Judean Pillar Figurines
Puzzling artifacts from Iron Age Judah
First discovered more than one hundred years ago, Judean pillar figurines continue to be poorly understood in scholarship today. Judean pillar figurines—abbreviated JPFs—were prevalent in Judah during the First Temple period (ca. 800–586 B.C.E.). These household objects, of which thousands have been found, are not present in Judah following the Babylonian conquest in 586 B.C.E.
Two major types of Judean pillar figurines have been found. One type has a face that’s pinched to make two eyes (Left, Photo: Israel Museum, Jerusalem). The second type has a mold-made head with defined facial features and rows of curly hair (Right, Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art).
In “JPFs: More Questions than Answers” in the September/October 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Robert Deutsch provides an overview of these puzzling pillar figurines.
To begin, the name “Judean pillar figurine”—as these objects are universally called—is somewhat of a misnomer. The land in which these pillar figurines were found was called Judah, not Judea. The name Judea emerged when the southern Levant came under Roman rule beginning in the first century B.C.E. The adjective Judahite—to describe the people and material culture of Judah—is a recent designation. Deutsch believes these Iron Age pillar figurines in question are more accurately represented by the name “Judahite pillar figurines.” They are also called JPFs for simplicity.
JPFs are clay female figurines with heads rendered largely in two major types: those that are handmade and those that are mold-made. The handmade heads are fashioned in a rudimentary way, with their faces pinched to form two eyes. The heads made from molds display hairstyles resembling Egyptian wigs, with rows of curls, and defined facial features. A solid cylindrical pillar is used for the bodies of both types of JPFs. Both types also have oversized breasts, under which the arms curve.
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The form, function and symbolism of these pillar figurines have been heavily debated, with many questions still remaining. Archaeologist Raz Kletter, who is considered an authority on JPFs, believes the figurines represent Asherah—a Canaanite goddess whom some scholars contend was worshiped as God’s wife or consort. Others have suggested, however, that JPFs represent the goddesses Astarte or Anath. Further, were JPFs fertility goddesses? Good-luck charms? Toys? The scholarly community has not reached a consensus.
To learn more about JPFs, read the full article “JPFs: More Questions than Answers” by Robert Deutsch in the September/October 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
BAS Library Members: Read “JPFs: More Questions than Answers” by Robert Deutsch in the September/October 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on August 21, 2014.
Learn more about Judean pillar figurines in the BAS Library:
Shmuel Ahituv, “Did God Have a Wife?” Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2006.
Ephraim Stern, “Pagan Yahwism: The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel,” Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2001.
Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.
Related reading in Bible History Daily:
Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol?
Puzzling Finds from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud
Canaanite Worship? 3,400-Year-Old Figurine Found at Tel Rehov
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It is interesting to me, especially related to the figurines with “pinched” eyes, that they seem to be made without the use of any tools except hands. This brought to my mind two things: 1) The commandment called for no “graven image” to be made. This consequently may have been an idol, but made in partial compliance to the commandment. 2) The simplicity and relative ease in making the figures may lend to them been made either for, or by children as playthings, though the enlarged breasts would tend to discount this as a probability.
Are the answers limited by unconscious blockade: Jews weren’t that monotheists they have always pretended to be and Prophets said it often enough to allow us to think that the story of God,with some Wife and a Kid (statues found in Pre second Temple times) were an old Jewish/Pagan/Greek cult of which the legend finally drifted, some centuries later, into Christianity s dogmas and principles…?.
Jews were “monotheistic.” However, the prophets prophesied that Israel had drifted away from Yahweh, and had followed the religions of those surrounding them. Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel testified to Israel “worshiping the queen of heaven (Semiramis, Ishtar),” and for this the remembrance of them would be “blotted out” which is why archaeology and antiquity is ending up with “dead ends.”
All of you three are correct. In short, these were household gods kept by the women of the home, probably used more as good luck charms than for actual worship. After the Babylonian Exile, Jews (called that by Babylon because they came from Judah) never again had anything to do with any form of idol worship and, instead, followed the precepts set forth by Second and Third Isaiah. They paid more attention to YHWH. They wept when Ezra read the Torah, and they repented their sins. Read about it in Nehemiah 8-10.
Ben, you’ve seen a Barbie doll. These easily could have been playthings for girls.
So Yahweh didn’t start out as the “one true god”? Interesting.
According to the Bible, Abrahams’ father made idols, but one God spoke to him and he followed instructions to move around. God din’t have a name until He spoke to Moses… He was just the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Bible says one of the reasons God took them out of Egypt was because they worshipped other gods, and they kept doing so until after they were captive in Babylon. I suspect the little statues are fertility goddesses or charms. That was important to women, and I think men would worship their god(s) more ostentatiously.
These figurines are not ‘poorly understood’, well at least not by those of us who can open our eyes.
In reality these models are icons of the Queen of Heaven. If you read the Book of Jeremiah, you will see that the big debate and dispute between the people and the priesthood is that the people worshipped the Queen of Heaven (Malketh Shamem), and Jeremiah did not like this. And the Jews who worshipped the Queen of Heaven moved to Egypt (and then Saba), which is why these figurines end in Judaea at this time.
Interestingly, if you translate Queen of the Heaven into Egyptian, the title becomes the Queen of Sheba. This is why it is likely that these people moved down to Saba (Sheba) and founded the Sabaean nation at this time. There is no archaeological evidence for Saba being founded in the 9th century BC.
And in Saba they produced figurines like this:
http://traveltoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wpid-Photo-Dec-18-2012-913-AM.jpg
Case solved?
Ralph Ellis
Am I the only one that sees these figurines as possibly a grinding tool of some sort? The top portion being the grip while the flat portion being used to grind grains and such. As for jews following other gods/idols,the scriptures are full of them doing this very thing at times. God did have a name before Moses. He was called El or El Shaddi, respectfully.
Could this be the archtype of thel Maiden Form Bra, that “lifts and separates”?