Matt S

Semitic inscription of the day: the Hadad Statue of Panamuwa I (KAI 214, c. 775 BCE). Language: Śamʾālian. Found in 1890 at Gerçin northeast of Zincirli (ancient Samʾal) and now in Berlin's Vorderasiatisches Museum. King Panamuwa I dedicated this colossal basalt statue of the storm-god Hadad and asks later kings who sacrifice there to remember his nbš ("soul"), that it may eat and drink with the god. Drawing: Lidzbarski 1898.

Semitic inscription of the day: the Tel Dan Stele (9th c. BCE). Language: Old Aramaic. Found at Tel Dan in 1993–94 and now in the Israel Museum, it's a victory inscription most likely set up by Hazael of Aram-Damascus. The phrase bytdwd 'House of David' (line 9) is the earliest widely accepted reference to David outside the Bible. Drawing: Yardeni in Biran and Naveh 1995.

Semitic inscription of the day: the Kulamuwa Stele (KAI 24, c. 825 BCE). Language: Phoenician, carved for a king of Samʾal. Found at Zincirli in the German excavations of 1888–1902 and now in Berlin's Vorderasiatisches Museum. Kulamuwa boasts that he achieved what every king before him had not, and that he hired the king of Assyria against the Danunians. 📷 Drawing: von Luschan et al., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli IV (1911).

Semitic inscription of the day: the Mesha Stele (c. 840 BCE). Language: Moabite. King Mesha of Moab boasts of throwing off Israel's rule. Found at Dhiban, Jordan, in 1868. Held at the Louvre since 1873. It contains the earliest certain extrabiblical mention of YHWH. 📷 Photo: Mbzt, CC BY 3.0 · Drawing: Lidzbarski 1898

Halloween in the ancient Near East? Meet Lilith 🦉 Akkadian lilû/lilītu were a class of demons. Hebrew lîlît occurs once in the Hebrew Bible (Isa 34:14, translated in the KJV as 'screech owl'). Liliths also appear on Aramaic incantation bowls from late-antique Mesopotamia. Owl, demon, or both?