BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Azekah’s Stunning New Do

Rare figurine discovered at Azekah

A new type of figurine, with a feathered headdress, found at Azekah. Courtesy of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition

Clay nude female figurines are a common find at Late Bronze Age sites in the southern Levant. Typically hand-sized and made from a mold, these objects, which may depict goddesses or birthing women, were likely used in rituals to promote fertility or offer protection.¹

Our excavations at the site of Azekah in the Judean foothills have uncovered many such figurines, including the standard types: (1) a woman with a curled, Hathor-style headdress who holds a lotus flower in each hand; (2) a shorthaired woman with a flat headdress whose hands support her breasts; and (3) a longhaired woman with pronounced facial features, an infant at each breast, and a body adorned with trees and ibexes.

This past summer, however, we found a new type that combines many of these expected forms and adds some new elements. The fragmentary piece, which measures 3 inches tall, depicts a woman inside a frame. She has curling, Hathor-style hair (type 1), and her eyes and mouth seem to express pronounced agony (type 3). She wears a necklace with a round pendant, and her hands support her breasts (type 2). A stylized tree is visible on her abdomen (type 3). Especially unusual, however, is her feathered headdress. Where might this headdress have originated and what might it represent?

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There are several possibilities. First, the headdress could have been inspired by similar feathered crowns that adorn Egyptian Bes figurines. Often depicted with such crowns, these well-attested figures, which have short legs, rounded bellies, and grotesque faces, were thought to promote fertility and protection. Second, the Azekah figure could be a form of the so-called “twice-molded figurines,” found frequently in northern Israel, which have their hair in a long braid but are topped by a feathered headpiece. Finally, the figurine’s headdress is similar to the feathered helmets worn by the Philistines and other Sea Peoples, as famously depicted in the Medinet Habu reliefs from Egypt.

The Azekah figurine was found in a destruction dated to the late 12th century BCE, by which time the Philistines had already begun to settle at the nearby sites of Ekron and Gath. Based on pottery, we know Azekah was in contact with these two sites in the decades prior to its destruction. Therefore, it is possible that the craftsperson who made the figurine was inspired by the Philistines’ feathered helmets, which may have symbolized the strength and endurance of warriors. Indeed, ancient Near Eastern texts sometimes associated birthing mothers with warriors on the battlefield:

The woman giving birth is covered with death’s dust,
She is covered with the dust of battle, like a chariot,
She is covered with the dust of tuffets, like a plow.
She sprawls in her own blood, like a struggling warrior.²

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, the craftspeople of Azekah found themselves in a changed world. Using clay, they created protective amulets that incorporated well-known features from Canaanite female figurines, but also added new elements, such as the feathered headdress, that expressed the qualities of strength and power in the object.

Sabine Kleiman is a teaching and research fellow at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She is the field director of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition.

Manfred Oeming is Professor of Old Testament Theology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He co-directs the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition.

Oded Lipschits is Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He co-directs the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition and the Tel Moza Excavation.

Notes

1. See Christian Locatell, “Symbols of the Goddess,” BAR, Winter 2024.

2. From the Middle Assyrian text “The Baby Is Stuck,” in Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2005), p. 715.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Mothers, Goddesses, and Fertility

The Cruel End of Canaanite Azekah

Medinet Habu: Philistines in Egypt

Digitizing Ancient Seals

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House of the Rising Sun: Azekah’s Canaanite Temple

The Last Days of Canaanite Azekah

Symbols of the Goddess

Discovering a Goddess