Abstract
A stamp seal with complex religious motifs was unearthed from the tenth century BC stratum of Tel ‘En Gev, Israel. This seal will be a valuable source for understanding the largely unknown religion of Geshur, a kingdom on the north-east border of Israel. In this article we analyze it and set it in the religious history of the region. The seal is a steatite, conoid-type stamp seal, a type which was probably introduced into the southern Levant by the influence of the NeoHittite culture at the beginning of the Iron Age. In the upper part, a degenerated tree of life is depicted between two facing animals; this probably reflects an early stage in the gradual disappearance of the tree of life motif during the Iron Age. The tree of life was identified with the fertility goddess during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, but by the end of the Late Bronze Age, the goddess had disappeared from the iconography, and the relationship between the tree and the goddess was weakened. After Iron Age IIB, the tree of life itself became rare in the religious iconography of the region. Under the tree of life, a large horned quadruped suckling its young is engraved; this animal does not seem to be a recipient of the blessings of the tree of life, but rather an independent symbol of blessings. Two scorpions are also depicted; they were a symbol of fertility often used after the disappearance of the goddess. The combination of these figures suggests that a major religious change, especially with regard to the cult of the fertility goddess, was occurring during the beginning of the Iron Age, not only in Israel but also in the neighboring areas.
