"In 1955 the late Australian archaeologist John Basil Hennessy excavated a Late Bronze Age (13th century B.C.) building he identified as a temple near the airport in Amman, Jordan.
In the center of the solidly built structure were two circular flat stones, one on top of the other, that the excavator identified as an altar with which a large number of burnt offerings were associated.
“The most surprising feature of all in the final analysis of the material is that the several thousands of small bone fragments are almost exclusively [over 90 percent] human … There can be little doubt that a major concern of the ritual at the Amman airport temple was the burning of human bodies.”
Hennessey’s general impression was that the bones represented an “immature group.” One was of a youth 14 to 18 years of age.
Larry G. Herr, who continued the excavation briefly in 1976, also found fragments of many human bones around a stone pile about 20 feet from the temple. This stone pile had functioned as a pyre: “Many small fragments of burned human bones were strewn all about the building, but their thickest concentration was near the stone pile.” The bones “were primarily from adults”.
If the site was a temple where humans were sacrificed, it could have served the ancient Ammonite capital of Rabat Ammon, 1.5 miles to the west, although the site mystifyingly also contained Hittite, Mycenaean and Egyptian artifacts.
The Ammonite god to whom the humans were presumably sacrificed was Milkom (or Molech). Jeremiah rages against those who offer up their sons and daughters to Molech in Jerusalem’s Ben-Hinnom Valley (Jeremiah 32:35;). Finally, Solomon built a shrine near Jerusalem “for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kings 11:7)." BAR
In the center of the solidly built structure were two circular flat stones, one on top of the other, that the excavator identified as an altar with which a large number of burnt offerings were associated.
“The most surprising feature of all in the final analysis of the material is that the several thousands of small bone fragments are almost exclusively [over 90 percent] human … There can be little doubt that a major concern of the ritual at the Amman airport temple was the burning of human bodies.”
Larry G. Herr, who continued the excavation briefly in 1976, also found fragments of many human bones around a stone pile about 20 feet from the temple. This stone pile had functioned as a pyre: “Many small fragments of burned human bones were strewn all about the building, but their thickest concentration was near the stone pile.” The bones “were primarily from adults”.
If the site was a temple where humans were sacrificed, it could have served the ancient Ammonite capital of Rabat Ammon, 1.5 miles to the west, although the site mystifyingly also contained Hittite, Mycenaean and Egyptian artifacts.
The Ammonite god to whom the humans were presumably sacrificed was Milkom (or Molech). Jeremiah rages against those who offer up their sons and daughters to Molech in Jerusalem’s Ben-Hinnom Valley (Jeremiah 32:35;). Finally, Solomon built a shrine near Jerusalem “for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kings 11:7)." BAR
