The Revadim Asherah is an artifact from Revadim representing a genre of Asherah figurines.[1] Like the inscriptions found at Khirbet el-Qom and Kuntillet Ajrud, these findings revealed Asherah's prominence in Canaanite and Hebrew religion.[2]
Depiction
The figure is the Great Mother, portrayed displaying her vulva and feeding twins.[3] Tadmor emphasizes that the figure represents a deity, not a wetnurse.[4] This distinction wouldn't have made sense to the Ugaritians, who called her the mšnqt .ʔilm or "wetnurse of the gods."[5] In Revadim, she has features such as long locks that are reminiscent of snakes directed towards the infants she cradles, jewelry adorning her wrists and neck, where hangs a large crescent pendant. Her hands open the vulva, and above is a ridge suggesting pubic hair. On each of her legs is a tall and sparse tree accompanied by ibices.[6]
The crowded symbolism of the Revadim Asherah stands in contrast to related Judean pillar figurines. Whereas the pillar figures are plain, definitionally emphasizing their face and breasts without detail below, the Revadim prototype is maximalist, filling all possible space with sophisticated polysemy.
Specimens
Following publication in 1986, other examples were found at Aphek, Tel Harasim, Tel Burna, and Revadim. Differences are regional features, as they're dated mutual contemporaries of the latter 13th century.[7]
A Tel Burna goddess differed most in jewelry around the chest:
A horizontal line of three small pellets appears at the neck. Two braids depicting hair extend down the chest area, similar to the Egyptian Hathor style, are separated by an amorphous-shaped decoration just above the navel. There is a crescent or ring connected to a unique vertical band
of eight rings extending down between these braids. This vertical row of rings running down the woman’s chest is unique. The crescent (or ring) shape near the woman’s neck is also distinctive.
The overall impression is of a long necklace of many small chained elements.[8]
Sharp, Casey; McKinny, Chris; Shai, Itzhaq (2015). "The Late Bronze Age Figurines from Tel Burna". STRATA Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. 33. London: The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society: 61–79. There are "copious amounts of scholarship on their context and iconography." p. 71 Distrib. across economic classes p. 64
