Yādiya/Sam'al
Creators: name: Hogue, Timothy
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2022

description: The Kingdom of Yādiya, based at the city of Samʾal (modern Zincirli Höyük), was founded sometime in the 10th century BCE. Though the city’s history stretches back to the Early Bronze Age, it was destroyed during the Late Bronze Age and remained unoccupied until it was resettled at the foundation of the kingdom. The kingdom’s cultural practices are particularly notable for their combination of traditions otherwise known from so-called Aramean and Neo-Hittite polities. The kingdom also incorporated elements of Assyrian culture derived from interactions that began during the reign of Shalmenser III in the mid-9th century. Later, the kingdom became a vassal of Tiglath-Pileser III in the late 8th century. At the end of the same century, the kingdom was abolished incorporated into the Assyrian empire as a province. Primary sources attest to a heterogeneous population in Yādiya. An early inscription describes two social groups (called mškbm and the bʿrrm) in a conflict that was resolved through the efforts of the king. The distinction between these groups remains unknown. While there is evidence for speech communities utilizing Semitic (particularly Samʾalian) and Indo-European languages (particularly Luwian), there is no direct evidence for these groups acknowledging ethnic or other social divisions between them. The royal family of Yādiya, for instance, primarily composed royal inscriptions in Semitic languages and sometimes took Semitic names, but Luwian names were somewhat more common. The pantheon of Yādiya may have been vast, and a broken inscription from the site makes mention of “the thousand gods,” making it the sole Iron Age polity known to have continued the Hittite tradition of referring to their pantheon in that way. More specifically, various kings are known to have been devoted to personal deities (such as King Gabbar’s tutelary deity Baʿal-Ṣemed), but the dynastic god was Rakib-El. Based on comparative evidence from the surrounding region, this dynastic god may have been a storm-god. Other storm-gods were worshipped as well, however, chief among them Hadad whose primary cult place may have been Gerçin. The Katumuwa inscription further mentions a Hadad of the Vineyards and a Hadad the Host as though they are separate deities, but the precise relationship between them is unknown. The same is true for Resheph and Arq-Resheph. Apart from these, the Yādiyans revered a mix of deities known from other Levantine and Mesopotamian sources, including the sun-god Shamash, the moon-god of Haran, and Baʿal- Ḥammon as well as the goddesses Kubaba and Nikkurawas. It is theorized that Kubaba may have been the consort of Rakib-El, but this is not confirmed by the epigraphic evidence. The best understood of Yādiya’s rituals were devoted to the royal family. These included but were not limited to mortuary feasts performed on a semi-regular basis. These were carried out in large ceremonial plazas on the acropolis, and in the royal necropolis at Gerçin. In the 8th century, such rituals were extended to non-royal elites as well and carried out in household contexts. Candidates for temples have not been extensively studied, so possible temple rituals remain mysterious.