Image Details
The New Encyclopedia of Archeological Excavations in the Holy Land
Ai offering stand. Throughout the Iron Age, ceramic stands were used to make offerings of incense, oil or food to the deity. The Ai stand, found in an Israelite site from the period of the Judges (12th century B.C.E.), contains numerous fenestrations (windows), perhaps to allow worshipers to place burning incense inside the stand and to allow the smoke to escape. Offering stands are so common in the biblical period that it is puzzling that they are not mentioned at all in the Bible.