 Jezebel,
the queen whose name became synonymous with all things lewd
and wicked, probably wielded a fair bit of power in ancient
Israel, suggests a stone document seal newly traced to the
Biblical "bad girl."
Originally discovered in Israel
in 1964, the intricate seal was suspected all along to
belong to Queen Jezebel, but confusion over the letters
engraved on the stone left some uncertainty.
Recently, closer scrutiny of the seal's engraving revealed
markings characteristic of royal objects.
"The
lion-sphinx with female head and female Isis-Hathor crown,
which is unique, this clearly points to a queen," said Marjo
Korpel, an Old Testament scholar at the University of
Utrecht who conducted the research.
The seal confirms
that Jezebel, who eventually met a gory demise, was a
powerful figure in the ancient world who conducted business
independent of her husband.
Complete results of the
University of Utrecht study are published in a recent volume
of the Journal for Semitics.
Royal symbols
borrowed from Egypt
Jezebel, whose life in
the 9th century B.C. is chronicled in the Bible, was married
to King Ahab of Israel.
As a Phoenician, the Queen
was considered pagan and attempted to sway the people of
Israel to abandon their God and accept her chief deity Baal,
partly through forging her husband's seal on documents,
according to the scriptures.
The Bible says nothing
of her own seal, but archaeologists have long believed that
the stone discovered in 1964 was Jezebel's, despite the
ambiguity of the symbols and the name depicted on it.
Multiple icons on the seal, as well as its above-average
size, indicate that it belonged to a queen, the recent
investigations concluded.
"The lotus (below the Horus
falcon) was a symbol of gender definition and refers to a
female owner," Korpel told LiveScience, "[while] the winged
sun disk was a well-known symbol of royalty in and outside
Israel."
Other symbols on the seal also reinforce the
connection to a monarch, such as the Horus and double-cobra,
a figure probably adopted from Egypt, she said.
A
misspelling of the name "yzbl" — the queen's moniker in
ancient Hebrew — also had archaeologists confused.
However, by comparing the seal to similar examples from the
time, Korpel found that an upper edge that had broken off
likely contained the two missing letters that would have
correctly spelled Jezebel's name.
Pagan queen
had power
With her own seal, Queen Jezebel
was able to exert a powerful influence upon people around
her, much like the Egyptian queens, Korpel said.
"The
biblical texts already prove that she was a powerful woman.
The queens in Egypt ... all have in common their prominent
roles in religion, politics and representational art, and
their status as principal wife. This also seems to count for
Queen Jezebel," said Korpel.
Unlike Egypt, however,
biblical Israel did not look favorably upon powerful women.
Jezebel was ultimately perceived as a threat and foreign
idol worshipper, accused of prostitution, murder and sorcery
and tossed from her window to be ravaged by dogs.
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309761,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/archaeology
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