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Original photograph
Period
Pre-Pottery Neolithic
A regional term for early Neolithic phases in Southwest Asia before the local spread of pottery; it does not imply an absence of settlement, architecture or cereal processing.
Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. Central and perimeter pillars show the building’s arrangement. The visible shelter and support braces are modern conservation measures, not a reconstructed ancient roof
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Original photograph
Study
Before We Knew the Names of Gods
What can burials, skulls, figurines and buildings tell us about early beliefs? A study of archaeological evidence and the boundary between observation and interpretation, from Jericho to Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük.
Building C at Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey, photographed in 2019. T-shaped pillars and communal architecture in a settlement with a ritual component; any proposed divine identities remain unknown. Some pillars have been restored
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Original photograph
Concept
Ritual
An organised or distinguished practice meaningful to a community; it may leave traces, but its form alone does not reveal an associated doctrine.
A plastered human skull from Jericho, around 7000 BCE, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Plaster remodels the face and shells mark the eyes; this treatment alone does not identify the beliefs of its makers
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Illustration
Concept
Negative evidence
Failure to find an expected trace can test a hypothesis when preservation and investigation make discovery expectable; not every absence is evidence.
Modern explanatory diagram: an absent mark in an examined area differs from an unexamined area. The grid and magnifier illustrate investigation, not an actual excavation plan
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Illustration
Concept
Ritualization
The acquisition of special qualities by familiar practices or places; an analytical concept that need not separate ritual from everyday life.
Modern diagram of ritualization: a house surrounded by circles suggesting accumulated practices and relationships. A conceptual illustration, not a reconstruction of an ancient house or rite
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Original photograph
Site
Çatalhöyük
A Neolithic site in central Anatolia where domestic houses combined dwelling with burial, symbolism and social memory.
The southern excavation area at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia. Domestic building remains support study of dwelling, burial and social memory; the photograph is not a reconstruction of the original houses
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Original photograph
Site
Göbekli Tepe
A Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey, known for communal buildings and T-shaped pillars; the excavation team describes a settlement with a pronounced ritual component.
Building C at Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey, photographed in 2019. T-shaped pillars and communal architecture in a settlement with a ritual component; any proposed divine identities remain unknown. Some pillars have been restored
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Illustration
Concept
Linguistic relatedness
A relationship through shared linguistic ancestry, distinct from direct borrowing or identical beliefs.
Modern educational diagram: branching from a common origin on the left, transfer between two parties on the right. It distinguishes kinship from borrowing; it does not map a proven historical route for divine vocabulary
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Original photograph
Region
Mesopotamia
A historical region associated with the Tigris and Euphrates, home to many societies and civilisations.
The ziggurat of Ur in southern Iraq, in a modern photograph that includes restored parts of the structure. An example of a Mesopotamian site, not an image of the entire region or a reconstruction of all its periods
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Original photograph
Language
Amorite language
A West Semitic language studied especially through personal names, much of whose evidence comes from the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000–1600 BCE).
Photograph of the ruins of Mari, the setting of documents preserving Amorite names. The place explains the context of preservation; the photograph itself is not a text in the Amorite language
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Original photograph
Language
Hebrew
A Northwest Semitic language in the Canaanite group, with ancient and modern forms.
A page of Deuteronomy from the Hebrew Aleppo Codex, dating to the tenth century CE. A witness to manuscript and vocalization traditions, not an original manuscript from the first millennium BCE
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Illustration
Concept
Semitic il
An ancient Semitic word for a deity; its linguistic use does not alone identify a particular divine figure.
Modern written comparison of examples of Semitic divine vocabulary: ʾēl, ilu, and ʾilāh. The lines mark comparison, not direct borrowing or identical divine figures
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Original photograph
Period
Late Bronze Age
An archaeological period conventionally around 1600–1200 BCE in much of the Near East, with regional variation.
An object from the Late Bronze Age: fragment of a Ugaritic alphabet tablet, c. 1400–1200 BCE; Louvre, AO 19992 / RS 10.087. This image illustrates one object, not every society of the period
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Original photograph
Concept
Ancient Near East
A historical and geographical term covering Mesopotamia, the Levant and neighbouring ancient societies.
Lamassu: a human-headed winged bull from Nimrud, ca. 883–859 BCE; The Met, 32.143.1. An example of Assyrian art in the ancient Near East, not a representation of every regional culture or of El
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Illustration
Concept
Monotheism
Belief in a single God as the only deity, rather than merely the highest among several gods.
Modern conceptual diagram: a single symbol illustrates the sole deity in the definition of monotheism. It is neither the historical symbol of a particular religion nor a sequence of religious development
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Illustration
Concept
Allah
The Arabic name for God, used before Islam and in several Arabic-speaking religious traditions.
‘الله’ and Allāh in a modern typographic illustration. The written name does not depict the deity; this graphic is not evidence dating its pre-Islamic use
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Illustration
Concept
Arabic ilah
The Arabic common noun meaning “god” or “deity”, with the plural aliha.
‘إله’ and ʾilāh in a modern typographic illustration of the Arabic word. An image of a word, not a representation of a divine figure or a witness from an ancient inscription
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Illustration
Concept
Alaha
A Syriac word for God or a deity, part of the related Semitic divine vocabulary.
Approximate transliteration of Syriac Alaha (ʾalāhā) in a modern linguistic illustration. It is not a manuscript image or a definition of every user’s beliefs
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Original photograph
Language
Syriac
A literary form of Aramaic, with an extensive Christian heritage and earlier non-Christian attestations.
Folios 9v and 10r of the Rabbula Gospels, a sixth-century Syriac manuscript: canon tables and portraits of the Evangelists. An example of Syriac Christian book culture, rather than the language’s entire history
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Original photograph
Language
Aramaic
A group of Northwest Semitic language varieties with a long history across the Near East.
Palmyrene funerary relief with an Aramaic inscription, ca. 181 CE; The Met, 02.29.4. An example of a historical Aramaic variety, not a representation of Syriac or every stage of the language
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Original photograph
Inscription
Merneptah Stele
An Egyptian royal inscription containing an early external attestation of the name Israel.
Merneptah Stele, JE 31408; photographed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 2003. Perspective-corrected Wikimedia Commons version, reused unchanged
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Illustration
People
Ancient Israel
A name for an ancient population and later historical traditions, attested on the Merneptah Stele.
Plate of the Merneptah inscription published by Petrie in 1897: a historical drawing in mirrored orientation. This witness contains the name Israel; the image depicts neither the community nor its beliefs
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Original photograph
Concept
Theophoric name
A personal name containing the name of a deity or a divine element.
Detail of the inscription on Iddin-Ilum’s statue from Mari, ca. 2100–2000 BCE; Louvre, AO 19486. It illustrates the dedicator’s name containing a divine element; the statue represents a human, not El
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Illustration
Concept
Elohim
A Hebrew word with plural morphology, used for “gods” or for a singular deity according to context.
Elohim, אֱלֹהִים, in a modern typographic illustration. Plural morphology alone does not establish the meaning in use; number, grammar, and context must be read together
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Illustration
Concept
Eloah
A Hebrew word for a deity, linguistically related to El and Elohim.
Eloah, אֱלוֹהַּ, in a modern linguistic typographic illustration. The entry explains the word and its use; this image is not an ancient manuscript
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Illustration
Deity
Yahweh
The divine proper name written YHWH in the Hebrew Bible.
The four Hebrew letters יהוה (YHWH) in a modern typographic illustration. A presentation of the written name, not a depiction of the deity or a reproduction of a particular ancient inscription
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Original photograph
Concept
High god
A deity with a senior position among other gods; this does not itself mean monotheism.
Tablet of a hymn to Marduk, The Met 86.11.313; first millennium BCE, in Sumerian with Akkadian translation. A textual example of a deity’s exaltation, not proof of monotheism or a universal model of the high god
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Illustration
Concept
Divine council
A representation of divine beings acting as an assembly with authority and differentiated roles.
Modern conceptual diagram of assembly and interaction among council members. It reconstructs neither a historical council nor the number or appearance of its deities; divine councils must be read from their texts
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Original photograph
Concept
Pantheon
The set of deities associated with a religious tradition, including their roles and relationships.
Meli-Shipak’s kudurru, Louvre SB 23, bears the symbols of Ishtar, Shamash, and Sin above a presentation scene. A Babylonian example of multiple divine symbols, not a depiction of Ugarit’s divine council
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Original photograph
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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Original photograph
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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Original photograph
People
Amorites
Groups associated with West Semitic speech in the Levant and Mesopotamia, whose dynasties were particularly prominent in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE (ca. 1900–1700 BCE).
Top of Hammurabi’s stele, showing the Babylonian king before Shamash; eighteenth century BCE; Louvre, SB 8. An example from the world of Amorite-period kingdoms, not a collective portrayal of Amorites or their beliefs
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Original photograph
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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Original photograph
Concept
Cuneiform
Writing with wedge-shaped signs, developed from Mesopotamian recording traditions and used for several languages from the third millennium BCE.
Fragment of an incomplete Ugaritic alphabet tablet, c. 1400–1200 BCE; Louvre, AO 19992 / RS 10.087. Evidence of Ugaritic writing
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Original photograph
Concept
Akkadian ilu
The Akkadian word for “god”; its occurrence does not automatically identify the deity El.
Cylinder seal and its modern impression, owned by Ilum-bani, ca. 2028–2004 BCE; The Met, 1988.380.2. An example of a personal name with a divine element, not a verified depiction of El
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Original photograph
Language
Akkadian
An ancient East Semitic language written in cuneiform in Mesopotamia.
Letter from Abi-milku, ruler of Tyre, to the Egyptian king, written in Akkadian cuneiform; ca. 1347–1330 BCE. The Met, 24.2.12. An example of the language in international correspondence
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Illustration
Concept
Proper name
A name identifying a particular individual, place or other entity.
Modern linguistic diagram highlighting a proper name referring to a particular entity. ʾEl is an illustrative written example, not a portrait of a deity or an archaeological witness
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Illustration
Concept
Common noun
A word naming a class of things, such as “god”, rather than one particular individual.
Modern linguistic diagram: ilu illustrates a common noun meaning ‘god’. The boxes explain the naming of a category; they do not depict a historical pantheon
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Illustration
Concept
Linguistic reconstruction
A comparative method for inferring forms in an older language from related languages.
Modern educational diagram of systematic correspondences across comparative rows. The symbols a, b, and c are schematic teaching examples, not data transcribed from an ancient language
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Illustration
Concept
Proto-Semitic
The reconstructed common ancestor of the historically known Semitic languages.
The form *ʾil- in a modern linguistic illustration. The asterisk marks a reconstruction, not an inscribed word or evidence dating a particular cult
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