Altar of burned offering
On a large monolithic altar of burned offering (picture on the left) the fatty portions of the sacrifice were burned first. According to the Semitic notion, those portions were the best parts of the sacrificial animal, which thus were offered to God in appreciation. The altars of burned offering often had a bezel around it, so that the blood of the sacrifice could be thrown against the base of the altar underneath the bezel. Frankincense was only burned on altars like that in the Postexilic Period. But besides those types, there also were small, cubic altars of incense all over the Near East. They were normally 10 by 10 by 10 cm and were used in private homes.
Exod 30:1, 30:27; 31:8; 35:15; 37:25; 40:5; Lev 4:7; 1 Macc 4:49; 2 Macc 2:5; Luke 1:11
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