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Snake cults were well established in [[Canaanite religion]] in the [[Bronze Age]], for archaeologists have uncovered serpent [[cult object]]s in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]],<ref>Gordon Loud, ''Megiddo II: Plates'' plate 240: 1, 4, from Stratum X (dated by Loud 1650–1550 BCE) and Statum VIIB (dated 1250–1150 BCE), noted by Karen Randolph Joines, "The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult" ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' '''87'''.3 (September 1968:245–256) p. 245 note 2.</ref> one at [[Gezer]],<ref>R.A.S. Macalister, ''Gezer II'', p. 399, fig. 488, noted by Joiner 1968:245 note 3, from the high place area, dated Late Bronze Age.</ref> one in the ''sanctum sanctorum'' of the Area H temple at [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]],<ref>Yigael Yadin et al. ''Hazor III-IV: Plates'', pl. 339, 5, 6, dated Late Bronze Age II (Yadiin to Joiner, in Joiner 1968:245 note 4).</ref> and two at [[Shechem]].<ref>Callaway and Toombs to Joiner (Joiner 1968:246 note 5).</ref>
In the surrounding region, serpent cult objects figured in other cultures. A late Bronze Age [[Hittites|Hittite]] shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.<ref>Maurice Vieyra, ''Hittite Art 2300 - 750 B.C.'' (Alec Tiranti Ltd., London 1955) fig. 114.</ref> In 6th-century [[Babylon]], a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doorways of the temple of [[Esagila]].<ref>Leonard W. King, ''A History of Babylon'', p. 72.</ref> At the Babylonian New Year's festival, the priest was to commission from a woodworker, a metalworker and a goldsmith two images one of which "shall hold in its left hand a snake of cedar, raising its right [hand] to the god [[Nabu]]".<ref>Pritchard ''[[ANET]]'', 331, noted in Joines 1968:246 and note 8.</ref> At the tell of Tepe Gawra, at least seventeen Early Bronze Age [[Assyria]]n bronze serpents were recovered.<ref>E.A. Speiser, ''Excavations at Tepe Gawra: I. Levels I-VIII, p. 114ff., noted in Joines 1968:246 and note 9.</ref>
===Christianity===
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