Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses

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Herausgeber/Editor MANFRED BIETAK
ÄGYPTEN UND LEVANTE
EGYPT AND THE LEVANT
XX/2010

XX
2010
Redaktion: ERNST CZERNY
KOMMISSION FÜR ÄGYPTEN UND LEVANTE DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
INSTITUT FÜR ÄGYPTOLOGIE DER UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
ÖSTERREICHISCHES ARCHÄOLOGISCHES INSTITUT KAIRO

Vorgelegt von w. M. MANFRED BIETAK in der Sitzung vom 1. Oktober 2010
Gedruckt mit der Unterstützung
der Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Universität Wien
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ISBN 978-3-7001-6960-4
ISSN 1015-5104
Copyright © 2010 by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
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Spezialforschungsbereich (SCIEM 2000)
„Die Synchronisierung der Hochkulturen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum
im 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr.“
der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
beim Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Special Research Programme SCIEM 2000
“The Synchronisation of Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean
in the Second Millennium B.C.”
of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
at the Austrian Science Fund

Die Zeitschrift Ägypten und Levante ist Ä&L abzukürzen.
The Journal Egypt and the Levant should be abbreviated E&L.

Abkürzungen/Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Vorwort/Introduction von/by Manfred Bietak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
A. Ahrens, A Stone Vessel of Princess Itakayet of the 12th Dynasty from Tomb VII at
Tell Mišrife/Qaôna (Syria) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
A. Ashmawy Ali, Tell El-Yahudia: New Information from Unpublished Excavations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
F. Breyer, Hethitologische Bemerkungen zum Keilschrift „Zipfel“ aus Qantir/Pi-Ramesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
J. Budka, Varianz im Regelwerk. Bestattungsabläufe im Monumentalgrab von Anch-Hor, Obersthofmeister
der Gottesgemahlin Nitokris (TT 414) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
M.H. Feldman and C. Sauvage, Objects of Prestige? Chariots in the Late Bronze Age Eastern
Mediterranean and Near East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
H. Genz, S. el-Zaatari, C. Çakirlar, K. Badreshany and S. Riehl, A Middle Bronze Age Burial
from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, Lebanon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
A. Hassler, Mykenische Keramik aus verlorenen Kontexten – die Grabung L. Loats in Gurob . . . . . . . . . . 207
C. Jurman, Ein Siegelring mit kryptographischer Inschrift in Bonn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Ch. Knoblauch, Preliminary Report on the Early Bronze Age III Pottery from Contexts of
the 6th Dynasty in the Abydos Middle Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
L. Morgan, A Pride of Leopards: A Unique Aspect of the Hunt Frieze from Tell el-Dabca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
L. Morgan, An Aegean Griffin in Egypt: The Hunt Frieze at Tell el-Dabca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
N. Marinatos, Lions from Tell el Dabca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
T. Mühlenbruch, Eine mykenische Bügelkanne aus Ägypten in Marburg und ihre Implikationen für
den Handel zwischen Südgriechenland und dem östlichen Mittelmeerraum in SH III B2 . . . . . . 357
J. Mynárová, Tradition or Innovation? The Ugaritic-Egyptian Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
T. Schneider, Contributions to the Chronology of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period . . . . . 373
T. Schneider, A Theophany of Seth-Baal in the Tempest Stele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
I. Ziffer, Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
A. Ahrens, The Scarabs from the Ninkarrak Temple Cache at Tell aAšara/Terqa (Syria):
History, Archaeological Context, and Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
F. Breyer, Egyptological Remarks Concerning Daxamunzu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
F. van Koppen, The Old to Middle Babylonian Transition: History and Chronology of the
Mesopotamian Dark Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Inhaltsverzeichnis/Contents
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Trees, both real and artificial, have been the
object of veneration and worship in the Near East
from the end of the fourth millennium BCE until
this very day. Most probably trees were associated
with female deities, as both the tree and the
female bear fruit, and therefore are conceived as
symbols of fertility, abundance and nourishment
as well as carnal love. This presentation focuses
on the specific visual image combining a female
figure and a tree in all its varieties in western Asia.
I contend that the tree was conceived as a mani-
festation of the female, be she naked or dressed
to kill. I deliberately refrain from identifying the
goddess by name unless the identification is
explicit and beyond doubt, since the goddess and
her offshoots were worshipped under many
names and various forms. Unlike Egyptian tree
goddesses,2the western Asiatic goddess was never
depicted as a personified tree.3She may inter-
change with the tree, or the tree may be part of
her features. One wonders whether the western
Asiatic goddess associated with the tree may have
been the catalyst to the appearance of the Egypt-
ian tree goddess, a sycamore or a date palm or a
combination of the two,4in the New Kingdom.
THE NAKED FEMALE AND THE TREE
The earliest extant evidence for the association of
the tree with a female is an incised bone tube from
a Neolithic site at HaGoshrim in the Hulah Valley
featuring a caprid beside a stylized palm tree
above a pubic triangle. The upper part of the tube
has a pair of large eyes and eyebrows.5The iconog-
raphy of this tube idol forecasts the imagery on
the alabaster stele (measuring 35.3 × 18.5 cm)
found along with other ceremonial objects in pit
dug under an altar of the Ninhursag temple at
Mari of the 29th–26th centuries BCE (Fig. 1).6On
the face of the stele a human figure is incised: eyes
made of concentric circles, eyebrows and a nose
1Miriam Tadmor in memoriam.
2For the various manifestations of the Egyptian tree god-
dess see GOLDWASSER 1995: 120–126. A unique 7th cen-
tury bronze shield from Miletus shows a stylized tree
with teat-like appendages suckling a pair of bull calves.
In the tondon a lion bites the neck of a bull (KLEINER
1967: 18). Possibly this extraordinary representation
echoes the idea of the Egyptian nursing Tree Goddess
combined with the suckling cow motif, known from
rock art as early as Pre-Dynastic Egypt (Wadi Umm
Salam in the Eastern Desert, see WILKINSON 2003:109),
which became the hieroglyph Amc signifying motherly
love and compassion as well as rejoicing (ERMAN and
GRAPOW, Wörterbuch I: 11; KEEL 1980: 82, Compare
Arabic r’m „to love tenderly, to treat tenderly“ (mother
towards children, said also of cattle), see WELLHAUSEN
1897: 163. I am indebted to Professor Günter Kopcke of
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, for calling
my attention to this work of art.
3To the best of my knowledge the goddesses depicted on
an Akkadian El cylinder seal from Mari of the 24th–23rd
century BCE cannot be classified as tree goddesses, as
postulated by KEEL 1998: 21 and fig. 7. The two god-
desses flank a god seated on a scaled mountain, their
feet submerged in streams spewed from animals’ heads
whose necks emanate from the sides of the mountain.
The leafy branches that grow from the goddesses’
shoulders and body are depicted in the characteristic
convention of representing gods with their attributes in
Akkadian art, where the attributes emanate from the
gods’ bodies, particularly the shoulders. P. AMIET (1960:
219) interpreted these goddesses as manifestations of
the reunion of water and the powers of fertility. These
goddesses, who cannot be identified in Mesopotamian
texts, are reminiscent of the Old Hittite depictions of a
goddess holding a cup sitting under a tree, her feet in
a stream of water on Middle Bronze Age seals from
Acemhöyük in central Anatolia, see MELLINK 1992:
197–198. Indeed, in Hittite texts that describe deities of
springs and streams, these deities are depicted as
females – women or young girls, holding a cup (GÜTER-
BOCK 1983: 205, 211). They should perhaps be under-
stood as loci goddesses, signifying a mountainous loca-
tion where a spring gushed forth, that watered a leafy
tree. Such ‘holy places’. erected on heights near old
spreading trees are termed in the Bible as ’ašërïm, not
to be confused with ’ašëräh, the cult idol, whatever its
form (LIPINSKI 1986: 93–94). For the significance of
Landscape in Akkadian art see WINTER 1999.
4KEEL 1992a: 61–138.
5GETZOV 2008: 1760.
6FORTIN 1999: 234, 285: cat. no. 295; COLLINS 2003: 165.
WESTERN ASIATIC TREE-GODDESSES1
By Irit Ziffer
Ägypten und Levante/Egypt and the Levant 20, 2010, 411–430
© 2010 by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
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that ends in a faint oval form, perhaps a navel.
Below the nose is a pubic triangle flanked by
caprids and stylized birds. Above the triangle two
central caprids are flanked by two pairs of caprids,
each pair flanking a branch-like tree. An abbrevi-
ated version of the Mari stele are two Early Dynas-
tic III pottery stands from Ur, one showing two tri-
angles beside a tree and what looks like a reed
emblem and a comb, the other stand having a tree
incised along its stemmed foot that rises above sev-
eral such triangles (Fig. 2a, b).7The reed emblem
(or standard with scarf) was the goddess Inan-
na/Ishtar’s archaic symbol identified with the
archaic sign MÙŠ/INANNA,8the comb yet anoth-
er attribute of femininity, further emphasizes the
female presence.9In the third millennium the
branch above pubic triangle motif seems to have
been wide-spread – as evidenced by naked female
figurines with branch rising from their pubes from
Alt¶n Tepe and Turang Tepe.10 On the ‘Ain Samiya
silver cup, the hybrid creature grasps in both
hands branches that sprout from a distinct pubic
triangle (TADMOR 1986). This replacement of tree
by the pubic triangle conveys the idea that both
elements – the tree and the woman – were con-
ceived as nurturing beings, and strengthens the
supposition that the tree was perceived as a mani-
festation of the goddess, and that goddess and tree
were interchangeable.
The Tell al-Yahudiyeh rhyton-juglet with a
female head from Jericho embodies the same
concept (Fig. 3).11 The juglet has two openings –
one, placed in her braided hair, through which
the vessel was filled, while the other, placed in her
mouth, served for pouring. A tree trunk that
412
7HOWARD-CARTER 1983: 66; SCHROER 1989: 104, figs. 013,
013a.
8SZARZYNSKA 1987–1988. STEINKELLER (1998) and
BEAULIEU (1998) propose that the sign depicts a scarf or
head-band.
9EDZARD 1976–1980: 332; SPYCKET 1976–1980: 332–335;
FARBER 1983: 442.
10 BÁNFFY 2001: figs. 14:3, 16:1.
11 BALENSI 1987: 99; ZEVULUN and ZIFFER 2007: 23–24.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 1 Stele from Mari, Drawing: Rodika Penhas
Fig. 2 Incised pottery stands from Ur,
after SCHROER 1989: figs. 013, 013a
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grows from the base of the juglet virtually func-
tions the body of the female figure. Flanking the
tree are: on the left a horned animal and a fish
behind; on the right of the trunk a human figure
and a long-legged bird (ostrich?) are shown. The
vase probably is a concrete example of the nur-
turing woman-tree: when in use the liquid would
flow from the mouth, watering the tree. The well-
watered life-giving tree nourishes humankind and
animals alike.
A group of pear-shaped (some with an accen-
tuated head) sheet-gold or electrum pendants
from the end of the Middle Bronze Age and the
beginning of the Late Bronze Age clearly demon-
strates the connection between goddess and tree
(Fig. 4). These piriform pendants, found mainly
at Minet el-Beida, Ugarit and Tell el-‘Ajjul, feature
a female figure reduced to head with Hathor wig
and body, with breasts and navel crudely
sketched, whereas the pubic triangle is emphati-
cally rendered. A branch grows from the pubic tri-
angle or from the navel. The branch is not easily
distinguished, it may represent the tree as a
whole, an offshoot or a frond. Thus both the
female and the tree are represented by parts that
stand for the whole. The Syrian-Palestinian pen-
dants have been associated with an Old Assyrian
silver pudendum dedicated to Ishtar by a woman.
The votive inscription calls the object TÉŠ/baštu,
“bloom, dignity” (CAD), “Lebenskraft” (AHw),
„dignity, (source of) pride? of deity, person, espe-
cially in personal names of protective spirits“
413
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
Fig. 3 Female-shaped juglet from Jericho, after BALENSI 1987: 99
Fig. 4 Pendants, after HESTRIN 1991: 57
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(CDA).12 Linguistically baštu derives from bâšu “to
come to shame”, which in the context of nudity of
the naked goddess should perhaps be understood
in the Hebrew sense of the word pair13 ‘eryah-bošet
“nakedness and shame” (Micah 1:11, see also
bošet- ‘erwah in 1 Samuel 20:30) or Mishnaic beyt
bošet “the place of the pudendum” (Tractate
Hullin, 9:2; Jerusalem Talmud, Yebamot, 7:2),
therefore clearly belonging to the sexual sphere.14
In Mesopotamia nudity and private parts belong
to Ishtar’s or Nanaya’s sphere and interest of
beauty, lust and family affairs.15 Nudity in the
ancient Near East, Akkadian e/urû was, in fact, a
variation of attire,16 with most textual examples
occurring in contexts of poverty and want, signi-
fying “lacking sufficient clothing” rather than
“naked”.17 Nudity was an attribute of the goddess.
In this light, the Syrian-Palestinian pendants
should be seen as signifying the sexual aspect of a
local goddess, whose symbol was the tree. The
small-scale pendants were amulets,18 used in pri-
vate, perhaps as visual evocations of courtship,
414
12 WIGGERMANN 1998: 47; see also SELZ 2005: 583. ANDRAE
1922: 107 and latest reading of the inscription with bib-
liography therein: DELLER 1983: 14. Pudenda in frit:
ANDRAE 1967: 90–91, pl. 36.
13 Word pairs construct the poetic parallelism so lan-
guage in Biblical and ancient Semitic literature. Word
pairs are made up of a pair of synonyms, where the
word used rarely is glossed by the more frequently used
word. See AVISHUR 1984.
14 Male pudenda are derived from the same root, mebušim
(Deuteronomy 25:11).
15 Different goddesses split off from Inanna/Ishtar’s fig-
ure, with Nanaya as goddess of love appearing in Uruk
in the late third millennium BCE. See WESTENHOLZ
2002: 20.
16 MOOREY 2002: 205.
17 BIGGS 1998: 65b; SASSON 2000: 213.
18 According to E. LIPINSKI 1986: 89–90 these metal pen-
dants were worn as earrings, as attested by the later
Neo-Babylonian and Aramaic noun qudäšu, qudassu
derived from West Semitic qudašu, qedäšä, an earring
(with a nude standing figure) worn by women.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 5 Lachish ewer, after KEEL and UEHLINGER 1992: fig. 81
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love making, childbearing and domestic harmo-
ny. Plant substituting for pubes is encountered in
New Kingdom Egypt, albeit with a lily pattern, in
concert with the concept of the lily in Egypt. The
lily pattern representing female genitals is used in
stones resembling pregnant women found at Deir
el-Medina (PINCH 1993: 210).
Two pottery vessels – a ewer and a goblet –
from the Fosse temple at Lachish of the 13th cen-
tury demonstrate the interchangeability of trees
and pubic triangles. The ewer (Fig. 5) bears an
inscription on the shoulder which reads from left
to right mtn šy [l] [rb]ty ’lt “Mattan (the donor), an
offering to my lady ’Elat”.19 Below the inscription,
on the shoulder from left to right, a freeze of ani-
mals and trees is drawn – a lion, fallow deer, male
and female of the species, a bird with spread wings
and tail and a stylized tree flanked by goats. The
animals move towards the tree and goats. R. Hes-
trin believed that the same person who decorated
the ewer added the inscription in Old Canaanite
script, dedicating the vessel to the goddess ’Elat
(feminine of El, one of the double names of
Ashera),20 whose name appears right above the
tree flanked by goats.21 Hestrin suggested that the
tree is a manifestation of the goddess mentioned
on the ewer.22 Hestrin drew attention to another
vessel discovered outside the same Fosse temple, a
goblet on which pairs of goats flank not a tree but
a pubic triangle (Fig. 6). This motif recurs in
metopes that are separated by vertical undulating
bands representing streams of water. This combi-
nation is reminiscent of the Jericho juglet in that
it conveys the idea of a female/tree nourishing the
animal world.
The combination – nude female and tree –
occurs once more in a telling type of Late Bronze
Age figurines, extant in a small fragment – from
Tel Aphek, Tel Harasim and in a better preserved
fragment from Revadim (Fig. 7).23 The hands of
this nude female, whose hair falls in two curls to
her navel, hold open her vulva, above which is a
ridge that stands for the pubic hair. Two naked
babies with uplifted arms are placed in the area
between arms and curls, below each breast, possi-
bly representing suckling infants, or twin foetus-
415
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
19 The offering being the ewer itself and perhaps its con-
tents, presented to the goddess ’Elat at her temple
NAVEH 1987: 33).
20 DEL OLMO LETE 2004: 52.
21 ’Elat “goddess” parallels Akkadian iltum. Binger (quot-
ed in STUCKEY 2002: 41) proposed that ’Elat should be
understood in the sense of a living tree “oak” or “tere-
binth”.
22 HESTRIN 1987: 74.
23 BECK 2002b; GIVON 2002. For an interpretation see
MARGALIT 1994.
Fig. 6 Goblet from Lachish, after KEEL and UEHLINGER 1992: fig. 80
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es.24 A tree flanked by a caprid nibbling at its
branches is modeled on each thigh. She wears
three bracelets on each wrist and a crescent pen-
dant on her neck. The crescent pendant is most
probably associated with the waxing moon, whose
Akkadian title is inbu, “fruit, flower, sexual
appeal”.25 This title refers to the cyclical self-
begettal of the moon, and is therefore associated
with the menstrual cycle as well as with the fruit of
the womb.26 Thus this type of figurine: a naked
woman nursing her babies, wearing crescent pen-
dant and decorated with trees and goats is loaded
with allusions to sexual appeal and fertility. The
same idea of woman suckling an infant in combi-
nation with a tree is reflected on an orthostat
from the North Gate at Karatepe (last third of the
8th century), configuring a goddess nursing a
child under a date palm (Fig. 8), a scene ulti-
mately of Egyptian derivation,27 but known
already from the interior ivory panel of the royal
bed from Ras Shamra – Ugarit (14th–13th century
BCE.28 The suckling goddess finds its counterpart
in the Cretan like bare breasted goddess on a 13th
century BCE ivory pyxis lid from Tomb 3 at Minet
al-Beidha, shown seated atop a mountain and
holding out branches for two caprids to feed on.29
A recently published stand from a sacred
precinct at Tel Rehov, dating from the 10th–9th
416
24 ORNAN 2007 interprets the figure on the plaques as a
mortal female pregnant with twins in a state of pain or
labour pangs, and not as a goddess. She argues that the
plaques were used as amulets for the protection of the
mother of twins.
25 CDA: 129, s.v. inbu. KREBERNIK 1995: 361. In an Ishtar
hymn the goddess is said to be za’nat inbi miqeam u kuzbam,
“she possesses freshness, good color, and youthful charm
in abundance”, see LANDSBERGER 1967: 17 n. 52.
26 KREBERNIK 1995: 366. The title of the moon-god inbu bŸl
arhi “fruit, lord of the new month” refers to the self-
begettal of the child-moon from the old moon of the
last month, see LAMBERT 1987: 27–31 for the sexual
overtones of “Fruit” in Sumerian love lyrics.
27 GACHET-BIZOLLON 2001: 33–40; Isis – anthropomorphic
or as tree goddess – suckling the king in 15th–14th cen-
tury representations (Thutmosis III, Amenophis II,
Sethos I, FRANKFORT 1969: 188; KEEL 1992a: 64–66, 96).
28 WINTER 1979: 121; 1985: 341–342. The bare-chested
goddess suckling twin figures symmetrically wears a
Hittite symbol between the horns of her headdress and
a Hathor wig. Yet the overall style is clearly Syrian.
29 POURSAT 1977: 231–232, 242; DAY 1992: 187–189;
CAUBET 2002: 224.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 7 Figurine from Revadim, after ORNAN 2007: fig. 3 Fig. 8 Goddess suckling child under the date palm,
after KEEL 1992b: fig. 129
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centuries has two molded and applied naked god-
desses with arms stretched to the sides of their
bodies flanking two oval openings which in turn
flank an incised palm tree. Three round open-
ings, the middle one centered above the top of
the palm tree, were cut above tree and goddess-
es.30 The excavator has proposed that the front
panel with its openings represents a temple or city
façade. Yet the position of the oval openings in
regard to the trunk may be construed as heavy
date clusters, while the three round openings may
stand for celestial bodies.
THE DRESSED FEMALE AND THE TREE
In the 25th excavation season a square stone base
was unearthed in the center of court 106 of Zimri-
Lim’s palace at Mari.31 The base is situated exactly
at the intersection of the two diagonals of the
court and on the axis of room complex 106/64/
65 (Fig. 10). The base consists of two superim-
posed limestone tiles, the lower larger stone
(110 × 120) measuring 42 cm in height, the upper
stone (60 × 90) measuring 25–26 cm tall. A large
hole, measuring 31/32 × 30, 70 cm deep cuts
through both stones. No object connected with
this base was found, neither during A. Parrot’s
excavation nor in the renewed excavation by J.
Margueron, who reconstructed the hollow base as
a “flower pot” for a date palm. In a recent study by
Durand and Charpin of the text utilized by Parrot
to identify court 131, the epigraphists pointed out
the fact that the palm mentioned in the Mari texts
in conjunction with a court appears in the single,
not the plural form.32 Therefore the combination
reads “court of the palm”, not “court of palms”, as
has been previously read, proving that the court
was not a palm grove but housed a single palm
tree. Indeed, palm trees are rare in the area, since
the drop of temperature in the winter renders reg-
ular cultivation of the date palm difficult. This adds
to the significance of the single palm tree planted
in the middle of court 106, which we may imagine
embellished with precious materials, conceived as
the source of life for its abundance of fruit. There-
fore it should come as no surprise, that the palm
features in the investiture painting (Fig. 9), which
was found in situ at eye level on the southern wall
of the same court to the right of the doorway lead-
ing from court 106 to the audience hall 64 (in
other words on the right hand façade of the audi-
417
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
Fig. 9 Wall painting from Court 106 in the palace of Mari
30 MAZAR 2003: 148–152, esp. 150–151.
31 MARGUERON 1987.
32 ARM XXI, 259: 14’–15’ b•t kunukkim ša kisal gišimmarim;
CHARPIN 1983: 213.
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ence hall. In a more recent study Margueron
investigated the program of the investiture paint-
ing exploring rhythm and measures that rule this
unparalleled composition.33 Margueron observed
that the mural, measuring 175 × 2.50 m is based
on a tripartite division. Flanking the central panel
are tall date palms, rising the entire height of the
painting. Two men are climbing the trunk, grasp-
ing the date clusters.34 A bluish dove, definitely a
feral pigeon, flies off the uppermost crest of the
palm. Next is a vertical frieze of three quadruped
fantastic creatures (a winged human-headed lion,
a winged bird-headed lion and a bull man), facing
a palmette tree, definitely based upon the date
palm.35 The investiture panel, showing the king in
a tall oval headdress receiving the ring and the
rod, insignia of authority and power,36 from the
warrior Ishtar, her right foot resting on a couchant
lion, occupies the central part of the painting.
Below the investiture scene two minor goddesses
holding overflowing vases are shown. Placing the
two scenes one on top of the other was the
418
33 MARGUERON 1992.
34 The men climbing the date palm gather the date clus-
ters, compare, for example a date harvest in association
with the warrior Ishtar approached by two votaries
BOEHMER 1965: no. 379, see below Fig. 16. METZGER 1983
in his caption to fig. 17a interprets the date gathering as
a ritual harvest of dates. If indeed date gathering pre-
ceded or accompanied the investiture of the king at
Mari, it may be concluded that the ceremony took place
in September-October, the time of the date harvest and
the autumnal equinox. The re-establishment of a king’s
rule was celebrated on the New Year, which, according to
ARM I 50: 5–20 (Yasmah-Addu) at Mari took place in the
12 month, Addar, that is at the spring equinox (FALKEN-
STEIN 1959: 157; DALLEY 1984: 135). Nonetheless, accord-
ing to Syrian tradition, for example at third millennium
Ebla, the New year coincided with the autumnal equi-
nox; or it may have been celebrated twice a year, as at Ur
(see BLACK 1981: 41), and later in Seleucid Uruk (COHEN
1993: 427). The Mari letter would exclude that the date
harvest actually preceded the investiture. This would
mean that the goddess’ identification with the tree gains
double importance: although the re-investiture of the
king took place in the spring, the tree is shown carrying
an abundance of fruit, as befits the goddess who was per-
ceived as the numen in the date palm. According to
Mesopotamian tradition, the king’s rule was re-estab-
lished through rituals of divine love (NISSINEN 2001:
128), see discussion of the date-palm as a metaphor for
the bride on the Song of Songs, below.
35 WINTER 2003: 253* (see, however, YORK 1975: 274, who
suggests an Egyptian papyrus umbel prototype for the
“flowering tree” of the Mari investiture scene). These
stylized trees have been dubbed “Tree of Life” or
“Sacred Tree”, though these names are unknown in
cuneiform texts. See WATANABE 1994: 580.
36 Ishtar’s function as bestower of kingship and protectress
of her city may have contributed to her bellicose charac-
ter, since according to Sumerian tradition, kingship fol-
lowed the fortune of arms. See WESTENHOLZ 2002: 19.
This association between Ishtar and kingship is also evi-
dent in the façade of the throne room of the southern
palace of Babylon. The façade was decorated with col-
ored glazed bricks including a lower frieze of striding
lions, above which is a representation of palm columns
with volute capitals. The whole field has rosette borders.
Lions, palms and rosettes are all emblematic of the god-
dess Ishtar. See MARZAHN 1995: 32–33.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 10 Program of Court 106 and the Investiture painting, after MARGUERON 1992: pl. 46
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 418

Mesopotamian way to create the illusion of three
dimensional space and perspective, as has been
demonstrated by M.-Th. Barrelet.37 The linear lay-
out of the painting orders the eye to follow the trail
from the trees towards the goddesses with flowing
vases into the innermost hall, where the ceremony
of investing the king took place. M.-Th. Barrelet
proposed that the painting reproduced the reality
of the place where the investiture actually was
enacted, and suggested it was the Ishtar temple.38
A. Parrot maintained that the mural was a faithful
copy of court 106, where it had been found in situ,
with the adjacent audience hall 64, where the foun-
tain statue of the goddess with flowing vase was
placed, undoubtedly one of a pair, according to
Mesopotamian law of symmetry,39 and the inner-
most hall 65, where the investiture ceremony took
place.40 Margueron further demonstrated that
when two diagonals are drawn from the corners of
the painting they intersect on Ishtar’s chin, indi-
cating that she is the heart of the entire composi-
tion, and parallels the date palm, at the core of the
Court of the Palm (Fig. 10). It seems that the
painter designed the whole composition according
to the focal point of the event – the goddess Ishtar
meeting the king – and from there subtly devel-
oped his compositional scheme on several planes
in a most intellectually inventive spirit that accord-
ed with the symbolism of the event. Margueron’s
reconstruction allows for the identification of the
goddess Ishtar in the painting with the date palm,
the life-giving tree and the focal point of the
palace, after which the court had been named.
The duplication of the actual date palm flanking
the panel served a decorative purpose that accord-
ed with the tripartite scheme of the composition.41
The stylized trees and fantastic creatures represent
elements flanking the doorway, the fantastic beings
guarding the stylized tree42 as well as the entrance
to the throne room, similarly to the façade of the
Sin temple at Khorsabad of the 8th century BCE.43
At the same time this duplication underscores the
meaning of the tree as emblematic of abundance.44
This identification of the Ishtar with the tree is fur-
ther confirmed by a Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal in
the British Museum (Fig. 11).45 The seal depicts a
beardless male (eunuch) votary approaching the
warrior Ishtar who stands on a couchant lion. The
lion is looking back at a palm tree that stands
behind the goddess. Crossed rampant ibexes fol-
low behind the tree.46 Ishtar and the tree stand as
apposition for each other. This Neo-Assyrian seal
features in A. Livingstone’s Court Poetry and Literary
Miscellanea (SAA 3) as an illustration (fig. 4) to
Assurbanipal’s hymn to Ishtar of Nineveh. The
opening line reads: “O palm tree, daughter of Nin-
eveh, stag of the lands!”.47 The caption to the illus-
tration reads: “Ishtar, standing on a panther,
flanked by a palm tree and ibexes symbolizing her
lover Tammuz”.48 The palm tree is also an epithet
of Ishtar of Babylon, who is addressed as mother,
419
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
37 BARRELET 1968: 209.
38 BARRELET 1950.
39 Note also that the frame of the whole panel is made of
a guilloche band, representing water, see ALEXANDER
1991: 180–181.
40 PARROT 1950.
41 A slab depicting “Lady (Ištar) between Palms” flanked
(together with a Humbaba mask) the portal complex
at Tell al-Rimah in its initial Old Assyrian phase. In the
Nuzi phase it was removed and defaced, and then
replaced by another slab depicting a bull man between
palms. In the 14th century, the Middle Assyrians
restored the palm lady to the pedestal flanking the
door of the temple (HOWARD-CARTER 1983).
42 For fantastic creatures guarding the stylized tree com-
pare the Cherubs guarding the Tree of Life in Genesis
3:24.
43 BARRELET 1950: 25.
44 WINTER 2003: 254*.
45 COLLON 1987: no. 773.
46 For crossed ibexes near a date palm, see Middle Assyr-
ian cylinder seal MOORTGAT VAR 587 (MATTHEWS 1990:
no. 302), where the pair of crossed ibexes comprises a
male and a female suckling its young.
47 LIVINGSTONE 1989: 18–20.
48 Note that COLLON 2001: 128 identifies the palm tree as
the topos symbol of Babylonia.
Fig. 11 Neo-Assyrian seal, after KEEL 1992b: fig. 88
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 419

“a palm of carnelian, most beautiful of the beauti-
ful ones”.49 Both passages establish beyond ques-
tion that Ishtar was associated with the date palm.
S. Parpola contends that in Assyrian iconography
Ishtar as the date palm was represented by the
trunk of the stylized sacred tree. He believes that
the Assyrian sacred tree evolved into the Kabbalis-
tic Tree of Life, where the trunk – Tif’eret, equals
Ishtar as beauty.50
The association of the warrior goddess with the
tree dates back to the third millennium BCE, as
exemplified by two Akkadian cylinder seals. That
of Zagganita the scribe in the Louvre (Fig. 12)
shows the winged and armed goddess triumphant-
ly climbing a mountain next to which grows a date
palm.51 Two gods advance towards the tree, their
hands raised in blessing, indicating that the tree,
embodying Ishtar’s aspect of abundance, is per-
ceived as the focus of veneration. On the other
seal the goddess, approached by two devotees, is
seated on a lions flanked throne. Two figures har-
vest fruit from the date palm growing behind the
devotees.52 The surroundings have been interpret-
ed as the goddesses’ temple garden.53
The very same symbolism, which includes god-
dess, palm tree and caprids, and lions features on
the 10th century cult stand from Ta‘anakh found
by Lapp (Fig. 13). On this stand, however, the
combination occurs with a naked goddess: in the
lower register the goddess places her hands on
the heads of two lionesses, while in the third reg-
ister lions flank tree and rampant goats.54 Lions
flanking tree are depicted on the painted cult
stand from Megiddo VIIB, where the date palm,
whose trunk is cut out, stands in the cella thus rep-
resenting the idol of worship.55 A drawing on
pithos A from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (c. 800 BCE),
which also bears an inscription mentioning Yah-
weh and his Asherah, combines a stylized palm
and goats placed over a striding lion (Fig. 14).56
420
49 W.G. LAMBERT in Unity and Diversity 1975 H. GOEDICKE
and J.J.M ROBERTS, eds: 123, quoted in PARPOLA 1997: n.
133 p. XCV. See also NISSINEN 2001: 124.
50 PARPOLA 1993: 177, and note 73; Id. 1997: n. 133 p. XCV.
51 BOEHMER 1965: 67, no. 379; AMIET 1973: no. 257.
52 BOEHMER 1965: no. 383.
53 DIETRICH 2001: 291.
54 BECK 2002c: 403–411.
55 Ibid.: 413.
56 J. HADLEY identifies this configuration as the Asherah
mentioned in the inscription, see HADLEY 1987: 204;
2000: 153. The lion is an acolyte of both the dressed
and the naked goddess in the Levant. For representa-
tions of the naked goddess with the lion in the Late
Bronze Levant, see KEEL and UEHLINGER 1992: 75–76,
fig. 70 from Tel Harasim. For the combination pal-
mette and lion as manifestations of the goddess on lion
stone bowls, see HESTRIN 1988.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 12 Seal of Zagganita, after KEEL 1992b: fig. 86a
Fig. 13 Ta‘anakh cult stand, after BECK 2002: 403, fig. 8
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 420

In the ‘Ajrud drawing, the lion supports the tree,
which is the botanical manifestation of the female
goddess mounted on a lion, whose anthropomor-
phic form was eliminated from the drawing.57 Sev-
eral cult stands from the favissa of Yavneh (9th
century BCE) in Philistia feature a tree (and
goats) flanked by naked women. The naked
women are sometimes shown standing on bull
head pedestals, or the bullheads are slightly set
off the feet of the women (Fig. 15a).58 On one of
these stands, the females mounted on bull heads
originally flanked a bull head (now missing)59 sur-
mounted by a tree-trunk with imbrication, the
supplemental image representing the naked
female (Fig. 15b).60Also at Yavneh, the female,
modeled in the round, appears in a doorway
(whose lintel morphs into a winged disk) between
highly naturalistic palm trees applied to the walls
of an elaborate red-slipped stand (Fig. 15c).
The biblical goddess represented as a tree was
Asherah. Asherah is the female counterpart or
spouse of the male god, and is envisioned as a
tree, though the scripture does not say what kind
tree it is. In Deuteronomy 16:21 Asherah is planted.
In Deuteronomy 7:5 it is felled and in Judges 6:
26–29 the Asherah that stands by the altar of Baal
is cut down, its wood used as fuel for the burnt
offering. During the Monarchial period an
“abominable image” mipleßet (I Kings 15: 13) and
a “graven image”, pesel (II Kings 21:7) of Asherah
are mentioned, indicating that Asherah was intro-
duced into the official cult of the Jerusalem tem-
ple by Judean kings (II Kings 23:6–7), and was
considered spouse of Yahweh in some circles.61
THE DATE-PALM IN LOVE POETRY
When the Biblical lover sings his beloved’s praises
in the Song of Songs he compares her stature and
to the female date-palm (SoS 7:8–9a), while she
compares him to a cedar tree (5:15,62 Just as the
date palm is tall and hard to climb, so the bride is
unattainable, a locked garden (4:12).63 The bride’s
breasts are envisioned as clusters (7:8 ’aškolot)64 –
yet, whereas cluster usually designates a bunch of
grapes, there is no doubt that here date clusters are
meant, heavy with sweet, succulent golden-hued
fruit. Indeed, in the next verse the lover says: “I
421
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
57 BECK 2002a: 105–109, fig. 4. In the ‘Ajrud drawing the
eliminated anthropomorphic goddess could be a
naked goddess standing on the back of a lion, as known
from Late Bronze Age representations on two gold
plaques from Minet el-Beida (NEGBI 1976: 99–100, nos.
1700–1701, pls. 53–54), on a bronze pendant from
Akko (BEN-ARIEH and EDELSTEIN 1977) and on the clay
plaque from Tel Harasim (GIVON 2002: 26*, figs. 2:1,
3:1); or a warrior goddess, as on the two Iron Age pen-
dants – one from Tel Miqne, the other from Tel Dan –
warrior goddess on a bull (BIRAN 1999). The Iron Age
pendants with the warrior goddess exemplify Assyrian
impact on Philistia (GITIN 1997: 92–93). For an icono-
graphic study of the pendant from Tel Miqne see
ORNAN 2001: 246–249.
58 ZIFFER and KLETTER 2007: 58–63; ZIFFER 2010: 77–79.
59 Indicated by the hole for insertion of the bull head. At
Yavneh, bull heads were pegged into small round holes
prior to firing. The necks were pulled through these
sockets; once pegged, the surface was smoothed so that
the holes could not be seen anymore. So far unknown in
Palestine, this technical detail is reminiscent of the Cypri-
ot potter’s tradition of handles attached by use of a tenon
pushed through the body of a vessel from the Early
Bronze Age through the Late Bronze Age also employed
for attachment of legs in Base Ring bull statuettes.
60 Hittite Anatolia saw a proliferation of divine represen-
tations of one and the same deity, who could also be
manifested in various forms: human or animal shaped,
as well as taking the forms of an object or a stone mon-
ument (COLLINS 2005: 23–29).
61 KLETTER 1996: 76. Jaroš has suggested that the adoration
of the tree may be traced visually in Late Bronze through
Iron Age II seals from Palestine and the Phoenician
coast configurating a central tree flanked by human fig-
ures with raised arms (JAROŠ 1980: 210–211).
62 For a genderded reading of the date-palm as feminine
and conifers as male, see COLLINS 2006.
63 ZAKOVITCH 1992: 124.
64 BLOCH 1995: 14–15.
Fig. 14 Painting on Pithos A, Kuntillet ‘Ajrud,
after BECK 2002: 98, fig. 4
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422 Irit Ziffer
Fig. 15 a–c Stands from Yavneh, Photos: Leonid Padrul, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 422

said: ‘I will climb up into the palm-tree, I will take
hold of the branches thereof”. The branches, the
object he lusts to lay hold of, are the date palm
spadix with fruit, Hebrew: sansinnim, Akkadian:
sissinu, Sumerian: AN, a word play on Ishtar’s
Sumerian counterpart’s name: in-an-na(k) mean-
ing “Lady of Heaven” and also “Lady of the Date
Clusters”. An Akkadian seal shows figures grasping
date clusters (Fig. 16)65 which may be interpreted
as harvesting, or as veneration. Curiously, a Middle
Bronze Age scarab from Gezer depicts a palm tree
bearing heavy date clusters flanked by a falcon-
headed figure and a crocodile-headed figure, both
raising their hands in adoration towards the tree
(KEEL 1995: 225, fig. 512). Moreover, freshly har-
vested dates are the jewels of the bride Inanna,
who welcomes her lover at the gate of her store
house in Sumerian love poetry. Sumerians had a
word for date cluster shaped pieces of jewellery
(a-an-šu-ša-lá). A bracelet of date spadix charms is
mentioned among the jewellery pieces in an Old
Babylonian love song, whereby the woman portrays
herself as being fully bedecked with the most pre-
cious jewels.66 The diadem of Queen Puabi of Ur
has items of gold sewn onto it in spadix shape (with
a carnelian date), in the form of male inflorescence
and apple shaped pieces. All these vegetal forms
are associated with sexuality.67
The Biblical verse recalls the Mari investiture
mural, the two reapers in basket-work slings climb-
ing the palm,68 reaching for the date clusters. Since
the preceding verse and the following verse refer
to the bride’s breasts, the spadix with fruit may be
a metaphor for her breasts. The lover refers to the
palm as the epitome of sensuality and fruitfulness,
an image fit to describe carnal love. It would seem
that the Mari painting and the poet in the Song of
Songs drew from a common Near Eastern reper-
toire of love imagery that found its way into art and
literature alike.69
This rapid survey of the Western Asiatic tree-
goddess indicates that the home of the goddess
identified with the tree was in the Levant. In
Mesopotamia proper, where the portrayal of naked
goddesses was avoided, except when seen as an
attribute of the goddess, it was Inanna/Ishtar, the
warrior and love goddess who was identified with
the tree, specifically the date-palm.
EPILOGUE
The pagan Arab worship70 of the date-palm as a
goddess (Fig. 17) is reflected in the Qur’an, Sura
423
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
65 LANDSBERGER 1967: 19b. Inanna as “Lady of the Date
Palm” represented the numen of the city’s storehouse.
See JACOBSEN 1970: 323, 375. Also see BOEHMER 1965:
no. 383. SCHROER 1989: 127, fig. 049.
66 PAUL 1995: 591.
67 PITTMAN 1998: 92–94. MILLER 1999, 2000. The goddess
Aruru (later another name for the generic “mother god-
dess”) was “mother of dates” (Sumerian: ama zú-lum-ma-
ke4) and “mother of apples” (Sumerian: ama hašhur-ra-
ke4) (BLACK 2005: 47). For apples as erotic metaphors
compare Song of Songs 2: 3,5; 7: 9; 8: 5. For apple
shaped jewellery in the Bible: Proverbs 25: 11. “A word
fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” See,
however, LAMBERT 1987: 31, contending that apples are
nowhere to be found in Mesopotamian art, compares
with Greek Melon, that can be used of other tree fruits.
68 For Akkadian ãubalu, the sling-like support and its sur-
vival into Aramean ãubleya, Arabic ãabliyyah, see LANDS-
BERGER 1967: 28. Date harvest is depicted in Akkadian
cylinder seals, see BOEHMER 1965: 125.
69 See n. 25, 26.
70 In the valleys of Nakhla; the name derives from nakhl,
“date palm”, presumably due to the abundance of
palms in the valleys, see SIMA 2000: 217–239. A Ugarit-
ic place name “Grove of Date-Palms” has been sug-
gested, see WATSON 2004: 116. (compare kinhalim
niããayu, “like palm-groves that stretch out” in Numbers
24: 6; Jewish Study Bible: 333). On the way from Mecca
to al-Ta’if was an idol of al-‘Uzza which was specially
venerated by Quraysh and Banu Kinana. Three Samu-
ra trees were associated with the deity. After the con-
quest of Mecca Muhammad ordered Khalid b. al-Walid
to cut down the trees and destroyed the idol (MONT-
GOMERY-WATT 1993: 924). The palm tree was associated
with a goddess. The Prophet was associated with the
“olive tree” or the “tree of Muhammad”, which may be
interpreted as the sidrat al-muntaha “the tree of utmost
bounds” or the tree of light, whose roots are in Par-
adise and whose crest in the realm of God (Sura
53:16), see MILSTEIN 1999: 35–39.
Fig. 16 Date harvest cylinder seal,
after METZGER 1983: fig. 17a
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 423

19:24–26, which states that the Virgin retires alone
beneath the palm tree to give birth to her child.
The child having arrived she laments, driven to
despair by her desolation and loneliness. But the
God-child immediately speaks and advises his mot-
her to shake the tree; succulent dates fall from it in
abundance, while a spring of fresh water emerges
from the sand. Refreshed and nourished, the Vir-
gin rejoins her kinsfolk with her child.
The balsam tree at Matariyyah, known today as
the Tree of the Virgin, is one of the pilgrimage sites
of Coptic Christianity, connected with the Holy
Family’s stay in Egypt (Matthew 2:13–20), of which
Egyptian tradition makes a great deal. The tree of
Matariyyah (Fig. 18) is said to have offered shade
to the Holy Family. According to the Ethiopian
synaxarion, when the Holy Family approached Mat-
tariyah there was a staff in Joseph’s hand, where-
with he used to smite Jesus, but Joseph gave the
rod to Jesus. Jesus said to his mother that they
should tarry there, near the tree. Jesus took the rod
and broke it into little pieces that he planted at the
place, and dug with his own divine hands a well,
whose water had an exceedingly sweet odour. Jesus
watered with his hands the pieces of wood which
he had planted, and they took root, and put forth
leaves, and an exceedingly sweet perfume was
emitted by them. As these pieces grew they were
called ‘balsam’. And Jesus said to his mother:
“these balsam which I have planted shall abide
here forever, and from them shall be taken the oil
for Christian baptism”.71 The Pseudo-Matthew
Gospel replaces the balsam with a palm tree, a tra-
dition that is also preserved in the Qur’an: the Vir-
gin saw the palm tree and wished to rest under it.72
Christians considered the Matariyyah fountain’s
water thaumaturgic, and its fame spread far and
wide. A Coptic priest of the twelfth century, Abu l-
Makarim, writes that the when envoys of the
Greeks, the Franks, the Ethiopians and the
Nubians came to the caliph’s court they would cus-
tomarily go to Matariyyah, immerse in the water
and pray.73 The caliphs used to distribute the oil of
the balsam among the sovereigns of Europe and of
the Orient, to be used in religious ceremonies and
in the anointing of kings.74 The spring attracted
424
71 MEINARDUS 2002: 75; WISSA-WASSEF 1988: 122–124 on
the production of holy oils.
72 The Virgin resting under the palm tree brings to mind
another biblical heroine, who sat under the palm
named after her – the prophetess Deborah, who judged
Israel as “she sat under the palm-tree of Deborah
between Ramah and Beth-el” (Judges 4:5). OT feminist
scholarship has tended to ascribe Deborah’s military
role to Canaanite or Mesopotamian prototypes of the
bellicose goddess – Anat and Ishtar respectively (ACKER-
MAN 2003: 177 and there previous literature; FRYMER-
KENSKY 2002: 46, 50).
73 KEDAR 2001: 89.
74 WISSA-WASSEF 1988: 71–72. Today the balsam oil is used
for the confirmation and baptizing, as well as for con-
secration of new churches , altars, baptistries, icons and
sacred vases. Only the priest is allowed to touch the
vase containing the oil. See ibid.: 122.
Irit Ziffer
Fig. 17 Lintel of the portal of a temple at Hatam, showing goddesses flanking a date-palm, on the branches of which
birds (doves?) are perched, and rows of ibexes, c. mid-first millennium BCE, after HOYLAND 2001: 168 fig. 4
411_430 Ziffer.qxp 07.03.2011 20:18 Seite 424

also Muslim worshippers, because of Islam’s posi-
tive perception of Mary and Jesus. The balsam
shrubs have long disappeared. The sycamore that
now stands at Matariyyah was planted in 1672.
This venerable tree fell, due to old age on June
14, 1904, but fortunately a living shoot of it
remains to this day. Opposite the garden with the
Tree of the Virgin the Jesuites dedicated in 1904 a
church to the Holy Family. Annually on Decem-
ber 8, the Catholics participate in a pilgrimage to
both the church and the Tree of the Virgin. The
cult of the Tree of the Virgin, celebrated on the
24th of the month of Pakhons (May) of the Coptic
calendar, to commemorate Christ’s entry to Egypt
and the balsam tree, must be a heritage of
Pharaonic Egypt.
425
Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses
Fig. 18 Tree of the Virgin, Matariyya, November 2004
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