Papers by Christoph Uehlinger
Cultic Kisses: Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans (FS A. Berlejung; eds. J. Dietrich & J. Filitz), 2026
A cylinder seal found during recent excavations at Tel Akko (ancient Akko, an important southern ... more A cylinder seal found during recent excavations at Tel Akko (ancient Akko, an important southern Phoenician city) provides intriguing insights into the site's history under Assyrian imperial rule. Discovered in the area of Iron Age II-III administrative quarters, the seal can be dated to the late eighth century BCE. It depicts an exceptionally complex scene of a ritual encounter, staging the Assyrian king and no less than three major deities: a goddess (most likely Ishtar), the storm-god (Adad) as the composition's central figure, and the moon-god (Sîn). This paper situates the cylinder seal within its archaeological context, examines its material characteristics and iconography, and discusses the find's implications against the religious and socio-political background of early Sargonid rule in the southern Levant.
Beuthe, Tatjana; Ben-Marzouk, Nadia; Greet, Ben; Koch, Ido; Schroer, Silvia; Uehlinger, Christoph & Münger, Stefan (2025). "Seals and Sealings." Chap. 9 in Tel Nagila: The Amiran-Eitan Excavations, ed. by J. Uziel et al. (Archaeology of the Biblical Worlds, 1). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2025, 176-259. Authored by members of the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant Project (www.levantineseals.org),... more Authored by members of the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant Project (www.levantineseals.org), this chapter discusses 69 seals (mostly scarabs) and sealings, of which 57 are published here for the first time. Most of the finds date to the MB II-III and derive from Tomb DT2 and the MB strata on the tell.
Learning by doing – distinguishing different hands at work in the drawings and paintings of Kuntillet ʽAjrud
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, 2015
Die Annahme zur Veröffentlichung erfolgt schriftlich und unter dem Vorbehalt, dass das Manuskript... more Die Annahme zur Veröffentlichung erfolgt schriftlich und unter dem Vorbehalt, dass das Manuskript nicht anderweitig zur Veröffentlichung angeboten wurde. Mit der Annahme zur Veröffentlichung überträgt der Autor dem Verlag das ausschließliche Verlagsrecht für die Publikation in gedruckter und elektronischer Form. Weitere Informationen dazu und zu den beim Autor verbleibenden Rechten finden Sie unter www.mohr.de/hebai. Ohne Erlaubnis des Verlags ist eine Vervielfältigung oder Verbreitung der ganzen Zeitschrift oder von Teilen daraus in gedruckter oder elektronischer Form nicht gestattet. Bitte wenden Sie sich an
Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 2016
Prohibitions against the production and worship of images representing one's own or other deities... more Prohibitions against the production and worship of images representing one's own or other deities (oft en referred to in the singular as 'image ban' or Bilderverbot ) -as much as their seeming corollary, the so-called aniconic worship of a single supreme deityare commonly held to be distinctive characteristics of ancient Israelite and Judahite, Jewish and Islamic religion. Th e two aspects (the normative rejection of a given ritual practice and the realization of its opposite as alternative practice) are oft en considered as two faces of a coin. Yet the relation between the two is much more complicated. Th e terms image ban and aniconism are problematic and both certainly need to be properly defi ned and qualifi ed. 1 Scholars such as Tryggve , 2006 ), Brian Doak ( 2015 ), Milette Gaifman ( 2012 ) and others have recently off ered important contributions to that end, focusing on fi rst-millennium-bce Israel, Phoenicia and Greece. Th e present chapter aims at continuing this conversation while putting it into a wider horizon, both disciplinary and theoretical. Neither programmatic prohibitions of cultic images nor de facto abstention from producing and using them in cultic rituals or imageless rituals are exclusive to early West Semitic traditions, Judaism and Islam (see the essays collected in Gaifman and Aktor 2017 ); 2 however, they distinguish these traditions from many others past and present. Moreover, both scholars and the wider public associate these traditions with the concept of monotheism. To be sure, none of the traditions studied by Mettinger, Gaifman and Doak should be considered monotheistic in any way. But the history of Western Asiatic and Mediterranean religion\s since late antiquity seems indeed to privilege an elective affi nity of sorts between the belief in a single, invisible, transcendent deity on the one hand ('monotheism') and the injunction not to represent that deity in a cultic image on the other hand. Monotheistic theologies have 100 Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam developed sophisticated arguments regarding the presumed inadequacy of any kind of visual, let alone anthropomorphic or theriomorphic (i.e. human, animal or hybrid), form to convey an appropriate representation of the deity (God, capitalized) or to appropriately mediate a presence which is considered all-encompassing, transcendent or both. Much in the way of an irreducible matrix, these three aspects (rejection of cultic images, 'aniconic' ritual practice and theological assumptions about the deity's/God's invisibility) have long been construed to defi ne a kind of system of belief and behaviour, in which each reinforces the others and is itself stabilized by them. A further characteristic of the so-called Abrahamic religion\s (on which this volume concentrates) is their heavy reliance on the transmission of the deity's will, revealed as 'divine word' by prophetic messengers, and ultimately the scripturalization and canonical fi xation of that will. Reading from scripture and listening to the divine word forms an important part of Jewish, Christian and Islamic ritual, so that in the believers' understanding such reading and listening may be experienced as a process of actual communication mediating divine truth and presence. Framed in such a way, listening to the divine (or divinely inspired) word of the invisible deity may be considered a powerful corollary, and even qualitative improvement, of aniconic worship as such. In a second diagram, each angle again reinforces the other two and the three aspects together again form a kind of system. Beyond 'Image Ban' and ' Aniconism' 101 Once the two triangles are assembled, listening to the divine word (recited or otherwise framed in ways that underline its otherworldly origin) appears to be a strong opposite, and perhaps the ultimate alternative, to encountering the divine in one or several cultic images (cf. Otten 2007 ). Combining the two triangles produces a diagram of even higher systematic ambition and epistemic strength. Th is diagram refl ects a foundational matrix of normative assumptions about how to relate to the one, invisible, transcendent, but all-communicative God. Word, Scripture Th e argument presented so far will sound familiar and appear plausible to many modern Westerners, religious or not. Th is only indicates how much they have been socially and culturally conditioned by a religio-philosophical tradition shared by many Jews, Christians and Muslims since late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Th e conceptual dichotomy of right and wrong, religion and idolatry, word and image (the latter oft en extended from cultic image to icon, and even to image tout court) has shaped confessional polemics since the early modern period, provided a powerful instrument to classify and conquer non-European societies, and effi ciently infi ltrated Western philosophy -not least when the latter sought to emancipate itself from the constraints of religion (cf. Sherwood and Meyer, this volume). Th e matrix is meant to visualize an epistemic formation; it does not necessarily refl ect actual practices. It is a heuristic tool to visualize how conventional modernist discourse on religion, and the discourse of religious studies perpetuating their Protestant ascendancy, construe the relationship of image and word, or the ambiguity of the former versus the validity of the latter, when considering ' Abrahamic religion\s' . Th e four corners of our matrix operate in diff erent ways in various manifestations of the three religions, particularly in their ritual traditions. Both Jewish and Islamic religion usually reject cultic images, which they attribute to the 'nations' , 'pagans' or 'polytheists'; their rituals do not generally make use of images to represent the deity, who is thought to be one and invisible; and they turn to reading from scripture when searching for the deity's will. Th e situation appears much more complex when we consider the variety of Christian religious traditions. Building on ancient Jewish discourse rejecting 'pagan idolatry' , Byzantine iconoclasts and Calvinist Protestants could label 'idolaters' their opponents who valued the use of images in worship; in these instances, the matrix may serve to defi ne a pattern of division within the varieties of Christian traditions and their way to distinguish in their midst 'true' from 'false' religion, or faith from heresy. 102 Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam Th at Christianity as such (in toto) should range alongside Judaism and Islam in a discussion of imageless worship is therefore all but obvious. If it does so, nevertheless, this is largely due to the weight of Protestant assumptions in the contemporary discourse on ' Abrahamic religions' . If Protestant religious reformers of the sixteenth century claimed to recover the original purity of early Christian ritual from its distortion by Papist idolatry, they also considered reading, listening to and explaining scripture ( Sola Scriptura ) to be the most important element in the worship of the true God. It is along similar lines of thought that modern scholars of religion classify Protestant Christianity, particularly the Reformed and Calvinist traditions, among the 'aniconic' and even iconoclastic, thus ranging them close to Judaism and Islam in their rejection of cultic images and the valuation of scripture as the sole (or most eminent) medium through which the faithful may encounter God. From a historical, non-theological point of view, many aspects of the development of image-related ritual and theological discourse (that is, iconophile and iconolatrous positions) in early, medieval and early modern Byzantine, Catholic and Oriental Christianities may be regarded as creative receptions, perpetuations and reinterpretations of pre-Christian ('pagan') traditions and ritual practices. One would be hard-pressed to range these traditions among the anti-iconists. Early Islam originated in the late-antique Middle East as a kind of reformation movement directed against both domestic 'idolatry' and various forms of Jewish and Christian religion. Invoking Abrahamic descent ( d î n Ibrahim ) and the tradition remembering Abraham smashing idols worshipped by the society he had been born into served Muhammad to claim ritual and genealogical precedence over Jewish and Christian claims to true religion; a similar argumentative strategy had already served Paul to claim religious superiority for early Christian versus Torah-obedient Jewish faith. Should we then consider the matrix described above to represent something distinctively ' Abrahamic' in the fi rst place? Or does that label only serve as a convenient pretext for lumping together three religions which, aft er all, diff er considerably, internally and among each other, in their interpretation of a putative 'image ban' , 'aniconism' and the pre-eminence of the revealed word? From the point of view of a historian of religion\s, the label ' Abrahamic' is problematic if it obscures the many diff erences among the streams, sub-streams and confl uents of the three traditions. Th eir many entanglements, and the variety of practices with regard to images particularly within the Christian traditions, cannot easily be homogenized in a simple genealogical model as implied by the ' Abrahamic' metaphor. Historians of religion\s should therefore critically assess rather than step in and follow this ' Abrahamic' genealogical discourse, which is of very recent conjuncture and, in my view, of little analytical use. Biblical tradition concerning Abraham (most prominently, Genesis 12-25) does not relate Abraham to specifi cally 'aniconic' forms of worship, nor to any kind of 'image ban' (the latter is brought much later into the biblical narrative, when Moses and Israel meet Yahweh at Mount Sinai, Exodus 20). It was Jewish Midrash which
Challenging Dichotomies and Biases in the Study of the Ancient Southern Levant (Die Welt des Orients, Supplementary Issue), ed. Bruno Biermann, Silas Klein Cardoso, Fabio Porzia and C.U. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024), 2024
This article offers an epistemological critique of the concept 'Biblical World' , still widely us... more This article offers an epistemological critique of the concept 'Biblical World' , still widely used in scholarly discussions on the history and archaeology of the ancient Levant and neighbouring regions. I argue that while many scholars especially in the West may have been drawn to the study of ancient Near Eastern history and culture via exposure to the Bible and biblical literature, the historian's task is to revert the logic of that initial encounter and to resist the misleading classification of the ancient Levantine world as a 'Biblical World'. Addressing the Levant in its own right will open up wider perspectives--even for the study of biblical texts or the Hebrew Bible as such. The article concludes with an outlook on Gaza, its (generally unintended) marginalization in recent scholarship, and a call to restore Gaza's memory to its proper place in southern Levantine history.
Near Eastern Archaeology 87 (1), pp. 14-19, 2024
The Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project is based on a comprehensive corpus, big d... more The Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project is based on a comprehensive corpus, big data, and complex historical scenarios. Sometimes, though, an individual artifact stands out as a highlight in its own right. Such is the case with a stamp seal discovered recently at Tel Hazor. It is unusual in several respects, but mainly because of its spectacular base engraving. The main scene represents a hero fighting a coiled, seven-headed serpent; it is enhanced by a series of mixed creatures and secondary motifs. This article offers a description and analysis of the object, situating its iconography in the long history of combat myths spanning from mid-third-millennium southern Mesopotamia through second-millennium northern Syria to first-millennium Phoenicia and Israel. Most significant for a historian of Near Eastern mythology, the seal provides a visual missing link in the main motif’s literary transition from Late Bronze Age Ugarit to the Hebrew Bible.
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In: Stefan Münger, Nancy Rahn and Patrick Wyssmann (eds), „Trinkt von dem Wein, den ich mischte!“ / “Drink of the wine which I have mingled!” (FS Silvia Schroer; Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 303). Leuven: Peeters, 2023, 552–590., 2023
Extensive discussion of a 7th-century cylinder seal found in the Garden Tomb compound, part of Je... more Extensive discussion of a 7th-century cylinder seal found in the Garden Tomb compound, part of Jerusalem's northern necropolis during the Iron Age, focusing on the archaeological context, the seal's iconography related to the Moon god of Harran, and its relevance for the history of religion in the southern Levant during the time of king Manasseh of Judah.
Kyle KEIMER & George A. PIERCE (eds), The Ancient Israelite World. Abingdon, Oxon – New York: Routledge, 2022, 434-463 [ch. 28]., 2022
This chapter reviews archaeologically secure material evidence for visual imagery from ancient Is... more This chapter reviews archaeologically secure material evidence for visual imagery from ancient Israel and Judah, with occasional side views of neighboring regions. Its focus is on artifacts produced and consumed during the first half of the first millennium BCE (or Iron Age II and III). Relevant data include representations of deities ranging from statuary through cult standards to ‘aniconic’ standing stones; terracotta shrine models, cult stands, and figurines; sophisticated wall paintings, however poorly preserved, and sketches; luxury objects such as metal bowls or ivory carvings; and, miniature objects such as seals or amulets. While important parts of ancient visual culture (wooden artifacts, textiles, or body paintings) are lost forever, enough data are available to prove that Israel and Judah had their share in the visual culture of the southern Levant. Israelite and Judahite craftsmen (and -women) contributed significantly to materialize and visualize, via their skillful products, the religious worldview and imagination of their contemporaries. In doing so, they relied on age-old motifs of Bronze Age “Canaanite” traditions as much as on the exchange of skills, patterns, and motifs with fellow craftsmen from neighboring regions. Regional repertoires, their overlaps, and differences, as well as diachronic developments, help to better understand the dynamics of cultural contact and the relative impact of political and economic circumstances. Future scholarship on Israelite and Judahite religion should make full use of both the material wealth and the cognitive vibrancy of these data.
Constitution du texte Canonicité et importance traditionnelle L'apparition dans l'histoire du Can... more Constitution du texte Canonicité et importance traditionnelle L'apparition dans l'histoire du Cantique des cantiques (= Ct), šîr haššîrîm, le Cantique par excellence, est aussi abrupte que l'entame de son texte : nul indice sur son auteur (autre que le patronage salomonien), sur les circonstances de sa composition ou ses premiers destinataires. Cette indétermination fondamentale ouvre le champ à une grande variété d'hypothèses. La première allusion à Ct pourrait figurer en Si 47,17, au début du 2 e s. av. J.-C., lorsque, à propos de Salomon, il est dit : « Tes chants, tes proverbes, tes sentences et tes réponses ont fait l'admiration du monde ». Quoi qu'il en soit, Ct était lu à Qumrân (50 av. J.-C.-50 ap. J.-C.) : on a découvert quatre fragments de ce texte dans trois manuscrits de la grotte 4 et un de la grotte 6, sans que l'on connaisse l'usage précis qui en était fait (liturgique, patrimoine culturel, lecture allégorique ?). La Septante l'a retenu sous le même nom de a i sma a i smatôn. Cette traduction semble remonter au premier siècle de notre ère. Vers 93-96, Flavius Josèphe paraît y faire allusion lorsque, dans son énumération des livres bibliques, il cite après le Pentateuque et treize livres prophétiques « les quatre restants [qui] contiennent des hymnes à Dieu et des conseils de vie pour les hommes » (Josèphe, C. Ap., 1,40). Il s'agit probablement des Psaumes et des trois livres attribués à la sagesse de Salomon : Proverbes, Cantique et Qohélet. Cependant, le quatrième pourrait tout aussi bien être le Siracide, retrouvé également dans les manuscrits de la mer Morte. Les écrits rabbiniques datant des alentours des 2 e-3 e s. rapportent les discussions du siècle précédent autour du statut de Ct et de Qo. Ainsi la Mishna : « "Le Cantique et Qohélet souillent les mains" [autrement dit sont à manier comme des réalités saintes]. R. Judah [2 e s. ap. J.-C.] a dit : "Le Cantique souille les mains, mais pour Qohélet il y a discussion". R. José [2 e s. ap. J.-C.] a dit : "Qohélet ne souille pas les mains, mais pour le Cantique il y a discussion". R. Siméon
Christoph Uehlinger Gott oder König? Bild und Text auf der altbabylonischen Siegesstele des König... more Christoph Uehlinger Gott oder König? Bild und Text auf der altbabylonischen Siegesstele des Königs D!du"a von E"nunna * Gegenstand dieses Beitrags ist eine bei Tall Asmar, dem am Diyala gelegenen altbabylonischen E"nunna, gefundene Stele, die auf der Schauseite eine vierregistrige Bilddarstellung (Abb. 1), auf den beiden Schmalseiten eine längere Inschrift aufweist 1. Letztere nennt als "Verfasser" (bzw. sprechendes Subjekt) der Inschrift König D!du"a, der im frühen 18.Jh. v.Chr. 2 als Zeitgenosse #am"$-Addus I. von Akkad und Ekall!tum und Hammurapis von Babylon in E"nunna regierte 3 , als "Empfänger" bzw. Gegenüber des Monuments den Sturmgott (d IM/I#KUR, im Folgenden mit Addu identifiziert) und präzisiert außerdem die Funktion des Denkmals: * Der Beitrag grüßt sehr herzlich den Freund und Kollegen Bernd Janowski, von dessen ständigem "Blick über den alttestamentlichen Tellerrand" und genuinem Interesse an altorientalischem Denken zahlreiche Publikationen und neuerdings die Herausgeberschaft von TUAT.NF (nunmehr bebildert) zeugen, und mit dem ich mich-trotz locker gewordener Kontakte seit meinem Fachwechsel in die Religionswissenschaft-in vielen Anlieen weiterhin verbunden weiß.
Open-Mindedness in the Bible and Beyond : A Volume of Studies in Honour of Bob Becking
In den seltensten Fällen passen institutionelle Organisation einerseits und Struktur des wissensc... more In den seltensten Fällen passen institutionelle Organisation einerseits und Struktur des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens zusammen-allein schon deshalb, weil die Organisation meist eine Problembearbeitung zum Ausdruck bringt, die bereits überholt ist, aber auch deshalb, weil viele sachfremde Bedingungen des Umfelds die Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten bestimmen. Deshalb ist es gut, wenn man gelegentlich über die Bücher geht und überlegt, ob man die Organisationsform nicht einer neuen Problemlage anpassen sollte. 1 9780567663801_txt_print.indd 287 24/03/2015 11:06 288 Open-Mindedness in the Bible and Beyond visual arts, music …) and popular culture (film, comics …), an explicit or implicit referent for educated social discourse (in philosophy, ethics, politics, economics …), etc., etc.? The Bible, one should think when considering this non-exhaustive list, must concern academic fields and disciplines as diverse as languages and literature, history from ancient to modern, religious studies (whether comparative or tradition-focused), art history, cultural and media studies, musicology, the history and sociology of knowledge, etc. To be sure, the study of the Bible is also an important, if not always an essential part of Hebrew Studies, Jewish Studies, ' Ancient Studies' , disciplines taught in many universities around the world. From the perspective of these disciplines, the title question may easily be answered by the negative. It seems to make no sense at all in academic contexts where 'Biblical Studies' (the critical, academic study of the Bible par excellence) represent a full-fledged discipline of its own. Wherever the Bible is studied in the framework of one of these disciplines, within or alongside departments of Jewish Studies, Ancient History or Religious Studies/ Comparative Religion, 2 this is usually done in a Faculty of Humanities and/or Letters and most often (though not exclusively) in a secular environment. Such is the case, for instance, in many universities in Israel, the USA, Australia, South Africa and other countries (including in Britain, especially in recent years). Whatever future these disciplines may have in their various contexts, it does not seem to be directly related to the destinies of theology.
Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger, 2022
Pp. 411–439 in: Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger. Edited by Veronika... more Pp. 411–439 in: Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger. Edited by Veronika Bachmann, Annette Schellenberg and Frank Ueberschaer (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 296). Leuven: Peeters, 2022.
Partnership in archaeology : perspectives of a cross-cultural dialogue
Staat und Religion im gesellschaftlichen Wandel
Die Fruhe Eisenzeit. Ein Workshop
Symbol/symbol theories. XI. Art, 1. Ancient Near Eastern art
Könige am Tigris: Medien assyrischer Herrschaft
Monumentale Reliefs aus dem Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin, der Skulpturensammlung Dresden un... more Monumentale Reliefs aus dem Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin, der Skulpturensammlung Dresden und der Archaologischen Sammlung der Universitat Zurich werden seit ihrer Entdeckung vor rund 160 Jahren erstmals in einer Ausstellung zusammengefuhrt.Der assyrische Konig erscheint in Begleitung schutzender Genien und loyaler Hoflinge als herausragender Herrscher. Bilder von Stadteroberungen behaupten die Ubermacht des assyrischen Heeres. Keilinschriften verstarken die visuelle Evidenz mit sprachlichen Mitteln. Der vorliegende Band zeichnet den Weg nach, der diese aussergewohnlichen Monumente im 19. Jahrhundert aus den Ruinen von Nimrud in europaische Museen fuhrte. Ausfuhrliche Kommentare und eine Vielzahl von Fotografien, Zeichnungen und Planen erschliessen den einstigen architektonischen Kontekt, die mediale Funktion und die kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung von Bildern und Inschriften. Der dezidiert interdisziplinare Zugang (Archaologie, Assyriologie, Religionswissenschaft) wirft neues L...
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Papers by Christoph Uehlinger
For reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version, but the following link may be used by 50 readers for downloading the article:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/TXQRMENZ6EUB26RKA6MU/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727582