Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (Ca
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland” by Helen M. Dixon A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee Associate Professor Brian B. Schmidt, Co-Chair Professor Janet E. Richards, Co-Chair Associate Professor J.P. Dessel, University of Tennessee Professor Margaret C. Root Professor Philip C. Schmitz, Eastern Michigan University © Helen Marie Dixon All rights reserved 2013 Acknowledgments I am enormously grateful to all the members of my dissertation committee for their consideration, advice, and guidance over the years. Brian Schmidt worked with me over the entire course of my graduate career, and consistently encouraged me to explore the places, languages, subjects, and methods that excited me along the way. My interest in this topic was in no small way influenced by his own work, and I have enjoyed being challenged to question my own assumptions about death in the ancient world at his behest. Working with Janet Richards has been a joy and a blessing in the final stage of my graduate career. Finishing this project would have been a very different story without the benefit of her direction, expertise, and unflagging support. Philip Schmitz has been an incredible resource, mentor, and inspiration over the course of the dissertation writing process. Though I can only hope to attain the levels of meticulousness and expertise in all things Phoenician which he revealed in each of our interactions, he always made me feel as if I were somehow on the right track. To Margaret Root I owe a great debt of gratitude, not only for encouraging me to attempt my first publications, but for shaping much of my academic persona and aspirations. Her willingness to say what I often suspected about my own writing, as well as to point out the promising aspects of my work I could easily overlook, have truly made me a better scholar and colleague. Finally, J.P. Dessel did much to help me navigate the spectrum of Levantine archaeological sites and the scholars who love them. I also wish to thank Raymond Silverman and Bradley Taylor for their generosity, rigor, and warmth during my involvement with the University of Michigan Museum Studies Program (and beyond). The various capacities in which I have worked with Ray and Brad made me feel confident in my ability to integrate my love for both objects and ideas in whatever I do. Futher inspiration has come from Piotr Michalowski, Norman Yoffee, and Terry Wilfong, who helped me examine my field from the “outside” and spurred me to think bigger and brighter, while keeping a sense of humor about the process. ii My research, travel, conference participation, and living expenses have been funded by generous support from the Museum Studies Program, the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the Rackham Graduate School, and the LS&A Honors Program here at the University of Michigan, as well as by the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund and the American Schools of Oriental Research. I am infinitely grateful to the University of Michigan’s extraordinary librarians, library resources, Interlibrary Loan and Knowledge Navigation Center staff, and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, without which I could not have written this dissertation. Further afield, I am grateful to Hélène Sader’s assistance and Leila Badre’s willingness to take me on as an intern at the Archaeology Museum of the American University of Beirut. I cherish those months spent living in Lebanon, cataloging the Iron Age AUB Museum collections, and learning from Dr. Badre as well as the capable and resourceful Lorine Mouawad, Lucy Semaan, and Adolf Abi-Aad. I will always be in debt to Nava Panitz-Cohen and Amihai Mazar, as well as the rest of the staff at the Tel Rehov Excavations, where I had my first exposure to Levantine archaeology. I feel so fortunate to have completed my field school in a place I was not only well trained, but encouraged to bother field supervisors and registrars with questions, sit in on pottery reading, and even offer my meager assistance in the Hebrew University Lab after the excavations were over. Dr. Panitz-Cohen’s ongoing support and care over the years has made me feel luckier than I deserve. Thanks must also go to the excavation “families” at Tal Jalul, Jordan, at Idalion, Cyprus, and at Tell Kazel, Syria for letting me join, work, learn, observe, and play. I am especially thankful to have been the beneficiary of Tom Davis’ advice and encouragement during and after my stay at CAARI , as well as the incredible hospitality of Barbara Porter and Chris Tuttle at ACOR, and of Seymour Gitin, Joe Uziel, and Hisham Jibrin at the Albright Institute. A final note of appreciation goes to all those who make the ASOR annual meeting a place to fall in love with my field anew every year (especially to Elise Friedland, Aaron Brody, Tom Parker, Bernard Knapp, Rick Hauser, Christopher Rollston, Christina Brody and the wonderful Stephanie Brown). More personally, I am grateful for the unwavering love and excitement about my bizarre career path offered by my mother and father, Margaret and Frederick Dixon. I am so iii glad you both got to see me finish climbing this mountain! Thank you for raising me to value curiosity, courage, resourcefulness, dedication, and independence – I hope I’ve made you proud along the way. Thanks too to my inspiring brother John Dixon, who reminds me constantly how lucky we are to get to do what we love, and keep learning as we go. Finally, a deep and abiding appreciation to Craig Wuthrich, companion to these last four years of my life and graduate work. If I’m doing it right, you already know what you mean to me. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... xiii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ xv Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... xvi Chapter I. Introduction and Literature Review ..................................................................................... 1 A. Goals of the Present Study ...................................................................................................... 1 B. Histories of Phoenicia since 1988 ........................................................................................... 5 C. Points of Divergence in Phoenician Scholarship ................................................................. 8 1. Boundaries of the Phoenician “Homeland” ......................................................................... 9 2. Phoenician “Ethnicity” and the Origins of the Phoenicians ............................................ 12 3. Phoenician Religion ............................................................................................................... 20 Chapter II. Inscriptional Evidence for Phoenician Mortuary Practice from the Iron Age I - II ... 25 A. Inscriptions in Phoenician from the Phoenician Homeland ........................................... 28 1. Introduction to the Corpus of Phoenician Inscriptions ................................................... 28 2. Variation within the Corpus of Phoenician Inscriptions ................................................. 30 3. Iron Age I-II Phoenician Homeland Inscriptions ............................................................... 34 4. Homeland Iron Age I-II Phoenician Textual Evidence in Sum ........................................ 74 5. Conclusions – Implications for Phoenician Mortuary Practice and Beliefs .................. 81 B. Inscriptions in Phoenician from Outside the Phoenician Homeland ............................. 87 1. Historical Context: Iron Age I-II Phoenician Diaspora...................................................... 87 2. Iron Age I-II Phoenician Diaspora Inscriptions.................................................................. 91 3. Diaspora Iron Age I-II Textual Evidence in Sum .............................................................. 138 4. Conclusions – Implications for Phoenician Mortuary Practice and Beliefs ................ 147 v C. Non-Phoenician Texts Relating to Phoenician Mortuary Practice ............................... 153 1. Inscriptions in other ancient Near Eastern languages ................................................... 153 D. Summary and Conclusions: Textual Evidence from the Iron I-II Periods ................... 156 Chapter III. Inscriptional Evidence for Phoenician Mortuary Practice from the Persian – Hellenistic Period ...................................................................................................................... 163 A. Inscriptions in Phoenician from the Phoenician Homeland ........................................