The Revadim Asherah is an artifact from Revadim representing a genre of Asherah figurines.[1] Like the inscriptions found at Khirbet el-Qom and Kuntillet Ajrud, these findings revealed Asherah's prominence in Canaanite and Hebrew religion.[2]
| Revadim Asherah | |
|---|---|
| Type | Figurine |
| Symbols | Asherah, Great Mother, twins, vulva, ibices, crescent pendant, jewelry |
| Discovered | 1986 Revadim, Israel |
| Culture | Canaanite, Hebrew |
Depiction
editThe figure is the Great Mother, portrayed displaying her vulva and feeding twins.[3] Tadmor emphasizes that the figure represents a deity, not a wetnurse.[4] This distinction wouldn't have made sense to the Ugaritians, who called her the mšnqt .ʔilm or "wetnurse of the gods."[5] In Revadim, she has features such as long locks that are reminiscent of snakes directed towards the infants she cradles, jewelry adorning her wrists and neck, where hangs a large crescent pendant. Her hands open the vulva, and above is a ridge suggesting pubic hair. On each of her legs is a tall and sparse tree accompanied by ibices.[6]
The crowded symbolism of the Revadim Asherah stands in contrast to related Judean pillar figurines. Whereas the pillar figures are plain, definitionally emphasizing their face and breasts without detail below, the Revadim prototype is maximalist, filling all possible space with sophisticated polysemy.
Specimens
editFollowing publication in 1986, other examples were found at Aphek, Tel Harasim, Tel Burna, and Revadim. Differences are regional features, as they're dated mutual contemporaries of the latter 13th century.[7]
A Tel Burna goddess differed most in jewelry around the chest:
A horizontal line of three small pellets appears at the neck. Two braids depicting hair extend down the chest area, similar to the Egyptian Hathor style, are separated by an amorphous-shaped decoration just above the navel. There is a crescent or ring connected to a unique vertical band of eight rings extending down between these braids. This vertical row of rings running down the woman’s chest is unique. The crescent (or ring) shape near the woman’s neck is also distinctive.
The overall impression is of a long necklace of many small chained elements.[8]
External
edit- https://www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/13020564973 CC-licensed high-res photo by Nick Thompson. NB: the caption repeats incorrect information from
- https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/198014-0 Israel Museum
- https://bibleplaces.photoshelter.com/image/I0000NLzQXXVWtzM Sharp photo
See also
editExternal
edit- https://flickr.com/photos/101561334@N08/28347811027/in/photostream/ Public domain photo
References
editNotes
edit- ^ Beck 1986, pp. 29–34.
- ^ Sharp, McKinny & Shai 2015, pp. 61.
- ^ Dever 2005, p. 188.
- ^ תדמור & Tadmor 2011, pp. 419–424.
- ^ Rahmouni's "Epithets" cites Ginsberg 1946 p 23 and more.
- ^ Margalith 1994, pp. 109–115.
- ^ Sharp, McKinny & Shai 2015, pp. 65.
- ^ Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeolocial Society 2015 Volume Sharp, Casey. The Late Bronze Age Figurines from Tel Burna.
Bibliography
editNB: Margalit and Margalith are different scholars.
- Beck, Pirhiya (1986). "A new Type of Female Figurine". Insight through images: Studies in honor of Edith Porada: 29–34.
- תדמור, מרים; Tadmor, Miriam (2011). "The Figurine from Revadim—Wet-nurse or Child-bearing Woman? / הצלמית מרבדים — מינקת או יולדת?". Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies / ארץ-ישראל: מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה. ל. Israel Exploration Society: 419–424. ISSN 0071-108X. JSTOR 23630993. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
- Dever, William G. (2005). Did God Have a Wife?. Grand Rapids (Mich.): William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-2852-3.
- Margalith, Othniel (1994). "A New Type of Asherah-Figurine?". Vetus Testamentum. 44 (1). Brill: 109–115. ISSN 0042-4935. JSTOR 1519430. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
- Via: Margalit, Baruch (1989). "Some Observations on the Inscription and Drawing from Khirbet el-Qôm". Vetus Testamentum. 39 (3). Brill: 371–378. ISSN 0042-4935. JSTOR 1519611. Retrieved 2023-10-19. O. Turfnell pl XLVIIB p 229 Pubic triangle is substituted for the stereotyped tree w flanking ibices: "the tree... symbolized the fertility goddess Asherah."
- Puech, Émile (2014). "Les inscriptions hébraïques de Kuntillet 'Ajrud (Sinaï)". Revue Biblique. 121 (2): 161–194. doi:10.2143/RBI.121.2.3157150. ISSN 2466-8583. JSTOR 44092490.
- Sharp, Casey; McKinny, Chris; Shai, Itzhaq (2015). "The Late Bronze Age Figurines from Tel Burna". STRATA Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. 33. London: The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society: 61–79. There are "copious amounts of scholarship on their context and iconography." p. 71 Distrib. across economic classes p. 64
- Cornelius, Sakkie (2004). "A Preliminary Typology for the Female Plaque Figurines and Their Value for the Religion of Ancient Palestine and Jordan" (PDF). Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 30/1. 30 (1): 21–39. Retrieved 2023-10-19. "One cannot always trust excavation reports or catalogues, nor photographs or secondary line-drawings."
- Rahmouni, Aicha (2008), Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, translated by Ford, J. N., Leiden, NE: Brill