![shards of war bile shards of war bile](https://i.imgur.com/9V6Svr3.jpg)
![shards of war bile shards of war bile](https://www.artofmtg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ajanis-Presence-Art-by-Raymond-Swanland-300x300.jpg)
2 Samuel 5:11 records that Phoenician King Hiram of Tyre sent cedar timbers, carpenters and stonemasons for the construction of King David’s palace. This is logical, since biblical references to Israelite-Phoenician trade are so plentiful.Įxodus records that the Israelites used Phoenician purple to decorate their priestly garments and the tabernacle (Exodus 28:4-8 26:31 36:35). To be fair, much of the early scholarly consensus around Phoenician importation was based on the Bible. Furthermore, assuming the ivories originated in Phoenicia shows bias toward the biblical record, which may cause archaeologists to overlook the Levant’s local ivory tradition. Liat Naeh wrote, “When analyzing excavation results, it is generally posited that finds are local unless there is reason to suspect that they were imported.” According to Naeh, there is not enough archaeological evidence to prove the ivories were imported. However, this view has been challenged by some in the archaeological community, especially in recent decades. Most scholars have assumed the ivories were carved in Phoenicia and imported to Israel. Whether the ivories were used in Ahab’s “ivory house” or not, one thing is clear: If over 12,000 ivories have survived to the present, Samaria must have had an enormous quantity of ivory! This seems to corroborate the Crowfoots’ viewpoint, though it isn’t definitive proof. Furthermore, taking into account the architectural customs of the day, “ivory house” most likely means the room had ivory embedded in its wall panels-not that the entire structure was made of ivory.Īccording to modern sources, over 500 of the ivory pieces were found in the Samarian palace complex alone.
![shards of war bile shards of war bile](https://parimehry.cz/wp-content/uploads/my_lands_4.jpg)
The Crowfoots clarified that the Hebrew word “house” in verse 39 most likely refers to a room or pavilion within the palace complex.
![shards of war bile shards of war bile](https://spieletrend.com/medien/nords-guide-768x432.jpg)
“ intrinsic interest,” they wrote, “as works of art and craftsmanship, and their well-established place in the history of Samaria, give them peculiar significance … and give them a date so close to that of Ahab that they may safely be attributed to the ‘ivory house that he built’ as described in the book of Kings.” Could some of the 12,000 ivory pieces found in Samaria be remnants of Ahab’s “ivory house”?Īrchaeologists John and Grace Crowfoot, who wrote the original excavation report, Early Ivories From Samaria, in 1938, thought this a likely possibility. However, one lesser-known detail about Ahab is that he built a spectacular “ivory house” in Samaria: “Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built …” (1 Kings 22:39). Because of these and other wicked acts, he is arguably Israel’s most infamous ruler. Together with Jezebel, his pagan Phoenician wife, Ahab established Baal worship in Samaria and persecuted Elijah the prophet. While there is some debate over the precise age of the artifacts, most scholars agree that they date to the eighth or ninth century b.c.e., most likely around the time of Israelite King Ahab (circa 870–850 b.c.e.)Īccording to the biblical book of Kings, Ahab “did yet more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel that were before him” (1 Kings 16:33).
#SHARDS OF WAR BILE SERIES#
In a series of excavations from 1908 to 1935, archaeologists unearthed over 12,000 ivory pieces in the ancient Israelite capital city of Samaria.