Horse Statues in Seventh Century Jerusalem

Ancient Social Formations and the Evaluation of Religious Diversity

Bibliographic Data

ID24035591
AuthorsTerje Stordalen (0000-0003-4531-1243, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume4
Issue1
Pages106-132
Publication date2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2192-2276 • E-ISSN: 2192-2284
PublisherMohr Siebeck (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1628/219222715x14343676549269
OpenAlexW2917353192
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This essay argues that if religion is seen as the experience of a given practice, then any evaluation of religious diversity or commonalities in the ancient Levant needs to include historically sustained perceptions of the social field in which a given religious practice occurred. As a test case, this article reviews discussion in biblical scholarship of diversity or similarities between the chariots for the sun in the Jerusalem temple (2 Kgs 23:11) and a group of seventh century terracotta horses found by Dame Kenyon in the City of David. While recognition of the importance of space is not missing from this debate, there are serious shortcomings in the way social space - including the dynamics of power and aesthetics in these spaces - come into consideration. In order to illustrate what kind of analysis may need to be developed in future scholarship, this article considers whether it is possible to recover some of the social dynamics relevant in the social field of each of the two horse constellations.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Diversity (politics) · Ethnology · Horse · Religious diversity · Sociology · Ancient Near East History · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Paleontology

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