Israelite Ekron Temple to Asher: Plaque, Pottery, Jewelry (720-605 BCE)

Ekron was an unfortified Bronze Age town which was destroyed and then settled by the Philistines in 1150 BCE, taken over by the Israelites in 975 BCE, sieged and taken over by Assyrian king Sennacherib in 730 BCE, and then destroyed by the Babylonians around 600 BCE. This temple complex seems to have been some sort of sacred space during the Philistine, Israelite, and Assyrian periods.

For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts

Limestone plaque from the temple at Ekron written in Alphabetic Akkadian in the Israelite script style. This text is read from right to left. It is now displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (Photo from Wikimedia commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JRSLM_300116_Ekron_inscription.jpg)
Map showing the location of Ekron in the center. Ekron was an unfortified Bronze Age town which was destroyed and then settled by the Philistines in 1150 BCE, taken over by the Israelites in 975 BCE, sieged and taken over by Assyrian king Sennacherib in 730 BCE, and then destroyed by the Babylonians around 600 BCE. This temple complex seems to have been some sort of sacred space during the Philistine, Israelite, and Assyrian periods.

Translation of Dedication Plaque from Israelite Ekron Temple to Asher, the Form Revealer (720 BCE)

(August 14, 2024) This plaque was originally set within the temple sanctuary’s western wall but it fell to the floor during the building's destruction by the Babylonians in 604 or 603 BCE. 

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 35)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold. )
  1. BeTu Bu Nu.  AKu IṢu Bu. NaLu Du Ya Bu Nu
  2. Ya Su RaBu Nu. ADu LeBu Mu. I' RēṢe Rē’u Qu.
  3. Bu Nu Gi Lu Tu. Yahu ADu Tu. ETu Bu Ru. Ku ELu Tu.
  4. [3] .... ARu UYa Bu. EZu TuDu DaKu.

In English

  1. House for Nourishing the Revealer (Asher/Asherah). Emotion-owls can make scarce the nourishments. Dispersal (in the life network) will not manifest nourishments for the Revealer.
  2. Shouldn't Su be authorizing the Revealer? The Instigator (Su) can liberate the fertility-fluids. Yahu's (I') life-powers can shepherd the threads.
  3. Nourish the Revealer's energy without astrology-magic. Yahu (YH) can instigate astrology-magic. The boundary (network) can nourish the eagle-vultures. Involve the high-life-powers with astrology- magic.
  4. [missing words] Controllers (of fertility-fluid flow) can fate-curse the nourishments.  Frustration can sire restorations (to the afterlife in this case).

Comment on line 2: Astrological motion powers usually had to authorize human emotional motion powers in order to make them effective, that is, to turn them into emotion magic powers.

The temple had its own olive oil press in room O (lower center) for making its own scented oils for rituals and probably for sale. Rooms V and W contained hundreds of gold, silver, and bronze objects along with lots of ceramics. One of these was an ivory female figurine and an ivory knob having a cartouche of Ramses VIII (1129-1126 BCE) which would have dated back to the time of the original Philistine settlement. Room q had a gold 23 cm long cobra (Egyptian Uraeus). The great hall near the entrance had the burnt remains of large man-shaped ivory sculpture. (Gitin, Dothan, Naveh, 1997)

The city of Ekron eventually covered 85 acres making it a large city. It also became one of the largest olive oil production centers in the Mediterranean.

References

Gitin, S., Dothan, T., and Naveh, J. (1997) "A Royal Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron," Israel Exploration Journal 47: 1-18
Gitin, S., Golani, A. (2001) The Tel Miqne-Ekron Silver Hordes: The Assyrian and Phoenician Connections.  In Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece. edited by Miriam Balmuth. American Numismatic Society. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/16228869/The_Tel_Miqne_Ekron_Silver_Hoards_The_Assyrian_and_Phoenician_Connections

Langut, D. Finkelsein, I, Litt, T. (2013) Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149-175.  
Mazar, Amihai (2005) The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: its History, the Current Situation and a Suggested Resolution. pp. 15-30 in: T. Levy and T. Higham (editors), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science. London. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/2632501/The_Debate_over_the_Chronology_of_the_Iron_Age_in_the_Southern_Levant_its_History_the_Current_Situation_and_a_Suggested_Resolution_2005

Temple Sanctuary and Adjacent Rooms Showing Where Plaque Fell

Adjacent to the sanctuary's south side in the temple of Ayu were storage rooms and processing rooms. Room O at the end of the hall had an olive oil press for making scented oils for rituals and probably for sale. (Gitin and Golani, 2001)

View of Ekron Temple Excavation

Photo from Gitin and Golani, 2001

Ekron Plaque Being Dug Out

Photo from Gitin and Golani, 2001

Crescent Moon Earrings of the Goddess Ayu (Ishtar) Found in the Temple

Silver Crescent Moons from the Ekron Temple. Such moons represent the Goddess Ayu (Ishtar) who along with her eagle-vultures are the Controllers mentioned in the text. These Controllers are being negatively impacted by magic so they could not support Yahu.. Ten such moons were found scattered in the temple and most were earrings. Apparently the temple attendees had no problem honoring Yahu with Ayu.  (Gitin and Golani, 2001)

Drawing of building showing the find location of Philistine era jewelry hoard 5.

Silver Hoard 4 Found at Ekron which was a Philistine city in what is now Israel (720 BCE)

This hoard was found hidden at the bottom of an olive oil press where it seems to have been hidden for safekeeping. It represents the local religious culture and contains the silver pendant shown in the figure on the right.  (Gitin and Golani, 2001)

Silver pendant from hoard 4 at Ekron Showing the Winged Goddess Ayu (Ishtar) 720 BCE

(Feb 23, 2023) Silver pendant from hoard 4 shows goddess Ayu standing on the sun lion and below signs representing the sun guiiding Pleiades (7 stars). Between her and a worhiper is a crescent moon (her symbol), and above that is a sign representing the network editing eagle-vultures which she controls.  
It is 5.2 cm high. Its top lop is broken suggesting it was in the hoard only for its silver value at this time (Gitin and Golani, 2001). Now on display at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem.
Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee showing the droughts
Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee. In historical times it shows two major droughts. The 50 year long Great Drought of 1180 to 1140 BCE (Iron Age 1 period) which ended the Bronze Age (called the "Late Bronze Climate Crisis" in the chart) and the 10-year long Elijah drought of 850 BCE. The yellow gives the tree pollen level while the green gives the non-tree pollen level. Minor droughts are indicated anytime the curves turn downward. (Langut and Finkelsein 2013)

Droughts Defined the Archaeological Periods in the Levant

(August 9, 2022) Like most regions of the earth, correlating the archaeology of the southern levant with carbon 14 dating and absolute dating has been undergoing some debate. The best correlation with linguistics is the chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014. This chronology is reproduced below: 

References

Langut, D. Finkelsein, I, Litt, T. (2013) Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149-175. Online at https://www.academia.edu/6053886/Climate_and_the_Late_Bronze_Collapse_New_Evidence_from_the_Southern_Levant
Mazar, Amihai (2005) The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: its History, the Current Situation and a Suggested Resolution. pp. 15-30 in: T. Levy and T. Higham (editors), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science. London. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/2632501/The_Debate_over_the_Chronology_of_the_Iron_Age_in_the_Southern_Levant_its_History_the_Current_Situation_and_a_Suggested_Resolution_2005

Translation of Ekron Temple Plaque

Ekron Temple Plaque Lines 1 and 2 Lettered

(August 14, 2024) 

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 35)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold. )
  1. BeTu Bu Nu.  AKu IṢu Bu. NaLu Du Ya Bu Nu
  2. Ya Su RaBu Nu. ADu LeBu Mu. I' RēṢe Rē’u Qu.

In English

  1. House for Nourishing the Revealer (Asher/Asherah). Emotion-owls can make scarce the nourishments. Dispersal (in the life network) will not manifest nourishments for the Revealer. (Levant text 35.1)
  2. Shouldn't Su be authorizing the Revealer? The Instigator (Su) can liberate the fertility-fluids. Yahu's (I') life-powers can shepherd the threads.  (Levant text 35.2)

(August 24, 2022) 

Translation Attempt in Hebrew

This translation from Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh , 1997. Letter assignment differences are in red.

Line 2

  1. YSD
  2. BN – son of
  3. ADA - Ada (letter A is not even close to text)
  4. BN – son of (letter N is not even close to text)
  5. I’R – Ya’ir (proper name)
  6. Š*R – ruler (Incorrect word assignment. “ruler” in Hebrew is: ŠLYṬ
  7. ‘Q – Ek (Incorrect word assignment. First part of “Ekron” but words are never split between lines)
Ekron Temple Plaque Lines 3 and 4 Lettered

(August 14, 2024) Statement that this is a temple devoted to Yahu and why.

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 35)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold. )
  1. Bu Nu Gi Lu Tu. Yahu ADu Tu. ETu Bu Ru. Ku ELu Tu.
  2. [3] .... ARu UYa Bu. EZu TuDu DaKu.

In English

  1. Nourish the Revealer's energy without astrology-magic. Yahu (YH) can instigate astrology-magic. The boundary (network) can nourish the eagle-vultures. Involve the high-life-powers with astrology- magic. (Levant text 35.3)
  2. [missing words] Controllers (of fertility-fluid flow) can fate-curse the nourishments.  Frustration can sire restorations (to the afterlife in this case). (Levant text 35.4)

(August 24, 2022) Letter assignment differences are in red.

Translation Attempt in Hebrew

(from Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh , 1997)

Line 3

  1. RN – ron (incorrect, words are never split between lines)
  2. LPTGYH – for PTGYH (proper name, letters are SGT)
  3. ADTE - His lady (incorrect “lady” in Hebrew is AŠYE)
  4. TBR_E – bless him (BRK is root, missing the K)
  5. UT - and

Line 4

  1. M[R]E – protect him (letters unreadable or uncertain)
  2. UḪARK – and prolong (the core letters of “prolong” are actually ARYK)
  3. YME – his days (“day” is YWM, “his days” are YWME)
  4. UḪBRK – and bless (BRK is root, same claimed word has different lettering in line 3)
This Egyptian themed amulet or ring shows an Egyptian sphinx guarding the ankh sign which represented life. The Phoenicians had close contacts with the Egyptians. (Image from Gitin and Brandl 2018)

Phoenician Jewelry Hoard Found in Philistine Ekron (Hoard 5)

These amulets are likely Phoenician because the emphasis of their texts is on the motion powers instead of the agricultural life-growth powers of the Israelites. Not surprisingly they were found in the debris layer belonging to the Philistine Ekron’s prior to its destruction and rebuilding by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.

References

Gitin, S. and Brandl, B. (2018) AN IRON AGE II CACHE OF PHOENICIAN JEWELRY FROM TEL MIQNE-EKRON. In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by Itzhaq Shai, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Louise Hitchcock, Amit Dagan, Chris McKinny, and Joe Uziel

Amulet with Letter Samak (S)

The letter Samak (S) is “Su” in Alphabetic Akkadian. He was the full moon god who represented the source of all motion powers. 
Gitin, S. and Brandl, B. (2018) AN IRON AGE II CACHE OF PHOENICIAN JEWELRY FROM TEL MIQNE-EKRON. In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by Itzhaq Shai, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Louise Hitchcock, Amit Dagan, Chris McKinny, and Joe Uziel

Amulet with Letter Shin (Ṣ)

This letter Shin (Ṣ) means “activity” in Alphabetic Akkadian which is an epithet to describe the motion of the causal fluids. The source of all activity was Su mentioned in the figure 14 amulet.  
Gitin, S. and Brandl, B. (2018) AN IRON AGE II CACHE OF PHOENICIAN JEWELRY FROM TEL MIQNE-EKRON. In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by Itzhaq Shai, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Louise Hitchcock, Amit Dagan, Chris McKinny, and Joe Uziel

Silver Seal Ring from Ekron (600-700 BCE)

This ring apparently has an Egyptian inscription with the Horus falcon on the left.

Now at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. (number IAA: 2009-1548). Online at: https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/372730-0