Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 92:368 (Oct 1935)
Article: Living Again in Bible Houses
Author: James L. Kelso

BSac 92:368 (Oct 35) p. 427

Living Again in Bible Houses

James L. Kelso

The ground floor plan of an ancient Palestinian house is easy to discover if anything whatsoever of the house is left for the excavator to study. The second floor plan of a house however, is exceedingly difficult to work out. I have never yet seen the remains of a second floor intact that came from Old Testament times. One year in excavating at Kirjath-sepher we came as close as is normally possible to work out the arrangements of the second floor of a Canaanite house of the finest type, perhaps even a palace. It is dated in that period which falls between Genesis and Exodus.

In one part of the building on the first floor was a wine cellar, which, when we excavated it, proved to be full of great quantities of wine jars broken to pieces by the collapse of the upper part of the building during the fire which wrecked the house. In this débris which had fallen into the wine cellar from the second floor was a large piece of limestone upon which was carved about two-thirds of a Canaanite idol. This find enabled us to locate that part of the second floor which contained the private chapel of the house.

In another part of the building, when we were excavating the rooms used for stabling the horses, we discovered the dice and two sets of playing pieces of five men each which had been used for an old Egyptian game something like backgammon. The wooden gaming board, of course, had perished in the fire. The beautifully inlaid dice made of sections of ivory and the faïence gaming pieces of Egyptian importation were, of course, the property of the owner of the palace and not the property of the stable hands. Thus

BSac 92:368 (Oct 35) p. 428

the living room of the palace was located on the second floor corner of the house directly above the stable. Such an arrangement does not have much of an appeal to us, but it was quite the thing in those days when the horse was first introduced to the Mediterranean world. The horse was then so unique, so valuable and so appreciated that, when the king or prince died, his horse was buried with him. The arrangement of the living room in this house enabled the owner to watch his horses which took their exercise in the enclosed courtyard directly under the windows of his room.

The bone inlay of a jewel box which was found in excellent condition in a storeroom of the ground floor enabled us to locate one of the women’s sleeping quarters on the second floor. Gold beads found in the débris cleared out of the kitchen likewise located some of the women’s quarters above that room.

The slaves’ sections of this palatial building were easily distinguished toward the back of the lot. Their construction was flimsy...