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== Religion ==
{{see also|Kenite hypothesis}}
It is uncertain which deities the Midianites worshipped. Through their apparent religio-political connection with the [[Moabites]]<ref>{{bibleverse||Numbers|22:4, 7|HE}}</ref> they are thought to have worshipped a multitude, including [[Baal-peor]] and the [[Astarte|Queen of Heaven, Ashteroth]]. According to [[Karel van der Toorn]], "By the 14th century BC, groups of Edomites and Midianites worshipped [[Yahweh]] as their god;" this conclusion is based on identification between Midianites and the [[Shasu]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Karel van der |last=Toorn |title=Family Religion in Babylonia, Ugarit, and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life |location=Leiden |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |page=283}}</ref>
An Egyptian temple of [[Hathor]] at [[Timna valley|Timna]] continued to be used during the Midianite occupation of the site (terminal Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age); the Midianites transformed the Hathor mining temple into a desert tent-shrine. In addition to the discovery of post-holes, large quantities of red and yellow decayed cloth with beads woven into it, along with numerous copper rings/wire used to suspend the curtains, were found all along two walls of the shrine. Beno Rothenberg,<ref>{{cite book|first=Beno |last=Rothenberg |title=Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines |location=London |publisher=[[Thames and Hudson]] |date=1972}}</ref> the excavator of the site, suggested that the Midianites were making offerings to Hathor, especially since a large number of Midianite votive vessels (25%) were discovered in the shrine. However, whether Hathor or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is difficult to ascertain. A small bronze snake with gilded head was also discovered in the naos of the Timna mining shrine, along with a hoard of metal objects that included a small bronze figurine of a bearded male god, which according to Rothenberg was Midianite in origin. Michael Homan observes that the Midianite tent-shrine at Timna is one of the closest parallels to the biblical [[Tabernacle]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Michael M. |last=Homan |title=To Your Tents, O Israel!: The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of the Tents in the Bible and the Ancient Near East |journal=Culture and History of the Ancient Near East |volume=12 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |date=2002 |page=118}}</ref>
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