ABSTRACT
This study examines the picture of religion in several Iron Age Israelite domestic enclosures in order to emphasize religion’s deep integration in the household and the household’s routines. While past studies have looked to the objects or fixtures in the domestic dwelling to study domestic religion, the present study highlights the ways in which the house functioned as a sensescape of religion. The story of Isaac’s blessing of Jacob in the book of Genesis offers a helpful textual complement to the archaeological picture of household religion discovered at these sites. Read alongside the archaeological picture of household religion, this text reminds us that while we may be tempted to look for a “space” for religion in the Israelite house, the most characteristic feature of religion in this space was its deep integration or embeddedness within the materials of the dwelling and the routines and lifecycles of the family.
