Open Collections

Sala, Maura

Database of Religious History (DRH)

Given the absence of written sources, evidence of cult and religion in Canaan / southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age (3600–2400 BCE) relies exclusively on the material remains that people inhabiting this region have left behind. These material remains are limited and the interpretation of their meaning often remains uncertain. Religious architecture represents the main evidence for the period, with the classic type of the broad-room temple, placed in a courtyard at times equipped with a stone altar for sacrifices. In addition, a few cult objects (cultic vessels, shrine models, figurines) and some iconographic sources, i.e. cylindrical seals decorated with cult scenes, shed light on some cultic practices and rituals. The cylinder seals impressions, in particular, seem to indicate the practice of a fertility cult, linked to a fertility goddess who represented the main deity. Early Bronze Age temples may have been dedicated to this fertility goddess. On the other hand, the presence of twin temples – as in the sacred area of Arad – could indicate the worship of a divine couple (possibly depicted also on some EB III cylinder seal impressions), with a male deity worshipped as a partner of the fertility goddess. The increasing images of bulls documented in the Early Bronze Age may be associated with this male deity (a prototype of El, Baal or Dagan in the second millennium BCE). The temples were also to be the center of cultic events and public rituals involving the members of the community.

Other

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0422110

Non UBC

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/