Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Archaeological exploration at the Tel ‘Eton archaeological site in Israel’s Judean lowlands revealed a hefty cultic stone whose usage changed over time.
• The stone once stood 4.6 feet tall in a prominent location at the impressive residence, but was tucked away sometime during the eighth century B.C.E.
• The change in the way the stone was displayed could provide further evidence of King Hezekiah’s actions as the ruler of Judah.

Scholars are well aware that Judah’s King Hezekiah brought about major religious reform—the Bible is clear on that front—though there’s still much debate about what that looked like practically. However, new archaeological work seemingly confirms accounts from the books 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings. The discovery of a 1,650-pound stone provides key evidence that King Hezekiah undertook efforts to centralize worship of Yahweh at the Jerusalem Temple and eliminate unauthorized or idolatrous cultic activity during the eighth century B.C.E.

During excavation at the Tel ‘Eton archaeological site in the Judean lowlands, roughly 30 miles from Jerusalem in Judah, the southern kingdom that split from Israel after Solomon’s reign, archaeologists discovered a “governor’s residency,” dubbed “Building 101,” much larger than other structures in the area. It’s within that residence that the stone’s story unfolded.

A new study published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology reveals how the Tel ‘Eton residence once featured a 4.6-foot-tall standing stone as a central point of the magnificent home, likely as a key cult-related point of emphasis.

During the building’s first phase, the stone stood prominently in one of the residence’s largest rooms, positioned so it was visible to anyone at the entrance and from most spots in the courtyard. Then, at some point before the end of the eighth century B.C.E., the stone was laid down and “concealed within a stone platform” built around it, possibly as part of King Hezekiah’s reforms.

“The information from Tel ‘Eton not only provides an additional example of cultic changes in the eighth century B.C.E. but also underscores a relatively under-researched type of setting—that of domestic cult—which could hold the keys to the debate over the religious history of Judah,” Avraham Faust, archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, wrote in the study.

The treatment of the 1,650-pound stone could offer a tangible example of King Hezekiah’s religious reforms throughout the kingdom of Judah. The Bible notes that Hezekiah recentered the people of Judah on God, moving them away from local and unauthorized places of worship and toward centralized temple worship in Jerusalem instead.

Evidence for Hezekiah’s shifts has surfaced in excavations at public temples, but Faust said the stone offers a more personal example. “The location of the stone suggests that it played an important role in the lives of the building’s occupants,” Faust said in a statement about the cultic nature of the stone.

When the stone was moved, it wasn’t smashed, desecrated, or otherwise damaged. “Those responsible for changing religious practices may have wished to eliminate the stone’s ritual function, and perhaps wanted the old ritual objects desecrated, but the people who carried out the change seem to have treated it with respect,” Faust said. “They removed it from use without destroying it, effectively neutralizing its cultic significance while preserving the object itself.”

The timing of the move supports a link to King Hezekiah’s reforms. The Tel ‘Eton site was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire at the end of the eighth century B.C.E., meaning the stone must have been concealed before that destruction. That places the change squarely within Hezekiah’s reign and rules out any later explanation for the stone’s concealment.

Faust said the latest discovery strengthens the likelihood that King Hezekiah enacted significant religious changes throughout Judah, changes that happened both publicly and privately.