The Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions are a group of ancient Hebrew inscriptions found at the site of Kuntillet Ajrud, in the Sinai Peninsula. They are written on pottery, stone, and plaster; most were written at the site where they were found, while some were sent there on jars, likely from the Jerusalem area. They are dated to the late 9th century BCE. Some of the inscriptions were written on pithoi (large storage jars) that also feature paintings.
The inscriptions are significant for the study of the history of ancient Israelite religion, as are the paintings found at the site, some of which are located near the inscriptions and may be related to them. The "shocking" and "exceedingly controversial" inscriptions have relevance and interest to the fields of Ancient Near East and Biblical studies. The central figures of Pithos A have been identified as either representations of Yahweh and Asherah, the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes or Bes-like deities, or even as demonic ritual dancers. The figures appear bipedal and wearing hats or crowns.
Discovery The finds were discovered during excavations in 1975–1976, during the Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, but were not published in first edition until 2012., "Trois campagnes de fouilles dirigées par Z. Meshel en 1975 et 1976 mirent au jour des restes de deux bâtiments, le bâtiment A le mieux conservé d'où provient l'essentiel de la documentation (voir figure 1 avec la situation des diverses inscriptions), et le bâtiment B très érodé à l'est. Ont été retrouvés des restes d'une occupation du début du Fer II B qui se sont révélés importants en particulier par l'abondance d'inscriptions gravées ou peintes sur des vases ou sur du plâtre, accompagnées de dessins. Le site à la frontière du royaume de Juda et du désert du Sinai se trouve sur une route de passage dès les temps anciens. La publication récente du rapport final présente les différents apports de ces découvertes, et parmi ces dernières, les inscriptions sont d'un intérêt majeur à plus d'un titre, et méritent quelques lignes complémentaires."
Description
The most famousSchmidt, Brian B., "The Iron Age Pithoi Drawings from Ḥorvat Teman or Kuntillet ʿAjrud: Some New Proposals", JANER 2 (2002), p. 103. inscriptions are found on two pithoi, especially Pithos A, obverse pictured. The central figures are human-bovine and have writing above their heads. The lyre player (or weaver), seated and about the same size as the standing figures, bears the same polka dot pattern. The suckling motif (𓃖) with the quadrupedal animals is also quite central, but less mysterious.
Wall inscriptions were written in black and red ink on plaster. At least one piece is a multi-color work. Contributing to difficulty, the "incriptions (sic) reveal odd data at different angles" or photos may mislead.
The reverse of pithos A has a line of ambiguous mammals including most clearly a boar. The remaining below, drawn more confidently, are all goddess symbols: a pair of caprids flanking a sacred tree, on bottom a lion. The central figure:
"It is mainly a tree trunk with branches and shoots coming out from it, eight in flower and eight in bud. Pirhiya Beck notes that the tree may be compared with Phoenician examples which show lotus and bud. Its overall form, however, is curious. The flowers are not quite lotuses. The trunk seems like that of a palm tree, but at the top of the trunk is a feature that looks rather like a large almond nut, with the pits of its shell clearly shown. Interestingly, three main branches come from each side of the trunk, and the other two flowering shoots and two minor budding shoots (or shoots with small almond nuts) come from the ’almond’ motif. Like the menorah, then, this representation of an asherah has three branches coming from each side of a central trunk. As we have seen, in the drawings of the Lachish ewer, the trees shown also have three branches coming from a central trunk and look very like menorot. In the Ta’anach stands, the tree is an upright trunk with several furled fronds coming out from the two sides; in one case six and in the other eight.
Pithos B has figures in a jubilating attitude and other elements. There are a couple half-complete drawings of an archer and plenty of animals, also often incomplete due to artist's or history's caprice.Ryan Thomas, The Identity of the Standing Figures on Pithos A from Kuntillet ʿAjrud: A Reassessment, in Journal of ancient near eastern religions 16 (2016), p. 159.
Inscriptions
Pithos A Large letters deeply wet-carved into a shoulder of it read 𐤒𐤓, qof-resh or QR.inscription 2.9 page 82 Meshel 2012 The abundance of text on the same surface as a variety of visual art is unusual and complementary, adding to alphabetic and cultural development understanding.
There is a common two-bovine motif. Many have written on a connection to abundance, fertility, goddesses. Meshel says the udders are poorly drawn; others point out it is a bull. The suckling motif is ubiquitous in the ancient world, seen in Syrian ivory, Egyptian hieroglyph,E5 amš Semitic pottery,Ras Macalister, Gezer, pictured and more.
The seated figure is called a musician or weaver, though she's holding her instrument wrong in either case. The central figures have been identified as either representations of Yahweh and Asherah, the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes or Bes-like deities, or even as demonic ritual dancers. They appear bull-faced or leonine, bipedal, and wearing hats or crowns.
The bipedal figures here and on jar B are shown with energetic polka dots, which Meshel says must be symbolic, ie not clothing. In fact dots are a common motif in Sinai and elsewhere.
Meshel 3.1
(1.) ʾmr ʾšyw hm[l]k ʾmr lyhlyw wlywʿšh wl [ ... ] brkt ʾtkm lyhwh šmrn wlʾšrth
"Says ʾAšiyaw the king: Say to Yahēliyaw, and to Yawʾāsah, and to blessed are you all to Yahweh of Samaria and to his Asherah".
Pithos B
The second jar follows A's unbroken single line of text with many short lines. You can see interpretation of "carriage returns" or breaks within words.
Meshel 3.6
(1) ʾmr (1) Says (2) ʾmryw ʾ- (2) ʾAmaryaw: "ʾ- (3) mrl ʾdny (3) MRL, my lord, (4) hšlm ʾt (4) is all well with you? (5) brktk ly- (5) I bless you to Ya- (6) hwh tmn (6) hweh of Teman (7) wlʾšrth yb- (7) and to his Asherah. May he bl- (8) rk wyšmrk (8) ess you and protect you, (9) wyhy ʿm ʾdn- (9) and may he be with my lo- (10) y ʾrk ḥym (10) rd as a long life (11) bšlm ʾmr hʾ (11) in peace." says he.
Lemaire says there's an epistolary character to the text, not just from brk, but a common NW Semitic salutation: ʾmr X ʾmr Y, "Message of X, say to Y," Wearne says ʾmr, from a word for command or speak, is "that which was promised," a votive, not synonymous with ndr an offering; also skeptical about the "wooden" and "redundant" welfare inquiry.
Meshel 3.9
(1) ...lyhwh htmn wlʾšrth (2) ...kl ʾšr yšʾl mʾš ḥnn h wʾm pth wntn lh yhw[h] (3) klbbh
(1) ...to Yahweh of the Teman, and to his Asherah, (2) ...all which he asks from a man he will give generously. And if he entices, Yahwe(h) shall give to him (3) his wish(es).
Pithos C Inscription 3.16, in red. Figs 5.47a,b.
1 ʾšʾ bn... Asa, son of... 2 htlh... 3 gd... Gad 4 d... Jar C is a not a whole item, like A and B, it's just a chunk with the container's handle and the beginnings of a few lines. Meshel sees a personal name Asa on line 1 and perhaps "lamb" on line 2.
Meshel plaster fragments
Series 4 of inscriptions were written on white plaster that crumbled due to excavation.
Meshel 4.1.1 "Teman" is spelled tymn, as opposed to above tmn. The inclusion of this yodh may indicate diphthongization. However, Frevel has argued against indiscriminate interpretations about "Teman" in references to tmn, tymn, htmn.
1 ...ʾrk ymm wyšbʿw [...] ytnw l[y]hwh tymn wlʾšrth [...may] he lengthen [their] days, and may they be satisfied [...] may they be given to [Ya]hweh of Teman and to his Asherah. 2 ...hyṭb yhwh hty[mn...] ...the favored of Yahweh of the Te[man...]Allen, Spencer L. The Splintered Divine: A Study of Istar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614512363; p. 264
Meshel № 4.2
4.2 involves less reconstructional guesswork than the lacuna-heavy 4.1 series as it's in two pieces rather than many. However, it's one of the more debated pieces, with a few translations available.
(1) wbzrḥ ʾl br... (2) wymsn hrm... (3) wydkn gbnm... (4) wšdš ʾly... (5) lbrk bʿl bym mlḥ[mh...] (6) lšm ʾl bym mlḥ[mh...]
(1) And when El shone forth in... (2) and mountains melted... (3) and peaks were crushed... (4) (unknown) (5) to bless Baal on the day of bat[tle...] (6) to the name of El on the day of bat[tle...]Largely following .
There has been some scholarly debate on the translation of line 4; some have suggested that the inscription actually reads the more familiar qdš ("holy") rather than wšdš, while others have argued for qdš referring to a placename like Kadesh-Barnea.
Meshel 4.3
1 (...) 2 [...ʾ]hly y[šrʾl? ...] 3 lydth · whʾ... 4 [ʿ]ny wʿsq bn ʾbyn ʾ[š] dl... 5 lbšm ywn md(?)w [ng]ʾl bd[m...] 6 nd ḥlp wym [y]bš ʿ(?)d... 7 [ḥ]rn bšnt d[br(?)] r[ʿ]b w[ḥ]rb šḥt qyn š[q]r wmrmh...
English translation in dispute. Meshel doesn't attempt a full translation of the partially "nonsensical" sequence, but guesses Cain or Kenites for qyn (line 7, bold), which can also mean create or acquire or family, as in KTU 1.3 or Genesis 4.1 or the Khirbet el-Qom ostraca. He wasn't the first to mention the Kenites "nesting" in Sinai.
Subseries 4.4 and 4.5 are quite fragmentary, really a collection of one- or two-letter chunks, on one item the letters b... hnb abutting part of a drawing of a human head. The figure appears beardless, with an olive-shaped eye seen in facial profile.
Meshel 4.6
4.6.1
2 m[...]m. lʕm šmm 3ʔmr.[...]ʔtl 4 ʔmryšʔl
Square script transcription uses terminal m ("מ[...]ם. לעם שממ") inconsistently; inscription uses 𐤌 with no sofit alternate.
KA series
As compiled in the Handbuch der althebräischen Epigraphik by Renz, many of the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions featured in the book appear to be fragmented copies of the inscriptions already published by Meshel, as the contents and wording of the inscriptions are otherwise identical.
KA 9:2
1 עירא 2 עדה 3 לשר ער
KA 9:5
1 חליו
KA 9:6
1 [..]ברך:ימם:וישבעו[..] 2 [..]ה יטב:יהוה [..]
KA 9:6 appears to represent a fragmented Meshel 4.1.1.
"Fragmente" a יתנו:ל[..] b אשרת[..]
This fragment, like KA 9:6, also appears to belong to the Meshel 4.1.1 inscription.
KA 9:7
1 [..]ובזרח:אל:וימסן הרם [..] 2 [..]ברך:בעל:בים:מלח[..] 3 [..]לשם:אל:בים:מלח[..]
KA 9:7 represents a fragmented Meshel 4.2.
KA 9:8
1 אמר:א[..] ה [..]ד:אמר:ליהל[..]וליועשה:ו[..] ברכת:אתכם 2 ליהוה: שמרן: ולאשרתה
KA 9:8 represents a fragmented Meshel 3.1.
KA 9:9
Pithos 2:
1 אמריו א 2 מר ל: אדני 3 השלם: א[ת] 4 ברכתך לי 5 הו[ה...] 6 ולאשרתה: יב 7 רך: וישמרך 8 ויהי: עם: אדג 9 י[...] 10 כ[...] 11 טיכלמנספעצקר 12 עפצקרשת 13 השערם שערם: 14 כלמנספעצקרש
KA 9:9 reproduces Meshel 3.6 in its entirety. The nonsense after the tiny lines 9–10, however, are abecedaries. The preceding are on the left side of the large streak down the side of the jar, the abecedaries on the right of the same stark line. This is on the reverse of the jar with the smaller figures with their hands up.
KA 9:10 Pithos 2: weitere zeichen 1 כל אשר ישאל מאש חנן [אתה..] ונתן לה יהו כלבבה 2 ליהוה: התמן: ולאשרתה
KA 9:10 appears to largely reproduce Meshel 3.9, though the order of the lines is reversed, with Meshel 3.9's first line comprising the second line of KA 9:10, and vice versa.
First paper