Category موضوعي
Ancient Levantine civilizations
Societies, texts and material culture in the ancient Levant.
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Original photograph
Site
Zion
Name of a stronghold linked to David's city in 2 Samuel, later extended to Jerusalem and its religious centre; its referent changes across texts.
Modern excavations at the northern end of Jerusalem's eastern hill, photographed in 2011. Context for the city's history, not the site of Abraham's narrated sacrifice
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Site
Moriah
The land named in Genesis 22 as Abraham's destination; 2 Chronicles later associates Mount Moriah with the Jerusalem Temple site, not an independently located journey.
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, photographed in 2013. 2 Chronicles associates Mount Moriah with the Temple site; this modern view illustrates that later association, not an independently located Genesis mountain
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Site
Phrygia
Historical inland Anatolian region with an Iron Age kingdom; Gordion was a major center.
Burial mounds MM and P at Gordion, in modern Türkiye. A view of Phrygian remains by Archaeologist 1950, 2 July 2019; regional archaeological context, not evidence for a specific story’s route
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Contextual definition
Mount Kasios — Jebel Aqra
Coastal mountain in the Syrian–Turkish border area, known as Jebel Aqra and by ancient names including Kasios.
Jebel Aqra, also known as Mount Kasios, with the Mediterranean coast in the Syrian–Turkish area. Summer 2008 according to the photographer, Anthiok; the original August upload date does not establish the day of capture
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Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city of religious importance in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Jerusalem’s Old City seen from the north, photographed on 20 July 2012. The Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives appear in the background. This modern view brings together landmarks from several periods; it differs from the city in the time of the kingdom of Judah
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Kingdom of Judah
Judah was an ancient southern Levantine kingdom centered on Jerusalem in the Iron Age
Detail of the Assyrian reliefs showing the siege of Lachish, a city of the kingdom of Judah, during Sennacherib’s campaign of 701 BCE. Carved at Nineveh around 700–692 BCE and held in the British Museum. Photographed on 12 September 2010; an Assyrian representation of the event from the attackers’ perspective
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The Levant
The Levant is a regional name for lands along the eastern Mediterranean
The harbour of Byblos, Lebanon, photographed on 4 September 2008. This modern view offers an example of the Levant’s Mediterranean coast. The region extends beyond this city, and its boundaries vary with period and context
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Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a salt lake in the Jordan Rift Valley, near sites where ancient manuscripts were found
Sunset over the Dead Sea from its eastern shore at Ghor Al-Haditha, Jordan, on 26 October 2018. The Judean Mountains appear on the western horizon. The photograph illustrates the lake’s geography; the Qumran manuscript caves lie elsewhere on its western side
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Tyre
Tyre is a city on the coast of present-day southern Lebanon and an important ancient Phoenician center
The restored Roman triumphal arch at Al Bass in Tyre, Lebanon, with aqueduct remains on its right. The arch dates to the second century CE. This photograph, taken on 19 November 2019, shows a later phase in the Phoenician city’s history
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Sinai: peninsula and biblical mountain
Sinai is a peninsula in eastern Egypt; in the Torah the name also denotes the mountain of revelation to Moses
A view of the Sinai desert in Egypt, 22 November 2008. It shows the peninsula’s landscape without identifying the mountain meant by the biblical narratives
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Original photograph
Site
Elephantine / Yeb
Island near Aswan at the Nile’s first cataract; Persian-period Aramaic papyri document a Jewish community and Yaho’s temple.
Modern view of Elephantine Island and the Nile near Aswan; geographical context, not the remains of Yaho’s temple
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Site
Qumran
Site near the northwestern Dead Sea; neighboring caves preserve ancient Jewish textual finds, not one complete Bible.
Qumran site remains in a modern photograph. Context for the manuscripts, not Cave 4 or a Jeremiah fragment. Original preserved; display resized without cropping
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Illustration
Site
Khirbet el-Qom
Site west of Hebron known for an eighth-century BCE funerary inscription commonly associating Yahweh with “his asherah”; damaged text and readings disputed.
Modern diagram of context, common reading and limits at el-Qom. Not the inscription or its physical layout; debated translation not made certain
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Illustration
Site
Kuntillet ʿAjrud
Sinai site preserving blessings by Yahweh of Samaria/Teman and “his asherah” around 800 BCE; building function and wording disputed.
Modern summary of two Kuntillet ʿAjrud formulas in published readings. Not a jar photograph, inscription facsimile or map; does not settle “his asherah” or drawing identities
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Illustration
Site
Raqefet Cave
A Mount Carmel cave with plant-lined burial evidence and mortars whose possible use for brewing has been debated.
Modern diagram separates Raqefet’s plant-lined grave evidence from mortar residues interpreted as brewing. The latter was subsequently debated; no preserved beer was recovered
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Illustration
Site
Hilazon Tachtit
A Late Natufian burial cave in Galilee, with an exceptional woman’s grave and deposits interpreted as funerary feasts.
Modern evidence guide for Hilazon. Finds, age and skeletal abnormalities are observations; shaman is the excavators’ interpretation. Not a reconstruction of the burial or woman
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Illustration
Site
Hayonim Cave
A Galilean cave with Natufian graves and ornaments; its long funerary use informs research on identity and place memory.
Modern diagram of Hayonim burial duration, Grave XVII phases and ornaments. Memory and identity interpret the evidence; duration does not establish one continuous group or ancestor worship
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Original photograph
Site
Ain Ghazal
Neolithic site near Amman, Jordan, known for large Pre-Pottery Neolithic plaster statues. Faces and decorated eyes are recognizable, but the figures’ names and religious function remain unresolved.
Head of a plaster statue from Ain Ghazal, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Jordan Museum, Amman. Photograph: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0. A comparison from another community, not direct evidence of an Ubaid maker’s skill
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City
Ugarit
Ancient city and kingdom at Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast, flourishing between the fourteenth and early twelfth centuries BCE and preserving multilingual archives.
Entrance to Ugarit at Ras Shamra, near Latakia; photographed in August 1989. A modern photograph of the archaeological site, reused unchanged
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City
Mari
An ancient city and kingdom on the Euphrates, at Tell Hariri in eastern Syria.
Ruins of the palace associated with Zimri-Lim at Mari, Tell Hariri. A photograph of the setting of the royal archives, not a reconstruction of its ancient appearance
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City
Ebla
An ancient city at Tell Mardikh in Syria, known for its third-millennium BCE tablet archive.
Remains of Palace G at Ebla, Tell Mardikh: a photograph of the archaeological site. It provides the archive’s setting and does not independently date every visible building phase
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