The Earliest Known ‘Sign of Tanit’ Revealed in 11th Century BCE Building at Megiddo

Abstract

During the 2008 excavation season at Megiddo, a small copper alloy object was uncovered in a clean, early Iron I context. It is the earliest sign of Tanit known to date. The article surveys the roots of this Phoenician symbol from the Iron Age to the Hellenistic period in the Phoenician homeland, and evaluates the new find’s significance in terms of its date and regional origin.

Keywords:

• Sign of Tanit
• Phoenicia
• Megiddo

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Haim Gitler and Alison B. Ashenberg for their kind help and support.

Notes

1 Chemical composition analysis (pXRF) conducted by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University indicates that the object is made of an alloy of copper (∼97.5% wt. %) and arsenic (∼2.5% wt. %). The analysis was done on the surface of the object on an area relatively clean of corrosion and cement. This most probably attests that the raw material is not local to Canaan; future lead isotope analysis may help locate its origin.

2 For objects that were uncovered outside of Phoenicia and hint at the Eastern origin of Tanit, and for place names in Lebanon which preserve the name of the goddess, see Prichard 1982: 91; Bordreuil 1987: 79–80.

3 Another object bearing the sign of Tanit was uncovered at Sarepta. This is a small blue glass pendant impressed with the sign of the goddess (Pritchard 1988: 108: 1; Fig. 28: 1). It was excavated in a disturbed layer and has never been dated. I believe that it is later than the Iron Age, from either the Persian or the Hellenistic period.