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Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 125 Studies in the lconography of Northwest Se-mitic lnscribed Seals Proceedings of a symposium held in Fribourg on April 17-20, 1991 edited by Benjamin Sass and Christoph Uehlinger University Press Fribourg Switzerland Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Studies in the lconography of Northwest Semitic lnscribed Seals. Proceedings of a symposium held in Fribourg on April 17-20, 1991. Edited by Benjamin Sassand Christoph Uehlinger.-Freiburg, Schweiz: Univ.- Verl.; Cöttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, '1993. (Orbis biblicus et orientalis; 125) ISBN 3-525-53760-3 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) ISBN 3-7278-0870-5 (Univ.-Verl.) NE: Sass, Benjamin [Hrsg.]; Uehlinger, Christoph [Hrsg.]; CT Publication subsidized by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Berne Die Druckvorlagen wurden von den Herausgebern als reprofertige Dokumente zur Verfügung gestellt @ 1993 by Universitätsverlag Freiburg Schweiz Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Cött¡ngen Paulusdruckerei Freiburg Schweiz ISBN 3-7278-0870-5 (Un iversitätsverlag) ISBN 3-525-53760-3 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) Digitalisat erstellt durch Florian Lippke, Departement für Biblische Studien, Universität Freiburg Schweiz CONTENTS Preface ...... . VII Christoph Uehlinger lntroduction: The Status of lconography in the Study of North west Sernitic lnscribed Seals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI Andre Lemaire Les criteres non-iconographiques de la classification des sceaux nord-ouest semitiques inscrits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Dominique Parayre Apropos des sceaux ouest-semitiques: le röle de l'iconographie a a dans l'attribution d'un sceau une aire culturelle ou un atelier . 27 Tallay Oman Tue Mesopotamian Influence on West Semitic Inscribed Seals: A Preference for the Depiction of Mortals . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Pierre Bordreuil Le repertoire iconographique des sceaux arameens inscrits et son evolution .................. . 74 Eric Gubel Tue lconography of Inscribed Phoenician Glyptic 101 Ulrich Hübner Das ikonographische Repertoire der ammonitischen Siegel und seine Entwicklung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Stefan Timm Das ikonographische Repertoire der moabitischen Siegel und seine Entwicklung: vom Maximalismus zum Minimalismus . . 161 Benjamin Sass The Pre-Exilic Hebrew Seals: lconism vs. Aniconism . . . . 194 Christoph Uehlinger Northwest Semitic Inscribed Seals, lconography and Syro Palestinian Religions of Iron Age II: Some Afterthoughts and Conclusions . 257 List of Contributors 290 Bibliography and Abbreviations 291 Indices ........... . 317 A. General ........ . 317 B. Northwest Semitic letters and words . . . . . 329 C. Names of seal owners and other legends or personal names 330 PREFACE Tue present volume contains revised versions of the papers read at a sym posium entitled "Tue lconography of Northwest Semitic Inscribed Seals", held at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) on April 17-20, 1991. The symposium was planned as part of a research project headed by Prof. Othmar Keel, with Benjamin Sass as associate, and sponsored by the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (project no. 12-26253.89: "Origin and effect of the biblical image ban as reflected in inscribed Hebrew seals of the 9th to 6th centuries BC"). lt took place under the auspices of the Biblical Institute of the University of Fribourg and the Swiss Society for the Study of the Ancient Orient. Othmar Keel initiated the symposium, selected the topics, invited the contributors, and chaired the working sessions. Dr Dominique Collon (Lon don, The British Museum) and Dr Felice Israel (Universita degli Studi di Genova) participated as respondents. After three stimulating days of scholarly exchange, summaries of the papers and a synopsis of the symposium were presented at the spring meeting of the Swiss Society for the Study of the An cient Orient. We recall with gratitude the atrnosphere of friendship and fruitful scholarly discussion engendered by the warmhearted hospitality of Hildi and Othmar Keel-Leu. Financial support was generously provided by the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research, the Swiss Society for the Study of the Ancient Orient, the Jean Nordmann Foundation (Fribourg), and the Biblical Institute. With the symposium's successful culmination, it was decided to publish the papers in the "Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis" series. Significant revisions have been made in some of the articles. Furthermore, the editors have added numerous cross-references which, together with the cumulative bibliography and the indices, should enhance the volume's utility for specialists and for scholars in neighbouring fields alike. The introduction and the concluding article have been written during the editorial preparation of the book, when it appeared that a synthesis, a review of some methodological issues and an out line of religio-historical perspectives would be a useful complement to the volume. VIII PREFACE During the preparation of this book, we were fortunate to have the help of several people: Ines Haselbach and Andrea Jäkle assisted us with the assem blage and layout of figures and plates. (In order to facilitate the technical pro duction of the volume and to lower costs, it was decided to present line draw ings wherever possible. Note that these are not to a uniform scale.) Noga Z' evi, Hildi Keel-Leu, lnes Haselbach and Jürgen Rotner contributed nume rous new drawings. To all of them, and to the authors, we express our sin cere thanks. Othmar Keel, who relinquished the editorship of this volume be cause of other duties, nevertheless maintained a keen and encouraging interest in our editorial progress; it is with great pleasure that we acknowledge our gratitude to him. Haifa and Fribourg, Benjamin Sass October 1992 Christoph Uehlinger PREFACE IX From left to right: Eric Gubel, Julia Asher Greve (guest), Hildi Keel-Leu, Pierre Bordreuil, Dominique Parayre, Stefan Timm, Andrea Jäkle, Felice Israel, Othmar Keel, Tallay Oman, Dominique Collon, Benjamin Sass, Ulrich Hübner, Andre Lemaire. INTRODUCTION: THE STATUS OF ICONOGRAPHY IN THE STUDY OF NORTHWEST SEMITIC INSCRIBED SEALS Christoph UEHLlNGER Biblical Institute, Fribourg 1. Before Galling: episodic attention II. Galling 1941: a landmark ill. Tue decade after Galling: lirnited, but promising response IV. 1950-1975: no real progress V. 1975-1990: growing interest VI. Tue present status quaestionis More than fifty years ago, in 1941, Kurt Galling published his article on the iconography of Northwest Semitic inscribed seals, a study breaking new ground in several respects. Half a century later, we still benefit from what remains even today an impressive synthesis. The following introductory re marks double thus as a tribute to the German scholar.1 1. BEFORE GALLING: EPISODIC ATIENTION Earlier studies2 had concentrated almost exclusively on the epigraphical aspects of Northwest Semitic inscribed seals, namely their palaeography and onomasticon, and confined the treatment of iconography to a mere descrip tion. True, a few of the pioneering authors in the field, such as M. de Vogüe (1868), had devoted some real interest and knowledge in trying to elucidate not only the meaning of the personal names attested in the inscriptions, but also the possible religious significance of the seals' figurative designs. The 1. 1 would like to thank Dr Helga Weippert (Heidelberg) who, in a letter of October 18, 1992, offered some important comments on Galling's scholarly work on seals (see be low, section II). Thanks are due also to Othmar Keel and Benjamin Sass for their re marks, and to Stewart W atson for improving my English. 2. See Bordreuil 1992: 129-134 for a general history of research on Northwest Semitic inscribed seals. XII CHRISTOPH UEHUNGER case of Phoenician seals with their abundance of representations of Egyptian religious symbols seemed especially intriguing to de Vogüe, as it demon strated a strong influence of Egyptian upon Phoenician religion long before hermetism (ibid: 107t). And the presence of a striding bull on a Hebrew seal, to cite but one other example, attested to Israelite idolatry, namely the worship of Astarte (ibid.: 132).3 But discussions like de Vogüe's remained episodic in the early days of Northwest Semitic glyptic research. lconography and its bearing upon the study of the history of Levantine religions could not, at that time, be a subject of more serious scholarly attention. As a matter of fact, the learned world was then chiefly impressed by the continuing progress in understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphs and language and the growing success in deciphering cuneiform. Philology offered com pletely new clues, avenues and horizons to the study of Ancient Near Eastem cultures, and consequently promised, for the first time, perspectives for an adequate understanding of Ancient Near Eastem religion as well. Philology was able to show, for instance, that the symbolical interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which bad been current in Europe since the Renaissance, was in fact nothing but pure speculation. At the same time, as philology was in con stant move and progress, dies diem docet became a recurring motto of 19th century research on Ancient Near Eastem cultures. Not surprisingly, the early study ofNorthwest Semitic inscribed seals also engaged almost exclusively in matters of philology, even if the number of Northwest Semitic inscriptions remained very limited when compared to the Egyptian records, and did not increase as quickly as the cuneiform docu ments. The state of Ancient Near Eastem studies in general gave more credit to philological than to iconographical research, leaving the latter, based on comparatively mute sources, to archaeologists, art historians and collectors, whose interests were mainl y in realia4 or aesthetical in nature. 5 3. Cf. infra, p. 278, note 70. 4. See Keel 1992a: 361-369 on the use of iconography for the illustration of material culture, which rather bypassed Northwest Semitic inscribed seals but concentrated on Egyptian and Assyrian monumental art. Note that the following pages are designed as a summary introduction, and they follow only the main stream of research on Northwest Semitic inscribed seals along select publications of major importance for this field in particular. They do not aim at a comprehensive history of research, a task for which one would have to consider in detail numerous studies on individual seals, textbooks on "biblical archaeology", and collections of pictorial sources from the Ancient Near East such as H. Gressmann's "Altorientalische Bilder zum Alten Testament" (21927). 5. As one consequence of this state of affairs the study of Ancient Near Eastern icon ography has been largely dominated by a pseudo-philological approach which confines itself to mere identification of motifs and figures and tends to interpret pictures exclus ively according to what is known from literary sources. As a rule, however, pictures on seals - and elsewhere, even in books! - are not tobe considered simple 'illustrations' to