An Iron Age II Pictorial Inscription from Jerusalem Illustrating Yahweh and Asherah

Abstract

During the P.E.F. excavations at the Ophel in Jerusalem in the 1920s a large sherd of an Iron Age II jug was found with a pictorial design incised on the surface. The design shows two humanoid figures above a series of semi-circles bordering the broken edge of the sherd. The figures are joined by rough lines above and below the waist. The details of the figures include traditional Canaanite elements that indicate they are deity figures, one male and one female, and it is proposed that they represent Yahweh and Asherah. If so, this would add to the growing record of textual and symbolic imagery of Yahweh and Asherah together from Iron Age Israel and Judah. The sherd and its inscription are critical to our understanding of early Israelite religion, its relationship to its Canaanite antecedents, and to the nature of folk religion in Judah in the period of the monarchy.