>Archaeology has an article detailing the latest discovery at Ebla, the Bronze Age city located in northern Syria. Among the most recent discoveries, archaeologists found a cuneiform tablet detailing the weapons the leaders of Ebla gave to their allies during a war fought against a common enemy (possibly Mari) circa 2300 B.C.

Archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team also found two figurines “that confirm textual evidence for a royal cult of the dead focused on the city’s queens.” Concerning the two figurines, the article says:

Both figurines are intricate representations of women, which are rare in Near Eastern Bronze Age art. One, made of steatite and wood, is depicted with her arms arranged in a gesture indicating prayer. The second figurine holds a goblet and wears an ornate gold dress. Both seem to have been used in a ritual mentioned in a tablet from Ebla that describes how the city’s dead queens became female deities who were then worshiped privately by their successors. Matthiae suspects the steatite figure depicts a living queen who would have prayed to the gold-covered figurine, itself a representation of a dead queen who had become a goddess.

The discovered of the city of Ebla thirty years ago caused a lot of excitement in the archaeological world. That excitement still continues today with these new findings.

Read the article in Archaeology by clicking here. See an enlarged picture of the figurines by clicking here.

HT: Duane Smith

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Ebla, Goddess, Paolo Matthiae