The Phoenicians: Lost Civilizations by VADIM S. JIGOULOV

Author:VADIM S. JIGOULOV [JIGOULOV, VADIM S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Ancient, Social Science, Archaeology
ISBN: 9781789144796
Google: 05dDEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2021-11-11T20:31:57+00:00

Statuette of a storm god from the Syrian coast, 1500–1200 BCE.

Given the importance of seafaring to the Phoenicians, it is not surprising that the favour of the gods was petitioned through the cult of particular deities. It is worth stating that a separate pantheon for maritime activities was something that seafarers have possessed throughout history. One example is the veneration of Mary among Christian sailors, who assigned to her, along with traditional attributes of comfort, mercy and compassion, the qualities of aid and protection for those at sea. At times, Mary was metaphorically thought of as a ‘ship for those who wish to be saved’.29

Ritual life and worship

When discussing temples in the Ancient Near East, it is customary to use the term very widely, to include not only the shrine but the entire architectural complex, including any sacred statuary. The temple in general is considered an abode of the gods, a place of worship and sacrifice, tended to by priests. Shapes, sizes and forms of temples vary widely throughout the world, and even in the Ancient Near East there are differences. In Phoenicia, accurate reconstructions of temples are hampered by the destruction of the layers belonging to the Late Bronze and Iron Age periods, with the structures undergoing considerable reconstruction in the subsequent Hellenistic and Roman eras. The major surviving Phoenician temples, with varying degrees of degradation, are the Temple of Eshmun in Amrit (also referred to as the Maabed complex), the Temple of Eshmun at Bostan esh-Sheikh, near Sidon, and the two-temple complex at Umm el-Amed, south of Tyre. This is by no means an extensive list, and one has to resort to comparative typology from other sites associated with the Phoenicians in the eastern Mediterranean to draw conclusions regarding the plans and usage of temples in the Phoenician homeland.

Phoenician temples are usually sacral complexes consisting of one or more structures: an open area or courtyard, which archaeologists working in the Levant identify as a bamah, and an enclosed sanctuary. Our main source of information for the bamah is the Hebrew Bible, but its testimony is too general to speak confidently about what a bamah actually was. The Mesha Stele, dated to the ninth century BCE and from the ancient kingdom of Moab (located in what is now Jordan) mentions a bamah in the context of worship of the Moabite deity Chemosh: ‘And I made this high place for Chemosh’. Bamah is usually translated as a ‘high place’; as the term implies, the bamah was usually set on a high ground and was shaped as an open courtyard, in the middle of which was a cultic installation of some kind. It was also customary to have a sacred well in the courtyard, the tradition taken with the Phoenicians as they set up their colonies in the Mediterranean.30 Phoenician temples also frequently featured ablution basins.

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