Tallay Ornan
Biographic Data
| ID | 1193209 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tallay Ornan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tallay |
| FAMILY NAME | Ornan |
| SIGNATURE | ORNAN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3711-3140 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
“The Lord Will Roar from Zion” (Amos 1
A stamp seal bearing the image of a roaring lion and a Hebrew legend was found during the excavations of the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem. It is the first seal with a lion motif to be published from Iron Age II Jerusalem, and one of only a few from Judah bearing a lion motif. Two other glyptic finds include a fragment of a scaraboid, inscribed in Hebrew, and a bulla, with a palmette and traces of a Hebrew inscription. These finds are an importan…
Member in the Entourage of Yahweh
A seal engraved with a four-winged uraeus was discovered in the area near the Iron Age four-room house in the Western Wall Plaza excavations, Jerusalem. The rendering is schematic, emphasizing the unsophisticated workmanship of the seal. This seal joins quite a few similar late eighth- or seventh-century BCE representations from Judah, hinting at an association of the four-winged uraeus with Yahwistic symbolism
Babylonian-Inspired Biblical Features and the Yahwistic Exilic History
The framing of the Hebrew Bible in the Mesopotamian-Babylonian landscape is evident in two of its central themes. First, Abraham, the forefather of the Hebrews, is presented as a native of Ur in south Mesopotamia, whence he left for Harran and then reached the Promised Land. Second is the exile of the Judahite elites to Babylonia, and the later return of some of them to Jerusalem to build their Second Temple. As the Bible was written, rewritten, …
An Israelite Residency at Mahanaim in Transjordan
The Throne and the Enthroned
A seal impression found on a bulla from the City of David depicting a throne and two winged discs may corroborate the assumption that the conceived image of Yahweh in Iron II Jerusalem was of a human-like form. Through a succinct description on the emergence of the hegemonic concept that negates any (conceived) material aspects of Yahweh, a distinction is made between the practical-cultic nature of the biblical Image Ban and the Bible’s ontologic…
Unfinished Business
A reexamination of the relief on the Hammurabi’s “Law Code” stele reveals that the type of beard worn by Hammurabi and Šamaš does not conform to the Old Babylonian beard type. Moreover, the linear workmanship of the lower part of the king’s beard suggests that the relief was never finished. Considering the troubled history of the stele—made and erected in Babylonia in the late fifties of the eighteenth century BCE and carried away to Susa in the …
Sketches and Final Works of Art
This study examines the role of the pithoi drawings and wall paintings of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. The author suggests that the pithoi drawings were sketches made in preparation for the wall paintings. Therefore, the repeated attempts to find meaning in the layout of the drawings on the pithoi, or to trace links between them and the inscriptions seem futile. She argues that only an investigation of the pottery drawings and the wall paintings as one asse…
A Rediscovered Lost Seal From Gezer
A carnelian pebble stamp seal excavated by Macalister at Gezer and believed lost, and a seal kept today in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, are one and the same. A cast of the original kept by the Palestine Exploration Fund in London proves to be identical to the seal in Jerusalem. The unique iconography of the seal showing a man in a cultic gesture in front of a griffin, as well as its stylistic details, show it to be an Assyrianized product…
The Long Life of a Dead King
A Middle Bronze Age gold-coated bronze statue of a seated king found in a Late Bronze Age context on the acropolis of Tel Hazor is interpreted as an old icon of a dead king whose image was still meaningful centuries after its production. It is suggested that the Middle Bronze Age royal statue was used by a Late Bronze Age king of Hazor to reinforce his rule. The article discusses the role played by statues of dead kings in the memory of the past …
Let Baʿal Be Enthroned”
Who is holding the lead rope? The relief of the Broken Obelisk
The step-topped, free-standing square monument called in modern literature the Broken Obelisk was found by Hormuzd Rassam at Nineveh, near the Ishtar temple on the mound of Kuyunjik. It is the earliest monument of this kind, and it differs in its pictorial rendering from the later, so-called Assyrian obelisks. Whereas the succeeding examples display reliefs on their four sides, creating consecutive narratives, the Broken Obelisk exhibits a single…
Idols and Symbols
First-millennium Mesopotamian art reveals a strong tendency to avoid the representation of human-shaped deities. Considering the historical framework, such a tendency may suggest Mesopotamian inspiration in the ancient Israelite negation of divine representation as articulated in the biblical image ban. This inspiration may indicate that biblical repudiation of the image of the divine was not necessarily shaped as a response to opposed alien reli…
Expelling demons at Nineveh
As has been shown and extensively dealt with in early and more recent scholarship, Neo-Assyrian palatial wall reliefs went through many thematic changes throughout their two hundred and fifty years of existence. One of their conspicuous traits was a gradual abandoning of magical-religious subject matters, represented by protective supernatural beings, in favour of larger and more detailed historical compositions — mostly of a belligerent nature —…
Expelling Demons at Nineveh
As has been shown and extensively dealt with in early and more recent scholarship, Neo-Assyrian palatial wall reliefs went through many thematic changes throughout their two hundred and fifty years of existence. One of their conspicuous traits was a gradual abandoning of magical-religious subject matters, represented by protective supernatural beings, in favour of larger and more detailed historical compositions — mostly of a belligerent nature —…
Idols and Symbols
First-millennium Mesopotamian art reveals a strong tendency to avoid the representation of human-shaped deities. Considering the historical framework, such a tendency may suggest Mesopotamian inspiration in the ancient Israelite negation of divine representation as articulated in the biblical image ban. This inspiration may indicate that biblical repudiation of the image of the divine was not necessarily shaped as a response to opposed alien reli…
Sketches and Final Works of Art
This study examines the role of the pithoi drawings and wall paintings of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. The author suggests that the pithoi drawings were sketches made in preparation for the wall paintings. Therefore, the repeated attempts to find meaning in the layout of the drawings on the pithoi, or to trace links between them and the inscriptions seem futile. She argues that only an investigation of the pottery drawings and the wall paintings as one asse…
Let Baʿal Be Enthroned”
The Throne and the Enthroned
A seal impression found on a bulla from the City of David depicting a throne and two winged discs may corroborate the assumption that the conceived image of Yahweh in Iron II Jerusalem was of a human-like form. Through a succinct description on the emergence of the hegemonic concept that negates any (conceived) material aspects of Yahweh, a distinction is made between the practical-cultic nature of the biblical Image Ban and the Bible’s ontologic…
Unfinished Business
A reexamination of the relief on the Hammurabi’s “Law Code” stele reveals that the type of beard worn by Hammurabi and Šamaš does not conform to the Old Babylonian beard type. Moreover, the linear workmanship of the lower part of the king’s beard suggests that the relief was never finished. Considering the troubled history of the stele—made and erected in Babylonia in the late fifties of the eighteenth century BCE and carried away to Susa in the …
Idols and Symbols
First-millennium Mesopotamian art reveals a strong tendency to avoid the representation of human-shaped deities. Considering the historical framework, such a tendency may suggest Mesopotamian inspiration in the ancient Israelite negation of divine representation as articulated in the biblical image ban. This inspiration may indicate that biblical repudiation of the image of the divine was not necessarily shaped as a response to opposed alien reli…
Expelling demons at Nineveh
As has been shown and extensively dealt with in early and more recent scholarship, Neo-Assyrian palatial wall reliefs went through many thematic changes throughout their two hundred and fifty years of existence. One of their conspicuous traits was a gradual abandoning of magical-religious subject matters, represented by protective supernatural beings, in favour of larger and more detailed historical compositions — mostly of a belligerent nature —…
Expelling Demons at Nineveh
As has been shown and extensively dealt with in early and more recent scholarship, Neo-Assyrian palatial wall reliefs went through many thematic changes throughout their two hundred and fifty years of existence. One of their conspicuous traits was a gradual abandoning of magical-religious subject matters, represented by protective supernatural beings, in favour of larger and more detailed historical compositions — mostly of a belligerent nature —…
Idols and Symbols
First-millennium Mesopotamian art reveals a strong tendency to avoid the representation of human-shaped deities. Considering the historical framework, such a tendency may suggest Mesopotamian inspiration in the ancient Israelite negation of divine representation as articulated in the biblical image ban. This inspiration may indicate that biblical repudiation of the image of the divine was not necessarily shaped as a response to opposed alien reli…
Who is holding the lead rope? The relief of the Broken Obelisk
The step-topped, free-standing square monument called in modern literature the Broken Obelisk was found by Hormuzd Rassam at Nineveh, near the Ishtar temple on the mound of Kuyunjik. It is the earliest monument of this kind, and it differs in its pictorial rendering from the later, so-called Assyrian obelisks. Whereas the succeeding examples display reliefs on their four sides, creating consecutive narratives, the Broken Obelisk exhibits a single…
Let Baʿal Be Enthroned”
The Long Life of a Dead King
A Middle Bronze Age gold-coated bronze statue of a seated king found in a Late Bronze Age context on the acropolis of Tel Hazor is interpreted as an old icon of a dead king whose image was still meaningful centuries after its production. It is suggested that the Middle Bronze Age royal statue was used by a Late Bronze Age king of Hazor to reinforce his rule. The article discusses the role played by statues of dead kings in the memory of the past …
A Rediscovered Lost Seal From Gezer
A carnelian pebble stamp seal excavated by Macalister at Gezer and believed lost, and a seal kept today in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, are one and the same. A cast of the original kept by the Palestine Exploration Fund in London proves to be identical to the seal in Jerusalem. The unique iconography of the seal showing a man in a cultic gesture in front of a griffin, as well as its stylistic details, show it to be an Assyrianized product…
Sketches and Final Works of Art
This study examines the role of the pithoi drawings and wall paintings of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. The author suggests that the pithoi drawings were sketches made in preparation for the wall paintings. Therefore, the repeated attempts to find meaning in the layout of the drawings on the pithoi, or to trace links between them and the inscriptions seem futile. She argues that only an investigation of the pottery drawings and the wall paintings as one asse…
The Throne and the Enthroned
A seal impression found on a bulla from the City of David depicting a throne and two winged discs may corroborate the assumption that the conceived image of Yahweh in Iron II Jerusalem was of a human-like form. Through a succinct description on the emergence of the hegemonic concept that negates any (conceived) material aspects of Yahweh, a distinction is made between the practical-cultic nature of the biblical Image Ban and the Bible’s ontologic…
Unfinished Business
A reexamination of the relief on the Hammurabi’s “Law Code” stele reveals that the type of beard worn by Hammurabi and Šamaš does not conform to the Old Babylonian beard type. Moreover, the linear workmanship of the lower part of the king’s beard suggests that the relief was never finished. Considering the troubled history of the stele—made and erected in Babylonia in the late fifties of the eighteenth century BCE and carried away to Susa in the …
An Israelite Residency at Mahanaim in Transjordan
“The Lord Will Roar from Zion” (Amos 1
A stamp seal bearing the image of a roaring lion and a Hebrew legend was found during the excavations of the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem. It is the first seal with a lion motif to be published from Iron Age II Jerusalem, and one of only a few from Judah bearing a lion motif. Two other glyptic finds include a fragment of a scaraboid, inscribed in Hebrew, and a bulla, with a palmette and traces of a Hebrew inscription. These finds are an importan…
Member in the Entourage of Yahweh
A seal engraved with a four-winged uraeus was discovered in the area near the Iron Age four-room house in the Western Wall Plaza excavations, Jerusalem. The rendering is schematic, emphasizing the unsophisticated workmanship of the seal. This seal joins quite a few similar late eighth- or seventh-century BCE representations from Judah, hinting at an association of the four-winged uraeus with Yahwistic symbolism
Babylonian-Inspired Biblical Features and the Yahwistic Exilic History
The framing of the Hebrew Bible in the Mesopotamian-Babylonian landscape is evident in two of its central themes. First, Abraham, the forefather of the Hebrews, is presented as a native of Ur in south Mesopotamia, whence he left for Harran and then reached the Promised Land. Second is the exile of the Judahite elites to Babylonia, and the later return of some of them to Jerusalem to build their Second Temple. As the Bible was written, rewritten, …
Ancient Near East History (13 works) · Art (13 works) · History (13 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · History (6 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (4 works)