UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Terra Terror: An Interdisciplinary Study of Earthquakes in Ancient Near Eastern Texts and the Hebrew Bible A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures by Ryan Nathaniel Roberts 2012 © Copyright by Ryan Nathaniel Roberts 2012 iii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Terra Terror: An Interdisciplinary Study of Earthquakes in Ancient Near Eastern Texts and the Hebrew Bible by Ryan Nathaniel Roberts Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor William M. Schniedewind, Chair The relationship between tectonic environment and human activity has a long history that intimately involves the Ancient Near East and Levant. Texts from the third millennium onward attest to earthquake imagery while records of actual earthquakes cluster in two periods in the Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods. The research first examines the relationship between the tectonic environment and earthquake imagery that is found amidst Storm-god imagery. Next, close attention is paid to the textual and archaeoseismic evaluation of earthquakes recorded in Middle and Neo-Assyrian texts and the extent to which historical information from these texts can inform a reconstruction of the earthquake’s effects. Within the Levant, a detailed archaeoseismic evaluation of Iron IIB sites with purported mid-eighth century seismic damage suggests better methodological controls are needed to identify seismic damage in the archaeological record. A number of interdisciplinary approaches, including post-disaster ii housing, earthquake eyewitness accounts, and gender and vulnerability studies are applied to Amos in order to provide a fresh perspective on identifying earthquake imagery within the book. These approaches help reconstruct the socioeconomic, political, and religious effects of the earthquake mentioned in Amos and illustrate how his oracles and prophetic validity would have been authenticated through the earthquake. These approaches also shed new light on “social justice” texts within Amos and how the aftermath of an earthquake would have underscored, anew, the gap between the rich and poor. iii The dissertation of Ryan Nathaniel Roberts is approved. Aaron A. Burke Daniel Smith-Christopher William M. Schniedewind, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv For Jess :hnwvl_lo dsj_trwtw hmkjb hjtp hyp v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables, Figures, and Maps ............................................................................................. ix Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... x-xv Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... xvi Vita .....................................................................................................................................xviii-xix Introduction: Shaking Out the Past .....................................................................................................................1 1. Reconstructing that Fateful Day ..........................................................................................1 2. The Interdisciplinary Task of Studying Ancient Earthquakes ............................................9 3. The Probable Dating of Amos’s Earthquake ....................................................................10 4. Synthesis-Research Objectives and Moving Forward ......................................................18 Chapter One: The Interdisciplinary Study of Ancient Earthquakes .............................................................21 1. Historical Earthquakes Recorded in Ancient Near Eastern/Levantine Literature ............21 2. Assyrian Earthquakes: A Half-Century of Quiescence ....................................................23 3. Amos’s (Invisible) Earthquake in 20th Century Scholarship ............................................24 4. Levantine Archaeology and Identifying Amos’s Earthquake ...........................................33 5. The Emerging Field of Archaeoseismology .....................................................................36 6. Historical Earthquake Catalogues and their Proclivity for Circular Reasoning ...............39 7. Paleoseismology and Working with an Inexact Science ..................................................45 8. Social Scientific Approaches ............................................................................................48 Chapter Two: The Tectonic Environment and Ancient Near Eastern Storm-god Imagery ........................53 1. Introduction: What is behind the trembling of nature? .....................................................53 2. Historical Earthquakes Recorded in Ancient Near Eastern/Levantine Literature ............55 3. Tectonics and Human Evolution .......................................................................................56 4. What is in a Name?: Weather-god vs. Storm-god ............................................................59 5. Eyewitness Accounts Describing an Earthquake ..............................................................63 6. Akkadian Texts that Connect Earthquakes to Weather Imagery ......................................66 7. Uncovering Earthquake Imagery in Ancient Near Eastern Texts .....................................69 8. Mari and Warrior-god Imagery .........................................................................................71 9. Dagan .................................................................................................................................74 10. Emar and Late Bronze Age Texts .....................................................................................75 11. Earthquakes and Ugaritic Texts ........................................................................................77 12. Theophoric Imagery in the Hebrew Bible ........................................................................81 13. Psalm 29 as a Test Case for Theophanic Imagery ............................................................83 14. Kuntillet ‘Ajrud .................................................................................................................89 15. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................91 vi Chapter Three: Records of Earthquakes in Assyrian Texts ..............................................................................93 1. Introduction: Assessing What is Found and What is Lost ................................................93 2. Middle Assyrian Earthquakes and Royal Monumental Inscriptions ................................95 3. Shalmaneser I and the First Record of an Historic Quake ................................................97 4. Text of Ashur-resha-ishi I Describing an Earthquake ....................................................104 5. Archaeoseismology of Earthquake Damage at Middle Assyrian Sites ..........................110 6. Neo-Assyrian Records of Earthquakes ...........................................................................116 7. An Extensive Account of an Earthquake During the Reign of Esarhaddon ...................119 8. Earthquakes and Conspiracy Theories ............................................................................131 9. Earthquakes and Omen Texts .........................................................................................133 10. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................136 Chapter Four: The Scope of Amos’s Earthquake Imagery ............................................................................139 1. Introduction: Tempering Expectations of Biblical Archaeology ....................................139 2. Weighing Scholarly Rigor and its Influence on Scholarship ..........................................141 3. Archaeoseismic Methodology ........................................................................................144 4. Use of 1759 and 1837 CE Earthquakes as Paradigms for Felt Seismic Areas ...............157 5. Archaeoseismic Evaluation of Suggested Mid–Eighth Century Seismic Damage .........162 6. Dan...................................................................................................................................162 7. Hazor................................................................................................................................163 8. ‘En Gev ...........................................................................................................................165 9. Samaria ...........................................................................................................................165 10. Deir ‘Alla ........................................................................................................................166 11. Tel Rehov ........................................................................................................................169 12. Bethel ..............................................................................................................................170 13. Gezer ...............................................................................................................................172