SIKKANUM, BAITYLOI AND MAȘȘEBAH  ANICONIC STANDING STONES OF THE LEVANT
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-24

From the 3rd millennium B.C. on, written and archaeological sources of the Levant, Syria and eastern Anatolia refer to a complex of cultic installations, mainly made of upright standing stones. These objects are commonly known from antique and biblical texts as the Greek baityloi or the Hebrew mașșebah, naming stone installations, which were venerated as representations of deities or ancestors, as well as a matter of communication with them. First indications for the adoration of aniconic stelae and similar objects dating back at least to Early Bronze Age, where the oldest known evidences could be proven by contemporaneous cuneiform tablets. Appearing also in Sumerian texts as sikkanum, these objects range from unworked local material to roughly shaped stelea or columns, appearing as single installations as well as in alignments and groups. Not only known from ritual buildings, there is also a number of erected stone structures from hilltops or city gates. Clearly connoted with a ritual meaning as an aniconic representation of divine character, these exemplars could have been meant to create a sacred space or adjoin a sacred meaning to a place or structure. In my talk I give an overview about the written sources relating to the complex of the veneration of artificial erected stone objects as well as a compulsion of the archaeological evidences. Furthermore, I illustrate their significance as a matter of demarcation and determination of sacred spaces.


Author(s): Scheyhing, Nicola (none)