Tribe of Benjamin Seals 800-730 BCE

These texts preserve the old style Ṣ dating to 840 BCE found on the Gezer and Jerusalem tablets while showing updated letters for everything else.

For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts

Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee showing the droughts
Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee. In historical times it shows two major droughts with several minor ones. Minor droughts are indicated anytime the curves turn downward. 
The 50 year long Great Drought of 1180 to 1140 BCE (Iron Age 1 period) is what ended the Bronze Age and the 5-year long Elijah drought of 845-840 BCE. The yellow gives the tree pollen level while the green gives the non-tree pollen level. (Langut and Finkelsein 2013)

Droughts Defined the Archaeological Periods in the Levant

(April 2, 2022) Droughts separate the archaeological periods in the Levant. States weakened by local droughts were often subject to raids right after the droughts by Mesopotamian empires which were unaffected due to their irrigation. Below is the latest widely accepted chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014 shown below: 

Droughts According to Drought Chart

  1. 1180-1140 BCE - Great Drought
  2. 980 BCE
  3. 845-840 BCE - Elijah Drought
  4. 732 BCE - led to Assyrian invasion
  5. 605 BCE - led to Babylonian invasion

References

Langut, D. Finkelsein, I, Litt, T. (2013) Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149-175. Online at https://www.academia.edu/6053886/Climate_and_the_Late_Bronze_Collapse_New_Evidence_from_the_Southern_Levant
Mazar, Amihai (2005) The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: its History, the Current Situation and a Suggested Resolution. pp. 15-30 in: T. Levy and T. Higham (editors), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science. London. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/2632501/The_Debate_over_the_Chronology_of_the_Iron_Age_in_the_Southern_Levant_its_History_the_Current_Situation_and_a_Suggested_Resolution_2005
Imprint of the seal shown below. It shows fertility fluids coming from the winged sun disk.
They are now displayed at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem.  This was found in Moab.Online at: https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/353947-0
The actual seal. Notice its red color with black speckles. Red is the color of the life powers while the black speckles indicate something is polluting the life powers. This was found in Moab.

Emotion-Owls are Similar to Fertility-Fluids Because Both Guide the Triggering of Life Form Manifestations (800-700 BCE)

(March 21, 2023) Image is of the winged sun disk of the god Hu spewing fluid onto a long necked bird. Hu represents the life network which filters and guides the fertility fluids which trigger the life form manifestations from Yahu.

Translation In Akkadian (Levant Text 54.1)

(Read right to left. Capital letters on tablet. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold)
  1. AKu  Ša  ESu  GeRru  Nu

In English

  1.  Emotion-owls are similar to the filtrate (fertility-fluids) which guides the Revealer (Yahu) 
Allegedly found in Samaria in 1975. Now at Israel Museum in Jerusalem (Number 85.15.20). 
Seal made of reddish limestone, 16 x 13 x 5 mm

Life-Form Manifestations Need Both Energy to Push the Filtrate and Sky-Shell Openings For Those (700-600 BCE)

(April 8, 2023)  Face B shows an exhausted or dead eagle vulture which weaves the life network. Most letters on this sealing date to the 6th century with key letters "A" showing squareness and the letter "P" getting forked appendages.  Yet, significantly, the letter Ṣ is in the older style of the Jerusalem stone dating to 840 BCE. This suggests the sealing may have originated at the tribe of Benjamin's temple at Tel Masos.

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 60.29)

(Read right to left. Capital letters on seal. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verb is italic bold)
  1. Gi  Pu  Reyu  Su (Levant Text 60.29.1) 
  2. Pu  EWu  Du  A  Tu (Levant Text 60.29.2)
  3. Lu  ŠeDu  Qu (Levant Text 60.29.3)  Old style letter Š
  4. Bu  UKu  Pu  A (Levant Text 60.29.4) 

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English. 

  1. Energy is being opened by the shepherds of Su  (magic crafters)
  2. Openings can be turned-on by the manifestation of that magic
  3. Lack (of openings) is swelling the life-threads
  4. Nourishments for weaving can open those

Previous Hebrew Translation Attempt

Some Hebrew language scholars claim the text reads as follows: 

  1. Belonging to Sadoq
  2. son of Mika
  3. [Belonging to Ze] karyau
  4. priest of Dor

Reference

Avigad, Nahman; Sass, Benjamin (1997) Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals. Published by THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, THE ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY, THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, and THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/4786835/1997_Avigad_N_revised_and_completed_by_Sass_B_Corpus_of_West_Semitic_stamp_seals_Jerusalem 

Not Provenanced. Letter assignments by Olmsted

References


Deutsch, Robert. “Lasting Impressions,” Biblical Archaeology Review 28.4 (Jul/Aug 2002): 42-46, 49-51, 60-62. Online at: http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=28&Issue=4&ArticleID=4
Online report at: https://www.archaeology.org/news/6246-180102-jerusalem-governor-seal

Motion Powers Needed for Yahu (840-610 BCE)

(Feb 22, 2023) 

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 16)

(Read right to left. Capital letters on seal. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verb is italic bold)
  1. Lu  AKu  RaBu  E  Su   (Levant Text 16.1)
  2. Pu  NuNu  YaHu. ŠeDu  Bu  Ru (Levant Text 16.2) 
  3. ZaQu  YaHu  Gi (Levant Text 16.3)

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English. 

  1. Lack of emotion-owl's authority does not involve Su.
  2. The Openers (life-priests) are making chaotic Yahu.  The swelling (of threads) is from nourishing eagle-vultures.
  3. The winds energize Yahu

Previous Hebrew Translation Attempt

This text was translated by Robert Deutsch as (red are differing letter assignments):  

  1. L   AMRYHU Belonging to Amaryahu
  2. HNNYHU  BD Hananyahu  servant     
  3. HZQYHU Hezekiah

This is a filed translation for following reasons:

  1. Names are not a translation because the can cluster any arbitrary set of letters
  2. The name of Hezekiah does not even match anything in the Hebrew Scriptures

Hezekiah or Hizkiah is spelled in four slightly different ways in the Hebrew scripture (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Hezekiah.html) :

  1. חזקי הו (ḪZKYHU) (Hezekiahu)
  2. יחזקיהו (YZKYHU) (Yehezekiahu)
  3. חזקיה (ḪZKYH) (Ḫezekiah)
  4. יחזקיה (YZKYH) (Yehezekiah)

None of these match Deutsch's word assignment for Hezekiah.

Temple at Tel Moza
This temple at Moza seems to be the temple originally used by the tribe of Benjamin after they entered the land of Canaan. The altar faces south towards the sun's sky path. It's supply table and refuse pit is to its right. The shaded area shows where the table's ritual supplies were found swept onto the ground after some raiders destroyed the temple. Kisilevitz (2015)  
Two heads found with the supply table debris at temple of Moza.
These two heads were found with supply table debris at first temple of Moza. Both were correspondences used in healing rituals. The top object was used to promote the growth of a beard while the bottom object was used to cure a growth on the lower jaw. Kisilevitz (2015)  
Horse and rider figurine found with supply table debris at temple of Moza.
Original figurine was that of a horse and rider. Only wealthy people had horses. This horse was covered in red as a symbol for life. Probably some person was riding off to war and this was used in a ritual of protection. Other parts of the horse were colored greenish. What this color meant in ritual at this time is unknown.

Tribe of Benjamin and their Temple/Public Buildings at Moza (980 to 730 BCE)

The 980 BCE drought forced many of the original Israelite Moabites to migrate. Based on the Moabite Stele this Israelite group showed many early characteristics of what would later become Judaism. This proto-Jewish group seems to have settled around Jerusalem where they became the tribe of Benjamin.

This Jewish Moabite exodus event left three independent Biblical story arcs:

Significantly, tradition remembers that king Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin while king David was of the tribe of Judah.

This Benjamin/Moabite hypothesis is further supported by the establishment of a village and temple at Tel Moza at the time when the Moabite refugees would have arrived (980-960 BCE) west of the Jordan river. This temple was located 7 km northwest of Jerusalem (Kisilevitz 2015). This site has been identified as the town of Moẓah by archaeologists and is mentioned in Joshua 18:26 as a town of Benjamin. It’s temple is of the type which would have been used by the Jewish Moabite refugees.

This Moza temple (fig 5) was found below a later public building (building 500) which dated to between 800 and 700 BCE meaning the temple was in use prior to that time. The temple was dated to the Iron IIA period. It consisted of a building with a courtyard orientated in an east west direction. The courtyard had a square stone altar facing south and an adjacent supply table and refuse pit which was filled with earth, ash, pottery sherds, and a large number of bones.

The first temple’s end was violent. It likely occurred during the 840 BCe drought and resulting civil war. Objects on the supply table were just swept off with a forearm and left scattered on the floor. Later all this debris was left in place as new dirt was brought in as the foundation for building 500.

Beside pottery fragments the supply table debris contained four figurines (two anthropomorphic and two zoomorphic), fragments of chalices/cauldrons/stands, and styled pendants including one in the shape of a pomegranate which was a symbol for life. One of the “chalices” had burn marks indicating it held incense like a cauldron. Another “chalice” was oversized with a large base for holding heavy liquids such that it was called a stand. All these cult objects would have been used by a life-priest in healing rituals based upon sympathetic magic. In this type of ritual objects stand in for the objects to be healed or protected. In contrast to these object, objects used for emotion magic rituals are based upon emotional correspondences.

The Moabite Mountains of Nebo and Horeb are also a part of the exodus story arc. Mount Nebo was the place where Deuteronomy chapter 34 says Moses dies after seeing the promised land. In Deuteronomy 34.1 “Nebo” has the letters Nun-Bet-Vav or N-B-U. In Akkadian this means the “Revealer’s nourishing” from “Nu Bu.” The “Revealer” is a common epithet in Alphabetic Akkadian texts for the god Yahu. Consequently, this was a sacred mountain for Yahweh.

In contrast and in 1 Kings 19.8 “Horeb” has the letters Het-Resh-Bet or H-R-B. In Akkadian this means “Liver’s nourishing” from “ḫarû bu.” The liver was thought to be the seat of emotions so this was the mountain sacred for the magical motion class powers in the Ancient Pagan Paradigm. In this passage Elijah sits in a cave where Yahweh came to him as a quiet small voice. In other words, this was a place of divination which fits with this mountain’s divine power class.

Mount Sinai is actually just another name for Mount Horeb. The word “Sinai” means “Su’s power is revealed” from Samak-Yod-Nun-Yod or SI-NI. Su is the full moon god and the source for all motion powers including the astrological powers of fate and the animal emotional powers.  

References


Kisilevitz, Shua (2015) The Iron IIA Judahite Temple at Tel Moza.  TEL AVIV Vol. 42, 147–164 
Tel Moza Excavation Project at: https://www.telmoza.org