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Introduction
Like the living being who carries in his cells the DNA or the material depository of the hereditary characters, the Canaanite Phoenician temple stores in its architectural elements, the information on the religious conception of our ancestors. Each element of this temple has, in fact, a double value: the first derives from its physical and carnal properties, and the second attaches to its spiritual and religious characteristics. One is visible and concrete, the other is invisible and abstract so that, when we contemplate these elements, we come into contact with the religious thought that hides behind their forms, colors and natures. This double power introduces us to the true knowledge of the different parts of the temple and transforms our human nature, which often tends to see things as they appear at first sight. Thus water symbolizes regeneration, even if every object that emerges in water does not change its physical quality and the stone considers itself a dwelling place for God, even though it is a dense and full inert matter. Any element of the Canaanite Phoenician temple thus has a religious symbolism which projects the faithful, contemplating it, into a world full of symbolism and hierophanies so that each element draws its meaning from the religious experience lived by the man within sacred nature full of riddles and secrets. even if every object that emerges in the water does not change its physical quality and the stone considers itself a dwelling place of God, even though it is a dense and full inert matter. Any element of the Canaanite Phoenician temple thus has a religious symbolism which projects the faithful, contemplating it, into a world full of symbolism and hierophanies so that each element draws its meaning from the religious experience lived by the man within sacred nature full of riddles and secrets. even if every object that emerges in the water does not change its physical quality and the stone considers itself a dwelling place of God, even though it is a dense and full inert matter. Any element of the Canaanite Phoenician temple thus has a religious symbolism which projects the faithful, contemplating it, into a world full of symbolism and hierophanies so that each element draws its meaning from the religious experience lived by the man within sacred nature full of riddles and secrets.
In building a temple, the primitive religious man plays the role of the architect in the modern sense of the term. It is he who draws the plan, specifies the location, the direction as well as the disposition and the identity of the different elements of worship in the heart of this sacred space while being based on his view of nature and his manner to understand the secrets of the universe. The execution of the plan and the erection of the building, in a second place, will be a technical work subject to the laws of physics. This is where the architect comes in the old sense of the word equivalent to the civil engineer nowadays. These laws always interfere in the construction and pose constraints so that any building, will be executable only to the extent that it answers their restrictions. So the solidity of the building, Secures with foundations and walls built with high-strength stones and the law of gravity makes the execution of long-span beams an impossible task without the intervention of modern civil engineering. The new technology, therefore, plays a preponderant role in the grandiose and complicated form of modern temples so that, if taken into consideration, in parallel with the effect of the broadening of contemporary human thought, we see that the dissection of any religious building will reveal a framework that is based on the religious conception of primitive man. This conception is based mainly on the symbolism of the transcendence of ascension, the purity of water, the solidity of the stone, the reconciliation of sacrifice,
Religious architecture therefore always bears, independently of place and time, the seeds of a primitive form from which every element has evolved because the appearance of this form is attached to the human nature of man. which does not change across ages and spaces. In the same vein, I add that the perseverance of religious symbolism "derives its validity from the permanence of the hierophany that once consecrated it". By testing the validity of this theory on the Orthodox Christian Church, for example, we obtain a positive result. This religious space, in fact, presents itself as a microcosmos, just as the primitive temple in general and Canaanite Phoenician, in particular, was considered. In this church, the vault on which appears the fresco of Jesus Pandokrátor represents the sky in which God resides, the level of the ground rises progressively approaching the altar of sacrifice which is built by stone, the Water presents itself as a necessary element in rituals and the tree of life is always in its neighborhood. The Muslim mosque, in its turn, presents a dome representing the sky, an open court, a basin of ablution in the middle and an empty interior floor resembling the expanse of the desert.
This theory based on the rigid link between the religious conceptions and the elements of worship which concretize them will help me in my memory to decipher all the spiritual ideas concealed in these elements taken as tangible and concrete entities having a form, nature and well-defined physical characteristics. The path is reversed here, and the religious ideas that have traced the architecture of the sanctuary at the beginning of time will be hunted through every element present in the Canaanite Phoenician temple. I emphasize that for this purpose of reconstituting the religious conceptions of the Canaanite Phoenicians through their temples I allow myself to seek the information where they are in the pages of the history of the religions of this people, even in those of their neighbors.
In any case, the task seems difficult, because the number of Canaanite Phoenician religious spaces that have been searched is very limited and their condition is bad. I limit myself to mention here the most important: the temples of Ugarit, Amrit, Byblos and Sidon. Primitive religious spaces or "High Places" high on the tops of hills and mountains suffer the same fate. They are either flattened off the ground because of the very simple shape that makes them vulnerable to inclement weather or are replaced by buildings coming back to late times. The miserable state in which the Canaanite-Phoenician antiquity has been reduced differs from the case of other civilizations of the Near East. The works created by the genius of this people have been, as in Egypt, buried under the silt slowly deposited by the Nile or the fine sand of the desert. The cut stone could not, as in Mesopotamia, shelter under the collapse of huge masses of raw bricks. Finally, the ruins have not found here the conditions which have so marvellously saved them in Syria with the absence of any neighboring city and of any sedentary population. On the contrary, modern cities now cover the ancient cities of Tyre, Sidon, and almost all of Byblos (Fig. 56). On this narrow coast, which has not ceased to be inhabited, on this land constantly washed by the winter rains and the torrential waters that descend from the mountain, it has been able to survive, only a few spaces for whom the chances of annihilation were diminished.
This lack of archaeological findings will push me to seek more information in written sources, but here too, serious problems arise:
- Canaanite Phoenician sources are often epigraphic but unfortunately imperfectly understood the few times they go into the details of sacred terminology. They contain hymns, prayers, myths and ritual texts.
- The most important cuneiform sources of Ugarit, including the myths of the construction of Baal's palace, the conflict between Baal and Mot, and others, came to us from the fact that they were incised on clay supports cooked while nothing has come to us from texts written on papyrus victims of the time elapsed.
- Conventional sources are obvious and operating limits is sometimes difficult. Sometimes they are misunderstandings that require decoding, the topic of child sacrifice being the most controversial topic. But these sources can still enrich our knowledge. I quote as an example, the works of Lucien (The Syrian Goddess) and Plutarch (Legend of Isis and Osiris).
- In spite of its subjective and ideological vision, the Old Testament contains many data on the Canaanite Phoenician religion because of the neighborhood between this people and the Hebrews.
- Despite this defect in ancient sources, contemporary studies are numerous, I quote among them, as an indication, the work of William Smith, Georges Perrot, Charles Chipiez, Maurice Dunand, Sabatino Moscati, without forgetting of course Mircea Eliade with his books on the history of religions.
I go on to the pages that will follow in the "dissection" of the Canaanite Phoenician shrines in the following way:
- The first chapter analyzes the general form of the temple, the design behind its architecture, why does it present an image of the world, to what extent is its construction a sign of divine hegemony, where is it placed and how his separation from the secular outside world secures himself.
- The second chapter deals with the subject of the ascent defines the High Place of Primitive Worship by explaining why the temple is preferably built on the high mountain. He looks at the reason for building the temple in the image of an artificial mountain with gradually rising ground and then explains the symbolism of the sacred tree trying to find common ground with the Ashera.
- The third chapter studies the symbolism of water. What makes water a source of purification and source of life? How can it cure diseases and regenerate the gods? Was she venerated as an independent deity? Can the rain water be caused by specific magic ceremonies?
- The fourth chapter considers the symbolism of the stone by explaining to what extent the stone provides stability and strength to the temple emerging from the earth. Why does the god live in betyl*? Does the latter represent a reduced image of the sacred mountain? What stones were they dedicated to the goddess Astarte? What are the obelisks standing in the temple and what symbolism can have the two columns often placed at their entrances?
- The fifth chapter examines the subject of sacrifice: why sacrifice? What is its bloody and bloodless appearance? Are there human sacrifices in Phenicia?
- I wish to present in the sixth chapter a descriptive architectural study of the Canaanite Phoenician temples discovered until then.
Each chapter, except the last, is divided into two major parts. The first treats the subject theoretically based on the history of religions generally and the second is immersed in the background of the study of religious symbolism in the Canaanite Phoenician.
My study modestly aims to fill, the great void in the know about the history of ideology and feelings relating to the Canaanite Phoenician religion. I hope I can bring to an end a deep understanding of the religious conception of this people and succeed in transforming the contemplation of the architecture of any sanctuary into a journey in the history of the religious thoughts of our ancestors, even of all humanity.
Chapter 1
The Temple between the Sacred and the Profane
1. Introduction
Man has tried from the beginning of time, to find answers to his many questions about the universe and nature as well as about his past and future. Not finding adequate answers, he began to invent scenarios about the origin of the world and the secrets behind things while basing himself on a contemplation of the cosmos with its smallest details. The most logical interpretation he found, with the absence of zero scientific knowledge, finally comes to establish a link between the enigmas of the universe and powerful and vigorous beings that he calls gods and considers them as creators of the world..Over time, these interpretations will fill the ancient libraries with legends and myths revealing the origin of things and explaining how the universe works.
The universe, therefore, considered itself, by primitive man, as a divine work, organized at the beginning of time by the powerful gods, and then directed through the ages by them. These gods hold the secrets of the world, manage the destiny of man, govern all living beings and master the elements of nature. This difficult and arduous task requires a lot of vigor and wisdom but also the layout of a habitat. Indeed, the gods, conceived by the primitive man in his image, are susceptible to fatigue, hunger and other needs that are only satiated by the construction of a kind of house. The latter is none other than the temple which, by its standards of construction and its religious symbolism, emerges from what can be reserved or modest, given the transcendence of the god who occupies it.
Thus the temple must meet standards of edification strict enough affecting its luxury on the one hand and its sacredness and holiness on the other. Phoenician, the term "QoS" means sacred, it indicates a space subtracted from the profane dimension marked by ceremonies of worship. Its construction requires a whole series of rites and religious techniques for the determination of the location, the general architecture as well as the means to isolate it from the secular outside. These and other measures will be the focus of this chapter.
2. Theoretical study
2.1. Reasons behind the construction of the temple
Man invests much of his physical and mental energy in building the temple to glorify the legitimacy, power, and achievements of the deity to which he is consecrated. This effort derives from the fact that the temple must be so magisterial and solemn to be worthy of its occupant and to ensure a quiet and refined existence away from need and weariness. On the other hand, this meticulous, costly and exhaustive work satisfies the god as well as the faithful so that the first come to reside there to reign on the universe from there, and the second will be able to introduce it there, to meet the first one. to know him, to admire him, to take care of him and to implore his help. The satisfaction of God abounds in his graces and blessings on man.
2.2. Temple built in the image of the human habitat
By imagining the gods in his image, man conceives sacred spaces for their cults constructed resemblance to its own habitat. The architecture of the house of man has evolved over time, we can speak of a cave and then a stone building in the open air. Historians are beginning to think more and more about the spiritual function of prehistoric caves with artistic reliefs on their walls. They tend more than ever to regard them as sanctuaries in which the images had a precise religious meaning. The difficulties of access to these caves reinforce their numinous character. If it is right, we can say that the primitive man sought to find in the caves the characteristics of an ideal and perfect habitat, protected from the external evil within the earth. This theory will be more elaborate in later periods so that we can notice that the temple, built initially according to a primitive plan which has developed through the ages, continues to imitate the architecture of the human house.
By imagining the gods in his image, man conceives sacred spaces for their cults constructed resemblance to its own habitatThe architecture of the house of man has evolved over time, we can speak of a cave and then a stone building in the open air. Historians are beginning to think more and more about the spiritual function of prehistoric caves with artistic reliefs on their walls. They tend more than ever to regard them as sanctuaries in which the images had a precise religious meaning. The difficulties of access to these caves reinforce their numinous character If it is right, we can say that the primitive man sought to find in the caves the characteristics of an ideal and perfect habitat, protected from the external evil within the earth. This theory will be more elaborate in later periods so that we can notice that the temple, built initially according to a primitive plan which has developed through the ages, continues to imitate the architecture of the human house.
2.3. Technical sheet of the construction of the temple
2.3. The technical sheet of the construction of the temple
The construction of the temple generally goes through several stages and its use requires certain rites and preparations. I draw up in the following an enumerative outline of the most important traits in relation to the construction of the temple and the rites that take place within it:
The location of the temple depends on several factors, they are all related to the sacredness of the place which is often ensured thanks to the presence of a sacred element: a source of water, a mountain, a celestial stone, etc.
The temple is an image of the world which is the original abode of the all-powerful gods, so the sacredness of the world is withdrawn from that of the temple and the architecture comes to answer this reality.
The construction of a place of worship is a spatial break between the secular world from outside and the sacred world from within.
The sanctuary is the object of a meticulous regulation aiming to protect it from all defilement and sacrilegious act, that makes sure thanks to some architectural elements: threshold, door, enclosure, elevation, etc.
A series of rituals, such as purification by water, is necessary to enter the temple. Such measures are necessary for the believer to be in a state of purity to meet the Divine as well as to eliminate evil forces from the outer profane world.
The location of the temple, its shape, its symbolism and the series of religious rituals that take place within it, turn it into a center of the world and a navel from which the earth, even the universe grew.
In the paragraphs to follow, the characteristics already mentioned so high will be the subject of a deep study while being based precisely on the Canaanite Phoenician world.
3. Canaanite Phoenician Temple
3.1. The general architecture of the temple
The most primitive form of Canaanite-Phoenician temples was a simple high place standing on the top of a mountain with an altar for sacrifices, a number of standing stones and one or more trees pusher. At a later period, a more elaborate architecture of temples was built and was directly related to the religious conception and changing building techniques. A tripartite arrangement mainly distinguishes this architecture, it is a forecourt, a courtyard and a central naos. The whole is surrounded by a speaker. Some differences sometimes appear at the level of the naos which often takes the form of a covered space as in the West Temples, Staircase, Baalat Gebal, L, Oriental, Obelisks, Baal and Dagan. Sometimes the god can be symbolized by a large betyl erected in the open air as in a Byblos temple known through numismatics (Fig. 51) or housed in a small chapel-like Amrit (Fig. 35). Recent archaeological discoveries of plain Jable Sianu Tell, Tell and Tell Sukas Toueini north of Phenicia, present the specific features of the tripartite architecture.
The biblical tradition of Solomon's Temple built and designed by a Phoenician action provides guidance on the religious architecture Canaanite-Phoenician. The temple consisted of a square vestibule leading to a courtyard where the sacrificial altar was located, a large basin containing lustral water, and a cedar table for the offerings (Fig. 55). The holy of holies is a dark square room, into which one entered by a door closed by a wall hanging and where one kept the ark of alliance. Two bronze columns flanked the door.
In the light of this information, I can conclude that the prototype architectural plan of the Canaanite Phoenician temple presents the following elements:
The front yard which is where the faithful enters the temple. It is a zone of direct separation between the secular exterior and the sacred interior.
A central courtyard in which the offerings are presented equipped with several installations: altar, tables, basins, etc.
The naos containing the symbol of divinity in the form of a betyl, a small chapel or a large room of worship. This room is considered the most sacred of all the temple and only a few priests have the right to introduce it.
An enclosure determines the whole and ensures its separation from the outside. Dependencies are associated with the temple. They often extend all around.
3.2. Temple sign of divine hegemony
3.2.1. Temple of Baal
The Phoenician temples are built according to prescriptions of traditional cannons. But this construction is based in the final, according to the religious thinking of our ancestors, on a primordial revelation unveiled in ancient times the archetypal sacred space. The texts of Ugarit relate the construction of the Temple of Baal (figs 26 & 27) which although it is sovereign, has neither palace nor chapel, while the other gods, Yam, for example, have. Baal sends Asherat to plead his case before El. The goddess exalts the fact that from now on Baal will give plenty of rain and will emit his voice in the clouds. El consents and Baal charges the god builder Khotar-Hasis, to build him the temple:
"Let the house be hastily built,
May the palace be hastily built,
In the folds of Sapon
A house occupying a thousand acres,
A palace occupying ten thousand hectares"
The text of the legend continues evoking all the luxury and splendor worthy of Baal, the resident of the temple conceived as being his own house:
"[..........] Is built his dwelling,
[......... ..] is built his palace.
They bring from Lebanon his trees ,
Siryon his most precious
cedars. ... The money turned into plaques,
the gold was turned into bricks .
...
The Almighty Baal rejoices:
"You built my house in silver ,
you made my palace in gold!"
Baal arranges his home,
Haddu makes the layout of his palace".
At an advanced stage of work, Baal refuses to fill his house with windows, lest Yam enter it. He finally agrees, this opening corresponds to the opening by which the rain of Baal fertilizes the earth:
"He opens a window in the house,
An orifice in the middle of the palace,
Baal opens a breach in the clouds,
Baal makes his holy voice heard...".
The erection of a temple palace after the victory of the god against Yam, proclaims its promotion to the supreme rank. The temple represents the triumph against the evil forces and primordial chaos. It is recalled that in Mesopotamia, the gods built the temple-palace in honor of Marduk after the defeat of Tiamat and the creation of the world.
3.2.2. Note on the construction of the Baal Temple
There is no question of considering the mythical text of the construction of the Temple of Baal as a technical or descriptive record of the construction of the Canaanite temple. It must be read however, taking into consideration the poetic amplification of the fact that this temple is designed for a celestial and perfect being. Despite this reality, many characteristic features and religious realities, in relation to the construction of the temples at the time, can be deduced. I summarize them in the following:
The texts attest to the existence of several temples for the different gods, the hegemony of a god is translated by the construction of a temple whose size and wealth depend on its importance in the pantheon.
The use of a builder god for the construction of the Temple of Baal indicates that at the time an engineer or architect was needed for the construction of buildings generally and temples precisely, this architect will be the equivalent of the engineer "Project Manager" Nowadays. On the other hand, the part of the text, recounting Baal's refusal to provide for his window dwelling and then his approval, is reminiscent of a coordination between the beneficiary (Baal) and the consultant and executor (Khotar-Hasis) in the major projects. of today's construction in order to introduce the necessary amendments without affecting the labor standards and building codes.
The building materials mentioned in the text, show the importance of cedar wood from the mountains of Lebanon and Hermon in the construction of temples, as well as the role of brick. These elements were probably used in the construction of roofs, cedar branches precisely, can be used as beams supporting the weight of the ceiling and the weight of worshipers who access the roof or the terrace likely in worship ceremonies Cedar wood may be served in the same way for the doors of the temples. I emphasize that the remaining ruins of the Baal Temple in Ugarit, for example, reveal the beginning of a staircase that seems to indicate that priests had access to the temple roof for worship services.
The accumulation of terms: gold, silver, is intended to reflect the splendor and richness of the ornamentation inside the temples, it is well known that the Canaanite and even Phoenician temples did not present a grandiose architecture yet they exhibited a richness and a distinct beauty of the interior.
3.3. Temple image of the world
The religious philosophy of seeing in the temple a representation on a reduced scale or an image of the sacred world is almost common among all primitive men. They sought to establish religious building best suited to bring them closer to understanding the secrets of the universe, the world is our refuge. Behind its skies and on its mountains, the gods reside. Its water is necessary to live, its vegetation and its animals to feed and its air to breathe. By them, we build our home. Its sun scatters darkness through its rays. All that surrounds the primitive man is thus sacred to his so that every temple draws a certain sacredness to the extent that it reflects the image of the world.
The examples are diverse. The Temple of Obelisks in Byblos represents by the successive elevation of its parts, a cosmic mountain on a reduced scale. In his yard, a huge jar of earthenware served as a water reservoir was buried, and obelisks were erected representing the faithful in case of perpetual supplication before the deity placed in the naos and living a betyl. The whole is encircled by an enclosure to protect the place of sacrilege (Fig. 23). The same pattern is repeated almost everywhere in the Canaanite Phoenician temples. In Ugarit for example, the Canaanite temples of Baal and Dagan, each consists of a rectangular naos probably housing the divine symbol. In the outer courtyard is an altar. The whole is contained in an enclosure and a tower rises above the naos apparently serving the ceremonies of worship and sacrifice and representing an artificial sacred mountain (Fig. 27). The Temple of Amrit represents the world in the form of a mountain emerging from the water (Fig. 33,34). The majestic podium of the Temple of Eshmoun represents a sacred mountain and the water gushes upstream. Water is abundant in the Temple of Afqa, and a sacred forest is in its vicinity.
The schema of a Canaanite Phoenician image of the world is thus established. This temple rests on a stone foundation, indestructible material. The path of the faithful towards the interior is marked by a progressive elevation of the ground level giving it the shape of the sacred mountain. His pavement is the land. The ceiling of its outer court is the celestial vault. The god is always present. He resides in a place in a sacred chapel. The faithful surrounds him and offers him homage through sacrifices and offerings. In the case of their absence, erected stones perpetuate their presence. The water is abundant, and the vegetation is symbolized by a tree or a tree trunk. The whole is surrounded by an enclosure marking the separation between the divine world and the chaotic exterior. The introduction requires rites.
3.4. Location of the Canaanite Phoenician Temple
3.4.1. The logic of the location
The sacredness of a place seems to be prior to the installation of a cult and does not come, therefore, the special dignity of its owner. This sacredness is ensured by the presence of the elements that symbolize the divine, by its power, its beauty and its transcendence. Thus, shrines built near water sources, rivers, sacred trees or mountains, draw their sacredness from the divine energy that these elements present. Such a location represents an inexhaustible source of strength that allows a man, on the sole condition of entering, to share in that strength and to share in a sacrality that lasts as long as the elements that assured it persist. The choice of the location of the temple was not chosen so originally from the convenience, the situation or the proximity of the faithful but it was simply discovered.
3.4.2. Choice of location
The majority of the Canaanite Phoenician temples are built near a water source, on a mountain or within a city as I demonstrate in the following:
3.4.2.1. Temple on a mountain
The places of worship of the Canaanite Phoenicians often stood on the tops of the hills and mountains considered sacred, because of their proximity to the sky seat of the gods. The majority of the major cities had High Places on the surrounding heights. The High Places were the most primitive form of worship. This was so from the summit, where was built the Temple of Afqa above Byblos. In Sidon, the temples crowned the peaks of the heights that dominate the city. That of Eshmoun was on the hillside overlooking the river Al Awwali. The Phoenician inscription of Eshmounazar II from the end of the 6th century BC emphasizes the construction of the Temple of Echmoun on a mountain: "we built a temple for our Lord Echmoun in Idlal spring in the mountain".
3.4.2.2. Temple near the water
The inscription of Eshmounazar II shows the location of the Temple of Eshmoun on a mountain as well as near a source of pure water named at that time source Idlal. The water from this spring flows through canals and pools into the sanctuary and eventually pours to the Al Awali River. It is the same for the sanctuary of Afqa which was built near a source of pure water as well as a sacred wood. The monumental basin of the Temple of Amrit was established in replacement of an earlier sanctuary with a spring of water in the middle. The Byblos West Temple is located on the southern slopes of the west hill and overlooks the crater of the source. The L-shaped Temple covers the entire part of the area bordering the south bank of the sacred pond that separates it from the Temple of Baalat Gebal and surrounds with it the crater of the Byblos well (Fig. 2). The temples of Baal and Dagan are located south of the river that passes near the hill of Ras Shamra which according to its text, the god El, had a residence located at the source of rivers.
3.4.2.3. Temple within the city
It can also be noted that the sacredness of certain temples such as those of Byblos and Ugarit, also returns to their location within the city considered as a sacred space protected by an outer enclosure. These temples stood in the middle of pressed houses, often on a high point, dominating and located in the center of the city.
3.4.2.4. Temple in an inspiring place
If the location of sacred sites may be determined by the sacredness of some natural phenomena, there are cases where the location exception to this rule or away from it. Indeed, the man, always seeking the divine, was struck by the aspect of the site where he thought to find God closer: the places of solitude, for example, the inaccessible gorges or the natural sites of inspiring beauty. A number of temples built on the banks of the Adonis River between Afqa and Byblos and described by Lucien fall into this angle. It is proper to say that in his religious thought, primitive man could see that the ideal location of the temples is located anywhere inspiration that can communicate with the soul of god.
3.4.3. Summary table
The following table will summarize the ideas already seen on the location of Canaanite Phoenician temples. It will show the condition that a place had filled to be chosen as a temple site location. The choice was often for the place close to a water source or the locality spread over a mountain or within the city. The following table will show that most temples fulfil more than one of these conditions.
Temple |
Location |
Near a water source |
On a mountain |
Within a city |
Where is |
Well of Byblos |
dominating the well |
Byblos |
Baalat Gebal |
Well of Byblos |
dominating the well |
Byblos |
in L |
Well of Byblos |
near the crater of the well |
Byblos |
obelisks |
Well of Byblos |
near the crater of the well |
Byblos |
Baal and Dagan |
South of the Ugarit river |
Natural Tell of Ugarit |
Ugarit |
Amrit |
Amrit River and water source |
Dominating the river |
|
tell Arqa |
|
Arqa Hill |
Arqa |
Afqa |
Source of Afqa |
A mountain of Lebanon |
|
Eshmoun |
Source Idlal |
Sidon Hill |
|
Zarephath |
|
Hill in Sarepta |
Zarephath |
Milkashtart |
|
Hill at 20 km south Tyr |
Oum el-'Amed |
3.5. Separation between the layman and the sacred
For the religious man, is not homogeneous. There is a sacred space standing in a field loaded with divine energy which is the temple and other non-sacred or profane spaces that surround the road to the temple represents a rite of passage from the profane to the sacred, from man to deity, from spiritual death to a new form of life. It is a place of birth and access is equivalent to consecration and initiation. The physiognomy of the sacred spaces differs according to the place, but the general spirit is always the same: it is a place reserved for divinity. It is not only reserved, it is rather inviolable and one can not use it without restriction or penetrate without precaution. Consequently, the entry of the temple is frightening for the layman, to prevent him from committing a profane act by premeditation or ignorance. It must also suggest piety for the faithful in order to prepare him for the meeting of the Almighty. This is ensured by measures that man must respect by entering the temple and that the engineer must ensure by building it: are respectively, individual measures and architectural measures.
3.5.1. Individual measures
We must prepare to come into contact with the sacred. Participation in ceremonies of worship, the fulfilment of sacrifices and rites, and, in general, all contact with the divine, require priests and the faithful to be in a state of physical and moral purity. One of these demands is the cleanliness of the body, which must be cleansed of any stain by rites of purification by holy water. Shaving of the head is another likely means of purification. The priests of Melqart at Gadès took off their shoes before setting foot on a ground dedicated to the gods. Silius Italicus explains that they "are barefoot, have their heads shaved and keep celibate.". In the same temple, those who offered a sacrifice had to have access to the temple courtyard after changing their clothes. Priests, for example, "all wear altars of the same color in front of the altars." . The text of the Bible emphasizes the same tradition: "Jehu said to the guardian of the cloakroom: Take out clothes for all servants of Baal. And this man took out clothes for them." It were necessary, in fact, to avoid contaminating the sacred ground with his profane clothes. These traditions are undeniably removed from the Canaanite Phoenician in a more or less identical way.
3-5-2-Measures of architecture
The route that leads from the secular outside to the holy interior of the temple is full of movements of approaches that the faithful must cross. From the outside, the fence is high, rigid and thick so as to prevent the evil forces from entering and from within: the thresholds, doors and steps, prepare the faithful to meet the Almighty.
3-5-2-1-Threshold
The threshold symbolizes a passage between the layman and the sacred. It ensures both separation and the possibility of an alliance and reconciliation. In the Obelisk Temple of Byblos, a threshold consisting of an overturned obelisk leads to the main cella built on a podium and containing the symbol of divinity. The fact of dedicating an obelisk to mark the threshold of the most important part of the sanctuary marks the importance of threshold. Often the crossing of the threshold is accompanied by a raising of the ground level. Above the threshold often stands the door also symbolizing the place of passage between two states, between two worlds, between the known and the unknown, light and darkness. On the lower stair landing introducing Hall of Baalat Gebal, one leg of a large gate width of 3.75 m is kept east and some remains of its corresponding west. In the temple L, three doors with thresholds separate the forecourt of the court of the three chapels. A threshold with a door ensures the introduction into the isolated chapel of the central courtyard (Fig. 17): a pattern that is repeated several times within the temple.
3-5-2-2-Closure
The protective enclosure that closes the temple symbolically avoids the penetration of harmful influences. In the middle of a chaotic space, the fence assures the organized space its defence, leaving the way open to the reception of the celestial influence. The Canaanite Phoenician temples were all surrounded by fences. I present some examples:
Following its different phases of evolution, the West Temple was always surrounded by a sacred enclosure. She surrounded him with the water well primitively (Fig. 6). It was oval in the proto-urban and rectangular period after (Fig. 7).
Along isolated wall seems to be a vestige of an enclosure including the cella and the chapel of the Southwest Temple of Byblos (Fig. 8).
The Oriental Temple is surrounded by a walled enclosure of 0.95 m wide. It is almost trapezoidal in shape (Fig. 19).
The Temple of Obelisks (Fig. 21, 22) and L (Fig. 13) of Byblos has a thick enclosure. Those of Baal and Dagan in Ugarit are included in an enclosure of which one finds a part of the wall in the excavations.
3.5.2.3. Other separation measures
Other measures of separation attested in the Canaanite Phoenician temples are to be considered, I present them in the following:
The construction of the temple on a podium and the intervention of the stairs and steps in it are provisions of ritual separation largely attested in the Canaanite Phoenician temples. They will be the subject of a deep study in chapter 2 because they benefit from another symbolism relating to the ascent.
The cella of the Oriental Temple of Byblos is surrounded by a kind of ambulatory broad on average of 1.3 m used to isolate it ritually while allowing to circulate around (figure 19).
On the edge of the central chapel of the L-shaped temple, a trench 0.4 m wide, apparently without any technical necessity, cut out the arches of the old walls of the side chapels and was filled with a bed of large stones carrying a low wall very neat construction height of 20 to 40 cm (Fig. 16). This last belt the foundations of the cella without connection of the masonries. Should we see there a particular device specific to the cult and serving of ritual isolation?
Another line of defence for the temples is ensured even by the walls of the city. Indeed, before being military works, these high walls are a magic defence, since they reserve, in the middle of a chaotic space, populated by demons, an organized space, customized in the center of which rise the temples, thus benefiting from double defences.
Chapter 2
Ascension and the Sacred Tree
1. Introduction
Among all the geographical realities charged with a symbolic power, the mountain holds an eminent place. Its high summit is draped in the eternal snow to dispense the source water of life. The wind envelops it and pushes towards it a crown of clouds that seems to indicate its royalty, and the sacred tree grows on its heights. It is high, vertical, high and seems to touch the sky. The latter, being the direct manifestation of transcendence, power, and sacredness, also presents itself as a sublime reality and a divine dwelling place. A simple contemplation of the sky causes the primitive conscience a sacred and religious experience. The sky is, in fact, the place of the origin of the rain which sprinkles the fields of agriculture and feeds the rivers attracting the primitive man to settle and form the civilizations. The sun, wandering in its vault, ensures in its turn, the life on earth by contribution of energy and light.
Virtue consecrating height is clear to us in human religious thought. The Canaanite Phoenician religion is an example where the worship of the High Places, the construction of temples like the cosmic mountains, the representation of the sacred mountain by a betyl shaped on a reduced scale, the staircase or even the simple raising the ground level of the temples, participate with varying intensity, transcendence, power and sacredness. These elements, ensuring the penetration of the faithful into higher cosmic levels saturated with sacred forces, will be the subject of study of this chapter.
2. Theoretical study
2.1. Symbolism of the height
The sky symbolizes transcendence and strength because it is infinite, powerful and above all high. The simple fact of being elevated, of being at the top, is equivalent to being powerful in the religious sense of the word and to being as saturated with sacredness. The richness and variety of the symbolism of ascension is explained by the sacredness of the height, that is to say, the heavenly. Everything that happens in the upper regions of the atmosphere involved, with varying intensity, to the heavenly transcendence. The rhythmic revolution of the stars, the meteors, the pursuit of the clouds, the storms, the lightning and the rainbow, all are the image of an inexhaustible hierophany because of their approach of the higher regions saturated with sacred forces and dwellings of the gods. To the transcendent and divine character of the inaccessible, infinite and eternal sky is added its creative force represented by the rain and the sun, the source of life on earth.
2-2-Symbolism of the mountain
Dominating the world and rising to the sky, the mountain symbolizes the divine because of its position close to its celestial world. Viewed from above, the mountain is perceived as the point of a vertical located in the center of the world and joining between the earth and the sky. It is indeed the axis of the world located at its center. The mountain, made of rock, embodies the ideas of permanence and solidity in the evanescent world of matter. Green and crowned with trees and snow, it symbolizes life and regeneration. Beside the sky, the stars and the plants, the mountain is also considered as a living being part of the coherent whole of nature and participating in the great song of praise to the Creator.
Due to this sacredness, the man tried to build his places of worship in the image of the sacred mountain. In Uruk in Mesopotamia, the name of the Temple Eanna means: temple of the sky and at Nippur, the Ekur means: temple-mountain The Mesopotamian Ziggurat was, strictly speaking, an artificial cosmic mountain. The Egyptian temple represents an elevation of the earth towards the divine by a progressive rise of the ground. Likewise, the floor of the Christian church rises successively to lead the faithful to the holy of holies.
2.3. Symbolism of the rise
The ascent or climbing of the mountain, the staircase or the walk always means the transcendence of the human condition and the penetration into higher cosmic levels. Every ascent is a break in level, a passage into the beyond, an overtaking of the human condition, a way of communication that connects the bottom and the top, gradually engraving the distance that separates them. Initially, man is carnal, attached to earthly goods, the arrival connects him spiritually to the celestial world in which he is introduced.
Transcendence to the divine, by entering a sacred area on a mountain or the saint of saints of a temple built in his image is therefore concretely expressed by a passage, a climb or an ascent. Jacob dreams of a ladder whose top reached to heaven, on which the angels of God ascending and descending. St. John Climacus represents the stages of mystical perfection through his holy ladder, described as a ladder of virtues to be traveled to attain Christian perfection and union with God. The Prophet Mohammad sees a ladder rising from the Temple of Jerusalem to heaven on which the souls of the righteous ascended to God.
3. Th symbolism of the Ascension and the Sacred Tree
3.1. Lebanon Mountain and Hermon
The mountains of Lebanon and Hermon, were by their imposing masses, the majesty of their green forests, the loud voices of their torrents, the depth of their narrow and dark gorges and the revelation of their snowy peaks, at the base of the formation of the religious conception of the Canaanite Phoenician people. The Bible exalts them repeatedly: "Come to Lebanon, my beloved! The peaks of Cornat and Sannine and Hermon the den of lions and leopards ". The name Lebanon comes from a Semitic root meaning white or milk, in reference to the snow pack that covers this mountain in winter. It is a landscape more than singular in this arid and water deficit region that is the average East. The outskirts of Hermon contained so many temples that probably the whole mountain was considered a holy place, as indicated by its name even.
Nowadays, Orthodox Christians consider Hermon as the place of the transfiguration of the Lord. They celebrate each year the holiday on August 6th on its summit. In general, climbing can only be done in June after the snow has melted. The path takes two to three hours of vertical ascent on foot because the car arrives at a certain place after the village of Rachaya where it can no longer move because of the very thorny nature of the ground. On the way up, we cross the vineyard valleys, numerous springs and impressive vestiges of ancient temples. Although the evidence on the identification of this mountain to that on which the transfiguration of Jesus took place is rare,
The mountain of Lebanon and Hermon are therefore presented by their sacred peaks extending a shadow which dominates in the distance the shores of the sea and the plains where our ancestors lived mainly as the most suitable places for the erection of the primitive temples. From there, Holocaust smoke sacrifices presented on an altar mingled with the prayers of the celebrant, would have less work to do to get to the nose and ears of the deity. These primitive sanctuaries, also called the High Places, may even be built on lower and majestic hills than the mountain of Lebanon or Hermon, the essence remains in the symbolism of the height that psychologically links the hill to the high Mountain.
3.2. Worship on the High Places
3.2.1. The Canaanite Phoenician High Places
It is almost certain that the High Places were the most primitive form of Canaanite Phoenician worship. Unfortunately, archaeological discoveries in this area are rare. This is a direct result of the "vulnerability" of high places because their architecture had made them susceptible to demolition or disappear under the mass of new temples built at later times. In spite of that I can thanks to the information that I have in my hands and based on the image that gives the different High Places discovered, to draw a prototype descriptive image of High Place.
Archaeological discoveries
I present here the archaeological discoveries concerning the Canaanite Phoenician High Places, as well as some examples on those of their neighbors, since many similarities exist between the two clans:
Coins found in Tyre coming back to Roman times, reveal the appearance of the primitive High Place of the city (Fig. 52). We see two betyles or erect stones that the inscription names "divine stones." Next to it is the gnarled trunk of an olive tree, which plays the role of sacred tree. We notice a source gushing at the foot of the betyles.
In present-day Syria, at Tell Suqas, two interesting sacred buildings have been found. One of them looks like a high place. Originally, it was a simple quadrangular space can be enclosed by an enclosure, which was restored and enlarged in the IV century BC, while maintaining its appearance of local closed.
In Jordan, in Petra, by climbing dozens of stairs dug into the rock one arrives at a rocky summit where there is a platform, an altar excavated in the rocks, ablution ponds and two obelisks still standing on the ground entrance.
In Palestine at Tell es-Safi as well Tell Gezer, series of standing stones were found in two areas probably constituting two landmarks.
Tacitus relates that when Vespasian wanted to consult the oracle of Mount Carmel, he found there neither temple nor statues, but simply an altar in the open air forming, it seems with other elements a High Place. The author emphasizes that: "between Judea and Syria is Carmel; it is the name of both a mountain and a god. This god has neither statue nor temple; so the founders of his cult wanted it: he has only an altar and adoration" .
Prototype image of the High Place
The High Place stands on the top of a mountain or hill surrounded by tall trees. It is an area of beaten earth or flattened rock on which was built an altar where sacrifices would be presented. Nearby stands a number of stones called and are one or more trees. Some archaeologists tend to believe that, in the absence of the tree, it is substituted by another artificial or small pillar known as Ashera. In large high places, ablutions are added. The border is generally marked by a stone enclosure of reduced height.
3.2.2. High Places according to the Bible
The Old Testament retains many examples that mention sacrifices on High Places. The "High Places," turm is mentioned approximately 67 times in the Bible. A deep study of these primitive shrines in the light of information from the Bible shows that the first worship to have the Canaanite is the worship of High Places cult still appears as a subject of opposition and rejection in the Bible, which ensures its Canaanite identity, given the perpetual competition between Yahweh on the one hand and the Canaanite divinities on the other. The Bible accuses the Israelites of sacrificing on the High Places for several reasons:
He refers to disorders of the ancient pagan cults whose uses were retained: "They provoked Him by their High Places and moved him to jealousy with their idols'.
Because of the clandestine idolatry accompanying the worship of Yahweh: "I hate, I despise your holidays, I can not feel your assemblies".
The violation of the law of one temple: "The people sacrificed well still on the High Places, but only to the eternal, his God".
The use of High Places was considered legitimate only before the construction of the temple. Israel's sin was the construction of the High Places where the most pious of kings, like Asa, did not forbid the worship of the High Places during their reigns. Destruction of High Places by Hezekieh is seen as an act of apostasy of the Lord.
3.3. The sacred tree
The tree received a special homage in the Canaanite Phoenician religion. In the vicinity of the sanctuary of Afqa was a sacred grove. The olive tree is as a main element of the primitive High Place of Tyre and played a leading role in the legend of the founding of the city Bible mentions the cult under the trees many times, often referring to a Canaanite cult., One can read a collection of paragraphs in this sense in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
The cedar crowning the peaks of receiving the most homage among the trees and represents by its extended period of life, the eternal life privilege of the gods. Admired by the editor of the Bible, he described it by saying that "his branches were beautiful, his foliage was bushy, his stalk raised, and his crown sprang up in the middle of thick twigs. The waters had made it grow. The abyss had made it grow in height; rivers running round about his plants, and sent their channels to all the trees of the field". the centuries, cedar wood and resin were part of the tribute imposed to the Canaanite-Phoenician cities by the powerful civilizations of the region in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh , driven by the desire to perform feats worthy of the greatest heroes and to leave his name to posterity, led Enkidu on a perilous expedition that led her to the Cedar Forest on the mountain of Lebanon to challenge the guardian of the place: Humbaba and be able to cut the trees of the forest. Solomon sought King Hiram of Tyre in great numbers for the construction of his temple. To the cedars of Lebanon, are added other species of trees which also received homage and respect as the olive engraved on the coins of the High Place of Tyre as well as the oak and the cypresses which grow abundantly on the mountain of Lebanon.
By paying homage to the tree or any vegetable symbol, life is glorified in all its forms, nature in its indefatigable and fruitful work. The tree becomes a religious symbol and will be loaded with sacred forces because it manifests a reality. The tree bears fruit. It is vertical and extends to the sky, it grows, it loses its leaves and recovers an annual regeneration or even a resurrection. The tree connects the three levels of the cosmos that are the subterranean, the surface and the atmospheric environment. Its roots effectively search the hidden depths of the soil of the mother earth in which they develop. Near the surface, we find its trunk and its main branches and finally, in the atmospheric heights are swaying branches and antlers. The tree thus unites all the elements, namely the water circulating in its sap, the earth invaded by its roots, the air penetrating by its leaves and the fire gushing out of its wood.
3.4. The Ashera
Archaeological discoveries and Biblical sources meet to define an element in the form of a small wooden votive column placed near the altar in the Canaanite Phoenician temples: it is the Ashera. In the main room of the Temple of Sarepta for example, the traces of a pillar fixed in the cement of the ground, as , appear in front of the altar. Plutarch assures that, in his time, the inhabitants of Byblos still venerated a pole placed in the temple intrigues is the name of this element and its relationship with the goddess who has the same name, a problem to be studied in what
3.4.1. The relationship between the sacred tree and Ashera
We have just seen the importance of the presence of the tree in worship and to feel that its presence was, it seems, necessary to complete the pattern of sacred space where it stands, green and full of life. But, the green tree at the origin, is not eternal, it will die when the temples lasted millennia. It is therefore probable that after his death, his trunk, which assumed the appearance of a post, was piously preserved. This post is none other than the late Ashera. Another interpretation is given by Lagrange. She meets with the latter on the idea of an Ashera symbol of the sacred tree. Lagrange is based on a tradition that took place in Afqa and persists until today. This tradition or belief drives local peasants to hang shreds of clothing on a tree near where the pool of offerings once stood (Fig. 31). At the same, they ask for this or that favor. The gifts hanging on the branches of the tree are comparable to the victim or sacrifice presented to God on the altar. In a later period, with the evolution of the architecture of the temples, when the sacred enclosure became a place arranged with art, the sacred lake replaced the source and the sacred pile the trees. This stake, in the name of Ashera, had thus become the companion of the around the altar, it represents the sacred tree master of vegetation, source of all food and donor of life. These characters are indeed applicable to the mother goddess, often likened to Astarte.
3.4.2. Investigation of Ashera through mythology
The testimony of Plutarch on the worship addressed to a pole placed in the temple of Byblos, pushes me to examine the legend of Adonis, stopping precisely on the account of the tree giving birth to a god. Indeed, Myrrha, daughter of the king of Syria, struck by a curse of Aphrodite, seduced her father and joined him for eleven nights while hiding his identity. The father finally manages to know the truth and decides to kill his daughter. The gods, taken pity, hid the girl by turning her into a tree. Ten months later, the crust broke and the tree bore a child of exceptional beauty which is simply Adonis.
The worship of Adonis also bears resemblances to that of Isis and Osiris. The goddess Isis, seeking to know the location of the corpse of her husband Osiris, murdered by his brother Seth, teaches young children that the chest that contains his body, was carried by the waters to the sea, and from there at Byblos, where he had stopped, that he was resting limply on a plant which suddenly had grown a superb stem. The trunk was so wrapped up that it seemed to be one with it.
The death of Adonis and his resurrection, as revealed by the legend of Adonis, symbolize the cycle of vegetation. After the long winter nights, spring comes, and the fields are embellished with their harvest. This worship, accompanied by ceremonies celebrating his death and resurrection, was called. During these ceremonies, the faithful sowed in earthen vases fast-growing grains such as fennel, barley, wheat. These plants grew and withered in a few days because they had no roots. They symbolized the ephemeral existence of Adonis. In Isaiah condemnation of the worship that happens in gardens that are perhaps the gardens of Adonis already described. This tradition persists nowadays, it is repeated annually during the Christmas celebration and the gardens, formerly called Adonis, now decorate the nursery of the baby Jesus.
All this leads us to conclude that Adonis is the sun. He is the sap of life that makes plants flourish, a source of life for man. This theory or its equivalents in other ancient civilizations apparently continues to manifest today. In the cathedral of St. Paul in Rome for example, the four great pillars surrounding the altar are in wood and at their summits, images of the sun are engraved. Can we not see in this diagram, the roots of a cult similar to that of Adonis where the god apparently symbolized the rising sun of a tree trunk?
3.4.3. Symbolism of Ashera
The link between the deity and vegetation seems to be assured. The Ashera seems to represent the sacred tree or simply the symbolism of life and the fertility presented by the vegetation. It is clear that the vegetation generally and the tree especially did not constitute the object of a proper cult. The tree was sought as an indispensable accessory of the place of worship seen its symbolism but not as the object of the cult.
The sacred tree continues today to be an indispensable companion of Christian places of worship, there are few churches in the countryside of our region where the tree, which is often old and grandiose, is absent. In the Christian tradition, trees are the image of the terrestrial Paradise and in the religious thought of Christians, mainly the elderly of the countryside, the tree is the symbol of life and fertility.
3.5. Ascension into the Canaanite Phoenician temple
Inside the Canaanite Phoenician temple, the ground levels rise progressively as one approaches the central chapel. This provision ensures to the temple in many cases a form similar to that of the cosmic mountain, thus taking on a sacredness and acting as a link between the earth and the sky, between the faithful and the divinity. The charge of sacredness increases once the temple stands on a mountain or on a hill. I present in the following examples for further clarification:
The west temple of Byblos rises on the southern slopes of the hill overlooking the crater of the spring. In its late stage, it is formed by a cella and a room raised on a podium with a staircase that dissipates the difference in level with the main courtyard (Fig. five, 6,7).
The square cella of the Byblos Staircase Temple rests on a podium. It is accessed by a monumental staircase (Fig 9).
The building of Baalat Gebal Temple was multilevel. The highest overlooking the pond of 5.5 m is that of the cella. We descend through the ramp to the terrace of the courtyard below, to reach the natural land with a monumental staircase (Figs 10, 11).
A staircase leads to the front yard of the L-shaped Byblos Temple. An elevation of the ground level is distinguished at the thresholds of the three doors that introduce to the central courtyard. Here three cella lineup, the middle one is raised by a few steps (Fig. 13, 14, 16, 17).
A staircase connects the antechamber to the pro-cella of the Temple of Obelisks in Byblos. Another climb introduces the faithful into cella (Fig. 21, 23, 24).
Raised on a podium above the natural mound and having around reserved for sacrifices, the Baal Temple in Ras Shamra is visible from far offshore. In the epic that bears his name, Keret ascends to his summit to offer a sacrifice (Fig. 27).
In the center of the Amrit Temple, a basin is a reserved rock pedestal bearing a monumental naos of almost 4 m (Fig. 33, 34, 35). A few meters away, stands the sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyât which includes two chapels on cubic blocks of about 3 meters side. The latter is even placed on a base (Figures 36, 37, 38).
The Temple of Eshmoun built in the mountain according to the inscription of Eshmounazar II rose on a hill. The oldest building of the sanctuary was the first podium in four sloping walls. After its collapse, it was replaced by a new podium of 60 x 40.6 m surface and 25 m high. The two podiums apparently represented two majestic artificial cosmic mountains on which buildings and worship ceremonies probably took place (Figure 39).
The Afqa Temple stood on a monumental podium (Fig. 30).
The two temples at Oum el-'Amed dominated the coastal plain, as they rose on two podiums placed on a hill. The cella is accessed by stairs (Fig. 45).
I venture to say on the basis of the idea of the ascent of the Canaanite Phoenician temples that, symbolically, every temple is a sacred mountain and every sacred mountain carries a temple. This saying is based on the fact that each of the temples already seen is distinguished by at least one of the following three characteristics:
Built in the image of the cosmic mountain.
Having a ground level that rises gradually.
Built on a mountain.
The human soul operates through this temple architecture an ascent to the divine heavenly being. This ascent is a rupture of level, a passage in the beyond, a transcendence of the profane space and the human condition because of the approach of the Heaven seat of the divinity and symbol of transcendence.
Chapter 3
Sacred Water.
1. Introduction
Our earthly life is in the wake of water, which is one of the essential elements for the survival of all living species. Fruits, vegetables, plants and animals are all water, and the human body is up to 70%. Water is the amniotic fluid that bathes the human fetus before birth and the homonymous sea-mother is certainly not a mere coincidence. This material encompasses two-thirds of the Earth's surface and gives it its color hence its name of "blue planet."
Water symbolizes the primordial substance which arises against all the forms and where they return. It carries with it, the memory of the world and the secret of the Gods. From germinal and fertilizing water to baptismal or lustral water, through the miraculous, therapeutic, diluvial and purifying water, water, the nectar of eternity, continues to present itself for the human spirit through place and time, as a sign of fertility, purity, wisdom and grace.
The principle of life on earth, water could not fail to appear one of the most wonderful manifestations of the ancient world so that the first sedentary men settled in the regions that are rich. In Byblos, for example, the water well was the center of life for a community that settled around 5,300 years ago. The mountains of Lebanon and Hermon, representing water towers in an arid region, receive a large volume of precipitation which is found sooner or later in the surface waters in the aspect of rivers (Al-Awali, Amrit) and underground groundwaters that form water in the form of sources (Byblos). As a result, the fertile and irrigated Canaanite Phoenician coast constituted with other fertile places of the Ancient Near East, the birthplace of urban life and the cradle of humanity, which preludes to the formation of a religious conception strongly influenced by the sacredness of water. This design will be the subject to discuss in this chapter.
2. Theoretical study
The symbolism of water can take several directions that intersect in many points as follows:
2.1. Fertilizing water
It seems quite natural that the gardener, fruit-gatherer or root-gatherer, has noticed, since the emergence of the human species, the connection between the rain, the monsoon and the watering on the one hand and the luxuriance of the vegetation and the abundance of game on the other hand. Because of this, since its appearance, its displacements then its implantation have been conditioned by its possibilities of water supply. It sheltered mainly near the rivers which also allowed him to feed himself while practising the fishing. This applies essentially to the individual as well as to primitive societies in the beginning, then to great civilizations after their formation. Indeed, the most powerful ancient civilizations developed near great rivers like the Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris.
2.2. Medical water
Germinal and fertilizing water is at the base of life on the earth. The first donor of life, she can prolong and save her. The water flows, it is bright, clear, limpid, it inspires, it heals. In this religious multivalency water is, in history, a number of cults and rituals concentrated around the springs, rivers and streams. The Temple of Eshmoun near Sidon is an example. In themselves, the source and the river manifest power, life and durability. They incessantly reveal the sacred force of their own. Even today, the virtues of healing water are universal and fountains of youth continue to manifest themselves in many miraculous sources that still exist around the world.
2.3. The diluvial water
The deluge, myth spread in many cultures, usually consists of catastrophic rains and consecutive floods that exterminated men and animals except for one pair of species that would repopulate the land afterwards. The traditions of the flood almost relate all to the idea of resorption of humanity in the water and to the institution of a new era, with a new humanity: An era is abolished by the catastrophe, and a new era begins. "Human life appears as a fragile thing that must be reabsorbed periodically because the fate of all forms is to dissolve in order to reappear. If the forms were not regenerated by their periodic reabsorption in the waters, they would crumble, exhaust their creative possibilities and become extinct".
2.4. Purifying water
Meditation of the archetype of the fertilizing water aroused lineal ritual symbols of regeneration and water purification. We can not file the ideal of purity anywhere, in any matter because however powerful the rites of purification may be, it is natural that they turn to a matter that can symbolize them. It's water so you have to resort. Immersion in pure water fertilizes and increases the potential for life and creation. In the water, carrying the memory of the deluge, "everything dissolves, all form is disintegrated, all history is abolished, nothing that has existed before remains after immersion in water, no profile, no sign, no event". Baptism is an excellent example of this symbolism. The disappearance of being in the water is a return to primordial nothingness, the emergence reveals the appearance of being of grace, purified, connected to a divine source of new life and cleansed of its history.
3. Symbolism of water among Canaanite Phoenicians
3.1. All roads lead to the well
Springs sprouting from the ground, streams and rivers have attracted man's attention since ancient times. He came to settle in their neighborhoods considered as sacred and saturated by the divine presence. The Byblos well, for example, presented itself as the center of the daily life of the inhabitants from the proto-urban period (Fig. 3,4). All the paths went towards him so that the site presented the sketch of a plane of the radiating type (Fig. 1). A primitive sanctuary was erected on the southern slopes of the hill overlooking the crater of this well and a sacred enclosure seems to surround it. Excavations have shown that the well was also inside the enclosure so as to form with a religious sanctuary complex. This arrangement shows the sacredness of the well and the preponderant role it played in the ceremonies of worship (Fig. 5,6).
With the era of urban organization 3200 to 2700 BC. JC, the neighborhoods were distributed around the well. Each was separated from the other by radiant streets that completed the appearance of a spider star. A temple called West, surrounded by an oval enclosure, replaced the original sanctuary. The well separated the West Temple from a certain pond that appears to have occurred on the site of a triangular natural depression that existed before any human settlement in the center of the Byblos site. This marshy bottom collecting the waters of the 2 hills formed a reservoir of water, at least for part of the year. He was later a priest, dug, surrounded by regularized banks and surrounded by wharves that isolate him from the source. The religious situation made two temples built on the banks of this sacred pond were to concentrate the piety of the faithful late, which resulted in its incorporation into worship: it is the Temple of Baalat Gebal and Temple in L.
With the flourishing of urban life, from 2700 BC. JC, the water point remained the center of daily life (Figure 2). Nearby, on sites inherited from the past, ordered the civil and religious constructions.Rites within the temples mingled with the daily rhythm of women or men coming and going to draw water from the well to form a cult figure based on the sacredness of water: the drink that quenches, the mood that fecundates the earth and the cure for certain diseases.
3.2. Rites of purification
Participation in worship ceremonies and all contact with the divine, require priests and faithful to be in a state of physical and moral purity. The first of these requirements affects the cleanliness of the body that must be washed from all stain through the water purifier and whose regenerative effect is well known.Water often intervenes in the course of a cult as a vector of purity and spirituality. In the texts of Ras Shamra, we notice that Keret, before presenting his sacrifices, proceeded to ablutions. Another text says that the king, who assumes the role of priest in sacrifices, washes in order to be pure. It is not known what forms these ablutions took, but a glance at the volume of ponds or reservoirs to hold the water of worship in the temples may throw more light on this subject. In the case of large and deep basins for example, as in the Temples of Eshmoun and Amrit one tends to think that priests and faithful could be restricted to a complete bath, while in other temples with a presence of reduced water, they were probably content with a partial washing of the body, limited, for example, to the feet and to the head.
The totality of temples excavated reveals the presence of water stored in basins, jars or reservoirs in their breasts, or the existence of springs or rivers in their neighborhoods. I present in the following some examples:
The auxiliary chamber of the central courtyard of the L-shaped Temple has four large terracotta basins containing the water needed for ablutions. They are embedded in a 0.5m long, 6m high, 1m wide masonry bench (Fig. 18). In the north-west corner, a rectangular basin is built of masonry 2.2 x 3.3 m² with a higher floor than the floor of hall.
The large courtyard of the Temple of the Obelisks includes a cylindrical well and a huge earthenware jar buried with a capacity of 675 liters.
The eastern courtyard of the Temple of Tell Arqa is flanked by two rooms each with basins covered with clay.
Finally, it should be emphasized that water has accompanied the Canaanite Phoenician temple from its most primitive form. The coins found at Tyre reveal the presence of a source of water in the High Place of the city (Fig. 52).
3.3. Medical water
Several temples in Phoenicia, of which I show three in the paragraphs to follow, presented water-based healing cults and under the blessing of a healing divinity identified with Eshmoun. This healing god of Phoenicia, often in relation to the figure of the serpent, has probably given to the medical art of today its symbol: two serpents wrapped around a stick.
1. Temple of Eshmoun at Sidon (Fig 39)
The temple had an elaborate system of basins and water channels that linked the Al-Awwali River near which the sanctuary is located and a source of water named at that time: the Idlal spring. The water apparently was used for ritual ablutions and purification as well as for therapeutic rituals.The Epic of Keret comes to assert this role because it is to Eshmoun, that the princess Shitmanat sent her prayers so that the god El heals her father Keret. The story related to it tells us that God heard his prayers.
The Sidonians who wanted to put their sons under the protection of the god Eshmoun offered him marble statues representing children (figure 40). The votive inscriptions on the bases of the statues provide proof of this interpretation. All written in Phoenician, they begin with an invocation to the god Eshmoun at the source Idlal. Then they indicate the name of the dedicant and that of his son and end with the constant formula "that he bless or protect". The statues thus probably represented sick children aspiring to a cure. BaalChillem was one of them and can be read on one of the bases the following inscription: "This statue was dedicated by BaalChillem, son of King Banaa king of Sidon , son of King Baalshillen king of Sidon, to his god Eshmoun to near the source Ydlal.qui'il receives its blessing " .
Just as nowadays, Christians organize pilgrimages to sacred water-related places , the sick of Sidon and the neighborhood went to the temple and bathed in its basins. Among them is the pool of Astarte identified by the empty throne, known as the throne of Astarte, placed at the bottom of the niche below a hunting frieze (Fig. 41). In the initial state of the pool, the throne emerged from the water. Urns found in this pool are reminiscent of an idea of fertilizing and nourishing water that the faithful came to draw.
2. Temple of Amrit (Fig. 33)
The monumental basin of the Temple of Amrit was established as a replacement for an earlier sanctuary from which a spring gushed in its center. Excavations revealed particularly in front of the naos, innumerable fragments of globular form of crushets. This discovery gave the basin an intense life, that of the crowd of the faithful coming, at least on certain days, all along its northern side, to settle, to collect and to draw the water in the jugs. The deities in honor in this temple were Melqart-Heracles and Eshmoun, all of the gods healers.The water of the temple thus had a therapeutic role based on baths and lustrations in addition to its purifying and regenerative role.
3. The sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyat (Fig. 36)
The sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyat located 50 m south-east of the Temple of Amrit, includes two chapels of Egyptian style, with an architrave decorated with a row of uraeus and a solar disk. The chapels are located inside an enclosure in which is, as in Amrit, a small pond.The snake, called here by uraeis and even the name of the temple (source of snakes), believed it, sheds its skin becomes young and never dies.Hence the therapeutic role of the sanctuary in parallel with its purifying role.
These examples attest to the role of water as healing and therapeutic. In the water lies life, vigor and eternity. The pure and non-profane water concentrates in it the germinal and creative valences of the primordial water. It heals, because in a certain sense it redoes creation. The ceremonies of immersion in water project the sick into the mythical time of the creation of the world. They die and are reborn purified and renewed.
3.4. Regeneration of the gods by water
Near the well of Byblos which provided the food of the city and which persists until today to the site, Isis, the Egyptian goddess, remains a long time waiting to know the location of the corpse of her husband Osiris, assassinated by her brother Seth. The importance of this legend whose most recent version was transmitted to us by Plutarch, is seen in the link between the water source of Byblos and the width of view that the Egyptian goddess got near her. Indeed, the goddess, overwhelmed by her sadness, went down to the well to seek the truth from the water. She got what she was following, and was getting women to draw water from the spring, the information she was looking for. Leaving the well with its deep waters, Isis was no longer the same, her spirit was purified and she acquired a breadth of vision and knowledge that made her able to accurately determine the position of the corpse. Osiris. The latter was engulfed in the sacred tree and stood in the royal palace like a pole that supported the roof.
Taking into consideration the image of the pit where the well is located at Byblos , which is connected by its depth of 22 m to the idea that our ancestors bore from the hells located in the depths of the earth (Fig. 3,4 , 5), we remember the myth of the descent from Ishtar to the infernal world in Mesopotamia in search of her husband where the goddess had to be sprinkled with "brandy", to be able to come back to life. The myth emphasizes that, stripped of her clothes and her powers, Ishtar succumbed before the goddess of the infernal world and died. She was saved, however, thanks to Ea, god of wisdom. Ishtar was sprinkled with brandy, reborn and released. Back through the gates of hell, she obtained her clothes in an order reflecting that of removal until it returned to Heaven. In a schema that marks more than one point in common with the legend of the descent from Ishtar to hell, Isis, descending to the well of Byblos in search of her husband disguised herself as a local woman to investigate without being known. Returning from the chasm, Isis, kept in his purified mind the secret of the location of the corpse of Osiris.
In the same way, the brandy purifies and regenerates by immersion the statues of divinities in the ancient world. Thus, the bath of Aphrodite or Ishtar was known among the Phoenicians of Paphos. Speaking of the goddess, Homer explains that "in the city of Paphos it has a sacred wood and altars laden with perfumes. There the Graces hasten to bathe this goddess and to pour on her a divine oil which enhances the charms of the eternal gods, then they cover her with sumptuous clothes: Venus thus adorned is admirable to see ".
The regeneration of the gods or statues in water clearly implies a great respect for the power of water that dissolves all forms and abolishes all history by creating a new being, purified and holy.
3.5. The water cult
The Temple of Afqa Byblos located at a walking day on the mountains of Lebanon included a pool fed by a spring, which are still visible the remains and pipes for lustrations related to the worship.This worship was addressed to the waters and the faithful presented offerings at the source. The offerings were one of the means of prayer and supplication of the gods in ancient religions. The believer expected to see a concrete sign of divinity whether the offering is accepted or not.A Zozime text can serve us here:
" Aphaca is a place between Heliopolis and Byblos . Near the temple of Venus is a lake similar to a cistern. At certain assemblies that are done there in due time, we see in these places a fire in the shape of a globe or a lamp, and this fire has been seen until our time, that is to say until the year of Jesus -Christ 400.) One throws in the lake presents for the goddess: it does not matter what kind they are. If she receives them, they go to the bottom; if she does not receive them, they float, even if it is money or gold . The year before the ruins of Palmyra , their present went to the bottom, but the following year all floated ".
This cult of water, rivers, springs and lakes existed in the ancient world.The act of throwing a coin into water sources all around the world to make a wish or to bring good luck is probably an evolution of this cult, even if we have lost some of the sense. Even today, and still in Afqa, the people around us still come to tie rags to a fig tree near the canal at the orifice from which they suspend tissues (Fig. 29,30). This tradition can be understood also as the evolution of the rite of the presentation of the offerings to the source practiced in antiquity.
another example of the veneration of the waters comes from the treaty of alliance signed by the general Carthaginian descendant of the Phoenicians, and the representatives of Philip V of Macedonia where the waters are invoked with the other gods of Carthage as guarantee of oath. The text says, "in the presence of the gods mingled with the shipment, the sun, moon and earth in the presence of rivers, meadows and water in the presence of all the gods who watch over Carthage".
The examples already seen open the way to the veneration of the water sources in the Phoenician world as representing the divinity by the sacred force that they unceasingly reveal. The source always manifests power, durability and even divinity. It is the principle of life for plants and all living beings and the instrument of purification and regeneration which could not fail to appear as one of the most wonderful manifestations of the religious world. One lives there the action of a higher power, a divine work but sometimes can be, the divinity itself.
3.6. The source water of life
One of the beliefs shared by most myths of the ancient world is the relationship between water and the spirit or divine energy. The legend explains this fact in several ways, but all return to show a rigid link between water and different deities or super-natural forces that created the world.
3.6.1. The role of water in the legend of Adonis
Lucien says that every year the water of the Adonis river changes into blood and, having lost its natural color, it spreads into the sea, of which it blushes a considerable part, which indicates to the inhabitants of Byblos the moment of to mourn. Now it is said that in those same days Adonis is wounded and killed on Lebanon by a boar, that his blood changes the color of the water. Aphrodite distraught by the death of god lover, manages to do resurrect the dead, but only for a period of a few months of the year and the cycle is repeated again annually.
To better grasp the foundation of this theological doctrine, one would have to start from the reality, so to speak, of everyday life, as it could be perceived by the Phoenicians. Indeed, the legend of Adonis is attached to the agrarian cults in Phoenicia. Originally, it was a cult of nature based on soil fertility. The death of the god represents the winter where the earth is veiled with clouds, deprived of sun and plunged into numbness. The fountains flow abundantly and the spoils of their ornaments, offer only a lamentable appearance. In their current, the rivers carry the earth. The water mixed with the earth represents the stain, it is the water of the swamps near which lives the wild boar, the adversary of the man and the animal which caused the death of Adonis. This god is thus linked to the sun and its lights that almost disappear in this period of the year and with his disappearance Adonis is dead. The water needs to subside so that the land can once again enjoy peace and flourish and Adonis come back to life. The resurrection of Adonis represents a new cycle of the sun and in the long term the arrival of spring, where the fields are embellished with their harvests, the meadows of their grasses and the trees of their foliage.Water is therefore a purifying, diluvial element carrying the seeds of life. The blood of Adonis mingled with water could mean the return to the fluid element, mother of nature.
3.6.2. The role of water in the myth of the confrontation between Baal and Yam
The myth of the confrontation between Baal and Yam in the texts of Ras Shamra presents water as the primordial matter that preludes all creations and from which, all forms were born. The time of myth came back to creation, when the gods decided to share the world, the land had until now neither lord nor master and two gods conspired to have this honor: one was Baal god of air and rain; the other was Yam, the dragon who reigned over the waters of the sea. Baal claimed the land because he held in his hands the source of the life of every living species that is rain. Yam pretended the same. The discussions did not reach ends, the two gods ran to El to resolve the conflict. The latter declared that the land belongs to Yam. Baal did not give in and, helped by 'Anat, he faced Yam and triumphed. The significance of the fight reflects the vital role of water for agriculture. Baal's victory points to the triumph of rain against the sea and groundwater. The rain rhythm, representing the cosmic norm, replaces the chaotic and sterile immensity of the sea and catastrophic floods..In the myth of the confrontation between Baal and Word, the god Baal dies under the teeth of Word, just like the grain in winters, and periodically resurrects. It is a personification of the agrarian cycle that shows depending on the organization of the world and getting the rain.
3.6.3. Comparison with the role of water in Ancient Near East mythology
The Canaanite Phoenician legends, already seen, have much in common with the cosmogonies of Egypt and Mesopotamia where the chaotic water containing in essence a divine energy, prelude to the organization of a new world.
In Egypt, nature offered early settlements on the banks of the Nile a show of islands of mud emerging from the waters of the river. An idea must be inserted and remain in the minds of these men; the one who considers that all that the world contains is solid and animated, the earth like all forms of life has, one day, emerged from the waters. This surely explains the most common image in the Egyptian cosmogony, that of a mound of mud emerging from the waters and carrying the first sign of animation. It is the demiurge or the organizer of the world emerging each year from the Nile. The Babylonian cosmogony also knows the primordial ocean, Apsu and Tiamat; the first personifies the freshwater ocean on which the land will later float. The famous epic of the creation Enuma Elish relates this legend. consecutive floods that exterminated men and animals with the exception of a single pair of species that would repopulate the land afterwards.An era is abolished by catastrophe and a new era begins.
3.6.4. Conclusion
The Canaanite Phoenician mythological texts, just like the cosmogonies of the ancient Near East, show directly (the myth of the confrontation between Baal and Yam.) Or indirectly (the legend of Adonis.) The preponderant role that water plays in water. organization of the world. These myths in relation to the water of the rain, springs or even of the sea amount to saying that the water in general, charged with a divine energy and a creative power, prelude to the birth or the organization of a new world and the formation of life on earth.
3.7. Provocation of divine rain
The traces of the symbolism of water as a divine work continue to manifest today in the Lebanese folk tradition. The Lebanese today speak of "Baal Land" to designate cultivated and non-irrigated land using human labor, attributing to Baal, the Phoenician god of the storm and the rain, without the namely, the task of irrigating this land. The Ras Shamra texts state that Baal sends rain to water and fertilize the earth through the windows of his heavenly abode symbolizing the opening in the clouds.
During the "adonies" which annually celebrated the death of Adonis and his resurrection, the faithful sowed in earthen vases fast-growing grains such as fennel, barley, wheat. These plants grew and withered in a few days because they had no roots. The ceremony was intended to encourage the growth or renewal of vegetation. The principle that was expected was that of imitative magic for the provocation of fertility and rain. Indeed, the rapid germination of wheat and barley in the gardens of Adonis was intended to raise the grain and the swallowing of these gardens in the waters were intended to obtain a satisfactory amount of fertilizing rain in the period who succeeds.
Another testimony of the phenomenon of sympathetic magic was practiced in Tyre in remote periods of history and persisted until the end of the 18th century. Every year, in October, the water of the Ras el-'Aïn well becomes muddy, to the point where it is no longer possible to make any use of it. It is remedied by throwing five or six jugs of sea water, which clarify the source in less than two hours. The date of the ceremony in October is very characteristic: it is the moment when the sources are impoverished, where the cisterns contain nothing more than mud and where everybody desires and asks the rain. Throwing sea water in a muddy source is a symbolic act of sympathetic magic, intended to bring rain by imitating. and Pausanias describe similar rites with the same purpose of provoking rain.
Chapter 4
The Sacred Stone
1. Introduction
The religious thought of the primitives found in the stone the strength and the mystery which strike the human spirit by its solidity, hardness and majesty. From the beginning of time, even before the existence of our species, the stone exists and it still exists. The man clashes in his daily life by his body as well as by his eyes. He finds his hardness and power, and uses it to survive and adapt in a primitive and wild world. The stone is therefore considered, as one of the first materials used by man, he uses it for hunting mainly then for construction and agriculture and for other worship purposes. As a result, the stone is linked to the sedentarisation of the peoples and ensures the transition of the man from the state of hunter-gatherer to the state of the farmer breeder.
Given the decisive presence of the stone in the life of man, it was normal for him to grant him a religious dimension by considering it as coming from another world more sublime and transcendent that is the divine world. As a result, the stone has different uses and religious meanings and comes in various forms and forms: cones, columns, obelisks. In this chapter, I will study deeply these meanings and representations of the stone to clarify its symbolism in the Canaanite Phoenician world mainly while using several examples from the ancient world.
2. Theoretical and historical study
2.1. The transcendence of the stone
Man felt, from the beginning of time, a deep need to have near him, the deity he felt his existence by contemplating the strength and power of the universe formed mainly by stone. This material characterized by harshness, roughness, and permanence is seen as a symbol of durability and eternity in the face of changes in the biological world, permanently subject to the laws of birth and death. The stone, revealing for man something that transcends the precariousness of his human condition, channels his thought towards an absolute mode of being, a divine world. A cult is established, therefore, addressing the symbolism of the stone more than stone even being considered as a physical matter. The stone is therefore the.
2.2. Historical overview of the cult of stone
The cult of stone has accompanied the peoples in their steps towards civilization. We trace the dawn of humanity with the first witness of cut stone tools, it is the Paleolithic period. The evolution of human thought is linked to its mastery of the use of stone, which constitutes the first concretisation of the creative rhythm of man. The stone played a primordial role in many rituals related to the religious thought of man in the lithic periods of history. This use does not stop even in much more recent times, especially in religious rites. In a tomb of the 6th Dynasty at Sakkarah, for example, when the Egyptians had mastered the use of metals, we can see in a fresco the unfolding of a circumcision in which,.In Mesopotamia, two chains, each containing fourteen stones, were attributed to Naram-Sin, the famous Akkadian conqueror, and to Hammurabi, the editor of the famous law named after his name. Although the role of these channels remains unknown, it is believed possessed magical powers from their essence.On the way to Mesopotamia, Jacob, the head lying on a stone, was in a dream the revelation of the fate reserved by the power of God to his descendants.He then erected this stone as a monument. He poured oil on his top. He called this place Bethel.
Many traditions mention stones fallen from the sky or meteorites. The Cybele of Pessinonte is an example. In Greece, the god Hermes takes its name from the "hermai". These are stones placed along the roads which meant a presence, embodied a force, protected and fertilized. They are elongated in column and surmounted by a head. We live in stone, the house of the god as we live in the human body, the home of the soul. Remain in Greece to point out that the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi contained an ovular-shaped stone considered the navel of the world or the omphalos which represented the spiritual center of all ancient Greece. Nowadays, Catholics continue to erect stone statues representing Christ and the saints, and in Mecca, the black stone, the Kaaba, receives for centuries the homage of the Muslims.
In the Semitic world in general and Canaanite Phoenician in particular, the holy and sacred stones were considered as the place where the deity dwells and resides and was called betyl. The betyl stands in the center of the temple located in the center of the world. It is conical and evokes the celestial mountain under a reduced scale. If this scale is reduced in Phoenicia, it is great in Mesopotamia where ziggurats were built imitating the mountain and aiming to touch the sky. The idea of the sacredness of the stones as well as their role and their symbolism in the religious conception of the Canaanite Phoenician temples will be studied in detail in the rest of this chapter.
3. Symbolism of the stone in the Canaanite Phoenician temples
3.1. Temple built by stone
The temple is the house of God. It serves to glorify its legitimacy and show its power. Just like the man, God needs a house to lead the world and lead a quiet life. This house must be eternal, in the image of its occupant, otherwise, its destruction deposits the world in danger and chaos may prevail there. From this comes the need to build the temple according to the standards most likely to grant him the most consolidation and rigidity. This ensures high construction techniques as well as the use of materials with excellent physical qualities. Nothing meets these standards of hardness and permanence as the stone present abundantly in our region.
The mountain of Lebanon and the Hermon, made of rock, incarnate in the religious thought of Canaanite Phoenicians the ideas of permanence and solidity in the evanescent world of matter. The temples, to gain the rigidity and the image of the mountains, must all be built like them using the same rocky material. It is necessary to determine therefore, the nature of the material constituting these mountains to use it in the construction of the temples. Now Phoenician coast is a coastal plain between sea and mountains, and discontinuous narrow, it fits to the bottom of the bays, bordered by a bead rollers which are essentially formed of calcareous dolomites. These limestone rocks are found everywhere on the surface of the soil, otherwise they are found at a very shallow depth, under the thin layer of topsoil which has deposited in the bottom of the valleys, at the foot of the cliffs and on the least fast slopes down to the shore.
3.2. Temple carved in the rock
One of the most pragmatic ideas of our ancestors had to be cutting and using live rock on site. This is possible thanks to the calcareous nature of rocks of rather modest physical quality in comparison with marble and sandstone that do not meet in the region. A curious text by Stephen of Byzantium shows that even in antiquity these habits of the Phoenicians had been remarked: "When the Phoenicians began to settle in numbers on these rocky shores where the richness of the purple attracted them, houses were built there, and ditches surrounded them; in this work where they carved the rock, they pull the walls of their cities with the stones so they took off, and in this way they put away their ports protected by jetties ". This theory can be verified in the Temple of Amrit, where the vast central courtyard was carved in the living rock, in the middle of which was reserved a block, which adheres to the ground by its base, on which a small tabernacle had been built. .
3.3. The ceiling of the temple
The rock is essentially the infrastructure of Canaanite Phoenician temples; Above the ground, the walls break off abruptly and the stone elevation rarely reaches more than one meter. In Byblos, the walls of the West Temples, in L, Baalat and Obelisks, in their different stages of construction and evolution, are often built in two rocky stone facings with internal filling of small stones or shine. On the other hand, I point out that the thickness of the ash stratum and calcinations of the facings above the soil levels is remarkable in almost the majority of Byblos temples burned during the amorphous invasion. The ashes attest to the absence of calcined raw earth bricks which confirms that the superstructures were established in perishable materials, wood probablement , the Canaanite-Phoenician in fact, does not seem to have made use of the artificial stone at least to the Roman period.
3.4. Using stone columns
Only a few fragments of stone columns are found in the ruins of the excavated temples, and these fragments are of small dimensions, which leads us to conclude that the columns were scarcely used in the temples except as ornamental motifs for precise symbolism. They were therefore not used to carry upper parts of the building and if they are sometimes used to support the ceiling of the porch of the courtyard of the Temple of Amrit for example, they are reduced in size compared to those of Egypt, Persia or Greece. Most of the temples were apparently open-air like the Temple of Amrit with the celestial vault as a ceiling, or with ceilings made up of perishable materials of reduced dimensions, such as the cellas of the Byblos temples and Ugarit.
The temple with slender columns seems to have been used only at a late time and under the Greek or Roman influence. In the central chapel of the Temple in L, one can notice circular flat stones posed on the masonry infrastructure. There are eight, seven parietal and one central. The latter is one meter wide and may have served as a support for the symbol of divinity. The other seven in number, arranged face-to-face, apparently served foot wooden barrel that the stones used bases. These wooden posts supported the superstructure formed by perishable materials and which probably served for the protection of the symbol of divinity. A structure that is likely to be withdrawn from the majority of other Canaanite Phoenician temples (Figure 15).
3.5. Pair of columns standing in front of the temple
3.5.1. Temple with a pair of columns
The pair of isolated columns playing no role of structure, particularizes many of the Phoenician temples. I quote in the following, the monuments of which we have clues asserting this particularity:
- The Temple of Melqart at Tyre described by Herodotus possessed two famous columns without structural need, one of fine gold, and the other of emerald.
- The Temple of Astarte at Sidon and Byblos an ancient temple incised on coins of the Roman period (Fig. 51), are both flanked by two columns to their inputs.
- In the basin of the sanctuary of Amrit, two large cubes of stone with departure of engaged columns, are symmetrically arranged in front and on both sides of the naos.
- This characteristic has even spread in the colonies of the West and the regions where the Phoenician influence was exerted, for example I underline:
- The Paphos Temple, depicted on different coins, is characterized by two very tall columns, which rose high above the columns of the porticoes (Fig. 54).
- The shrine of Melqart to Gades had two columns that the faithful, according to Strabo, regarded as marking the very edge of the earth and the sea.
- The two columns at the entrance to the Temple of Solomon considered built by the Phoenician workforce.
3.5.2. Interpretation
3.5.2.1. Do the columns represent god?
Can one attribute the golden column of the Temple of Melqart to Tyre, described by Herodotus and having the color of fire, to the god Melqart, considering it the equivalent of Baal, god of thunderbolts and lightning?
The positive answer to this question requires more proof and it is necessary to be careful not to consider any kind of pillar as an incorporation of divinity. Herodotus gives no such idols as these two columns, much less as the idol of the temple. The historian ranks them clearly among the ex-voto.Philo of Byblos tells us that, at the beginning of Tyre, Ousoos, one of the two founding brothers of the city, dedicated two pillars to the Fire and the Wind, venerated them and poured upon them libations of the blood of animals that he was hunting. In the same sense I can say that the two columns of Solomon's Temple (Ouakin and Boaz), preceding the monumental entrance of the temple and supporting nothing do not represent Yahweh. The biblical text emphasizes the purity of the decoration , making sure to highlight the absence of any idolatrous representation, according prohibited.Even one can not speak here of supports for the idols because the approval of such a theory asks for other indices and arguments not available.
3.5.2.2. Symbolism of the columns
The erection in front of or even inside a temple of two columns not playing any functional role, probably reveals a tradition strongly rooted in Antiquity and which has different probable symbolisms:
The passage :
The legend of the confrontation between Baal and Mot in the writings of Ras Shamra tells us that Baal sent messengers to Word reigning over the lower world. To get there, they have to turn first to the two mountains that mark the limits of the world.The shrine of Melqart to Gades had two columns that the faithful, according to Strabo, regarded as marking the very edge of the earth and the sea.
Can we therefore conclude that the passage between the earth and the sky secures thanks to two mountains, symbolized by two columns in the temple so that these columns symbolize a passage between the profane and the sacred?
Solar Symbolism:
In Egypt, the obelisks erected in pairs on both sides of the entrances to the temples were born of the predynastic worship of a miraculous erect stone, on which the sun rose when it rose. These obelisks recall by their vertical lines and sparking their golden pyramidion, solar worship that gave birth.In the same sense, the Bible sometimes mentions Canaanite cults by linking them to a cult where idols were dedicated to the sun. The threats against this cult come from God even "I will destroy your High Places, I will destroy your statues dedicated to the sun" . To regard the two columns as related to a solar cult is an interpretation that goes well with Herodotus' description of one of the columns of the Temple of Melqart at Tyre, which is described as having a golden color which is none other than the color of the brilliant sun.
Phallic representation:
Lucien asserts that Dionysus had erected in the Temple of Atargatis at Hierarpolis two phallic columns more than fifty-five meters high, with this inscription: these phalluses were raised by me, Dionysus, in honor of Juno, my beautiful mother ".Can we see in the Phoenician columns a phallic representation symbolizing the masculine power of the divine?
3.5.3. Conclusion
The interpretations are numerous, but it is necessary to notice the relation between the solar symbolism, the idea of columns delimiting the world and the symbolism of passage. In addition to this remark, two facts that fall in the same direction must be taken into consideration:
The majority, and not all of course, of the Canaanite Phoenician temples have a gateway to the east.
The temple is considered as an image of the world. A world where the sun is introduced every day to disperse darkness through its rays.
Based on these facts I allow myself to present a probable descriptive schema between the columns in the daily cycle of nature and even rituals of the temple: Piercing the clouds of its rays, the eminent representative of the heavenly spirituality, the Sun. enters the world each morning through a kind of passage situated to the east, sandwiched between two mountains. Its rays penetrate likewise to the temple, image of the world, through two columns symbolizing the passage between darkness and light, the profane and the sacred. This scheme always requires more information for its validity to be attested.
3.6. Temple emerging from the ground
The Canaanite Phoenician temple emerges, like the mountain of Lebanon and Hermon, from the earth and draws its solidity from this fact. It rests on a solid foundation of stone that is sometimes a rocky terrain simply incised and prepared in the ground. The infrastructure extends its foundations into the ground above which the walls break abruptly and the stone elevation rarely reaches more than one meter with a ceiling that is built of perishable materials. With these characteristics, the temple merges with the soul of the earth and forms with it only one entity thus drawing stability, balance and solidity.
3.7. betyl
3.7.1. What is a betyl?
The name Betyl means in Semitic language: the house of God. It is a sacred stone of variable form which considers itself as the emblem of the deity and the receptacle of its strength. Whatever the recognized god in the betyl, this stone represented only a sign, a house, a theophany. Divinity manifests itself through the stone and is not the same stone. The sacred stone, impregnated and animated by a special virtue, has never been loved that since he manifests a divine presence.
3.7.2. Betyline in the temple
On coins found in Tyre returning to the Roman era and revealing the appearance of the primitive High Place of the city, we see two betyles erected one near the other. They have a rounded shape of the top and they were placed on a rectangular base each (Fig. 52). An engraved inscription names them "divine stones".The courtyard of the Obelisk Temple in Byblos contains more than thirty obelisks in its courtyard. They are considered as betyls.In the same temple, a great obelisk that has disappeared today, stood in the center of the cella and represented the divine. This can be concluded by contemplating the stone cube which persists until today in the cella of the temple and which served as a support for this great betyl.
On the other hand, coins of Roman times show that in the center of the courtyard of the Phoenician temple of Byblos stands a conical stone representing the deity (Fig. 51). For all of it, the Byblos temple was much like that of Paphos in Cyprus.The historian Tacitus explains that the image of the goddess at the Temple of Paphos "is not represented in the human figure. It is a circular block which, rising cone, which gradually decreases from the bottom to the top ". Other documents confirm the inductions that we have drawn from the story of Tacitus. Indeed, on a whole series of bronze coins which were struck under the emperors, from Augustus to Macrin, in the name of the congress of all the Cypriot cities, one sees appearing a building in which one agrees to recognize the most important sanctuaries of the island, that of Paphos (Fig. 54). In this building, one can distinguish the shape of a conical stone representing the divinity. The plan of the Temple of Amrit reveals a similar architectural tradition, with some differences. The divinity is represented in this temple not in the form of a conical stone rising in the open air, but it was enclosed in a closed chapel (Fig. 35).
It should be noted, which may not have been sufficiently noted, the frequent presence in Byblos of obelisks of often square sections, well before the Obelisk Temple. Three are attested in the L Temple (Fig. 15): one in the main chapel where he remained standing until the final fire by the Amorrites; another near the door leading into the courts of the chapels; the third, monumental, in the forecourt, made of drums truncated pyramid. An obelisk is also likely near the south gate introducing worshipers from the forecourt to the courtyard of the three chapels. Similarly, the "Little Obelisk Temple" complex located near the southern rampart of Byblos, presents in the Middle Bronze, a line of eight small obelisks lined up in front of the temple facade and an obelisk in front of the door leading to the sanctuary (fig 23).
3.7.3. Does conical betyl represent the sacred mountain?
The mountain of Lebanon and Hermon have long expressed, in the religious thought of our ancestors, the idea of stability, immutability and even purity. Dominating the world and rising to the sky, the mountain symbolizes the divine because of its position near its celestial world. The ascent of the mountain always means penetration into higher cosmic levels close to God. But this climb sometimes seems difficult because of the very thorny nature of the ground and the considerable distance of the summits often crowned with snow and fog. From this comes the necessity of seeking a substitute which bears in its form the image of the sacred mountain, in its physical composition the same matter and in its essence the secrets of strength and power. Who can fulfill these conditions other than betyles,
3.7.4. Conclusion
The cult of baetyls back to the earliest manifestations of religious sentiment in the Canaanite-Phoenician land as well as in the former world.A rough stone is seen as the highest incarnation of divinity. The stone holds the place of the god and represents it. This representation does not refer to the god's own nature. The stone contains the god and it is not the body of the god.Therefore, the Betyl standing in the center of the temple containing the divine power, considers himself a door of the sky and a hole which can make communication of earth with heaven.It is the axis of the world and its navel.
3.8. Sacred Stone of Astarte
3.8.1. Meteorite of Astarte
A Philo of Byblos text emphasizes that the goddess Astarte collected a fallen star from heaven and would have dedicated a temple of Tyre where he received tribute.This star appears to be a meteorite whose cult was widespread in the ancient world.The sacredness of this stone was due, in the first place, to its celestial origin. The infinite sky, powerful, elevated, seat of life on earth by the rain it sends and the sun moving on its vault, considers itself sacred. Everything that happens in the higher regions of the atmosphere contributes to its sacredness. In this sense we can consider the meteorite as a sacred celestial stone.
3.8.2. Throne of Astarte
Phoenicia has provided many stone thrones, flanked by sphinxes. The seats themselves as Astarte thrones that the Sphinx always seem to be the acolytes of Astarte in the region.Another proof on the attribution of these thrones to Astarte comes from a Phoenician inscription incised on the plinth of one of these thrones, dedicating it to the goddess: " To my lady, Astarte, figuratively here, was devoted my own effigy, to me, Abdoubast, son of Bodba'al " .
Thrones of varying sizes were found in the various excavations of Phoenicia The most famous is nowadays integrated into a niche of the wall of the bottom of the Astarte Basin at Eshmoun Temple (Fig. 41). The majority of thrones return to the Hellenistic period, which seems to be a significant fact of the Phoenicians' reaction to the Greek presence. "The voluntary resumption of elements of the indigenous cult contrasts with the cultural contribution of the Greeks. The aversion deeply rooted in the East to the divine representations in human forms, resurfaced at a time when, all over the world, the cult statues are at their peak " . Here again we are in front of a worship that addresses the symbolism that the stone reflects. Thus, the stone throne symbolizes power, power and hence divinity following a cult having different aspects as follows:
Cult of the throne : In a throne from Sidon (Fig. 42), the seat is so inclined, that one certainly wanted to prevent anything from happening there. Had the throne itself become the object of adoration of empty thrones? In all cases, the worship of empty thrones is well attested in Syria, for example, Lucian emphasizes a throne reserved for the sun was about to worship Hierapolis.
Cult of the throne and / or betyl which was fixed to it : we note on several thrones of Astarte found in the region of Tyre stelae or betyles, carved on their seats as if they were fixed there (fig.43).
Cult of the throne and / or betyl which was simply placed without being fixed: On several thrones the surface of the seat has mortises, which were used to fix an object. The latter, however, was not a statue, because the front of the seat is sometimes carved or inscribed, and can not be concealed by the legs of a human figure. The object placed on the throne was therefore a symbol (Fig. 46).
On one of the votive thrones of Sidon, belonging to category 3 of the classification presented so high, the seat is shaped so as to form a cavity U. The latter is open upwards, exactly as to contain a globe, or a betyl similar to that described by numismatists on coins of Sidon (Fig. 53). The coins represent a processional chariot on which rests a stretcher, himself loaded with a globe, surrounded by various accessories. The numismatists have always regarded the globe of Sidon as a betyl of Astarte, based on the text of Philo of Byblos seen so high. We can not imagine what could be the object above, as it was presented to the faithful, is it a betyl placed on the throne of Astarte, that was extracted to drive it in procession on a litter with two stretchers, ?
Whatever the answer to this question, the sacred stone, in the form of a meteorite, an empty throne or a throne with betyl, appears again, among the Phoenicians as an object of worship and respect, and, in this case, as a symbol of the goddess Astarte.
3.9. Votive stone
The Temple of Obelisks in Byblos is mainly composed of a cella which shelters the pedestal where enthroned divinity represented probably at the time in the form of a big obelisk, and of a main court with open sky where stand obelisks. Their number is around thirty, some of which are very small in size reaching barely twenty-five centimeters. If we agree to consider the betyl of the chapel as a representation of the god, can we conclude later that the obelisks erected in the main courtyard are other than representations of the faithful standing before the deity? If so, we can conclude that the obelisks perpetuated the presence of the faithful who presented them. They were sacred and full of magical forces to simply speak. The Bible reveals a similar symbolism: the twelve stones raised near the altar of the covenant represented the twelve tribes of Israel: " And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and the next day, as early as the morning, he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel " .
These obelisks can also represent perpetual ex-votos. The standing stone was not the only offering. It must be, more often than not, only the lasting monument of a sacrifice made in fulfillment of a vow. This shows that theory is that the archaeological excavations in different places have shown that deposited at the foot of the table votive stele is a libation or vases containing cremated bones of victims.This is what can be found in the excavations of the Obelisk Temple in Byblos where many valuable offerings were buried in the ground. Most of the obelisks in the temple were on rectangular or square bases,. A central obelisk leaning against the north wall of the cella bears a hieroglyphic inscription as the attestation of a vow accomplished after one has been granted (Fig. 25). It is the testimony of a grace obtained in response to a faithfully executed sacrifice :
"Herichef's beloved, Abichemou, renewed Byblos prince of life, his royal sealer, Koukou, son of Routata, just of voice" .
This stone, as well as the others, were sacred and full of magical forces to speak perpetually.
Chapter 5
The Altar and the Sacrifice.
1. Introduction
The primitive man, lost in the prehistoric meadows, tries to share with his companions the conquered prey, the collected harvest or the manufactured objects. He tries barter and, if bartering does not succeed, he indulges in battle. Exchange is therefore the most general expression of relations between beings. Each creature receives something from all the others, and makes them something else so that the relations between plants and animals, the sea and the atmosphere, man and nature, the men themselves and the man and God become nothing but exchanges.
Faced with the inevitable violence of natural forces, man feels weak and disarmed. He begins to look for ways to reconcile with the gods to receive their grace and appease their anger. In his conception of primitive man hunter-gatherer, he must give to receive, he must exchange. With the gods, he must give a sacrifice to receive healing, save his life and ensure good harvests, fruitful gatherings and abundant herds. This gift is just like a gift given to the god in an act of worship.
Sacrifice implies, as we will see in a detailed way in this chapter, a certain voluntary detachment from something that holds man to heart, whether it be a non-bloody sacrifice: crops, works of art and goods, or a bloody sacrifice: domestic animals or even, as some scholars think, a human being.
2. Theoretical study
Sacrifice is a religious act that can only be accomplished in a sacred environment and through essentially religious agents: priest, sacrificer, instruments, victims, goods and altar. In the Canaanite Phoenician world the altar is located in the temple, facing the emblem of the deity and the sacrifice is on top of him. The sacrificer, after presenting the sacrifice acquires a divine grace and is religiously transformed. The reasons behind the act of sacrifice are many. I will summarize in what follows, those who can attach more to the Canaanite Phoenician tradition, while pointing out that the eminence of a reason in specific cases does not suppress the presence of the other. The sacrifice can therefore be:
2.1. A gift to God
Sacrifice is originally a gift that primitive man makes to supernatural beings holding in their hands the secrets of the universe. It is a good, food or animal offered to God who at a later stage will take the notion of sacrifice. Man often represents the offering to the creator that the vegetable kingdom produces purest, as well as the victim of the blood sacrifice for the animal kingdom. This one is the sacrifice of the pastor, that one the sacrifice of the farmer. This theory may be more rational in the case of non-bloody sacrifice, but it does not explain decisively the expiatory value attached to the blood or even to the holocaust except in the case where such sacrifices consider themselves a meal presented to God.
2.2. A tribute presentation
To receive their graces and avoid their rage, man must show the gods perpetually tribute, respect and dependence. This is ensured by the sacrifices which, after which, the gods will ensure the abundance of the water sources, the rich harvests, the fertility of the woman, the healing of the sick as well as other blessings and gifts.
2.3. A communion meal
Sacrifice is just like a meal shared between the faithful and the god. Eating and drinking with someone is a symbol and a confirmation of a communion and a mutual social obligation where close links are created between the two parties. During these communion meal ceremonies, new bonds are created between man and god. Thus sacrifice is more than a gift, it is an act of hospitality between man and god.In the epic of Aqehat, for example, Daniel sacrifices an ox for the goddesses named Košarôt and "he makes the Košarôt eat".
2.4. An expiation of sin
The sacrifice has an expiatory value because it soothes the wrath of the gods and suspends the punishment of the sinner who feels guilty for the faults and sins he has committed. The sacrifice will be an aspiration and a hope that the faithful will constantly raise to the god to ask for help, so that he erases his disobedience as well as to present to him his praise of thanks and adoration. In Ugarit's writings, Daniel offers sacrifices for the sins of his son that excited the wrath of the goddess Anat.
3. The sacrifice in the Canaanite Phoenician world
3.1. The animal sacrifice
3.1.1. The Altar of Sacrifice
The animal sacrifice, so common in the Canaanite Phoenician world, took place on a rigid support in the shape of a table of worship. It is the altar located generally inside the sanctuary and which formed, at the beginning of times, an essential element of the high place of worship. In the cellar of the Southwest Temple in Byblos, for example, a brick altar dating from the pre-amorphous period was discovered in the main chapel. It is a massif in 1.5 m wide bricks and preserved on a height of 0.55 m. The facade has 3 very regular steps, two of which are well preserved. The bricks are made of red sandy earth mixed with chopped straws. They are 12 cm thick, 25 cm wide and 48 to 54 cm long. The plaster of marl is very thick on its faces.
In front of the pronaos of the Temple of Baal in Ras Shamra extends a courtyard (Fig. 26). Facing its entrance, is a small square construction, with 2 steps on the south side which is likely an altar.It is believed that another altar existed in the same place of the courtyard of the Temple of Dagan. Not very far from the latter, a small sanctuary surrounded by a whole complex of buildings presented in its cella an altar of the type called horned (Fig. 48).
Returning to Byblos where in 1927, Dunand identified a cluster of three blocks erected in front of the back wall of the central cella Temple Baalat Gebal, a sacrifice altar (Fig. 46). The altar returns to the seventh century or even before. Three stairways, somewhat disjointed, redeem the difference in level that separates the altar from the ground of the cella to which it is attached. The steps leading to the altar are frequent in places of Semitic worship, the altar in the high place of Petra is an example (Fig. 47). Between this altar and that of Byblos light up valuable connections. Here as there is a cella, excised in the rock among the Nabataeans, built in Byblos, and bordered on its western side by a massive cube-shaped building. In Byblos it is an assembly of three big blocks which, with the coronation that the infrastructure allows to infer, was to form a massif measuring 3 meters of side and about 2 meters of height. In Petra,.
Between the entrance of the cella of the Temple of Milkashtart at Umm al-'Amed and the eastern portico, the excavation revealed, a little below, large rectangular sandstones placed on a bedrock (Fig. 45). What appears from it is not very expressive. But the axial position of this stone with respect to the cella and its particular composition in sandstone plates of large dimensions, are reminiscent of the infrastructure of a monumental altar. It was decorated with bas-reliefs, some fragments appear to have been found. What was the appearance of this altar? We do not know. Rectangular plan, it could cover an area of the order of 10 m² maximum. We do not know anything about its surroundings, including the possible presence of a staircase..
3.1.2. The sacrificed animals
3.1.2.1. Sacrifice of Keret
The texts of Ras Shamra can give us important information about the bloody sacrifice of the Canaanite Phoenicians. Keret, such as the epic reveals bearing his name, went up to the top of a tower to sacrifice.He performed ablutions and then performed the divine instructions sacrificing a lamb, a kid and a bird. He also presented bread and wine in a cup of silver, while honey was offered in a golden cup.
Here is an excerpt from the text:
Between [in the shadow of the sheepfold]
Take an agne [au in your hand].
A lamb of Sac [building in] your right.
A lamb in your d [them may] ns
Measures of [your] pa [in, of] the best,
Take a vola [tile], a bird of sacrifice.
Worm in a neck of money , wine
In a cup [of o] r, honey.
{Climb to the top of the [tojur;
And climb to the top of the [ur].
Ride the ridge of the mu [r]. raise your hands to the sky,
Sacrifice to Taurus your father, El ,
Honor Ba'al with your sacrifice,
Dagan's son , offering him food .
After the presentation of the sacrifice, Keret back down the tower and prepare the communion sacrifice for the whole troop.
There are several indications that the tower on the summit on which Keret offered the sacrifice is none other than the tower of the Temple of Baal or Dagan in Ugarit, I quote in the following:
More than an Ugaritic text, the tower of the Temple of Baal is a place of sacrifice recommended by the gods. One of these texts, for example, emphasizes that God asks a sacrifice "an ox for the tower of Baal Ugarit".
The considerable thickness of the walls of the massive foundations of the Temple of Baal or Dagan makes it possible to support a very high construction in tower and the very large mass of well-fitted blocks in the eastern part of each of the two temples is probably the cage of a stairs leading to a tower terrace where sacrifices were taking place.
3.1.2.2. Sacrifice imploring God's help
Another text from Ras Shamra reveals important information about the bloody sacrifice, the text evokes a prayer that citizens must present for Baal imploring his help to repel the danger of an enemy threatening the city. In this prayer, quoted in what follows, the faithful promise to sacrifice to Baal a bull and a newborn :
If a strong man attacks your door , [yourselves], your walls, you will raise your ye [ux] towards [Ba] 'al:
"O Ba ['a] l. [hunt] the fort far from our [p] orte,
the powerful [far] of our [mu] railles.
A bull, O Ba'al, will (we) consecrate you, what we will have done,
Ba'al, we (d) dedicate you, [a firstborn, (?), Ba ['a] l, we (s) con [sa] crerons,
the booty, ba'al, [we] (you) will dedicate, (to your) sanctuary of (ta) mai [son, ba'al,]
we will go ". And [Ba] '[will] [listen to your] prayer (?)
he will drive the strong away from your gate , [the mighty] far from your walls .
3.1.2.3. Conclusion
The astonishing thing in the majority of the Ras Shamra ritual texts that are related to the sacrifice is that they present the king as an explicit agent of worship. The essence of the texts consists of an enumeration of offerings to various divinities. All this is expressed in a repetitive and simple way, which will help me to draw up a list mentioning the main animals sacrificed. First, we thoroughly sacrificed bulls and rams that are most preferred by the gods.The humble can not afford such sacrifices, will resort to sacrifices of lesser value such as sheep and birds. Mainly they sacrificed so cows, rams, goats, goats, oxen, donkeys, sheep, deer, fish, geese, doves, pigeons and quails.
3.1.3. The bloody sacrifice
I try in this paragraph to make a scene of bloody sacrifice while filling the lack of information that faces me, with information drawn from the Bible or the Punic world. The Hebrews and the Punic being successively neighbors and descendants of the Canaanite Phoenicians.
So, can I say that the slaughtered animal must be safe and sound from all diseases.At the beginning of rite, it is washed in an ablution basin then led to the altar held by a horn, dragged by the rope or carried in the arms, in a formal procession. The altar is preparing for the ceremony, it is washed and ornamented. Ablutions are not reserved for animals only but also for priests who wash their bodies and their clothes in rites of purification. The procession is preceded by flute players who have an acute and throbbing music throughout the ceremony.Screams, music and ritual dances probably follow some sacrifices. The officiant, or master of sacrifice , receives the animal, immolates the bleeding from the knife, decapitates it, pours its blood against the altar, after which it fires on the altar, and often lays the quarters of the victim with the head and fat in the fire.Mainly the entrails are burned, while the cut flesh is shared between the offerer and the priests. The sacrifice is accompanied by prayers.Interment of the ashes of the victim and the possible erection of a monument perpetuating the memory and the power of sacrificing sometimes complete the scene.
3.1.4. Symbolism of blood and fire
The bloody sacrificial ritual consisted of two phases: blood immolation and fire cremation.
Blood is the seat of life. Poured on the altar, it represents a life that is offered to the deity. In the myth of the construction of the palace of Baal, in Ugarit, the god El does not give in to the attempts of Anat after a carnage during which the blood bathes the goddess to the knees. She then threatens El to cover her hair and beard with blood in an act that shows the rejuvenating role of the blood. The goddess then proceeds to devour the pulpit and drink the blood of the dead god Baal who then comes back to life. The Bible gives us the example of worshipers shedding their blood at the altar sign of alliance with God: "And they cried aloud, and they made incisions with swords and spears according to their custom. until the blood ran over them ".
Fire has a purifying virtue. It destroys the corruptible and perishable elements of man and enables him to union with the divine and imperishable world.The Bible emphasizes the purifying power of fire. We read that "every object that can go to the fire, you will make it go through the fire to make it pure".In the texts of Ras Shamra, the word holocaust is often repeated to show the role of fire in the rituals of sacrifice: "A sheep in holocaust; an ox and a sheep in a burnt offering ".In section 3.2.3 of this chapter, I will discuss the possibility of a purification rite in Phoenicia, which consists of putting children through fire.
3.2. Human sacrifice
3.2.1. Tophet
The word "Tophet", borrowed from the texts of the Bible, denotes a sacred open-air place in which urns were deposited containing the calcined bones of children and animals, together or separately. It is protected and often delimited by a sided vertical slab wall.With the exception of a single case not certain to Tyre, It is generally admitted that no tophet has been found in Phoenicia The Tyre site has issued approximately 200 stelae and jars containing the remains of ash, sand and small bones, most of which are human.
The most famous Tophet continues to be that of Carthage where we found a large number of ceramics containing mainly human remains and burned animals, as well as stelae.The terminology of the inscriptions on the stelae is entirely distinct from those of the funerary inscriptions and mentions offerings offered to the two great deities of Carthage: Baal Hamon and Tanit.
Finally, it should be emphasized in this paragraph that the ritual sacrifice of humans in the face of very different calamities or cases, if it existed in Phenicia , was not a Phoenician peculiarity and had nothing to do with subject of Tophets.
3.2.2. Classical sources on child sacrifice
Eusebius Pamphile emphasizes that: "The Phoenicians, in the great adversities of wars, plagues or droughts, sacrificed to Cronos, one of their loved ones, by winning votes. In Laodicea of Syria, a virgin was sacrificed every year to Minerva, now it is a deer. He goes on to recall a legendary tale: "(The Phoenicians) deliver the most cherished of their children to be sacrificed as a redemption to vengeful gods. They were slaughtered secretly. Cronus, then, that the Phoenicians named El [..] great dangers of war having threatened the country, he adorned this son attributes of royalty, and he immolated on the altar he had prepared for this purpose ".
Punic sources are more abundant. Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the siege of Carthage in 310 BC writes: "They also reproached themselves for having alienated themselves in Kronos by what formerly, they offered him as a sacrifice the children of the most powerful families while, in the following they had secretly bought children and had raised them to be slain ... .. Considering all these things and seeing, moreover, the enemies encamped under the walls of their city, they were seized with a superstitious fear, and they They reproached themselves for having neglected the customs for which their fathers honored the gods. They hastened to correct these errors and decreed the public sacrifice of 200 children chosen from the most illustrious families; some citizens, facing accusations, .
Plutarch emphasizes that "it is in full awareness and knowledge that the Carthaginians offered their children, and those who did not buy those of the poor as lambs or young birds, while the mother stood beside without tears and without moaning. If she moaned or cried, she must lose the price of the sale, and the child was none the less sacrificed; However, all the space before the statue was filled with the sound of flutes and drums in order that they might not hear the cries ".
3.2.3. Comparative analysis
Although several archaeologists agree with classical sources to attest to the archaeological discoveries of children's sacrifice, other theories tend to consider that children died before their cremation. As we have just seen, a single discovery at Tyre reveals the not certain presence of a tophet in Phoenicia Carthage's tophet remains the most famous so that any study on the sacrifice of children in Phoenicia is rigidly linked to the attestation or rejection of such a ritual in Carthage. Based on this reality I will proceed in the following logical reasoning to shed more light on the sacrifice of children in Phoenicia
The procedure to follow is to take two identical cases:
- Case of the Phoenicia tophet.
- Case of the tophet of Carthage.
- Then proceed to study the case with the most hypotheses, the case of Carthage to finally draw conclusions that will be applicable to the case of Phoenicia
- However, the hypotheses on the case of the Tophet of Carthage are the information revealed by the 4 following sources:
- Classical authors.
- Bible .
- Epigraphic inscriptions.
- Archaeological discoveries.
The analysis of these sources will be based on a study by Lawrence E. Stager and Joseph A. Greene belonging to the clan that ensures the sacrifice of children in Carthage on the one hand and Mohamed Hassine Fantar who denies such a rite on the other hand.I will draw up for this purpose a comparative table between the theories for and against, finally leading to a conclusion applicable to the probable tophets of Phoenicia
1-classical authors. |
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The sacrifice of children exists
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The sacrifice of children does not exist |
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Ancient authors such as Diodorus, Plutarch and the Church Fathers, such as Tertullian, condemned the Phoenicians and Carthaginians for their practice of sacrificing children. The examples are numerous, some have been quoted in the preceding paragraph. However, the authors who knew Carthage very well and who wrote the most about Phoenicians, such as Polybius, did not take note of this practice, which was considered as an argument against the idea of the existence of a such sacrifice. However, the proponents of the existence of the childish sacrifice see that this argument does not necessarily mean to conclude that their cause is false, but quite simply it can show that these authors had nothing to say on this point.
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The texts that speak about the sacrifice of children are based in their majority on the stories of Diodorus and Plutarch. Today, researchers agree that Plutarch's text, which dates back to his youth, was a school exercise rather than a reality-based one. Let us now turn to the account of Diodorus and take the phrase seen as a proof of sacrifice of children in Carthage: "There was a bronze statue of Kronos, with his hands open, his palm up, and inclined to the ground, so that the child who was put there, rolled and fell into a pit full of fire. A thorough study can show that this story seems to reflect a myth more than a historical fact. Diodorus of Sicily, who was originally from Sicily, was undoubtedly influenced by ancient Sicilian myths, specifically the myth of the bronze bull in which the king's enemies were roasted alive. However, by looking in the works of the most famous Roman historians, like Polybius, who knew very well and hated much Carthage, there is no mention of sacrificing Carthaginian children. Let's say that the latter accompanied the Roman general Emilian Scipio when he destroyed Punic Carthage in 146 BC. In the same sense, we find that the Roman historian Livy, a contemporary of Diodorus who was relatively well informed about Carthage, did not indicate anything on this subject. He would never have hidden what would have been, in his eyes, the worst of all the infamy: the deliberate slaughter of children if such a ritual existed. |
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2- the Bible. |
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The sacrifice of children exists
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The sacrifice of children does not exist |
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| The sacrifice of children existed among the Semites. The 6th century prophet Jeremiah accuses the Israelis of Judah of the creation of a Tophet in a valley outside Jerusalem : "They built high places at Tophet in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, To burn their sons with fire and their daughters ". These children are cremated, according to Jeremiah and it is not clearly a description of "passage" in the fire of sons and daughters in a sort of ritual from which they are sourced but not incinerated.
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The word "Tophet " is only known in the Hebrew Bible , it occurs several times in Jeremiah and once in Kings, always in the same context: "The king defiled Tophet in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no man might make his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech ".So strong that connection was presumed between these biblical passages and the Tophets discovered, the sacrifice of the children had never been clearly mentioned. They refer only to children passing by fire. We remember here the legend of Isis where the goddess tried to burn the carnal envelope of the king's son. The goddess would of course not kill the child, but to go through the purifying fire and subsequently render immortal.Is it a rite of purification for example equivalent to the circumcision rite among the Hebrews? |
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3-epigraphic inscriptions |
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The sacrifice of children exists
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The sacrifice of children does not exist |
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Thousands of Phoenician inscriptions have come down to us, the vast majority are from the Tophet of Carthage. These inscriptions are however very stereotyped and terribly laconic. None make explicit reference to children's sacrifices, they are only vows to the gods, but the placement of these steles, immediately above the jars containing burned remains, strongly suggests that these vows had something to do with the cremated and then shows that the bodies were subject to a blood sacrifice which was followed by an elevation of a stele where vows were engraved.
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The inscriptions of the Tophet of Carthage emphasize offerings and vows presented to the gods to receive their blessings. Not one of these inscriptions mentions the sacrifice of the children. These texts suggest that the place is a sanctuary open to any person, regardless of nationality or social status. We know that people speaking the Greek language made use of the sanctuary because some inscriptions have names of the gods transcribed in Greek characters. The foreigners who visited the Tophet had not obviously sacrificed their children to Baal Hammon just as it makes no sense that visitors from other Punic institutions have visited the Tophet of Carthage to sacrifice their children. On the other hand, An inscription, mentions a woman named "Arishat daughter of Ozmik". The inscription tells us that Arishat was a "Baalat Eryx", or a noble woman from Eryx who is a Punic community in Sicily. It seems reasonable to assume that Arishat, visiting the great city of Carthage, felt the need to pay homage to the Punic gods or to make a wish or request, but she would not, of course, ever sacrifice her child. The Tophet of Carthage was therefore a sacred sanctuary where one came to make vows and address requests to Baal Hammon and Tanit. Each vow was accompanied by an offering. Because of this, some of the stelae suggest that the animals were sacrificed and then offered to the gods. |
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4-archeological discoveries |
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The sacrifice of children exists
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The sacrifice of children does not exist |
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The burned bones found inside the jars of the Carthage tophet provided conclusive proof of the children's sacrifice. They suggest that it was not a burial place for children who died prematurely but rather a sanctuary where animals and children were presented as sacrifices. The animals were sacrificed, probably in the place of the children in the first place. But it is highly probable that children, in the case of grave danger or where the expected reward of the gods is important enough, or by bad luck to have no animal substitution, were sacrificed and then buried.
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the presence of animal bones inside some of the urns suggests that the place was not a cemetery in the traditional sense of the word. But nothing prevents it if it is considered as a special cemetery, dedicated to children who die young or fetuses. In this case the bones of animals will be proof of animal sacrifice without necessarily involving human sacrifice. An example of a case which may be similar is given by Sabatino Moscati, who stressed that, in some Greek necropolis, children were cremated and their graves were located in a separate area of the landfill used for adults.
The problem will therefore be to determine the nature of the "special status" of the Carthage tophet. Can we talk about a place dedicated to children who die, before undergoing religious rites that we ignore nature today? Was the probable purification by the passage of fire already mentioned above a sacred rite suffered by the children, so that those who die are incinerated before they are put to death and placed in specific places? |
For more extensive discussion on the controversy of child sacrifice, please see: Child Sacrifice: Children of Phoenician Punic Carthage Where Not Sacrificed to the Gods https://phoenicia.org/childsacrifice.html
3.2.4. Conclusion
At Carthage, the number of urns discovered in the Tophet exceeds 6000. This is a fairly high number that makes me wonder if the lives of the children of the Carthaginians and according to them Phoenicians was quite simply and abundantly sacrificed. A question that drives me to question whether the peaceful and peaceful nature of the Phoenicians, does not contradict this savage and wild tradition. Are the Phoenicians not the ancestors of the Lebanese whose affection and attachment to do their children go beyond imagination? Was the very negative attitude of the ancient sources devoid of ulterior motives? Is it a misinterpretation of rites in relation to the sacrifices by the Romans against their enemies the Carthaginians? And were not the Christian writers aimed at fighting pagan cults?
3.4. Non-bloody sacrifice
3.4.1. Sacrifice of property
The bloodless sacrifices are more humble than the bloody sacrifices and often accompany.In the ritual texts of Ras Shamra, the non-bloody sacrifices have the following elements: Bunches of grapes, gold, dates, wheat, honey, silver, tunic, sandals, oil, wool, myrrh.We have seen, for example, that Keret offers in sacrifice, bread and wine in a cup of silver, and honey in a cup of gold.
In Byblos, in the two antechambers leading to the Cella of the Obelisk Temple, numerous offerings exceeding 1306 objects were buried in the ground. Among them were found fenestrated axes in gold, bronze figurines covered in gold leaf, bulls representations, precious metal solar discs and objects of worship.Two small tables with offerings erected in the two antechambers, probably carried these offerings which, become too numerous, or for security measure, were tight in jars and these were buried in the ground. The obelisks inhabiting the court are sometimes high on offering tables, others contain niches in which were placed offerings ex voto. On the other hand, another offering table at the Temple of Sarepta is built in dressed stone. In its center was placed a block pierced with holes communicating by a small channel; it would probably have been used for a libation ritual.
The stele of Yehawmilk, king of Byblos dating from the 5th century BC. AD is the king standing now offer a cut to Baalat Gubal (Fig. 12). The Marseille tariff mentions non-bloody sacrifices of food: flour, bread and oil. At Carthage, the bunch of grapes, pomegranates and pine cone, are the most frequent offerings and are likely offered as first-fruits as did the Hebrews according to their law.
3.4.2. Sacrifices of incense and fragrance
The scent of sacrifice and incense offered in the Cella assistant to other sacrifices to increase the value of.Altars were dedicated to it. For example, in the area of Byblos temples, a small altar measuring 36 cm high in its best-preserved section was discovered at the beginning of the Roman period (Figure 49). On one of its faces is engraved a Phoenician inscription showing its destination of altar to perfume, it was offered by a faithful to god to receive his blessing:
"I made the altars with perfumes here, I, 'Abdeshmoun, builder, son of Is'a, for our Lord and for the statue of Ba'al. May he bless and make him live " .
It should be noted that the altar may sometimes be the instrument and witness of the worship by which the family honored its dead, so the image of an altar, an appendix of the tomb, is not uncommon in Phoenicia Tyre precisely (Fig. 50).
3.4.3. Self-denial
Another type of non-bloody sacrifice is self-abnegation, which consists in voluntarily offering to the gods, which is dear to the eyes of the faithful, in order to obtain their favors. Probable sacred prostitution is an example. They are mainly women, who live a life consecrated to divinity around the temple and mingle with prostitution. At Byblos, during religious ceremonies, women who do not give their sacrifice pretty hair, had to give to a stranger for prostitution and consequently dedicate to Astarte the wages of the act "religious" they have committed.
Chapter 6
Collection of Canaanite Phoenician temples
1. Introduction
Archaeological data on Phoenician Canaanite religious architecture are reduced. What remains to us today is nothing compared to what we hope to have from literary documents. Many temples are still engulfed in the ground beneath the major contemporary urban agglomerations, perhaps even under new sacred spaces belonging to new religions. In fact, it is on the vestige of a temple destroyed by the man or collapsed because of the calamities of the nature that often comes to take place a late temple, because the sacredness of a space continues to be revealed with its location Through time.
In spite of the insufficiency of the data, a reconstitution of the general form of the Canaanite Phoenician temple with its various elements is always possible. Ancient writers, inscriptions, figurative monuments and ruins can help to draw the pattern of a temple most often constituted of an enclosure surrounding a central open court in which stands a chapel or sometimes a betyle. In front of the chapel or the betyl, stands an altar for the sacrifices. A spring or a pool of water as well as a wood or a sacred supplement scheme.
In what follows, I present an architectural description of a gathering of the main Canaanite Phoenician temples , while basing myself on archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic discoveries as well as on the writings of the ancients. This collection is useful for the concrete determination of the location, the role and the aspect of the various elements of the temple whose symbolisms were studied in the preceding chapters. So I hope to present each element in its place within the temple and put it in turn, in its historical context, cosmic and religious.
2. The West Temple of Byblos
Located opposite the famous Byblos L Temple, this temple stands on the southern slopes of the hill overlooking the source crater. His plan has undergone several changes since its construction towards the end of the IV millennium BC. JC until its destruction by the Amorrites a millennium after. At first, an enclosure surrounded the ensemble including the Byblos well (Fig. 6). Another oval enclosure replaced it enveloping the temple only. It will be replaced in turn by a rectangular enclosure that will last until the amorphous invasion (Figure 7). A door probably existed in the southern part of the enclosure where a stone bearing seems to be the starting point for a staircase descending towards the source.
In its late state, the whole is constituted by an open court, in the center of which stands on a podium, a cella and a room which is annexed to it. The cella is an almost square piece of 8 x 7.8 m² surface. A massive masonry remains in front of its east facade, 0.8 m high and 1.7 m wide which served as a landing for a staircase of four steps. A room of 7.5 x 5 m² surface adjoins the south wall of the cella. A step in front of the facade, probably followed by a second, was to reach the podium level. A building covering the northeast corner of the enclosure and occupying an almost square area of 11 x 11.5 m² was probably a dependency of the temple. Finally, the walls of the buildings are 1.1 m wide. They are in white limestone burst and erected in cladding.
3. The Southwest Temple and Byblos Staircase Temple
The Southwest Temple, built at the beginning of the third millennium in Byblos, is located southwest of the city. It consists of an enclosure surrounding a sacred area where stood a main sanctuary and a chapel (Fig. 8). The sanctuary is formed mainly by a rectangular cella, 7.9 x 6 m², facing east. Against the interior facing of the west wall is leaning against a base, its layout is reminiscent of an altar. In a late era a new altar in brick redone, remains at the same location of that of the old. The chapel is of rectangular plan, a store of offerings similar to that of the cella was brought to light near and above the south wall is also reminiscent of an altar.
The former Southwest Temple survives the period of destruction of Byblos by the Amorites. He has undergone a minimal evolution in his architectural plan. A large building called the "Staircase Temple" oriented north-south was built next to it to the north, it forms a large worship complex (Figure 9). The plan consists of two parts. In the South, a podium on which rose a room, which is the cella of the temple. In the north, adjacent to the foundations of a ramp on which remains the first step of a staircase.
4. The Temple of Baalat Gebal
The Temple of Baalat Gebal, or "mistress of Byblos", was built around the twenty-seventh century BC. He experienced several phases of construction and restoration and continued to exist until the Roman period. Nowadays, there are few architectural remains that are all of a first state.
Access to the temple is from the public square on the side of the sacred pond by a monumental staircase (Fig. 10). The latter is formed by an earthen ramp maintained by three side walls wide of 1.3 m which carries its steps. The large hypostyle hall located in the center of the complex is located below the podium, replacing a central triangular courtyard destroyed by fires that ravaged the complex. Two possibilities have been proposed for access to the sanctuary. The first considers that the large hypostyle hall below was covered by a median and that this platform reached the level of both the cella of the temple and the landing at the top of the monumental staircase. But there is no trace of a retaining wall now filling the embankment and serving as an eclogre to the staircase.
According to the terrace of this hall, a ramp runs along the south wall of the cella gives access to its interior. This ramp is framed by walls and compensates for the difference in level between the terrace of the podium and that of the cella. It was covered by a roof on pillars. The high landing gives access to the cella by a side door. The cella is an almost square set of approximately 16 m. At the time, it overlooks the building and dominates the pond of 5.5 m. It opens on the eastern facade on a pseudo-cella. A large room apparently covered and whose raising of its soil compared to the hypostyle room prevents any direct communication with it, exists on the south side of the cella..
5. Temple in L
This temple built around 2600 BC was separated from the Temple of Baalat-Gebal by a kind of sacred pond. It recovered during the pre-amorphous period up to the point of water the whole of the part of the sector bordering the south bank of the pond.Its walls consist of two seats of large stones filled with smaller stones.
A staircase and a covered entrance give access to the forecourt (Fig. 13). On the left a passage leads to a courtyard arranged perpendicular to the forecourt and surrounded by thick walls. Three cellas line up facing east. The middle one, on the ground higher than that of the others, is preceded by a step (Fig. 16). Its floor bears the imprint of three large joists perpendicular to the entrance door, which was to bear a counter threshold as a step board. Eight bases emerge slightly above the ground. Seven are parietal and one central. They had the exception of the latter, wooden poles supporting the roof that appears to be wood. No trace of brick was found. The other two cellas frame the central cella. In the north-west corner of the courtyard, an annex cella is inserted.
An extension north of the forecourt is made up of three rooms related to temple activities. The first contains four large terracotta basins containing the water needed for ablutions (Fig. 18). A rectangular basin existed in the northwest corner. This ablution court was kept in the Obelisk Temple. Its door to the pond at its raised threshold of 38 cm. The other two rooms are reserved for some services of the temple.
The temple was definitely ruined by the violent fire that marked the end of the pre-Amorites and the Old Bronze Age. Only a few buildings will survive, including the two courtyards and the eastern outbuildings, which will serve as a workshop for the Obelisk Temple. The three cellas were replaced by a single cella preceded by a pro-cella and arranged perpendicular to the three preceding.
6. Byblos Oriental Temple
Built around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC JC east of the Temple in L, the Eastern Temple will survive the great fire of the end of the Old Bronze and will last until at least the time of the Hyksos. The ensemble consists of an enclosure where a sanctuary stands (Fig. 19). The enclosure is in walls wide of 0.95 m. The sanctuary is surrounded by a narrow corridor, a kind of ambulatory broad average of 1.3 m. The latter ritually isolates, while allowing to circulate around. The sanctuary is of dimensions 10.4 x 9.65 m² plan in antis.
7. Temple of Obelisks
The Temple of Obelisks was built on the ruins of the L Temple dating from the Early Bronze Age, while respecting the boundaries of the ancient sacred court. Its date of construction probably dates back to the period of peace that followed the destruction of Byblos by fire during the invasion of the Amorites. Maurice Dunand had to dismount the Obelisk Temple during the excavations and transport it a few meters further east and reconstruct it exactly as it was, with the same orientation, on a fully excavated ground. This trip was designed to study the underlying L Temple.
The essential part of the Obelisk Temple consists of a roughly square court of 20 m on one side, surrounded by a podium enclosure (Fig. 21). A forecourt, which survives from the L-Temple period, already described so high, is at the entrance to the temple and a three-step stairway leads to a door that existed at the time. A narrow passageway through a corridor, which isolates the sanctuary from the outer wall, leads to the pro-cella. A threshold is probably an inverted obelisk leads to the cella square dimension of 10 m by 7m, built on a podium. In the center stands a massive masonry surmounted by a stone cube, which bore the symbol of divinity.
The big courtyard is connected to the cella by a staircase, it surrounds it on three sides. Numerous obelisks populate the courtyard, we can also distinguish several elements among which a cylindrical well and a huge earthenware jar buried with a capacity of 675 liters about.
8. Temple of Baal and Dagan in Ugarit
The Baal Temple was built in the late nineteenth or early eighteenth century and seems to have operated without major transformations until the thirteenth century. Following the earthquake of 1250, the monument is rebuilt almost identically on its foundations of the Middle Bronze which have been fully preserved. It is definitely destroyed at the beginning of the 12th century like the rest of the city.
Built on a podium, the Baal Temple, approximately 22 x 16 m² in size, consists of a rectangular naos preceded by a narrower vestibule (Figure 26). The vestibule is accessed by a monumental staircase from the courtyard to the south, in the axis of the entrance to the naos itself. Facing the entrance, in the courtyard is a small square building, which is accessed by two steps on the south side, which is likely an altar. The whole is included in an enclosure of which one finds a part of the wall in the east and the south.A very large block of well-fitting blocks in the eastern part is probably the cage of a staircase leading to a tower (Fig. 27). The high position of the temple on the tell was then to make it visible from afar at sea.
The Dagan Temple represents a dimension plan of architecture and orientation similar to the Temple of Baal.It is also built on a podium with massive foundations urging to see a tall tower building and a staircase leading to its terrace.
9. Tell Arqa Temple
Arqa was in the 9th and 8th centuries the center of a Phoenician kingdom. The site is covered by the layer of fire destruction attributable to the Assyrian conquest around 740 BC. BC The excavated shrine is located on the outskirts of the city of the Iron Age, which shows that it is a secondary or sanctuary area. Its architecture is modest, the surface is about 250 m² and consists of several small rooms and courtyards (Fig. 28). In the center, a square cella three to four meters in length was provided with a cut-stone altar with two cups. To the north and west of the cella, three small rooms can be interpreted as annexes. In the eastern part of the building, a courtyard (5 x 7 m²), partly paved, is flanked by two rooms each with clay-covered basins.
10. Temple of Sarepta
In Sarepta, today's Sarafand, located 15 km south of Sidon, we found the remains of a small cult building erected in the VII century BC, next to the so-called industrial district and above the port, it is the temple called Tanit-Astarte. This sanctuary, of modest architecture, is situated on the edge of the dominant tell-around (Fig. 29). It consists of a rectangular main room (6.40 x 2.30 m²), oriented east-west and communicating with two other rooms by its north-west angle. The walls of the main room are preserved on a single layer of local stone blocks built using the tile / header technique. Stone benches some twenty centimeters high are placed along the walls. They would have served either to seat the faithful or to receive worship offerings. In the center of the west wall, where the banquette is absent, an offering table is built of dressed stone. In its center was placed a block probably reused, pierced with holes communicating by a small channel. It would probably have been used for a libation ritual. The traces of a pillar fixed in the cement of the soil, as betyl, appear in front of the altar.
11. Temple of Amrit
The Temple of Amrit, located 7 km south of the city of Tartous in Syria, is a spectacular monumental complex whose date of construction dates back to (6th-4th century). It consists of a large basin almost square 46.7 x 38.5 m², deep from 3 to 3.5 m, surrounded on the south, east and west sides of gantries. The north side is open on the Amrit river at the edge of which the temple is built. It is bordered by two towers (Fig. 33). In the center of the basin is the essential part, the heart and the center, it is a tabernacle, a stone monolithic chapel where was enclosed either a simulacrum, or a symbol that represented the deity. The tabernacle is constituted in a reserved base in the rock which carries a monumental naos of almost 4 m of side, opened to the north. This makes it similar to the very enclosure that is closed on three sides and open in front of the valley. The court floor, in the middle of which stands the tabernacle, now looks like a meadow. A rather thick layer of earth has settled over the carefully flattened rocky area, but digging in the grass can be found (Fig. 34).
12. A'in-el-Hayyât Shrine
The sanctuary of Ain el-Hayyat (the source of snakes) located 50 m SE of the Temple of Amrit includes two chapels of Egyptian style. They are located inside an enclosure in which, as in Amrit, there is a small pond (Fig. 36, 37,38). The little chapel seems to have been monolithic. It was carried on a cubic block of 3 meters of side, which poses itself on a base. On two of the sides of the big cubic rock, one can see the trace of two small external staircases, which led to the platform of the cella, the kiosk is about 5.5m high. About 10 meters to the east rise the base and the lower part of another tabernacle. The parts found were not enough to reconstruct it entirely, but we see enough to recognize that it looked like the neighboring monument, with slight differences. Very near and almost alike, the two tabernacles looked at each other. It is probable that in ancient times, as in our days, the feet of these two chapels plunged into the water. This one defended against the laymen the approach of these sanctuaries.
13. Afqa Temple
The Afqa Temple (Fig. 30) is located 40 km from Byblos, a day's walk on the Lebanese mountains overlooking the valley of the Nahr Ibrahim River. The temple is dedicated to Astarte. It included a pool fed by a spring, whose remains are still visible, and pipes for lustrations related to worship. The temple had a sacred wood in its neighborhood (Fig. 30). Lucien in the Syrian goddess, reports, as one of the oldest temples of Phoenicia, a building that he visited while climbing Byblos in Lebanon, for a day. This is the Afqa Temple and this excursion was certainly made following the valley of the Adonis River, now Nahr-Ibrahim. At the time, this valley was "a kind of holy land of Adonis, filled with temples and monuments dedicated to its worship".Although most of the ruins found in this valley date back to the Roman period, it must be taken into consideration that these ruins could be built on Phoenician remains of a much older period.
14. Temple on medals at Byblos
We know the plan of this temple only by medals from the Roman period (Fig. 51). The set shown by the medals consists of two distinct parts. On the left there is a cella, surmounted by a triangular pediment, on the right one sees a vast court around which a portico reigns. In the center of this courtyard stands a stone of conical shape, symbol of the divinity. It is surrounded by a stone that can be a balustrade to protect it from prying touches, without rejecting the possibility that this stone can be an altar of sacrifice. The courtyard is higher than the surrounding ground, and it is reached by a wide staircase leading to a colonnade forming a propyla in front of the enclosure. The lateral temple must be in the time of the Seleucids or even before. Note that the plan here is substantially the same as in Amrit. The difference is that the gallery leans against a wall built and not cut rock. The layout is the same. The sacred cone replaces the massive chapel. The barrier that defends it plays here the same role as there water that covers the floor of the yard. It is always the same principle, but here the symbol representing the divine power, stood in the open air, exposed to all eyes, while Amrith was locked in a closed chapel The barrier that defends it plays here the same role as there water that covers the floor of the yard. It is always the same principle, but here the symbol representing the divine power, stood in the open air, exposed to all eyes, while Amrith was locked in a closed chapel The barrier that defends it plays here the same role as there water that covers the floor of the yard. It is always the same principle, but here the symbol representing the divine power, stood in the open air, exposed to all eyes, while Amrith was locked in a closed chapel.
15. Temple of Eshmoun
The Eshmoun Temple stands in Bostan El-Sheikh on the south bank of the El Awwali River north of Sidon. The date of construction of this temple probably dates back to the late sixth century or early fifth century BC. It is probably built by Eshmounazar II Sidonian king as his inscription reveals: "We have built a temple for our Lord Echmoun in Idlal spring in the mountain". The Idlal spring, which supplied the sanctuary with purifying and therapeutic water, was 7 km away in the hills near the sanctuary. The water, arriving in the plain, was thrown into a series of ritual pools connected by canals (Fig. 39).
The oldest construction of the sanctuary was a first podium with four inclined walls. He returns in the middle of the VI century BC.It collapsed quickly and major expansion work seems to have taken place by Bodashtart, King of Sidon, which probably included a new podium of 60 x 40.6 m² surface and 25 meters high. The podium is supported by a huge wall in large carved blocks. It appears that an ancient temple stood on the podium and presented in the form of oblong cella with pronaos with two columns. A classical temple rubbed it around 380 BC built entirely in marble.
At the beginning of the 3rd century, two spouses were built at the north foot of the podium: the pool of the throne of Astarte and the building with the friezes of children. The latter was probably used as a house for the clergy and warehouses for objects of worship and ex-votos. The astounding throne pool served as an open-air pool measuring 10 x 11 m². The water was brought there by an underground pipe. Integrated into a recess in the back wall, a large empty limestone throne called Astarte is always placed on a pedestal (Fig. 41). In the south of the courtyard is a cella housing unearthed a square cippus which four bulls lean against two at.
16. Temples of Um el-'Amed
The ruins of Um el-'Amed are located on the Phoenician coast 19 kilometers south of Tyre. All included, in the Hellenistic period, two temples: The Temple of Milkashtart and the East Temple. The temple dedicated to Milkashtart is the largest. It overlooks the west and south slopes of a broad rocky ledge. The whole being built on a platform reaching 5 m in the western part (Fig. 45). On this platform, a paved courtyard extends around a cella. Even in its current state stripped of its superstructures, the podium of the cella is seen from almost everywhere on the coast. It rises about 1.20 m from the ground of the esplanade. The cella, oriented from west to east, is currently measuring 24 x 8.5 m². Its eastern end consists of a wall about 2.4 m thick. A restoration of a staircase is possible on its eastern side. Facing his entrance, an altar existed. The cella is bordered on the north by a hypostyle hall, shops and a portico that extends all over the side and its return. A monumental entrance opens to the east, under the portico, and a secondary passage to the middle of the north side. The back wall of these outlying buildings formed what we will call the perbol of the temple. An enclosure protecting the whole.
The other temple, called "East Temple", is similar to the first, it is rectangular in shape (14.5 x 7.8 m²) with a portico court and annexes located in an enclosure. In the temple, an enclosed space containing an empty throne throne called Astarte.
17. Temple of Solomon
To realize his famous temple, Solomon used the services of the King of Tyre Hiram who supplied him with wood from the forests of Lebanon, and qualified personnel, particularly as project manager, Hiram. It is therefore not surprising that the plans and ornamentation of this temple were inspired by those of the Phoenician temples, a sufficient reason to take it into consideration in this study.
The temple rises on the highest point of Jerusalem. From its initial state, or first temple, no vestige has been identified. According to the description of Bible , it was an oblong building, oriented from east to west with its entrance to the east (Fig. 55). It consisted of three rooms in a row: the Ulam (vestibule or portico) separating the temple proper from its square, the Hekal (later called the Saint, the Abode) which was the great hall of worship, and the Debir (the Saint of Saints), the most sacred part, where rested the ark of alliance. In the Hekal was the table of offerings for the "bread of proposals" and the altar of perfumes. As for the altar of burnt offerings, it was in front of the temple proper. Two bronze columns, named Yakin and Boaz, flanked the entrance to the vestibule.
Conclusion
The hills of the mountain of Lebanon or Hermon, made of strong and solid rock, touching the bluish sky seat of the sun by day and the stars at night, exhaling the aroma by the flowers of their meadows and the resin of their trees, full of soft sounds of the fountains springing from their soil, participate in the great song of praise to the creator. Nowadays, anyone who wants to touch the divine beauty of these earthly paradises, has only to go to the mountains of Lebanon today who have escaped from modern urbanism. But what will escape him is that such places, after an introduction of a stone altar, were in themselves, in ancient times, primitive Canaanite Phoenician sanctuaries.
The religious architecture of these primitive shrines has become more sophisticated over time. But this evolution produced at the carnal level, probably did not affect the essence and the symbolism of the elements of the temple which continued to carry always the germs of a primitive form in which reside the secrets of the old religious conception. Chasing these germs, through the elements of the temple helped me in this study, to decipher the religious conceptions that are hidden there.
In my quest for this religious conception of the Canaanite Phoenicians, I searched the depths of ancient times, trying to gather even the slightest clues. I consulted the available ruins of the excavated temples. I carefully surveyed the ancient writers and helped me with the Bible, epigraphic texts, popular traditions, the history of religions, human nature as well as technology. Although this task seemed disappointing, sometimes because of the lack of information, I finally managed to exteriorize many aspects of their religious conceptions and symbolisms. I summarize them in the following.
Canaanite Phoenicians have seen, from the beginning of time, the universe that surrounds them, as a work created and managed by the gods. Science did not exist at this time and all the secrets of the world were considered to be held by the hands of powerful gods. They are responsible for the balance of the world, the fertility of agricultural land, the neutralization of evil powers and other complicated tasks that require enough vigor and wisdom, but also the construction of sacred buildings inhabited by the people. gods serving as residences and administrative centers of the universe. These constructions are none other than the temples which must be built sumptuously to glorify the legitimacy, the power and the achievements of their hosts: the gods and where the faithful can find them,
Temples, houses of the gods, are sacred spaces that can not be used without restrictions or enter without precautions. These precautions, which are measures of separation between their interiors and their secular exteriors, are ensured through thresholds, doors and fences. Other measures require priests and the faithful to be in a state of physical purity. The most important are the cleanliness of the human body, which must be washed away with water. This water, nectar of eternity, presents itself to the human spirit through time and place, as a sign of fertility, cleanliness and purity. The water of purification and ablution is found abundantly in the temple stored in basins as in the Temple in L and that of Baalat Byblos. Between these, a sacred lake existed at the time. Not far away, a deep well of pure water gushed from a deep chasm. The Egyptian goddess Isis, searching for the location of the corpse of her husband Osiris, descended to this well where she acquired a breadth of vision and a spiritual purification which made her able, while ascending, to determine the position of the corpse of Osiris. At the Temple of Eshmoun in Sidon, the water flowing through canals between the spring of Idlal and the nearby river is healing. It can prolong and save life because it is its donor and without which every living species undoubtedly perishes. ascending, to determine the position of the corpse of Osiris. At the Temple of Eshmoun in Sidon, the water flowing through canals between the spring of Idlal and the nearby river is healing. It can prolong and save life because it is its donor and without which every living species undoubtedly perishes. ascending, to determine the position of the corpse of Osiris. At the Temple of Eshmoun in Sidon, the water flowing through canals between the spring of Idlal and the nearby river is healing. It can prolong and save life because it is its donor and without which every living species undoubtedly perishes.
Sometimes the source of water gushes into the temple as Amrit and Afqa where water is thought to have determined the location of the sacred space. At the Temple of Afqa precisely, the source received offerings from the faithful. In the myth of confrontation between Baal and Yam in the texts of Ras Shamra, water presents itself as the primordial matter that preludes all creations and from which, all forms were born. The same idea presents itself with the death of Adonis who represents winter with its rains and fountains followed by its resurrection representing the spring and the organization of the world.
Like water, the sacred mountain, dominating the world and rising to the sky, symbolizes the divine and determines the location of the temple. The mere fact of being high is equivalent to being powerful and saturated with sacredness. The mountain of Lebanon and Hermon, participated by their summits touching the sky, their imposing masses, the majesty of their green forests and the revelation of their snowy peaks to the formation of the religious conception of the Canaanite Phoenician people and constituted of this is the most suitable place for the erection of their primitive temples named High Places.
The High Place, dating back to the first days of the occupation of the region, stood on a hill on which was built an altar of sacrifice, a number of stones were erected called betyles and were one or more trees. The tree was therefore an essential element of the primitive temple because, by paying tribute to the tree, life is glorified in all its forms, nature in its indefatigable and fruitful work. But the green tree originally, is not eternal. He will die when the temple lasts millennia. It is probable that after his death his trunk was piously preserved near the altar under the name of Ashera. The cedar crowning the peaks of Lebanon, received in its turn much homage and represented by its extended period of life, the eternal life privilege of the gods.
The temple imitates, by its form, the cosmic mountain and draws an additional sacrality of this fact. Indeed, the ground levels of the temple rise gradually, following a tripartite arrangement beginning with the forecourt, passing through the courtyard and ending with Naos or Betyl, through stairs and steps to introduce the faithful in higher regions saturated with sacred forces. Another common feature with the mountain is the fact that the temple emerges, just like it, from the earth with a solid stone infrastructure that extends its foundations into the ground. The temple fuses with the soul of the earth and forms with it only one entity, thereby drawing stability, balance and solidity.
The stone also appears in the temple as a residence of the deity. It is the betyle which is nothing other than a sacred stone of often conical shape imitating the sacred mountain. It is important to emphasize here that divinity manifests itself through stone and is not the very stone. The choice of the stone by the faithful comes from the fact that this material is characterized by hardness, roughness and permanence. It is a symbol of longevity and eternity to changes in the biological world, permanently subject to the laws of birth and death.
In the temple stands the stone altar. It is facing the emblem of the deity and the sacrifice is above. Sacrifice is an act of reconciliation with God. It is originally a gift, that the primitive man does to supernatural beings holding in their hands the secrets of the universe to receive their graces and avoid their rages. Animal sacrifice was common. The main sacrifices were: cows, rams, goats, kids, oxen, donkeys, ewes, deer, fish, geese, turtledoves, pigeons and quails. Non-bloody sacrifices are more humble. They sometimes accompany the bloody sacrifices: bunches of grapes, dates, wheat, honey, oil, gold, silver, wool and myrrh. To speak of sacrifice leads to the question of the sacrifice of children mentioned by some ancient authors: did he really exist in Phoenicia? Although many archaeologists agree with classical sources to attest to its existence, other theories tend to consider that children died before their cremation, which seems more likely.
Canaanite Phoenician temples built in the image of the world works of the gods, containing stone betyl, rising like the mountain to heaven, exhaling the fragrance of incense, brooding sacred trees with powerful trunks, full of sounds of instruments mingled with the sweet sounds of the faithful singing in processions, presenting sacrifices on the altar and purifying themselves by the water of springing fountains, participate in the great song of praise to the Creator.
This study of religious symbolism in the Canaanite Phoenician conception through their sanctuaries ends here, but it opens the way for many questions and contemplations that I expose in the following:
A comparison between the tripartite architecture of the Canaanite Phoenician temples and the architecture of the so-called late Roman temples of our region, shows much in common between the two. By analyzing the plan of the so-called temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, for example, we distinguish, in addition to its tripartite distribution, the presence of the traditionally Canaanite Phoenician elements in its main courtyard: 2 columns having no technical role, 2 basins of water and 2 monuments considered altars for lack of evidence to the contrary. Indeed, while there is much evidence of the role of sacrificial altar that had the smallest of them, the destination of the largest continues to intrigue the researchers. At the end of my memory and based on the symbolisms of ascension and stone already studied,
After this trip into the world of religious thoughts of our ancestors who clarified many details, explained enough symbolisms and shed light on several points in relation to their worship, the question about how modern man judges religions old ones arises. This judgment is likely to always fall into the lack of information and the pure subjectivity of modern man who often gives himself the right to despise primitive religious conceptions. For example, there is a widely held idea today that our ancestors worshiped stone despite being an inert and dead material.
Based on this study as well as on any other study related to primitive religious thought all around the world, I can affirm that it is with the values of power, durability and eternity, symbol of the gods, that our ancestors they addressed themselves by venerating the stone and never to its carnal and life-free characters. Is it right then, to despise their religious beliefs which consist, in this case for example, to glorify the permanence and immortality of the stone in a world subject to the laws of birth and death? This question does not open the way to other questions to ask if we can not find today, in any religion, a concrete heritage of worship of stone or other materials which has many points in common with primitive worship?
We have seen that the contemplation of the elements of nature, such as the purifying water, the powerful stone, the vital vegetation and the transcendental ascension, revealed to our ancestors the architecture of the temple and shaped their religious thought. As a result, the examination of the Canaanite Phoenician temple reveals this religious thought that shaped its architecture at the origin of time. This reality is withdrawn even on contemporary sacred spaces, because any modern religious building always carries by its different elements, the seeds of the primitive sanctuary.
As an example I emphasize that nowadays, worship in relation to water persists. Christians continue to organize pilgrimages to sacred water-related sites such as the miraculous springs of Mount Athos in Greece or holy Lourdes in France. In the same way, immersion in the child's water during baptism is considered a new spiritual birth. Muslims, in turn, purify themselves before the five daily prayers with a very precise ritual. The water is in the basins of the mosque courtyards and the sacred source of Zam-zam is an integral part of the Mecca pilgrimage sites. I also give another example in relation to the symbolism of the stone. Catholics continue to paint stone statues representing Christ and the Saints.
Does not this religious truth present a tangible proof that the different religions meet in more common points than anyone imagines? Does it not, therefore, put the religious leaders of today in front of a responsibility, which consists in clarifying this reality, to encourage the faithful to a surplus of tolerance and charity between them?
Boards and Figures
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Figure 1: Byblos in the proto-urban period with a
radiating type plan with the well in the center. |
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Figure 2: Byblos in the period of urban life blossoming with
a spider-like plan with temples and quarters around the well. |
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| Figure 3: The Byblos Well |
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| Figure 4: Section on the crater of the Byblos well. |
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Figure 5: Section on the oval enclosure of
the West Temple and the crater of the source of Byblos. |
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| Figure 6: Plan of the West Temple to the Eneolithic, its enclosure apparently incorporates the well of Byblos. |
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Figure 7: The 2 shots of the West Temple of Byblos corresponding
to the periods of the oval and rectangular enclosure. |
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| Figure 8: Map of the Southwest Temple of Byblos. |
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| Figure 9: Map showing the interweaving of the Southwest Temple and Byblos Staircase Temple. |
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Figure 10: Plan of the Temple of Baalat Gebal in
its last state of the pre-amorphous period. |
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| Figure 11: Model of the last state of the pre-amorphous period of the Temple of Baalat Gebal. |
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Figure 12: Stele of Yehawmilk, King of Byblos -
National Museum of Beirut. |
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Figure 13: Plan of the L-shaped Temple in its last state
before its destruction by the Amorite invasion. |
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| Figure 14: 3-dimensional representation of the Byblos L-Temple in its last state before its destruction by the amorphous invasion. |
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| Figure 15: axonometric representation of the last state of the Temple L before the fire presented on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Beirut in 1950, it highlights the forest of pillars that bare roofs and obelisks of the temple. |
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| Figure 16: The central chapel of the L-shaped temple of Byblos - 2009. |
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| Figure 17: The Threshold of the Isolated Chapel of the Central Court of the Byblos L Temple - 2009. |
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Figure 18: The four large terracotta basins of the
Auxiliary Room of the Byblos-2009 L-shaped central courtyard. |
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| Figure 19: Plan of the Byblos Oriental Temple. |
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| Figure 20: Plan of the Small Temple to Obelisks of Byblos. |
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| Figure 21: Map of the Byblos Obelisk Temple. |
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| Figure 22: Axonometric Representation of the Byblos Obelisk Temple. |
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| Figure 23: Temple of Obelisks of Byblos - 2009. |
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Figure 24: The stairs leading from the forecourt to
the main cella of the Byblos Obelisk Temple - 2009. |
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| Figure 25: Obelisk with hieroglyphic inscription from the Byblos Obelisk Temple - National Museum of Beirut. |
Figure 26: Plan of Baal Temple in Ugarit. |
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| Figure 27: Reconstitution of the Baal Temple in Ugarit. |
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| Figure 28: Plan of the Temple of Tell Arqa. |
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| Figure 29: Plan of the Temple of Tanit-Astarte at Sarepta. |
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| Figure 30: The Podium of the Temple of Afqa where trees appear to grow, among which appears in the center the fig tree on which people hung fabrics in ex-voto - 2010. |
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| Figure 31: An arid branch of fig tree, found at the bottom of the podium of the Afqa Temple with fabrics hanging from it in ex-voto 2010. |
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| Figure 32: Photo of stones from the podium of the sanctuary of Afqa- 2010. |
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| Figure 33: Axonometric representation of the Temple of Amrit. |
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| Figure 34: The Temple of Amrit - 2009. |
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| Figure 35: The Naos of the Temple of Amrit and its Base - 2009. |
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| Figure 36: The two chapels of the sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyat at Amrit. |
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| Figure 37: View of a chapel of the sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyât at Amrit. |
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| Figure 38: Naos cups of the sanctuary of A'in-el-Hayyat and its base. |
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| Figure 39: Plan of Echmoun Temple near Sidon. |
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| Figure 40: Child statue with Phoenician inscription on its base, from Eshmoun Temple - National Museum of Beirut. |
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| Figure 41: Throne of the Espress Pool at Eshmoun Temple - 2010. |
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| Figure 42: Throne of Astarte from Sidon - National Museum of Beirut |
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| Figure 43: Throne of Astarte from Tyre - National Museum of Beirut. |
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| Figure 44: Throne of Astarte from Sidon - National Museum of Beirut. |
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| Figure 45: Axonometric representation of the two Temples of Umm el-'Amed. |
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| Figure 46: Altar of sacrifice discovered by Dunand in 1927 in Baalat Gebal Temple . |
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| Figure 47: Altar of sacrifice from Petra High Place in Jordan - 2008. |
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| Figure 48: Altar of the horn type from Ugarit. |
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| Figure 49: Fragrant altar with Phoenician inscription from Byblos. |
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| Figure 50: Altar appendage of a grave from Tyre. |
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| Figure 51: Temple on a coin from the Roman period of Byblos showing on the left a cella, surmounted by a triangular pediment and on the right a vast courtyard with a conical stone in the center and around which there is a portico. |
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| Figure 52: Roman coins of Tyre representing the High Place of the city. |
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| Figure 53: Sidon coins representing a processional chariot on which rests a stretcher, itself loaded with a globe surrounded by various accessories.. |
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| Figure 54: Cypriot currency showing the Paphos sanctuary. |
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| Figure 55: Plan of Solomon's Temple. |
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| Cross section of King Solomon's Temple |
Figure 56: Map of Canaanite Phoenician Territory Before the Arrival of the Israelites
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| Map of Canaan Phoenicia Before Occupation by Israelites |
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Bibliography
Index
Table of Contents.
Note:
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