Stone cult

--- CONTENT ---
Stone cults and stone worship (litholatrie) have been widespread since ancient times. Possibly erected stones were already in the Neolithic Age as representatives of deities and were thus cult stones. In this sense, some researchers also interpret the obelisks in ancient Egypt and the Baityloi of Sardinia and the Irish-Celtic Turoe stone, in Greece it is the Omphaloi. The veneration of menhirs accompanies the stone cult until historical times.

The beginning
The worship of erect stones begins in Natufien. A small stone column in the niche of a house of Jericho II is not the only indication of this. In Munhata, south of Lake Tiberias, which was explored in the 1960s by Jean Perrot (1920–2012), several plastered niches with a stone stood in the north walls of the houses, the lowest horizons from the pre-ceramic Neolithic B. Munhata included a complex extending over more than 300 square meters, surrounded by a thick mud brick wall on stone foundations. A podium of three large basalt plates with wide drainage channels in the center, a cobbled basin of 3 × 2 m in size and several fireplaces suggest that the complex was a sanctuary from the 8th to 7th millennium BC. In the enclosed oval complex of Rosh Zin, another Natufi settlement, a large crude stone column had been erected. In the filling around its base were found offerings, which were probably offered on the occasion of the setting up of the pillar.

Old Testament
Moses was ordered by YHWH to destroy the cult stones in Canaan. In the Old Testament (Tanach) the sacred stone is called Mazewa (). Contrary to the concept of the Canaanites, who identified him with the divinity, he is reinterpreted by the Israelites as a sign of God’s presence or as a memorial to special events, a “testimony stone”.

The Gilgal of the Bible, the circle of twelve stones, symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel, which Joshua supposedly had erected as a reminder of the crossing of the Jordan, was probably a facility from the epoch of the Palestinian megalithic culture (megalithic facilities on the Golan). The story of Jacob’s ladder tells that he slept by a stone and realized that “the Lord was in this place”. He set up the stone, watered it with oil and called it “Bethel”, i.e. ().

Notwithstanding the fight against stone veneration by the prophets, menhirs, rows, circles and squares of erect elongated blocks in Israel and Jordan were strikingly often preserved in the area of megalithic necropolises. Among the most impressive complexes are the monuments of Ain es Zerka in Jordan on a rock terrace with about 50 large stone tombs. On an elevation in the center of the plateau, three menhirs of almost 2.0 m height rise, surrounded by a small stone circle.

Ancient
In ancient times revered