Philistine Gath Ritual Bowl Involves Hekate 1000 BCE

(May 1, 2023, updated December 30, 2024) This previously untranslated Alphabetic Akkadian text was found at Tell es-Safi which was the Philistine city of Gath. This shard is from a bowl with a smooth red slip which is the color of life. It reads (right to left):

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 9)

1. A  TaBu  KaTe  |  Ku  Bu  T[1]

In English

1. This emotionally-arouses Kate/Hekate | Involve nourishments with motion[-changes]

Comment: This text is about the two classes of divine powers working together which is typical of the Aegean islanders but not of the Phoenicians and Minoans.

This text was first reported in 2006 and published in 2008. It is on a type of pottery which belonged to to the time between the late Iron Age I to early Iron IIA. This dates it to about 1000 BCE. Gath was the reported home of Goliath in the Bible (1 Samuel 17). 

This pottery shard was found in an industrial/commercial area as a cast-away on the floor of a heavily used room. Based upon the number of bones on the floor this room seems to have been a food preparation area. The thin red slip allowed the letters to be scratched with little effort.

References

(August 10, 2022)  Genetic studies show the Philistines were mostly European/Aegean in origin. A recent study compared 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from the Philistine city of Ashkelon. They found that the early Iron Age population of this city was genetically distinct from the Bronze Age people yet this genetic difference was no longer detectible in the later Iron Age population. 

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