Tel Arad Temple

A small Israelite sanctuary inside the fortress of Arad in the Negev, the only Judahite temple ever excavated with its holy of holies intact. It contained two standing stones and two limestone incense altars, and it was deliberately taken out of use in the late monarchy, plausibly during the centralizing reforms of Hezekiah or Josiah. In 2020 residue analysis of the two altars identified frankincense on one and cannabis on the other, the earliest known cultic use of cannabis in the region. The site is direct physical evidence for both the existence of provincial worship of YHWH and its later suppression.