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 ...

Hamath , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

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". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, in the territory of the ancient kingdom of

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

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.

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
*
picture
of 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