By Joel S. Burnett and Romel Gharib

 

The very name of the modern city of Amman preserves the legacy of its Iron Age past as capital of the Ammonite kingdom (ca. 950-550 BCE). Known then as Rabbah, “the Great (City),” Amman’s Citadel Hill (Jabal al-Qal‘a) and surrounding areas have yielded impressive remains of this Transjordanian neighbor and rival to ancient Israel and Judah, including royal inscriptions, monumental architecture, and an extensive collection of stone statuary.

For decades, scholars have puzzled over these statues—are they gods or kings, living or deceased? The most recent discovery of a larger than life-size Iron Age statue is a unique find east or west of the Jordan. It also provides a key to answering these questions, bringing earlier Amman statuary discoveries into relationship with royal religious practices observed more widely across Syria-Palestine.

The Amman Theatre Statue (height: 2.10 m). Drawing B. J. Parker, photos Joel S. Burnett.

 

During renovations to the “forum” in front of the Roman Theatre at the foot of Amman Citadel in 2010, a large stone object appeared near the soil surface. Romel Gharib of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities (DoAJ) conducted an emergency excavation and recognized the column-shaped stone to be a colossal statue of a standing male human figure (2.1 m in height). Although the two-ton statue had come to rest within the earthen fill of the Roman Theatre area (ca. 200 CE), its form and artistic motifs dated centuries earlier (ca. 950-700 BCE). The Amman Theatre Statue thus follows the Amman Theatre Inscription fragment discovered in the early 1960s as monumental Iron Age artifacts from this Roman-era fill.

The Amman Roman Theatre Area, viewed from the southern slope of Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal‘a). Photography Joel S. Burnett.

 

Near the find location, Romel Gharib directs the Amman Theatre Statue’s removal following the rescue excavation. Photo used with permission, Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

 

In cooperation with DoAJ, Joel S. Burnett and Gharib established that the colossal basalt statue portrayed an Ammonite king and that it belongs to the series of smaller, mostly limestone Ammonite male statues discovered over previous decades. In a forthcoming publication, the authors expand on these initial findings and provide further insights regarding the statue’s relationship to other monumental finds discovered in this area of Amman and to royal religious practices among the Ammonites’ near and distant Iron Age neighbors.

In an attempt to determine the source of the basalt of the Amman Theatre Statue and its relationship to other basalt objects from Amman, Burnett (pictured), Gharib, and Don Parker (Baylor University) conduct X-Ray Fluorescence energy dispersive analysis (XRF EDS) of the statue using a Bruker Tracer III handheld unit. Photograph Joel S. Burnett.

 

The Amman Theatre Statue is the ninth standing male figure discovered in Amman. These statues share features known from ancient Near Eastern art but in a specific combination. Assyrian sculpture, for example, similarly portrays kings and courtiers with full beards, wearing draped clothing with fringes and tassels. A few examples display the same arm position as the Amman male statues, an Egyptian motif that became widespread in the eastern Mediterranean during the first millennium. Yet the full beard and arm position combined with specific attire—a short-sleeve tunic, shawl draped over the left shoulder, and two ends of a belt hanging from underneath the front of the wrapped shawl—mark both the Amman Theatre Statue and the smaller examples as distinctly Ammonite royal images.

At the same time, the new statue’s non-naturalistic proportions (for example, a large head and feet), stiff body features, and plain presentation also match the style of abundant statuary from contemporary city-state kingdoms of northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia, sometimes referred to as “Neo-Hittite” and “Aramean” states. That corpus, from sites such as Zinçirli in Turkey and Carchemish and Tell Ḥalaf in Syria, includes numerous standing basalt male figures on the scale of the Amman Theatre statue. The associated inscriptional and archaeological evidence indicates they served royal ancestor cults that included monumental architecture, relief sculpture, and smaller scale statuary. That group of colossal male statues includes depictions of human rulers, like the example from Zinçirli (the capital of ancient Y’dy/Sam’al), and gods, like the storm god Hadad from that city’s royal necropolis, Gerçin. Those parallels suggest that the Amman male statuary belonged to an Iron Age Ammonite royal ancestor cult.

Statue of a (likely deified, deceased) ruler of the kingdom of Y’dy/Sam’al from Zinçirli, Turkey (height: ca. 3.00 m without pedestal). Photo source: Ekrem Akurgal, The Art of the Hittites (New York: Abrams, 1962), pl. 127.

 

Basalt statue of a king from Ain el-Arab/Serrin, Syria (height: 1.94 m). Photo source: Dominik Bonatz, Das syro-hethitische Grabdenkmal (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2000).

 

Two key emblems appear on the Amman Theatre Statue: a drooping lotus flower in the left hand and a diadem crossing the forehead. Both also appear on the smaller, inscribed “Yarḥ-‘Azar” statue discovered on Amman Citadel by early 1950. That well-preserved statue stands only 46 cm high and still bears traces of reddish paint over much of its limestone surface. The inscription provides the probable name of the figure, Yarḥ-‘Azar (meaning, “The Moon-god has helped/is a help”), along with a family genealogy indicating a royal lineage.

Inscribed Statue of Yrḥ‘zr from Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal‘a). Photo used with permission, Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

 

Also communicating royal status is the headband, similar to Assyrian and Syro-Anatolian portrayals of human rulers wearing a diadem. In contrast, other Amman sculptures cover the top of the head with an ’atef-crown of Egyptian origin, indicating the portrayal of a deity, most likely the Ammonite chief god, Milkom (a name related to the word for “king” (mlk) in Ammonite, Hebrew, and related languages). This headgear aligns with Syro-Anatolian statuary, which portrays human rulers with the headband and deities with headgear fully covering the head. As in that corpus, the Ammonite statuary reflects a royal ancestor cult with important roles both for human kings and the chief god of the kingdom.

’Atef-crowned statue from Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal‘a). Photo used with permission, Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

 

’Atef-crowned statue head. Photo used with permission, Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

The lotus flower (more accurately, the blue water lily) of Egyptian artistic origin also figures as a royal emblem in ancient Levantine art. Held in an upright position or toward the face of a ruler, it symbolizes powers of life and rejuvenation enjoyed by a living king. A flower in this upright position appears in the left hand of another Amman statue, thus depicting a living human ruler. Alternatively, the lotus turned away from the face, sideways, or upside down indicates the portrayal of a deceased figure, as presented in relief sculpture on the Phoenician sarcophagus of King Aḥiram of Byblos and in Syro-Anatolian sculpture in the relief of King Kilamuwa of Zinçirli (ca. 825 BCE). Both the Amman Theatre statue and the “Yarḥ-‘Azar” statue show the flower bent away from the face, the drooping lotus motif, indicating deceased Ammonite kings.

The still meager Ammonite inscriptional record lacks explicit references to mortuary rites and offerings on behalf of dead kings that we find accompanying the more abundant Syro-Anatolian statuary. Yet the similarities of form, style, and motifs point to a distinctly Ammonite form of royal ancestor veneration. Numerous statues in the same pose depicting both human kings and deities among the Amman statues suggests a similar notion of communion in life and death between human rulers and the main deity of the kingdom. The living king’s close identification with his deceased predecessors solidified the legitimacy of the succeeding monarch.

Despite the Amman Theatre Statue’s discovery in secondary archaeological context, without accompanying architecture, finding the Amman Theatre Inscription fragment in that same context suggests the colossal statue might have once stood in a quarter of Iron Age Amman dedicated to monumental commemoration of deceased Ammonite kings. Alternatively, it might have been incorporated into a gate or building structure on Amman Citadel or its southern slope. Either way, the statue presents a colossal and imposing look at a long vanished Ammonite king.

 

Joel S. Burnett is Professor of Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, and Semitic Languages at Baylor University. Romel Gharib is an archaeologist with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and former Director of the Zarqa Antiquities Directorate. Special thanks to Piotr Bienkowski for assistance with some of the illustrations.