The Lion Figurine from Qlaʿ

Abstract

The only figurative object found in the 1980 salvage excavations at Qlaʿ is a tiny figurine in the shape of a lion, summarily carved in black basalt stone. Although its weight accords with the Judahite sheqel standard, we believe that the lion was an amulet and not a scale weight.

Keywords:

• Lion figurine
• Scale weight
• Amulet
• Iconography
• Qlaʿ
• Iron Age IIB
• Kingdom of Israel

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Dr. Raz Kletter for sharing his thoughts on the object. Thanks are extended to Dr. Hananya Hizmi, the Staff Officer for Archaeology, Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, for providing the photos and drawings presented in Fig. 1.

Disclosure statement

The author reports that there are no conflicting interests to declare.

Notes

1 Prepared from a well-preserved matrix. The moulds allowed for detailed fine-tuning (Herrmann 1985: IV–V; 2003: 3–4). The bone amulet of a recumbent ram-headed sphinx from Tell el-Farʿah (S) (Herrmann 1994: 522, no. 753) recalls our figurine in its posture.

2 Compare couchant-lion seals carved in bone/ivory from Eretria, on the southwestern shore of Euboea (Huber 1998: 119–123).

3 A bronze weight depicting a lioness looking to the right, its tail curling on the base along the right hind leg. Dated to the 10th century BCE (?), the Egyptian-style object weighs 41.75 g, slightly over four qedet; it is housed in the Hecht Museum (Meshorer 1998: 23, no. 11). See also the 9th-century clay mould from Tel Megiddo for casting a lion figurine seen from above (‘lying prone’; Kleiman et al. 2017: 37, Fig. 3:2, Pl. 8).

4 Compare the lion weight of 15.02 g, 1.5 qedet, from the Hecht Museum, dated by Meshorer to the 11th–9th centuries BCE (Meshorer 1998: 23, no. 15). The Uluburun assemblage constitutes the largest group of zoomorphic weights from the Bronze Age (Pulak 2000: 262, Table 17.1)

5 Compare the Late Bronze Age orthostats from Hazor (Yadin et al. 1958: Pl. XXX:2; Beck 1989: 327–328, Pls. CCCXXVIII [rising lion], CCCXXIX [peaceful lioness], and the lion weight (Yadin et al. 1960: 159, Pl. CXCVI:14; Einwag and Otto 2010).

6 These lions look to the right; cf. a bronze weight from Nimrud with an as yet undeciphered alphabetic inscription (Mallowan 1966: 170, 172, Fig. 105; Millard 2008: 269) and the Late Bronze Age weights from Tell Tweini and ʿAkko mentioned above.

7 Or protective sphinxes at gates. It is also suggestive of the sphinx weight with an Aramaic inscription reading ‘two sheqels of Hamath’ (Bordreuil and Gubel 1983: 341–342).

8 Lion foundation pegs were uncovered at Tell Mozan-Urkesh (Muscarella 1988: 94). At Ebla, a steatite globe surmounted by two addorsed crouching lions, part of a closing mechanism of a cult place (Matthiae 2020: 271, 273, Fig. 12.22). For lions supporting structures, see Ziffer 2010: 67–69 and literature therein.

9 See also the Late Uruk period seal amulets shaped as lions, pairs of lions and lion heads joined at the neck, implying enhanced protective power, uncovered at Tell Brak (Mallowan 1947: Pls. 16:6,2, 15:12,13) and Hamoukar, northeastern Syria (Gibson et al. 2002: Fig. 11:2,3–5,12).

10 To the second-millennium BCE Levantine lion weights mentioned above the following should be added: from the Middle Bronze Age, a haematite couchant lion was found at Ebla (Matthiae, Pinnock and Scandone Matthiae 1995: 503, no. 468) and a haematite lion’s head weight was uncovered at Alalakh (Mazzoni 1980: 158, Fig. 28); from the Late Bronze Age, lion weights were found at Ugarit (Chavane 1983), at Tell Abu Hawam (Hamilton 1935: 18, no. 39) and at Megiddo (Loud 1948: Pl. 240:3). For a Cypriote lion weight conforming to the Egyptian weight system, see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1883-1018-47 (accessed 19 June 2022).

11 In the first half of the second millennium BCE, goethite, often confused with haematite, was the most common stone for carving seals and weights. Goethite is found in the Upper Euphrates Valley, in the region of Carchemish.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Irit Ziffer

Irit Ziffer: Curator Emerita, MUZA Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv