archaicwonder:Rare Canaanite Snake Shrine, Late Bronze Age, c. 1550 - 1200 BCThis remarkable and rar
archaicwonder:Rare Canaanite Snake Shrine, Late Bronze Age, c. 1550 - 1200 BCThis remarkable and rare object is a Bronze-Age snake shrine from ancient Canaan. It bears a superficial resemblance to a Chalcolithic funerary urn but it in fact a devotional piece which reflects a cultic affiliation to snakes which is technically known as ophiolatry. It is shaped in the form of a long barrel vault, sealed at one end and open at the other. The open end is surrounded by a quadrangular façade which is considerably taller than the main body of the piece. Unlike the body, which is plain, the portions of the façade above and below the entrance are decorated with a series of curvilinear, serpentine designs that frame the doorway (four above and one beneath).The precise function of these pieces is not clearly understood, but there are indications that they contained an actual snake and/or offrenda dedicated to them, in a religious/ritual setting such as a chapel or perhaps prosperous domestic setting. The ancient populations of the Middle East and Northern Africa believed snakes to be sacred and holy due to their apparent immortality in shedding their skins and emerging ‘reborn’. As a result, various cults and devotional institutions dedicated to snakes sprang up from Mesopotamia to Canaan, as well as further afield in Crete and even Nubia, where the tradition is believed to have originated. Materials dedicated to this practice of worship have been found at many sites, notably including Megiddo, Shechem and Hazor. Later incarnations of the faith have been found in northern Syria (Hittite), at the Assyrian site of Tepe Gawra and also in 6th century BC Babylon.The Canaanites were one of the ‘tribal’ groups of what was to become Israel, Palestine and Jordan, who had their cultural roots in the Neolithic revolution when agriculture revolutionized Near East economics. By the Bronze Age the stability of the area and their position between great trading powers – notably Egypt and Mesopotamia – made them prosperous and culturally diverse, and was a high point for artistic creation. The culture contracted with economic issues suffered by Egypt and the Mesopotamians, and went through a collapse at the end of the Bronze Age due to a combination of ‘Sea People’ invasions, environmental meltdown and internal troubles in Egypt leading to loss of infrastructure throughout the Near East. Their resurgence of power in the Iron Age was matched by that of the Ammonites and Moabites, among others, and the region eventually came under control of the Neo-Assyrians by the mid 8th century BC. -- source link