: Its Inscriptions and Temple." The Biblical Archaeologist 31(1): 2-32. doi:10.2307/3211023 link excavation report
- Herzog, Z. 2002. "The Fortress Mound at Tel Arad: An Interim Report." Tel Aviv 29(1): 3-109. doi:10.1179/tav.2002.2002.1.3 link excavation report
- Vainstub, D. 2024. "The Management of Agricultural Taxes in the Valley of Arad as Reflected by Arad Ostraca." Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 7: 80-99. doi:10.52486/01.00007.5 link study
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Descriptions of Arad as a 'Solomonic' (10th-century) temple do not match the latest dating. The 2020 study treats the altars as 8th-century, reported as c. 750-715 BCE.
- Saying the ostracon naming 'the house of YHWH' refers to the Arad shrine is contradicted by its date. It belongs to about 597 BCE, when the shrine was no longer in use, and Aharoni (1981) and Lemaire (2024) read it as the Jerusalem temple.
- Calling the cannabis a 'drug used by priests to reach ecstasy' states an inference as fact. The residue shows only that cannabis inflorescences, mixed with dung, were burnt on the smaller altar; its purpose is the authors' interpretation.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.