Laura A. Peri

The Lipchitz Collection contains about 200 artifacts from the ancient Near East. While most originate in Iran, a number are from Mesopotamia, the northern Levant, Anatolia, and the South Arabian Peninsula, the ancient cultural regions which roughly correspond to modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen respectively. The artifacts presented here cover most of the cultural and geographical regions mentioned above, and date from the mid-fourth to early first millennium CE.

Funerary portrait of Attai
Palmyra (Tadmor), Syria, 2nd century, limestone
Inscription: Attai, daughter of Ogga son of Taibbol, wife of Yarhibola son of Taibbol, alas!
Loan from W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

Photo © The Israel Museum, by Elie Posner and Zohar Shemesh

This impressive funerary portrait commemorates a wealthy matron of Palmyra (Tadmor), a famed caravan city in the Syrian Desert. The inscription in Aramaic identifies her as Attai, daughter of Ogga and wife of Yarhibola. Such stone slabs carved in relief were used to seal burial niches (loculi) in family tombs.

Attai’s portrait is a superb example of Palmyrene funerary art. In a distinctive style that blends local and Greco-Roman traditions, it depicts the richly bejeweled woman as an archetypal wife devoted to her husband’s household. Her head and shoulders are covered and her hair is tied. A key dangles from her brooch. With one hand she touches her veil and in the other she holds spinning tools – a distaff and spindle. Attai’s symbolic attire and gestures and the protective power of her jewelry guaranteed her the best possible afterlife.

This image, representing the epitome of female virtue, brings to mind the biblical “Woman of Valor”, especially the verse “She sets her hand to the distaff and her fingers work the spindle” (Proverbs 31:19).

English site: https://www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/special-display-lord-desert
Hebrew site: https://www.imj.org.il/he/exhibitions/מוצג-מיוחד-אדון-המדבר

Special Display
From March 8 2022
Ancient Near East Permanent Exhibition, Neighboring Cultures Gallery, Archaeology Wing

Stele representing a bearded man armed with a dagger
Northern Arabian Peninsula (Jordan or Saudi Arabia)
Early Bronze Age, 4th millennium BCE
Limestone
H 1.74 m
IMJ 66.2.2

This imposing stele depicts a bearded man wearing a fillet around his head and a long necklace. Three parallel bands bisected by an elongated implement appear on his chest and back, and a double-bladed dagger attached to a belt hangs from his waist.

Similar steles have been discovered throughout the Arabian Peninsula, from southern Jordan to Yemen. Found alone or in groups near burial sites or sanctuaries, they may have represented gods, ancestors, or individuals of high social status and played a role in some sort of ritual. Such steles, of which this is the only life-size example to have survived intact, are among the most remarkable artistic achievements of the transitional Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age period in the Ancient Near East.

English site: https://www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/shlomos-treasures
Hebrew site:  https://www.imj.org.il/he/exhibitions/אוצרות-שלמה

Special Display
From June 5 2016
Ancient Near East Permanent Exhibition, Neighboring Cultures Gallery, Archaeology Wing

Pair of lions dedicated to the god Athtar of Adhanan by Yada‘ab and Yashhurmalik, kings of Nashshan
Inscribed in Minaeo-Sabaean in South Arabian script
Nashshan (as-Sawda, northern Yemen)
Iron Age, ca. 6th century BCE
Bronze
Shlomo Moussaieff Collection

The magnificent lions exhibited here hail from ancient Nashshan, a city-state at times ruled by the kingdom of Saba (biblical Sheba), in present-day Yemen. They bear identical inscriptions (in a Semitic language and alphabetic script) indicating that they were royal offerings to the god of war Athtar. Since their backs are hollow, we may assume that they were attached to a wall. They probably flanked the entrance to Adhanan, the temple mentioned in the inscriptions, inspiring awe and serving for protection.

The use of pairs of lions as gateway guardians originated in Mesopotamia and was common throughout the Ancient Near East. These lions are the earliest of their kind known from South Arabia. They are generously on loan from the outstanding collection of Shlomo Moussaieff, in honor of first anniversary of his death and as a fitting tribute to his memory.

English site: http://www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/i-placed-my-name-there
Hebrew site: http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/שיכנתי-שמי-שם

Special Display
From June 7 2015
Ancient Near East Permanent Exhibition, Neighboring Cultures Gallery, Archaeology Wing

The Great Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I, King of Assyria
Inscribed in Akkadian in cuneiform script
Assur (Qal'at Sherqat)
Middle Assyrian Period, probably 1239 BCE
Alabaster
Extended loan from the Collection of David and Cindy Sofer, London

This is the only complete version of the earliest and longest inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I (ca. 1241–1206 BCE), a fascinating Assyrian monarch whose figure and name, “my trust is in (the god) Ninurta”, may have been the inspiration for the biblical Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-12). The stele was probably placed in a wall of the building the construction of which it commemorates: the new palace that the king built in Assur, Assyria’s capital.

Despite its primary purpose as a foundation record, much of the inscription narrates the king’s first military successes. The text concludes with blessings on the future king expected to maintain the building and the inscription itself, followed by curses upon any ruler who might eradicate the building and its builder’s name.

The ancient custom of immortalizing the king’s name and deeds in writing gave birth to the first historical records. The idiom “to place one’s name” – to establish dominion or ownership by means of an inscription – is common in Mesopotamian royal texts. It is perpetuated in the Bible, for example, in Deuteronomy 12:11, with reference to the place chosen by God to (as traditionally translated) “make his name dwell there.”

CDLI site: https://cdli.ucla.edu/?q=news/israel-museum-jerusalem—come-see

The collection

The IMJ cuneiform collection consists mainly of bequests and gifts of various donors. It is eclectic, comprising ca. 140 objects of various origins (Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Elam, and Persia), accordingly inscribed in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Urartian, Elamite, and Old Persian and dating from the mid-third to mid-first millennium BC.

A single object originating in Ancient Israel—a small fragment of a monumental victory stele belonging to a Neo-Assyrian king (probably Esarhaddon)—is also included in the corpus. Other cuneiform material unearthed in Israel, owned by the Israel Antiquities Authority and currently housed at the IMJ, are not included here due to copyrights restrictions.

A few objects on loan to the IMJ from the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem (AIAR); St. Andrew's Memorial Church, Church of Scotland, Jerusalem; and Arieh Ben Eli, Haifa, have also been added to the corpus.

The majority of the corpus consists of clay objects (tablets, cones, bricks, etc.). Also included are inscribed artifacts of stone and metal (monumental artifacts, figurines, vessels, weaponry, and cylinder seals). The corpus reflects various genres: royal, administrative, legal, mathematical, scholarly, medical, ritual and epistolary.


Publication and maintenance of the collection

The IMJ cuneiform collection is part of the Western Asiatic Antiquities department, the main curatorial purpose of which is to assemble and exhibit documents and artifacts from the various Ancient Near Eastern civilizations that have had a lasting impact on the ancient cultures of the land of Israel. Most of the department highlights (over 200 artifacts, inscribed as well as non-inscribed) are now on display in the renewed permanent exhibition (opened 2010), in the area dedicated to the cultures of Ancient Near East. The ANE exhibits, along with antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Italy and Islamic Near East, complement the IMJ Archaeology Wing’s main display that focuses on antiquities excavated in Israel.

Besides exhibiting the artifacts to the general public, a major aim of the Western Asiatic Antiquities department is to offer Israeli scholars opportunities for research. Thus, many inscribed artifacts have been published in scholarly editions over the years by Israeli Assyriologists affiliated with different local academic institutions. These editions are unfortunately not assembled in one place, but rather dispersed among journals, Festschrifts, text collections, and IMJ catalogues. They include:

Abraham, K. 2011. An Egibi Tablet in Jerusalem. Israel Exploration Journal 61: 68–73.
Baruchi-Unna, A. and Cogan, M. forthcoming. The Cylinder Inscription of Sargon II from Khorsabad: Re-examined in Light of a New Manuscript in the Israel Museum, Beit Mikra (Hebrew).
Cogan, M. 2008. The Assyrian Stela Fragment from Ben-Shemen. In: Cogan, M., and Kahn, D., eds. Treasures on Camels’ Humps. Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph’al. Jerusalem: 66–69.
Goodnick-Westenholtz, J. 1998. Objects with Messages: Reading Old Akkadian Royal Inscriptions. Appendix: Old Akkadian Inscriptions in the Israel Museum. Bibliotheca Orientalis 55: 44–59.
Horowitz, W., and Tammuz, O. 1998. A Multiplication Table for 40 in the Israel Museum. Israel Exploration Journal 48: 262–64.
Levy, S., and Artzi, P. 1965. Sumerian and Akkadian Documents from Public and Private Collections in Israel. Atiqot IV.
Ling-Israel, P. 1990. The Sennacherib Prism in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. In: Klein, J., and Skaist, A., eds. Studies in Assyriology Dedicated to Pinhas Artzi. Ramat-Gan: 213–47.
Merhav, R., ed. 1991. Urartu: A Metalworking Center in the First Millennium B.C.E. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Shaffer, A. 1974. Enlilbani and the “Dog House” in Isin. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 26: 251–52.
Shaffer, A. 1976. Clay Nails from Mesopotamia in the Israel Museum. The Israel Museum News 11: 83–86.
Shaffer, A. 1981. In: Merhav, R. et al. A Glimpse into the Past: The Joseph Ternbach Collection. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Shaffer, A., and Wasserman, N. 2003. Iddi(n)-Sîn, King of Simurrum: A New Rock-Relief Inscription and a Reverential Seal. ZA 93: 1–52.
Singer, I. 2010. A New Fragment of the DUMU(.LUGAL) Ritual(s). In Finke, J. C., ed. Festschtrift für Gernot Wilhelm anfaßlich seines 65. Geburtstages am 28. Januar 2010. Dresden: 329–34.
Tadmor, H. 1994. The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III King of Assyria. Jerusalem.
Tammuz, O. 1994. Old Babylonian Bullae in the Israel Museum. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires: 46–47 (article no. 52).
Tammuz, O. 1997. IMJ 70.71.575: A New Variant of Eannatum 22. Acta Sumerologica 19: 229–33.
Wasserman, N. 2007. Between Magic and Medicine – Apropos of an Old-Babylonian Therapeutic Text against the Kurārum Disease. In: Finkel, I. L., and Geller, M. J. eds. Disease in Mesopotamia (Cuneiform Monographs 36). Leiden/Boston: 40–61.
Wasserman, N. 2012. A Field Purchase Contract from Nippur Dated to the Reign of Warad-Sîn. In: Abraham, K., and J. Fleishman, eds. Looking at the Ancient Near East and the Bible Through the Same Eyes. Minha LeAhron: A Tribute to Aaron Skaist. Bethesda: 203–10.

The paper dealt with the hunting depictions on two artefacts kept in the Western Asiatic Antiquities collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem: a fragmentary stone relief and a tinned copper alloy tray. Both depictions show specific Sasanian kings on a hunt, standing and on horseback, respectively. Although clearly based on Sasanian prototypes, both objects display stylistic and iconographic details that do not fit standard Sasanian imagery. Given that, it was shown that the artefacts in question are most likely Qajar examples of Persian Revival, namely Qajar variants of Sasanian prototypes, rather than genuine Sasanian pieces of art. Consequently, such variants were discussed in the frame of the phenomenon of ancient Persian (Achaemenid and Sasanian) revival in Qajar art. As the tray depicts a royal lion hunt, and the relief may have borne a similar portrayal, in the forthcoming publication an emphasis will also be put on the iconography of royal lion hunting in pre-Islamic and Islamic Western Asia.

My research project focuses on a group of some 85 cylinder seals found in Cyprus and the Aegean, that is on mainland Greece, Crete and Rhodes, which in past publications were assigned to the Mitannian glyptic style. In the regions under discussion, which cover the westernmost area of dispersal of Mitannian glyptics, these small-size artifacts have been unearthed mostly from funerary contexts dated to the Late Bronze Age, their main period of circulation. They include sintered quartz specimens as well as examples in hematite and lapis lazuli. Typologically, the bulk of these cylinders were attributed to the Common Style, while a few of them, mostly those made of hard stones, were assigned to the Elaborate Style — the two major sub-groups of Mitannian glyptics.

Since no study has yet systematically dealt with the Cypriot and Aegean Mitannian glyptic finds as a whole, the current research aims to fill this gap by revising prior appraisals pertaining to both corpora, discussing problematic issues related to them and, eventually, offering an updated synthesis on this topic.

Three major issues will be dealt with: the accuracy of the attribution to the Mitannian style of several cylinder seals from Cyprus and the Aegean; the characteristics and the distinctiveness of the Mitannian and possibly Mitannianized glyptic corpora from regions in discussion, in comparison with each other and with those from the Levant and Mesopotamia; and the art-historical implications of these seals.

The main contribution expected from the current research is to put both the Cypriot and the Aegean corpora of Mitannian and Mitannian-style cylinder seals in their wider context, and to investigate the interactions and entanglements between the core and the periphery areas of the Mitannian glyptic production, distribution, and use within the contemporary historical framework.

The lecture deals with the personal names of northern origin, mainly Hurrian and Indo-Aryan, attested in the southern Levant around the mid-2nd millennium BCE, and it poses the question of whether such names testify to a northern presence in the region.

On the one hand, Egyptian and locally-found documents, mostly dating to the 15th – mid 14th centuries, reveal a significant number of northern names, recorded among the populace and the ruling class as well. On the other hand, some of these anthroponyms have West-Semitic, namely, local patronymics.

Considering that the northern names under discussion were common in areas under the domination of Mittanni, relevant to this inquiry are the large number of Mittannian-style cylinder seals, and, although on much restricted scale, other artifacts of northern origins, primarily clay figurines, which have also been found in the region in the same period, i.e. the early Late Bronze Age. The distinctive style and designs, which exhibit indigenous features, displayed by many of the Mittannian seals and by some figurines, as well as the provenance tests conducted on the latter, strongly argue for their local production.

The issue at stake here, then, is whether the written and material evidence from the southern Levant reflects the presence of actual northerners, or a contemporary local Zeitgeist, which seems to have favored and even emphasized northern, perhaps Mittannian cultural traits during the early stages of the Egyptian dominance in the southern Levant.

The "Megiddo-Taanach" figurines are a group of clay, mold-made figurines, distinctive to Israel-Palestine, that depict a woman holding her breasts and are characterized by such additional features as a high headdress decorated with vertical grooves, a necklace of multiple strands, a vertical line running from the area between the breasts to the navel, a pudendum delineated by an incised triangle with a central groove, and a rear plait.
The paper revisits several earlier theories, while adding some new observations concerning the manufacture, date of production, and origin of this figurine-type. It is argued that, contrary to previous studies that have defined these figurines as "double-molded" or, recently, "twice-molded," the figurines were produced using a single, frontal mold, while the back was lightly modeled by hand and by means of a sharp tool. It is further claimed that even though their archaeological contexts range from the late Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age II, the figurines are most probably mid-late 2nd millennium BCE products, which, when present in later contexts, should be seen as intrusive or as heirlooms. Finally, it is maintained that this figurine-type is rooted in a northern Mesopotamian coroplastic tradition dating as far back as the late 3rd millennium BCE, and as such, it may reflect, along with other contemporary artifacts and cultural practices, the infiltration and eventually settlement of elements of a northern population in the southern Levant toward the end of the Middle Bronze and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.