2,700-Year-Old Stone Monument May Offer New Clue to Hezekiah’s Religious Reform

Archaeologists at Tel Eton in Judah’s Shephelah have uncovered an unusual cultic stone monument that was deliberately taken out of use and built into a stone platform shortly before the site was destroyed by the Assyrians in the late 8th century BCE. The find may add a new piece to the long debate over the religious reforms associated with King Hezekiah of Judah.

The study, published by Prof. Abraham Faust of Bar-Ilan University in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, focuses on a large standing stone, about 1.4 meters tall and weighing roughly 750 kilograms. It was first placed in the most prominent room of “Governor’s House” or Building 101, directly opposite the entrance, where anyone entering the structure or standing in the courtyard could see it.

In a later phase, the stone was laid on its side and incorporated into a specially built stone platform. Faust says there is no evidence that it was smashed or otherwise desecrated. Instead, he argues, the people who removed it treated it with relative respect while ending its ritual function. “The residents of the house cooperated with the reform and took the stone out of use, but did not break or defile it,” he said.

Most archaeological discussion of Hezekiah’s reform has relied on public cult sites such as the temple at Arad, the altar at Beersheba, and other Judahite ritual installations. Faust says the Tel Eton find is important because it points to household or private cult, an area rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The monument was buried before Tel Eton’s destruction by the Assyrian Empire at the end of the 8th century BCE, which generally fits Hezekiah’s reign, though Faust cautions that the stone cannot be directly linked to the reform itself. He says the discovery strengthens the case that religious change under Hezekiah affected both central shrines and domestic worship.