Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists excavating at the archaeological site of the Bet Ha-‘Emeq have unearthed a fragment of an Early Bronze Age storage vessel with a rare cylinder seal impression depicting a ‘sacred marriage’ between a king and a goddess.
A fragment of a pithos found at the Bet Ha-‘Emeq site. Image credit: Nimrod Getzov / Israel Antiquities Authority.
“It seems that the rare seal impression, which appeared on a fragment of a large storage vessel (pithos), sheds light on the symbolic-ritualistic world of the Early Bronze Age inhabitants in Israel,” said team members Dr Yitzhak Paz, Dr Ianir Milevski and Nimrod Getzov.
“The importance of the scene lies in the possible symbolic context, it being part of a complex ritual known in Mesopotamia as the sacred marriage.”
“In this ceremony a symbolic union took place between the king and a goddess (actually represented by a priestess). The ceremony included several rites: music and dancing, a banquet, a meeting between the king and the goddess and an act of sexual congress between them.”
The impression dates from about 3,000 BC and was made using a cylinder seal rolled along the surface of the clay before it was fired, forming a series of repeating designs.
The scene depicted on the seal impression includes three figures, two standing and one sitting.
Reconstruction of the musical scene. Image credit: Nimrod Getzov / Israel Antiquities Authority.
The seated figure is playing an instrument that appears to be a lyre – a musical instrument known from the ancient world.
“This is the first time it is definitely possible to identify a figure playing an instrument on a seal impression from the 3rd millennium BC,” the scientists said.
“This is when most of the cultic impressions from Israel depict dancing figures or the feasting scene in which the female and male figures are shown facing each other, in the rite just before their sexual encounter.”
