The Good and Evil Serpent (16 page)

Figure 19
. Ein Samiya Silver Cup. 2250–2000 BCE. Courtesy of the Israel Museum.

A sheet-silver cup was found in an Early Bronze Age tomb at Ein Samiya. It shows two fat serpents with large eyes, nostrils, and closed mouths.
²³
One serpent with odd markings around its mouth and with circular markings on its body looks left and rises up in an undulating form to a strange plant held in the left hand of a Janus-headed figure with bull’s hindquarters. The other serpent, with diagonal markings, looks right and crouches with its tail curled beneath it; the serpent is below two human figures who hold a crescent-shaped object within which is a rosette with a human face in the center. The iconography is unique, but individual features link it with Mesopotamia.
²⁴

Y. Yadin rightly saw a connection between the mythological scene in this cup and the Enuma Elish (“The Creation Epic”). The text mentions monstrous serpents or dragons whose bodies are filled with venom and that rear up. Yadin suggested that the cup’s left scene shows a deity neutralizing “the poison of the monsters with plants grasped in his outstretched hands.”
²⁵
The right scene could be one of triumph. The serpents seem to have been chosen to evoke fear and wonder before an awesome god. Most likely the cup was made in Mesopotamia or elsewhere and imported into Canaan.

Ancient Palestinian culture was influenced by Babylonian art. The Su-merians and the Akkadians revered, even worshipped, snake gods. Sometimes the god is represented with anguipedes (serpent legs and feet) and sometimes as a dragon-serpent.
²⁶
The mythical animal may be a beast with seven serpent heads.
²⁷
As E. Douglas Van Buren stated, “from prehistoric days until the Seleucid era there is no evidence to show that the dragon was inimical to the gods or malevolent towards mankind. It inspired awe because it possessed supernatural qualities.” Indeed, in Sumer and Akkad, the symbol of the serpent or dragon-serpent was “always regarded as a talisman which averted drought and consequent famine.” Serpent symbolism was “a happy omen of abundance and blessing.”
²⁸

Jericho

Jericho, in the Jordan Valley east of Jerusalem, may be the oldest continuing city in the world. One of the monumental structures there is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic tower that seems to antedate 8000
BCE
. Debates continue on the intended use of this structure. The city (Tel es-Sultan) is about 10 kilometers north of the Dead Sea and 230 meters below sea level, on the Great African Rift Valley. Jericho was a major city on the caravan route from the East to the West, and famous primarily because of the biblical account of the entrance into the “Promised Land” by the Hebrews under the leadership of Joshua (Josh 2–6). Early historians, in particular Strabo, Pliny, and Josephus, emphasized Jericho’s strategic location, both economically and militarily.

Although the archaeological evidence at Jericho stretches back before the ninth millennium
BCE
, serpents do not appear as symbols until long after the development of culture and civilization.
²⁹
In an MBIIB stratum of Jericho dated to circa 1700
BCE
, in a chamber that apparently stored temple objects of unusual quality, were found fragments of a ceramic vessel bearing a serpent with its mouth open.
³⁰
It was recovered from seventy-three pieces and laboriously put back together. It is imperative to observe that this vessel with ophidian symbolism belonged with a group of vessels reserved for sacred use. Hence, J. Garstang, the excavator, opined that the “snake was in fact a terrestrial emblem of the Mother-goddess, symbolizing Life within the Earth.”
³¹

In a Middle Bronze Age tomb at Jericho was found a ceramic vessel with two serpents. Here is K. M. Kenyon’s description of the pottery vessel in zoomorphic form:

The filling aperture is a cup on the bird’s back, up which climbs a snake to drink. The pouring aperture is the bird’s mouth. Another snake, partially broken away, is curled round the bird’s neck and along the top of the head. Feathers of wings and tail are indicated by incisions. Found in scattered sherds, but nearly complete.
³²

Each serpent has numerous dots to signify skin, and the eyes are prominently featured. The serpent on the neck, looking down into the vessel, has three curves. The object should not be designated “Bird Vase,” but “Elegant Bird Vase with Two Serpents.”

The serpents are clearly positive symbols and nonthreatening. Their mouths appear to be directed to the opening from which water would pour out. The ophidian iconography probably symbolizes the protection of the contents that embody health and life. Water and milk that would probably have been contained in such vessels can provide not only health but also sickness, and before the invention of refrigeration the ancients could only appeal to serpents for protection.

Figure 20
. Large Shard with Serpent, with Dots to Designate Skin. MB. From Jericho. Courtesy of the Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities, Trinity College, Dublin, Accession No. WM 104.

Ashkelon

Ashkelon is on the Mediterranean coast in the south of ancient Palestine. The beginnings of Ashkelon can be dated to about 2000
BCE
; thus, the name Ashkelon is a pre-Philistine name and is Canaanite or Amorite. The tell is massive; it covers a little over 100 hectares. Ekron and Dan extend only to about 20 hectares each.
³³
At Ashkelon archaeologists found a red-clay pottery Canaanite storage jar with two serpents on its shoulder, one on each side and near the handles. The jar was discovered in Grid 50, Square 48, Feature (= Locus) 487, and comes from a tomb. It dates from MBIIB or about 1800
BCE
. The jar was found in 1996 and is unpublished until now.
³⁴
Each serpent is incised with prominent eyes. Most unusual in early art, but found in the Hellenistic depictions of serpents,
³⁵
are the three short spreading lines coming out of the mouth of the serpent. These lines may indicate the forked (bifid) tongue that informs the serpent about its surroundings and, perhaps, also symbolizes the powerful venom.
³⁶
They are strikingly similar to the ophidian image found at Arad that dates from the Early Bronze Age.

One serpent is carefully incised and has eight curves, probably to indicate it is in motion. A horizontal line is deeply etched in front of its head. The other serpent is less sophisticated, and has no clear undulations and no horizontal strokes before the mouth. Unique, as far as I can detect, are the incisions to denote serpents and the discovery of them on a Canaanite storage jar. These are locally produced ophidian images, since there is little or no Egyptian pottery at Ashkelon, and typological analysis indicates that the objects were most likely made in or near this site. The ophidian iconography probably symbolized the protector of the contents of the jar, usually wine or oil.

Shechem (Tell Balatah)

Shechem lies on the main road that leads northward from Jerusalem. It is situated at the eastern end of a pass that continues between two famous mountains, Ebal to the north and Gerizim to the south. Shechem is also located between Jacob’s Well and New Testament Sychar, just as described in the fourth century by Eusebius (in his
Onomasticon)
and by the Bordeaux Pilgrim and in the sixth century on the Madaba map.

In 1927, E. Sellin and his team found the remains of a clay vessel at Shechem. It has a serpent attached to it. Dark circles are painted on its body, which is mostly straight.
³⁷
The vessel with a serpent dates from the Middle Bronze Age and was found in the temple. That provenance clearly indicates positive meanings for the serpent and reveals that there was probably a serpent cult there.

In 1934, H. Steckeweh found a small limestone plaque at Shechem with iconography that seems to denote a serpent. The large serpent moves from the earth to the pudenda of a goddess. F. M. Th. Bohl judged it to be from the Middle Bronze Age.
³⁸
Both Albright and J. B. Pritchard concurred with this approximate date.
³⁹
Albright opined that the plaque represented the serpent goddess.
⁴⁰

The evidence of ophidian iconography at Shechem has increased with more recent research.
⁴¹
Two MBIIB pottery sherds with serpent motifs were found in Strata 18s and 20.
⁴²
The shards were unearthed during the excavations from 1956 to 1973. It is a pity that the evidence of serpent imagery at Shechem is now in such a fragmented state that little may be discerned about the meaning of serpent symbolism there.

Megiddo

Clearly one of the most impressive mounds representing the remains of ancient cities is Megiddo, which is situated on the
via maris
(the way of the sea), as it continues northward from the Sharon Plain into the Jezreel Valley. It is about thirty-two kilometers south of Haifa. The strata at Megiddo run from Chalcolithic (somewhat before 3300
BCE
) to Iron II (600–350), according to the field director, Gordon Loud, in 1948.
⁴³

Two bronze serpents were found at Megiddo. One was discovered in Stratum X, which dates to 1650–1550
BCE
.
⁴⁴
It is elongated with an upraised head and is 18 centimeters long. The serpent has no details. The other bronze serpent is also elongated and straighter; it is 10 centimeters long. It has a rounded but triangular head and no markings. It was found in a later stratum (LBIIB or Iron I).

Archaeologists noted serpent symbolism at Megiddo on a pottery bowl that was found in Stratum XIIIA or XII that dates to the eighteenth century
BCE
.
⁴⁵
The well-crafted bowl is associated with the cult and has an image of four bull heads; these are separated by four serpents. The serpents are elongated with upraised heads, and two dots in vertical rows are neatly arranged, perhaps to signify the skin. The line of dots is visible in Plate 26. The bulls, but not the serpents, are given eyes. The zoomorphic animals are applied pottery. Since the serpents are associated with the bulls and the latter were symbols of divinity, power, and sexuality in antiquity, then the serpents most likely also were assigned some, or all, of these features;
⁴⁶
snakes clearly represent these concepts in other contexts.

In a Middle Bronze or Late Bronze Age tomb, numbered 1100C,
⁴⁷
at Megiddo excavators found a vase with a long serpent.
⁴⁸
The serpent curls artistically around the base of the long spout and lies on the upper section of the body of the bowl. The serpent is not near the rim, as in many other examples. In another tomb at Megiddo, dated to MBII, were found three jugs bearing serpent motifs on the handles.
⁴⁹
In each case the serpent is more stylized than detailed; no dots, eyes, or tongue are depicted, and the serpent’s tail recedes into the jug. One handle is connected to the rim, as is usual, and the serpent does not reach to the rim (P 3060). Two other features are distinguished. The handle is attached only to the bowl and the neck is more truncated. No heads are shown; the slanting “head” of one serpent clearly ends on the handle (P 3083); the other’s “head” reaches over from the handle to the rim and rests on the outside of the rim (P 3061).
⁵⁰

Other ophidian iconography seems to be among the archaeological discoveries, but went undetected. Perhaps three bronze bracelets are ophidian-shaped (Plate 87:7, 8, 9).
⁵¹
One seems to have a well-defined serpent head and tail (Plate 87:9 [M 937]).
⁵²
It was found in Locus 310 of Stratum IV or circa 1000 to 800
BCE
, according to the excavators of 1925–1934.
⁵³
Also, in Strata I-IV eight scarabs with a uraeus or uraei were found at Megiddo.
⁵⁴
Scarabs with images of serpents, with one or more uraei, are found all over ancient Palestine.
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Scarabs and amulets are not mentioned in this survey, unless they are in stratified layers, since they usually are Egyptian and not local.
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