Did the Maccabees Practice Infant Sacrifice? The Evidence from Tel Kedesh

Oct. 7 th , 2015,

Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University
Speakers: Andrea Berlin (Boston University) and Jonathan Bethard (Boston University)

Professors Berlin and Bethard discuss the infant burial discovered in the archive room of the 2 nd c. BCE Seleucid administrative building at Tel Kedesh, Israel, followed by a group discussion on the phenomenon of child sacrifice and the larger conclusions that might be drawn from this startling and unsettling discovery. Click here for an illustrated summary.

A Response from Danny Syon, Head of the Scientific Assessment Branch, Israel Antiquities Authority

Here are some musings of an archaeologist:
1.  The selective burning in the archive room bothers me. In figure 3, it appears that the cracking of the wall stones is on the outside, rather on the inside. Is this the case throughout the room, or it’s just a chance in this photo? If the stones are not cracked on the inside, then maybe the fire started from the outside, maybe in the unexcavated rooms to the north or west? The burned mudbrick implies that much of the burning happened higher up than the stone walls. The burned seals and the non-burned flasks also seem to imply a fire above floor level, maybe wooden racks and shelves that held the sealed documents. If the flasks had been full, obviously they would have burned too, as soon as some burning piece fell down on them; but even when empty, I’d expect them to have been at least charred by burning debris. Very strange.

To add your voice to the conversation, email your response to maccabeesproject@gmail.com.