Lot 54
Ancient Near East, Levant, ca. 1200 to 800 BCE. A bronze cast amulet or votive depicting the Semitic Mother Goddess Asherah who scholars discuss as the wife and consort to Ugaritic El, the Sumerian god Anu, or Yahweh, the god of Israel - all the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. She is depicted with a frontal visage, her arms folded across her naked chest, one gesturing to her breast. Size: 2.25" L x .625" W (2.9 cm x 1.8 cm)
According to scholar Susan Ackerman, "Asherah, along with Astarte and Anath, was one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. In Canaanite religion her primary role was that of mother goddess. In mythological texts from the Late Bronze Age (c. 15501200 b.c.e.) city-state of Ugarit, she is called the creatress of the gods; her consort at Ugarit, the god El, is called creator. El is also referred to as father and patriarch at Ugarit, as Asherah, likewise, is called mother. Their children form the pantheon of the gods, who are said to number seventy; a Hittite myth similarly mentions the seventy-seven and eighty-eight children of Asherah. On occasion in Ugaritic myth, Asherah performs the maternal role of wet nurse. Ugaritic and other Canaanite materials further associate Asherah with lions (indicating power), serpents (representing immortality or healing), and sacred trees (signifying fertility). Thus Asherahs children at Ugarit can be called her pride of lions; the goddess is called lady of the serpent in second-millennium b.c.e. inscriptions from the Sinai; the late-thirteenth-century b.c.e. Lachish ewer dedicated to Asherah is decorated with images of sacred trees." (https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/asherahasherim-bible) For additional information see Susan Ackerman. The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel. Journal of Biblical Literature 112 (1993): 385401.
This piece was collected by the California Museum of Ancient Art was founded in 1983 in Southern California to create the first museum collection focusing exclusively on the Ancient Near East. Representing the geographic regions of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant from approximately 3500 BCE to 500 CE, the museum's mission is to share the stories of the peoples of the Ancient Near East and catalyze a better appreciation for the roots of Western Civilization. The goal is to bring these ancient peoples - from Sumer, Elam, Babylon, Assyria, Hittite Anatolia, Canaan, Philistia, Israel, Judah, and Egypt of the Pharaohs to the beginnings of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity - to life.
Provenance: Ex- California Museum of Ancient Art, Ex Private New York collection
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#120951
- Condition: A fragment with loss to lower end and peripheries. Nice green patina.
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