The Stele of Zakkur (or ''Zakir'') is a royal
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
of King
Zakkur
Zakkur (or ''Zakir'') was the ancient king of Hamath and Luhuti (also known as Nuhašše) in Syria. He ruled around 785 BC. Most of the information about him comes from his basalt stele, known as the Stele of Zakkur.
History
Irhuleni and hi ...
of
Hamath
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and
Luhuti
Luhuti, Lukhuti or Lu'ash, was an Iron Age Syro-Hittite Aramean region during the early 1st millennium BC located in northern Syria, in an area that used to be called Nuhašše.
Political Situation and Capital
Luhuti was a region of uncertain p ...
(or Lu'aš) in the province
Nuhašše
Nuhašše, also Nuhašša, was a region in northwestern Syria that flourished in the 2nd millennium BC. It was a federacy ruled by different kings who collaborated and probably had a high king. Nuhašše changed hands between different powers in t ...
of Syria, who ruled around 785 BC.
Description
The inscription was on the lower part of the original stele. The upper part is now missing; it probably had the statue of king Zakkur sitting on a chair. Only some small parts of the upper part are still preserved such as the feet.
Discovery
The Stele was discovered in 1903 at
Tell Afis
Tell Afis is an archaeological site in the Idlib region of northern Syria, and lies about fifty kilometres southeast of Aleppo.
The site is thought to be that of ancient Hazrek (or Hazrach; Hatarikka for the Assyrians) capital of Luhuti.
Histor ...
(mentioned in the Stele as ''Hazrach''),
45 km southeast of
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
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...
, in the territory of the ancient kingdom of
Hama
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th.
It was published in 1907.
The long inscription is known as
KAI 202; it reads, in part:
:''I am Zakkur, king of Hamath and Luash . . . Bar-Hadad, son of Hazael, king of Aram, united against me seventeen kings . . .all these kings laid siege to Hazrach . . . Baalshamayn said to me, "Do not be afraid! . . .I will save you from all
hese kings whohave besieged you"''
[Ivor Poobalan]
“The Period of Jeroboam II with Special Reference to Amos,”
JCTS 3 ournal of the Colombo Theological Seminary(2005): 43‒74 (47) // archive.org
'Bar-Hadad' mentioned in the inscription may have been
Bar-Hadad III, son of
Hazael
Hazael (; he, חֲזָאֵל, translit=Ḥazaʾēl, or , romanized as: ; oar, 𐡇𐡆𐡀𐡋, translit= , from the triliteral Semitic root ''h-z-y'', "to see"; his full name meaning, " El/God has seen"; akk, 𒄩𒍝𒀪𒀭, Ḫa-za-’- il ...
.
Deities
Two gods are mentioned in the inscription,
Baalshamin and
Iluwer
Wer (Wēr), also known as Mer, Ber and Iluwer was a weather god worshiped in parts of Mesopotamia and ancient Syria. It is presumed that he was originally one of the main deities of the northern parts of these areas, but his cult declined in the ...
. Iluwer was the personal god of king Zakkur, while Baalshamin was the god of the city. It is believed that Iluwer represents the earlier god Mer or
Wer going back to 3rd millennium BC.
This inscription represents the earliest Aramaean evidence of the god Baalshamin/Ba'alsamayin.
Phoenician
Yehimilk inscription
The Yehimilk inscription is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 4 or TSSI III 6) published in 1930. Currently in the museum of Byblos Castle.
It was published in Maurice Dunand's ''Fouilles de Byblos'' (volume I, 1926–1932, numbers 1141, plate XX ...
, also mentioning Baalshamin is even earlier. It dates to the 10th century BCE.
See also
*
Baal with Thunderbolt
Baal with Thunderbolt or the Baal stele is a white limestone bas-relief stele from the ancient kingdom of Ugarit in northwestern Syria. The stele was discovered in 1932, about from the Temple of Baal in the acropolis of Ugarit, during excavation ...
*
List of artifacts significant to the Bible
The following is a list of inscribed artifacts, items made or given shape by humans, that are significant to biblical archaeology.
Selected artifacts significant to biblical chronology
These table lists inscriptions which are of particular sign ...
Notes
Bibliography
* Pognon, H., Inscriptions sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mésopotamie, et de la région de Mossoul. . Paris: Imprimerie nationale/Gabalda, 1907
* Driver, S.R., "An Aramaic Inscription from Syria." Expositor 7/5 (1908): 481–90.
* Ronzevalle, S., "An Aramaic inscription of Zakir, ruler of Hamath and Laˁš." Al-Mashriq 11 (1908): 302–10
* Halévy, J., "Inscription de Zakir, roi de Hamat, découverte par M. H. Pognon." RevSém 16 (1908a): 243–46
* Nöldeke, Theodor, "Aramäische Inschriften." ZA 21 (1908a): 375–88
* Montgomery, James A., "Some Gleanings from Pognon's ZKR Inscription." JBL 28 (1909): 57–70
External links
The Aramaic Inscription of Zakar, King of Hamath*
pictureof the stele online.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zakkur, stele
9th-century BC steles
8th-century BC steles
1903 archaeological discoveries
Ancient Near East steles
Syro-Hittite states
Zakur
Syrian art
Archaeological discoveries in Syria
Near East and Middle East antiquities of the Louvre
Phoenician inscriptions
KAI inscriptions
Phoenician steles
Steles
Archaeological artifacts