Zebaoth – der Thronende

2006 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegfried Kreuzer
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Hebrew Word ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Administrative Center

AbstractZebaoth is the most frequent attribute for Jhwh in the Hebrew Bible. It's connotation is god's majesty and power. Yet its etymology and original meaning are still under debate. In modern research as well as in the OT, sebāot is connected with the root sābā, meaning "host". The changing identifi cations (the hosts of Israel's army, the stars as Jhwh's heavenly hosts, all of Jhwh's creation) and the modern interpretations (esp. as an abstract plural or plural of intensity) as well as the grammatical problems of the combination "Jhwh sebāot", point to the idea, that sebāot had an non-Hebrew origin and was taken over and understood in Hebrew context. The paper then takes up and advances the suggestion of M. Görg, that sebāot has an Egyptian origin, in the sense of "belonging to/owning the throne". This is explained and advanced in its linguistic development, and in relation to the political and religio-historical situation of Canaan at the turn from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age, including the archaeological evidence concerning Shilo in relation to nearby Aphek, the Egyptian administrative center at that time. So, Zebaoth designates the enthroned, powerful god in his majesty; this basic understanding is held through, though understood in the light of the Hebrew word for hosts, which were identified in different—appropriate—ways.

Material Culture and Making Visible: On the Portrayal of Philistine Gath in the Book of Samuel

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Book Of Samuel

Over the past twenty years our understanding of Philistine Gath's history (Tell es-Safl) has been transformed by what has been revealed through the site's early Iron Age remains. But what has received much less attention is the effect these ruins have on how we read references to the location within the Hebrew Bible. The intent of this study is to draw on the archaeological evidence produced from Tell es-Safl as an interpretive lens by which to consider the biblical portrayal of the site rendered in the book of Samuel, where the material traces of more amicable associations between Gath and highland populations invite us to reconsider the city's depiction in this ancient literary work.

The Political History of Megiddo in the Early Iron Age and the Ambiguities of Evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Iron Age I ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Developments

Abstract This article reviews the major problems in the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age (Iron Age I–IIA), at the time of the early monarchic period in Israel (eleventh–ninth centuries BCE). Megiddo has been central to an ongoing debate over the nature of the early monarchic period in Israel and the exact chronology of the Iron Age I–IIA periods. This importance derives both from the extensive excavations of the relevant strata at Megiddo (VIA, VB and VA-IVB) as well as Megiddo’s appearance in relevant historical sources, namely the Hebrew Bible, which claims that Solomon “built” Megiddo, and its appearance in the campaign list of pharaoh Sheshonq I. Though the fragment of a stela of Sheshonq I was found at Megiddo, it was only found after having been discarded and so its stratigraphic attribution is unclear. Radiocarbon dating from these strata has assisted to some degree but still left dating and historical questions quite open. This article will demonstrate that the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age is beset with ambiguities in the evidence, which have been divided into seven ambiguities for the purpose of the discussion here. When these ambiguities are taken into account, it becomes clear that the interpreter has much latitude in making their reconstruction, specifically in how they date strata and associate them with putative historical developments. Different cases can be made for associating particular strata and their termination with Solomon, Sheshonq or even later kings, but none can claim to objectively be the correct or superior reconstruction.

A Past No Longer Remembered

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Narrative Prose

Chapter 4 examines the phenomenon of absence in the Hebrew Bible, or why certain early Iron Age locations do not appear in the stories told about this time period in the biblical writings. This study focuses on six locations from the early Iron Age that were of substantial significance during this era, but which are nevertheless not referred to in the Hebrew Bible. After surveying the archaeological evidence from these sites, it is maintained that the absence of these places from the biblical narrative was likely the outcome of Hebrew scribes not having access to information about these settlements, rather than an intentional act of suppressing what knowledge they had. This manner of forgetting was occasioned, it is argued here, because these particular locations had lost their cultural and political significance by the time in which past memories were being textualized by Hebrew scribes into stories of narrative prose.

The Early Iron Age Urban Forms of Cyprus

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Iacovou
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Urban Settlement ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Power Centers

This chapter examines the local conditions, traditions, and forms of urban settlement in Cyprus during the Iron Age. It explains that almost to the very end of the Middle Bronze Age, Cyprus had remained a closed rural society, though it was by then completely surrounded by Mediterranean urban states and it was only by 1100 BC that new social and economic structures started to dictate the establishment and development of new population and power centers. The archaeological evidence of 800–600 BC stands testimony to the culmination of a long process of social evolution and urbanization.

The Early Iron Age Metal Workshop at Tell Tayinat, Turkey

2011 ◽  
Vol 1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Roames
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Dramatic Rise ◽  
Tell Tayinat

ABSTRACTScholars have tried to link the dramatic rise of iron production in the Near East during the Early Iron Age with changes to the political landscape that occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age. These attempts have been hindered by a lack of excavated iron production contexts dating to the Early Iron Age. The recent discovery of an Early Iron Age metal workshop at the site of Tell Tayinat, Turkey, provides an opportunity to reexamine some previous assumptions. Preliminary chemical analysis of metal and slag samples indicates that during the 12th century BC iron- and bronze-working were not separate, specialized industries. Instead, production of both materials took place within the same workshop context. Furthermore, this work highlights the importance of prestige goods in the Early Iron Age repertoire.

The Early Iron Age at Tell Abu al-Kharaz, Jordan Valley

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Bürge
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Starting Point

The present monograph by Teresa Bürge deals with the material culture of the city of Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. The basis and starting point is an extremely well-preserved domestic compound dating from the early Iron Age – one of the most controversial periods of the Eastern Mediterranean: it follows the political and economic collapse of the Late Bronze Age and results in a re-structuration of the political and social organization, which – due to the present state of research – is well documented only for the later Iron Age. In addition to a detailed examination of the architecture, the find material, its contexts, the relative and absolute chronology, and the possible function of the building, the study aims at an integration of the evidence from Tell Abu al-Kharaz into a broader picture. Special attention is devoted to the economy and social organization of the early Iron Age town, to aspects of tradition versus innovation, and patterns of economic contacts and migration. Therefore, the study contributes to a better understanding of processes of continuity and change in social and political organization and cross-cultural relations of pre- and protohistoric societies.

Ancestral and chthonic cults at Tenos

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 305-329
Author(s):  
Nota Kourou
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Religious Evolution ◽  
Material Evidence

This paper presents the material evidence from two neighbouring Early Iron Age sites at Xobourgo on Tenos, identified as sacred places, and comments on their religious character and evolution. The first, conventionally named the Pro-Cyclopean Sanctuary, has a purely mortuary character. It starts in the Late Protogeometric period with an ancestral cult on a pebble platform over an empty grave, continues with a number of pyre pits inside enclosure walls, and ends up with a chthonic cult at an eschara in the Late Geometric period to be replaced by a small sacred oikos in the 7th century. The second starts as an open-air shrine, named the Pre-Thesmophorion Shrine, with an eschara and a protected place for storing pithoi, and it is turned into a Demeter sanctuary, a Thesmophorion, with a small temple in the Classical period. After considering the development and phases of both sites, it is claimed that they have similar, though not identical, cultic roles. Their different architectural and religious evolution is considered as largely dependent on social changes and historical conditions. They are compared and discussed against contemporary archaeological evidence for ancestral and chthonic cults focusing on such evidence from Tenos.

The Militarization of a Society: The Example of Transcaucasia in the Early Iron Age

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-126
Author(s):  
Manuel Castelluccia
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political System ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Social Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Funerary Customs ◽  
Human Landscape

The aim of the present paper is to analyze the particular political and social process which began in the lands south of the main Caucasus range at the end of the Late Bronze Age and continued and strengthened during the following Iron Age. This process was characterized by the marked militarization of the society, which involved many related aspects, not just the political system but also social life and organization. The following pages will be dedicated to an analysis of some well-defined aspects, such as the organization of the human landscape, architecture, funerary customs, arts, politics and economy. Emphasis will be placed on how these were affected by this process of militarization and the main features of the latter will be described.

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