The Neighbors of Bronze Age Israel: A Descriptive Study of Canaanite Religion (original) (raw)

Archaeology and Religion in Late Bronze Age Canaan

Religions (special issue on Archaeology and Ancient Israelite Religion), 2019

Dozens of temples were excavated in the Canaanite city-states of the Late Bronze Age. These temples were the focal points for the Canaanites’ cultic activities, mainly sacrifices and ceremonial feasting. Numerous poetic and ritual texts from the contemporary city of Ugarit reveal the rich pantheon of Canaanite gods and goddesses which were worshiped by the Canaanites. Archaeological remains of these rites include burnt animal bones and many other cultic items, such as figurines and votive vessels, which were discovered within the temples and sanctuaries. These demonstrate the diverse and receptive character of the Canaanite religion and ritual practices. It seems that the increased Egyptian presence in Canaan towards the end of the period had an influence on the local belief system and rituals in some areas, a fact which is demonstrated by the syncretic architectural plans of several of the temples, as well as by glyptic and votive items. Late Bronze Age religious and cultic practic...

Religion in Canaan and Israel: An archaeological perspective

1993

This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulf illment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole of in part may be granted by the copyright holder.

Stages of Ancient Israelite Religion: From Polytheism to Monotheism

Open Journal for Anthropological Studies, 8(1), 21-32, 2024

In the past scholars traced monotheism to the time of Moses, around 1200 BC. But in the last decades that date changed to 7 th-6 th century BC. Further, the discovery of the Ugaritic texts in 1928 on the north coast of Syria has helped historians of religion to notice the development of Israelite religion from a polytheistic Canaanite stratum to monotheistic Yahwism. Through examining biblical and extra-biblical texts, archaeological material, and inscriptions, this study traces the religious similarities of the Israelite and Canaanite culture. Genesis 49, Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32:8-9 are thoroughly analyzed and conclusions are made about Israel's original God, and the original tiers of the pantheon. In the pre-exilic period (and perhaps as early as the 8 th century BC) Israel enjoyed perhaps a lesser pantheon than that in the Ugaritic texts, but certainly it was considerably more extensive than what the biblical record reports. The God of Biblical Israel may not actually be very different from the gods of the neighboring nations, but claiming that he is, is an important part of the rhetoric promoting devotion to that God alone.

The Goddesses and Gods of Saul

Pistis & Práxis, 2020

Recent studies considered the identification of the worshipped deities in the Central Hill Country Canaan at the end of Iron Age I an impossible task. The opinion was based on the difficulty of overcoming the multiple ideologies and textual layers of the late biblical texts that portray the region at the time. The present paper, from the conceptual framework called "Magical-Mythical Networks," tries to take up the challenge by integrating the data from local visual culture to the previous textual and archaeological studies in the analysis of Benjamin's Plateau in the Iron Age I-IIA. In using the social organization and the data from multiple sources, it is proposed two levels of deities that may have been part of the religious experience of the inhabitants, such as the possible identification of them.