Philistine Inscription from Ashkelon

The origin and the nature of the Philistines is now even more of an enigma. 

The recent Harvard Leon Levy Expedition excavations in the area of the port of Ashkelon recovered 18 jar handles and one inscribed ostracon made from local clay...

According to two researchers, Giancarlo T. Tomezzoli and Reinhardt S. Stein this inscription was written in Cipro-Minoan script. This is the table giving the characters from the inscription with most likely vocal values...

So far so good. 

Now the bad bit. Bad in a sense that it will take some explaining and I can't wait to hear it. 

The proposed reading of the inscription is [L] *IUDI PADI PA WEDIMI, which according to the researchers is "Proto-Slavic inscription meaning 'People, come and see'"...

I would say that wedimi could also be "say to", "teach", "pass knowledge" which are all meaning of the word "ved" (wed) which means knowledge...In which case the meaning could be people "come to pass knowledge"...

Giancarlo Tomezzoli and Reinhardt S. Stein published their findings in "The Philistine Inscription 4.5 from Ashkelon (Israel)"

We know that recent genetic data points to European origin of Philistines...

So what the hell is going on? 

The researchers are not Slavic by the way, so their nationalistic bias is out of question I think...

Oldest Arabic poem

I love that in this ancient poem, Mot, a personification of Death from the Ancient Canaanite religion, the enemy of Baal, the Thunder, Rain God, is explicitly identified as Sun...Another proof that climate indeed has major influence on the development of religious symbolism...

This is the oldest poem in Arabic: a 3-line text recounting the cosmic battle between Mōt, the god of death, and Baʿal, the storm god as described in the Baal Cycle

It is carved in an ancient script close to Safaitic and is at least 2000 years old. The reconstructed pronunciation of the Old Arabic: the verses form a final rhyme in *ām*, with an otiose syllable in the second verse.

1) ḥagga mōtu wal-lāẓẓu ṯarām
2) fa-muyakānu layālay-uh wa-ʾaywām-uh
3) wa-hāʾ baʿalu yabītu wa-lā-hu bāta wa-mā nām

Here is what is says:

1)Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats
2)Established is the alternation of his nights and days
3)Behold Baʿal slumbers; he slumbers indeed, but is not dead…

The transliteration and translation was done by Ahmad Al-Jallad @safaitic, Epigraphist, Philologist, Historian of Language, Ancient Near East and Pre-Islamic Arabia. 

This is what he says about the actual inscription:

"This inscription (KRS 2453) was discovered in northern Jordan by Geraldine King in 1989, published online with a preliminary reading and no translation. The text is undated but certainly pre-Islamic. Mythological material can survive millennia. The letter shapes are rather archaic, differing from both Safaitic and Hismaic in their details. I safe guess: the text is at least 2000 years old but perhaps much older"

Here is the explanation of each of the verses:

1) "Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats"

Mōt is the West Semitic god of infertility, drought, literally "death". This line explains that Mōt reigns. Holding a feast is a mark of kingship. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

2) "Established is the alternation of his nights and days"

This verse affirms Mōt’s dominion through a connection with this cosmic phenomenon. A similar phrase occurs in the Quran (23:80): "And it is He (Allah) who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

3) "Behold Baʿal slumbers, he slumbers indeed, but not dead…" 

A similar phrase occurs in Quran (2:255) "Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist, there is no god but He.  Neither slumber seizes Him, nor sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who might intercede with Him save with His leave?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

It is very interesting that the same things attributed to Mōt (Sun god, god of death in the desert) in this Pre Islamic poem are in Quran attributed to Allah...

Mot gained dominion by ‘killing’ Baal, the Storm, Rain god. But according to the Baal Cycle, Mot only killed a substitute. Baal went into hiding in fear of Mōt’s power, only to return to life at a later point....

This is the way to indicate seasonal, cyclical character of this "battle"...

Here is Baal holding a thunder hammer in his right hand and a lightning spear from which the tree (of life) is sprouting...In deserts it is the rain that creates life...

The ultimate triumph of Baal (Rain, Life) over Mot (Sun, Death) can be seen on these pictures of the Dead Sea area, one of the driest places on earth, taken in February (mid winter) 2020...Larger than usual amounts of rain have transformed normally barren shores of the Dead Sea into a meadow... 

This poem is definitely related to the Baal Cycle as known from Ugarit. In its Arabian context, it appears to be a seasonal myth, symbolising the struggle between the dry summer months (Mōt) and the rainy seasons (Baʿal). A few texts record Baʿal in times of drought. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

I would argue that the original Baal Cycle is the seasonal myth. In Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia, the climatic year is divided into two parts, two seasons: Dry season (May-October) and Wet season (November to April). Dry season is the domain of Mot, Sun...And Wet season is the domain of Baal, Rain...

No memory of these myths makes it into Islamic-period sources...(Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Well...As you can see from the above Quran quotes, it does, except both Sun and Rain gods were amalgamated into one god, Allah, the Sky god...Serbian Dabog is the same kind of Sky god, being both Sun god and Bringer of rain, Storm god...

Baʿal survives in local dialectal expressions. In Lebanon, one can say: "ḫallī ʿalā ba‘al" 'leave it to Baʿal', referring to plants that are watered by the rain! (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Bibliography:

"Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription" by Ahmad Al-Jallad

Ostrich symbolism

The Arabian ostrich, Syrian ostrich, or Middle Eastern ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus) is an extinct subspecies of the ostrich that lived on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Near East until the mid-20th century...

This bird appears on early middle eastern seals, like this one from Arslantepe, dated to the end of the 4th millennium BC...Here is a seal with ostriches and snakes...Any reason for this or is this just random?

Ostriches are seasonal breeders. In the northern hemisphere, breeding period is March to September. During hot part of the year...In Northern Syria, where these seals were made, temperature suddenly rises in March, peaks in July/August, and falls in October. More details about the climate in Syria can be found here. 

Snake seems to be a universal (Eurasia and North Africa) symbol, which represents sun's heat, hot part of the year...This true meaning of this old symbol was best preserved in Slavic mythology. I talked about this in my post "Enemy of the sun". 

So ostriches mate during the time when snakes are out...

The destructive power of the burning sun's heat during the hottest part of the year, end of July, beginning of August, is represented by the Dragon...Again Slavic mythology has preserved the key to understanding this universal symbol too...I talked abut this in my post "Dragon who stole the rain" and "Apep"... 

The destructive giant serpents, dragons are the main enemy of Storm gods. The reason becomes obvious if we know that Dragon is the drought and the Storm god is the rain...

Here is another seal with snake and lion

Snake and lion are found together in many myths around the world. The reason is that sun's heat (represented by snake) is strongest during Leo (end of July beginning of August). And Leo signals the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian Lions...

Like in this Romanesque marble statues which I talked about in my post "Lion killing snake".

Or like on this Egyptian mural which I talked about in my post "Apep".

And the reason why lion is killing the snake is because it is in Leo, that the cooling of the northern hemisphere begins...

Back to our ostriches...

Ostrich mating season, which corresponds with the hot, snake season, is characterised by wild mating dances and loud calls...Definitely something you can't miss when it starts and stops...Which makes ostrich a very good calendar marker... 

Does putting ostriches and snakes on a seal together mean that in the 4th millennium Syria we already have this symbolic link established and widely known????

O yeah. Almost forgot about the other seal. 

The seal with:

Auroch bull (Mating season ends in Aug)
Ostrich (Mating season Mar-Aug/Sep)
Snake (Hot part of the year, hottest part: beginning of Aug)
Persian deer (Mating season starts in Aug)

Here's an old Neolithic Syrian love poem:

Under the burning late summer sun
Me and my love run
Jumping over bloody snakes
Which were everywhere
The aurochs were at it
The deer were at it
The ostriches were at it
So I turned to my sweetheart and asked
Why aren't we at it tooooooo??? 

For the lovers of ancient poetry, you might like this Elamite one from my article about date picking season seal.

You can find the details about the seals in "THE ORIGINS OF ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENTS IN GREATER MESOPOTAMIA. THE EVIDENCE FROM ARSLANTEPE, ARCHÉO-NIL Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, 26, 2016"