The Ammonites: Bible and Archaeology

The Ammonites are one of the frequent antagonists of ancient Israel. This wealthy urban polity sits beneath the modern day city of Amman in Jordan. What do we know of it's ancient history? What does the Bible tell us about these people? And what can archaeology contribute to our knowledge about these foes of ancient Israel?
#archaeology #bible #Archaeology #biblicalarchaeology #ammon #ammonites #amman #ancienthistory
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If you'd like to read more here are just a few of the sources we used in this video:
Philip Webb, "Ammon," in the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, Holman Reference: 2015.
Edward Lipinski, On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age: Historical and Topographical Researches. Leuven: Peeters Publishing, 2006.
Oded Lipschits, “Ammon in Transition from Vassal Kingdom to Babylonian Province,” BASOR 335 (2004): 35-50
Randall Younker, “The Emergence of Ammon: A View of the Rise of Iron Age Polities from the Other Side of the Jordan,” in The Near East in the Southwest: Essays in Honor of William G. Dever, edited by Beth Albert Nakhai. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research Volume 58, Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2013: 153-176.
Øystein LaBianca and Randall Younker, “The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom: The Archaeology of Society in the Late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (CA. 1400-500 BCE),” in The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, edited by Thomas E. Levy. London: Leicester University Press, 1995.
Craig W. Tyson, “The Religion of the Ammonites: A Specimen of Levantine Religion from the Iron Age II (ca. 1000-500 BCE),” Religions (2019) doi:10.3390/rel10030153
Aufrecht, W. E. 2019 A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions. University Park, Pennsylvania: Eisenbrauns.
Burnett, J. S. 2016 “Egyptianizing Elements in Ammonite Stone Statuary: The Atef Crown and Lotus.” In 9 ICAANE: Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (June 9-13, 2014, University of Basel). Volume 1: Traveling Images, edited by R. A. von Stucky, O. Kaelin, and H.-P. Mathys, 57-71. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Daviau, P. M. M., and P.-E. Dion. 1994 “El, the God of the Ammonites? The Atef-Crowned Head from Tell Jawa, Jordan.” Zeitschrift des Deutschen PalästinaVereins 110: 158-167.
Horn, S. G. 1973. “The Crown of the King of the Ammonites.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 11: 170-180.
Loon, M. van. 1986. “The Drooping Lotus Flower.” In Insight Through Images: Studies in Honor of Edith Porada, edited by Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, 242-252, pls. 59-61. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 21. Malibu: Undena Publications.
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00:38 The Ammonites in the Bible
03:28 The land of the Ammonites
05:55 A History of the Ammonites
07:40 Ammonite Kings (statuary)
08:53 Milcom (Molek) and Ammonite gods
09:53 Later Ammonite History
11:00 Don't forget to like and subscribe!

[@js1423]

Another solid video-presentation!

[@raptagon2303]

8:14 Statue on far right looks like a samurai. The head dress.

[@angelodcollazo]

Also, would it be possible to see a photo replica of what the Atef crown would have looked like? Was it solid gold or made out of some other material(s)?

[@angelodcollazo]

This was so cool, especially the part about the crowns, thanks guys! Speaking of crowns, could you recommend where I might find information of what King Saul's and King David's crowns may have looked like? Thank you.

[@BeneaththeBible]

That's a great question. We don't have any depictions of Judahite kings or any actual royal artifacts. There is a depiction of the Israelite king Jehu on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser that may give some indication of what Israelite monarchs wore as a crown. There is also a figurine head that was found at Abel beth Maacah a few years ago that may be either an Israelite or Aramean king (but also maybe just a noble or elite) that has a band-like crown. So that may be a good parallel. There really isn't a lot of definitive evidence for us to say what their crowns may have looked like. We can do some digging and see what other parallels may be out there. As for the atef crown it would likely have been made of other materials and where there was gold it would have been a thin layer of it. Again, I don't know that there are any surviving examples but we can check into that too!

[@angelodcollazo]

@@BeneaththeBible Thanks for the great info! Yes any further research you do would be amazing (please)! Where can I find the two depictions you mention here? (Or would a simple Google search do the trick?)

[@juanmaguire6482]

El was a canaanite god and was worshipped by the hamites. The ammonites and moabites lived in and around the canaanite empire but are shemites, they are from the sons of shem son of noah

[@juanmaguire6482]

The Ammonites adopted the crown idea to keep the egyptians coming after them after the flight, this is an assimilation tactic, the ammorites were in egypt earlier as the descendants of lot and worshipped yahweh at the time

[@quinthonyallen6258]

I got it

[@js1423]

Could the name Yarih'ezer be connected to Semitic moon-god Yareah?

[@BeneaththeBible]

I'm not sure specifically about this name and the moon-god but that's a great catch! We didn't dive into the lunar cult amongst the Ammonites but there's some good research on this subject. There's an article by Craig Tyson (The Religion of the Ammonites: A Specimen of Levantine Religion from the Iron II ca. 1000-500 BCE) that explores the Ammonite lunar cult. It seems worshipping the moon god was fairly prevalent amongst the Ammonites. So while I don't know specifically about the name Yarih'ezer it would make a lot of sense that it does mean something like "Yarih (the moon god) is help" or somewhere in that ballpark.

[@js1423]

@@BeneaththeBible Thanks! Did all the people of the Levant all see their deities as members of the same pantheon, such as Baal of Ugarit, Chemosh of Moab, Dagon of Philistia, Milcom of Ammon etc?

[@cortilusgrant7675]

Rest in the good news ⚘ 🌚 👍 okay bye

[@lazarusthibodeaux]

Proving Jesus or any other person from the Bible existed does not prove the existence of divinity.

[@feliciadogbe1313]

Argue it out instead of being a salty troll.