In the debris of one of these “high places” of Canaanite times, archaeologists “found great numbers of jars containing the remains of children who had been sacrificed to Baal. The whole area proved to be a cemetery for new-born babes.” Also found were “enormous quantities of images and plaques of Ashtoreth with rudely exaggerated sex organs, designed to foster sensual feelings. So, Canaanites worshiped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice to these same gods.”​—Pages 166, 167.

In strata laid down during Israel’s occupation of the land, archaeologists dug in the ruins of a temple of Ashtoreth, and “just a few steps from this temple was a cemetery, where many jars were found, containing remains of infants who had been sacrificed in this temple. . . . Prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth were official murderers of little children.”​—Halley’s Bible Handbook, page 198.

[Picture on page 5]

Jar burial of infant remains

[Credit Line]

Lawrence E. Stager/​Oriental Institute, University of Chicago