How do we know this is a temple and why is it called the Leopard Temple?

 

What we see in front of us is a square delineated by a low stone wall measuring 12 meters in length. This is larger than the average dwelling from this period. In its western corner is an elliptical structure, slightly raised from its surroundings and aligned along a north-south axis, measuring 3 square meters. It has been identified as a “Holy of Holies.” At its center is a trapezoidal arrangement of medium-sized stones, surrounded by 17 standing small flat stones.

 

In the courtyard preceding the ellipse are three pits paved with stone slabs. In addition, three more fire pits were discovered in other areas of the yard, also arranged along a north-south axis. These pits contained remnants of ash and ostrich eggshells.

 

To the west of the building are a row of 15 figures made from small, slender standing stones. They are aligned along a north-south axis and face towards the east. Their heads are in the shape of squares and many of the figures contain a round dark flint stone within the head. Their rounded and curved tails facing upwards identified them as leopards. Arabian leopards were then endemic in this part of the country, although this is no longer the case. In front of the leopards is a solitary figure facing west and identified as a gazelle due its straight horns. Unlike the leopards, the gazelle lacks a head.

 

What does all this mean? The temple likely served as a site for ceremonies related to birth and death and probably offerings. It may have been related to fertility rites, although we really do not know.

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The oldest burnt remains consisting of charcoal and organic material that were found in the deepest layers of the pits or altars in the temple complex were radiocarbon-dated to about 7,500 years ago, roughly 5500 BCE. This dating places the Leopard Temple in the late Neolithic period and transition to the Chalcolithic period. This was a time when prehistoric communities in the Negev were mobile pastoralists and early farmers, but not yet urbanized. Different pits and altars belonged to distinct phases within this Late Neolithic–early Chalcolithic horizon, indicate that this temple was used repeatedly over several centuries.

Why do we say Late Neolithic–early Chalcolithic? The Neolithic or New Stone Age was from 8,300 to 4,500 BCE. During this time, animals and plants were domesticated and pottery was produced. The Chalcolithic period is considered to be from 4,500 to 3,300 BCE and is characterized by the use of copper.

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The Leopard Temple contained no pottery, an important observation in itself. Excavations in other ritual complexes in the Uvda Valley uncovered flint tools such as arrowheads, blades, and scrapers, stone vessel fragments and ground-stone tools. These items closely match well-dated assemblages from the Late Neolithic/early Chalcolithic in the southern Levant, roughly between 5200 to 4500 BCE.  Later periods in history leave very different archaeological signatures with dwellings with storage, pottery, and metallurgy, and this would have been a time when agriculture was more established.

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Nevertheless, the question can be asked — how did these people do any agriculture at all in this valley, given the arid conditions? It could be that they utilized the water from flashfloods. Alternatively, it could be that the climate was somewhat different some 7,500 years ago and rainfall was greater. But this is all speculation.