Image Details

ZEV RADOVAN / ALAMY

CANAANITE CONTINUITY. The famous cult stand from the site of Ta‘anach, near Megiddo, stands nearly 2 feet tall and dates to the tenth century BCE. This situates it squarely in the period of Israel’s United Monarchy, and yet its imagery draws directly from the rich Canaanite legacy of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE). The goddess figure grasping two lions in the lowest register and the ibexes feeding from the tree of life two registers above reflect iconographic traditions linked to Asherah, the consort of the Canaanite god El and possibly also of Yahweh, who some believe is depicted in the top register as a sun disk on the back of a calf. Such evidence implies overlap and continuity between earlier Canaanite religion and the popular religion of biblical Israel.