The Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions are a series of inscriptions found at

Kuntillet Ajrud Kuntillet Ajrud ( ar, كونتيلة عجرود) is a late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE site in the northeast part of the Sinai Peninsula. It is frequently described as a shrine, though this is not certain. Excavations Kuntillet Ajrud (Arabic ك ...

in the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...

. Many are religious in nature, invoking

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...

, El and

Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...

, and two include the phrases "Yahweh of

Samaria Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first- ...

and his

Asherah Asherah (; he, אֲשֵׁרָה, translit=Ăšērā; uga, 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, translit=ʾAṯiratu; akk, 𒀀𒅆𒋥, translit=Aširat; Qatabanian language, Qatabanian: ') in ancient Semitic religion, is a fertility goddess who appears in a ...

" (or "Yahweh protect and his

") and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah."Bonanno, Anthony, ''Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean'', (University of Malta, 1986) pp.238ff.
/ref> The inscriptions were discovered during excavations in 1975–1976, during the

Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula The Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula was a 15-year-long military occupation of the Sinai Peninsula by Israeli forces that occurred after Israel's seizure of the region from Egypt during the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. Israeli provisiona ...

, but were not published in full until 2012.

Interpretation

The inscriptions found refer not only to Yahweh but to ʾEl and

Baʿal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied t ...

, and two include the phrases "Yahweh of

and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah." The references to Samaria (capital of the kingdom of Israel) and Teman (in

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

) suggest that Yahweh had a temple in Samaria, while raising questions about the relationship between Yahweh and Kaus, the national god of

. The 'asherah' in question is most likely a cultic object, although the relationship of this object (a stylised tree perhaps) to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, consort of ʾEl, is unclear. It has been suggested that the Israelites may have considered Asherah as the consort of Baʿal, due to the anti-Asherah ideology that was influenced by the Deuteronomistic Historians, at the later period of the kingdom. Also, it has been suggested by several scholars that there is a relationship between the position of the '' gəḇīrā'' in the royal court and the worship (orthodox or not) of Asherah.

1 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books ...

; , In a potsherd inscription of blessings from "Yahweh and his Asherah", there appears a cow feeding its calf.

Bibliography

* Puech, Émile.
LES INSCRIPTIONS HÉBRAÏQUES DE KUNTILLET ‘AJRUD (SINAÏ)
" ''Revue Biblique'' (1946-) 121, no. 2 (2014): 161–94

References

{{reflist Hebrew inscriptions Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Yahweh Baal Asherah El (deity) 1975 archaeological discoveries History of the Sinai Peninsula