Tel Motza

"This is most probably the largest excavation of this time period in the Middle East, which will allow the research to advance leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today, just by the amount of material that we are able to save and preserve from this site", reported archaeologist Lauren Davis from the IAA.

[11] Flint tools (arrowheads, axes, blades and knives), figurine of an ox made of clay, a stone-carved human face, seeds, stone bracelets, animal bones and other objects have been found from the site.

[14] Excavations at the site continued as late as 2013, led by archaeologists Shua Kisilevitz, Zvi Greenhut, and Anna Eirikh-Rose on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

[15][16] Some finds, such as the possible presence of a Canaanite storm god, have been interpreted as further evidence that First Temple era Judahite religion ("Yahwism") was markedly different from the monotheistic Judaism depicted much later in the Bible.

[17] Excavations at Tel Motza carried out prior to construction on Highway 1 revealed a public building, storehouses and silos dating to the days of the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA).

The cache of sacred vessels has been dated to the early 9th century BCE,[19] that is before the centralizing religious reforms of Kings Hezekiah (reign ca.