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The Ivory Palace of King Ahab

The Ivory Palace of King Ahab

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Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
(The Bible, 1 Kings 22: 39) 

According to the Old Testament, King Ahab was the seventh king of the northern kingdom of Israel since Jeroboam I, and reigned during the 9th century B.C. In the Old Testament, Ahab, along with his wife, Jezebel, gets a rather negative portrayal for the various things that they did, such as the worship of Baal.

King Ahab

An artist’s impression of King Ahab, from the “Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum”. Photo source: Wikimedia

According to the Old Testament, Ahab’s father, Omri, purchased the hill of Samaria and founded a city there: “In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah. And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria.”(The Bible, 1 Kings 16: 23-24) 

It was on this hill that Ahab built his ‘ivory palace’. It is often pointed out that the existence of such a structure has been confirmed by archaeological evidence. However, it will be shown that this is not as straightforward as it seems, and that the phrase “Ivory Palace of King Ahab” is a rather problematic one. In 1932, the Joint Expedition to Samaria, located in present-day West Bank, discovered a large quantity of ivory objects and decorations (a total of 250 fragments were recorded) near the northern area of Samaria’s summit. This has led people, including the archaeologists, to believe that they have found King Ahab’s Ivory Palace. 

‘The Woman at the Window’ – an ivory artifact

‘The Womanat theWindow’ – an ivory artifact from Samaria.Photo source.

There are two problems with this interpretation. The first problem involves the question of what is meant by an ‘ivory palace’. One may envision an ivory palace to be a building somehow constructed literally from ivory (that’s what I’d imagine anyway). After all, if King Ahab were to be depicted as a really wealthy king, this would be a pretty good way to do so. However, these fragments were probably once attached to wooden furniture. The ivories from Fort Shalmaneser in Nimrud, Iraq, may be seen as parallels to those found in Samaria. Of course, one might argue that an ‘ivory palace’ was a building that had lots of ivory-decorated furniture, or ivory carvings, rather than a structure built of ivory. 

The bigger problem, however, is the fact that this structure was not even built by King Ahab. Based on the Kathleen Kenyon’s stratigraphic notes and summaries of the site, it seems that most of these ivory fragments date to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, several hundreds of years after the reign of King Ahab.

Although a structure containing ivory fragments was discovered by archaeologists, it was not King Ahab’s Ivory Palace. So, why was it identified as such then? Perhaps it was only natural that the Biblical reference produced an impulse to date these ivory fragments to the reign of King Ahab. The area where the ivories were found was also initially thought to be part of the royal palace (the large “palace” discovered to its west by the Harvard team in 1908-1910 was relegated to the status of a ‘supplementary building’). This view, however, was withdrawn in 1938, when the archaeologists realized that the walls of this building actually comprised only a section of a section of a second, inner enclosure wall, and that they could not “make a room or pavilion out of them.” By then, the damage was already done, and the ‘Ivory Palace of King Ahab’ is still regarded by some as having basis in archaeology. 

If you think the score board is ‘Archaeology – 1, Bible – 0’, it isn’t quite as simple. Reliance on the Bible for the interpretation of archaeological evidence is very much like the reliance of any textual evidence. Although historical archaeology is said to be the “handmaiden to history”, it isn’t quite so. If you think archaeology’s here to support the textual evidence (of which history relies on), you’d better think again. I suppose, at the end of the day, one has to be critical of one’s sources, and not take the textual evidence at face value. Also, archaeologists ought to be careful with what they say, since there may be unforeseen repercussions, sometimes much worse than the misidentification of an ancient structure.       

Featured image: An ivory plaque from Samaria depicting a lion attacking a bull. The lion symbolizes the sun, the bull the earth, the two creatures eternally warring for supremacy, with the lion better equipped to win. The plaque would have been attached to a screen or piece of furniture.Photo source.

ByḎḥwty

References

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2012. Ahab.[Online]
Available at:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9952/Ahab
[Accessed 5 April 2014].

Fletcher, E., 2014. Palaces.[Online]
Available at:http://www.bible-archaeology.info/palaces.htm
[Accessed 5 April 2014].

Herrmann, G. & Laidlaw, S., 2013. Ivories from Rooms SW11/12 and T10 Fort Shalmaneser.London: The British Institute for the Study of Iraq (London) (Gertrude Bell Memorial).

Tappy, R. E., 2001. The archaeology of Israelite Samaria, Vol. II: The Eight Century BCE.Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.

The Bible: Standard King James Version, 2014. [Online]
Available at:http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/

[Accessed 5 April 2014]

 

Comments

Hello Mr. DHTYW,

It is also Possible that God may not want This Palace to be found. The Anointed Usurper Jehu His Name has been found on Ancient seals the Egpytian Pharoah Shishak that name was found in Egypt however Shishaks' name doesn't show up In the Bible till 2nd Chronicles with The Boy King Joiash.

Look in The Scriptures God was livid with The House of Ahab and Jezebel funny thing is its true before marrying Jezebel Ahab was already sinning but, Jezebel was his Achilles Hill by Getting Ahab to Sin More.

Once I can remember thinking how can one possibly Sin worst than the last generation before THEM? I've since come to learn that can happen. Getting back to Ahab's Palace in Samaria why in the world didn't go looking for Jezebels Palace in Jezereel? Of course I maybe right God might not want Those Palaces found oh right baal worship had 7 Veils of Worship one in particular that I'm aware of is Child Sacrifice Israel sacrificed Their First Born by passing them through the Fire. Which enraged God greatly that's why When one gets to The Book of Ezekiel God begins addressing Israel, and Judah where Judea was ruled by King David's Family God identifies them as an Rebellious PEOPLE over and over again.

Oh that's right before I go you may recall me mentioning Enoch and the 200 Rebellious angels that came to Earth and Polluted All of Creation?

In addition to Azazel Ningirsu temple discovered on Turkey now I know who baal is the angel Baraquiel I think that Baraquiels name somehow became a Surname through His Children example baal-Cheroith, baal-peor, Ethabaal, and maybe Chemosh unless Chemosh is the son of the angel Molech.

Just thought I'd share this with you oh yes and great article enjoyed reading hope to read more.

It makes you wonder, if the Bible hadn't been touched by the archeologists during the dig and they had no prior knowledge of it would they have ever come to the conclusion that it was Ahab's ivory structure in the first place?

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Wu

Wu Mingren (‘Dhwty’) has a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient History and Archaeology. Although his primary interest is in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, he is also interested in other geographical regions, as well as other time periods.... Read More

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