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[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Phoenicians, Poeni | Aegean Koine (Tall al-Mutasallim in the Plain of Jesreel) was settled from the Neolithic until the Persian period (6th-4th millennia BC). Archaeological finds include temples, palaces and installations for water supply, as well as worked ivory and a clay tablet fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh (14th century BC). M. (Egyptian m-k-t) is first mentioned by name in the time of Thutmosis III (15th century BC) and in letters sent by Biridiya, the ruler of the city of M. (Akkadian URU Ma-gi-id-da KI), to the Phar…

[German version] Place in the eastern Negev (Nm 21,1; 33,40; Jos 12,14; Judges 1,16), mentioned in a source other than the Bible, by the Pharaoh Shoshenk ( c. 920 BC) in a list of towns; first settled around 3000-2650 BC. In the 9th cent. BC, a fortress with a sanctuary was built on the tell and repeatedly destroyed. In the 1st cent. BC, a Roman fort belonged to the Herodianic Limes Palaestinae. A. is a site of significant finds for ostraka with inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic. Liwak, Rüdiger (Berlin) Bibliography Y. Aharoni, Arad Inscriptions, 1981 Z. Herzog, M. Aharoni, A. F. Rainey,…

[German version] (Ζεβέκη/ Zebékē). Josephus [4] Flavius mentions Z. as the place of a battle mentioned in Judges 1:1-7 between the tribes of Judah and Simeon on the one hand and the Canaanites, led by Adoni-Zebek (Jos. Ant. Iud. 5,121: Ἀδωνιζέβεκος/ Adōnizébekos), on the other. The Hebrew form of the name in Judges 1:4f. is Bȧzȧq or Adonī-Bȧzȧq (in manuscripts of the Josephus tradition, 'Zebeke' is sometimes corrected to Βεζέκη/ Bezékē). The text of Judges 1 derives the place name from the personal name Adonī-Bȧzȧq and places it near Jerusalem (cf. Judges 1:7). …

[English version] Die hebr. (1 Sam 6; 2 Kg 14,11) Bezeichnung (“Haus der Sonne”) ist wahrscheinlich eine Anspielung auf die Verehrung des Sonnengottes (Jos 19,41). Erhalten hat sich der Name in dem arab. Dorf Ain Šams (“Quelle der Sonne”), das früher östl. des Tall ar-Rumaila (“der sandige Boden”) lag, mit dem das ant. B.S. zu identifizieren ist. 20 km westl. von Jerusalem, hatte B.S. eine verkehrsgeogr. bevorzugte Lage. Nach einer mittelbronzezeitlichen Besiedlung erlebte der Ort in der Spätbronzezeit mit der Kupferverarbeitung einen er…

I. Alter Orient [English version] A. Definition Juda (=J.) und Israel (=I.) sind Bezeichnungen, die im gesch. Wandel geogr., politische, ethnische und theologische Komponenten aufweisen. J. war zunächst im südl. Palaestina ein Landschaftsname, der später den fiktiven Ahnherren eines Stammes bezeichnete und damit zum Namen des Stammes selbst wurde. Ein polit. Gebilde wurde J. mit Davids Königtum (10. Jh. v.Chr.). Der Name J. (im AT yhwdh, in althebr. Texten außerhalb des AT yhd/yhwd, assyr. ia-u/ u-da-a-a, babylon. ia-a-ḫu-du) hat möglicherweise die Bedeutung “Jahwe ist…

[English version] Arab. “steile Steige”, am Nordost-Ende des gleichnamigen Golfs gelegen, ist erstmals bei ma. Geographen als aqabat ayla (Steige von Aila) bezeugt. Aila, 1 km nördl. des heutigen A., hieß in nabatä.-röm.-byz. Zeit die Nachfolgesiedlung des at. Elat. In 1 Kg 9,26-28 dient die edomitische Stadt Elat/A. als topographische Annäherung für die Lage der Hafenstadt Ezjon-Geber, von der aus König Salomon mit Hiram von Tyrus eine Handelsschiffahrt zum Goldland Ophir, wahrscheinlich an der…

[German version] I. Samaria (Hebrew Šomron, LXX Σαμάρεια/ Samáreia), seat of government of the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel from the reign of Omri (882-871 BC; Judah and Israel). The newly-founded city, whose name (root šmr, 'to guard, protect; watch-tower') refers to its strategic location, was not, as is often assumed, a Canaanite city-state alongside Jezreel as the Israelite centre. S. was the Israelite royal seat, and Jezreel a royal demesne. As is evident from Assyrian and OT texts, the rulers of S. were compelled to deliver tribute to the Assyrians b…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Zenobia | Hasmonaeans (Besan). 25 km south of Lake Galilee (Lake Tiberias) on the Tall al-Ḥiṣn; the ancient city was settled from Chalcolithic time to the Crusades. The Arabic name is derived from the Hebrew bēt-šean (Egyptian btsr, Cuneiform script Bı̄tšāni). Owing to its strategic and economic significance, B. became a military and administrative centre for Egyptian Asian policy from the 15th cent. to the middle of the 12th cent. BC. It was the only city in Israel to…

[German version] The village of Dhiban, 4 km north of the Arnon, has retained the name of the nearby Dibon of antiquity, one claimed by two of the Israelite tribes: Gad (Num. 32,34) and Ruben (Josh. 13,17). A stele, the Moabite Stone, with an inscription of Mesha king of Moab (TUAT 1, 646-650; cf. 2 Kg. 3,4), was found here in 1868, confirming it as Moabite from the 9th cent. BC (Num. 21,30; Isa. 15,2; Jer. 48,18; 22). Apart from some remains of the Early Bronze Age, excavations revealed an Iron …

[German version] (Hebrew plištīm; LXX Φιλιστιείμ/ Philistieím, Gn 10:14 et alibi; Ἀλλόφυλοι/ Allóphyloi, 1 Chr 14:10 et alibi; Vulgate Philistim). In the Old Testament the inhabitants of a pentapolis with the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath in the southern coastal plain east of the Mediterranean Sea (Palaestina). They are attested for the first time as prst/ pw-r-s­-ṯ in the context of a sea and land battle in 1177 BC in inscriptions and reliefs from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in Madinat Hābū (western Thebes) along with other…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Writing | Syria | Christianity | Zenobia | Coloniae | Diadochi and Epigoni | Alexander | Commerce | Hasmonaeans | Hellenistic states | Colonization | Mesopotamia | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage | Pompeius | Rome | Aegean Koine (Tyre. Phoenician, Ugaritic ṣr; Egyptian Ḏwr, Dr; Akkadian Ṣurru; Hebrew Ṣor; Greek ἡ Τύρος/ hē Týros; Latin Tyrus, feminine; Arabic Ṣūr) was a Phoenician island city that was connected to the mainland when Alexander [4] the Great had a causeway built for its conques…

[1] Son of King David [German version] I. Old Testament S. (Hebrew Šelomō, literally 'his peace' or 'his restitution'). Successor to David [1] (2 Sam 9-1 Kg 2) in the second third of the 10th cent. BC. His 40-year reign (1 Kg 11:42, cf. 1 Kg 2:11) is of ideal duration, resulting from his esteem as a wise man and temple-builder (1 Kg 3:6-8, cf. Sir 47:12-18). He is criticized for building altars to foreign deities (1 Kg 11:1-13) and his introduction of forced labour (1 Kg 5:27-32). Stories about S. (1 Kg 3-1…

[German version] The Hebrew (Sam. 1 6; Kgs 2 14,11) term (‘house of the sun’) probably refers to veneration of the sun god (Jos. 19,41). The name is preserved in the Arab village Ain Šams (‘source of the sun’) that earlier lay east of Tall ar-Rumaila (‘the sandy ground’), with which the ancient Beth Shemesh (BS) is to be identified. 20 km west of Jerusalem, BS had a geographically advantageous and trade-oriented location. After settlement in the middle of the Bronze Age, the place enjoyed an initial intercultural upsurge in the late Bronz…