The Aramaic pantheon of Tayma

This article discusses the origin of three Semitic deities which are attested in the Aramaic
inscriptions in the North Arabian city of Tayma’. These are Salrn, Sungild and ASirna. Together
they comprise the pantheon of Tayma’. The ety- mology, identity and the attestation of these
deities in Aramaic and other sources are investigated. After studying these three deities within
their Semitic background, this paper suggests that these deities, which had been adopted by
Arabs in Tayma’, are of Aramaic origin and were introduced to North Arabia from North Syria.
In 1880, an Aramaic stele and other Aramaic inscriptions were discovered in Tayma’. The stele
records the introduction of a new cult of a god called slm, Salam / Salm of Hagam in Tayma’.
Two other deities are also men- tioned, along with slm - ’Gym’ and Sngl’. Re- cently, more
Aramaic inscriptions have been found in Tayma’, among them also a stele mentioning the same
deities. The deities Salam, AEmD and SangilD are not of Arabian origin. Scholars have
attempted to pinpoint the origin of these deities to Mesopotamia and Nabonidus’s stay in
Tayma’, which seems plausible. Anyhow, they maintain that Salam is a deity introduced from
Meso- potamia into Tayma’. The oldest reference to Salam in North Arabia is found in the Ara-
maic inscriptions of Tayma’ and in personal names. Until the recent discovery of the Ar- amaic
inscriptions, ’gym’ was read as ’Syr ’, and researchers believed it to be the Canaanite ’Syr’ (1).
With the finding of these inscriptions, ’Syr’ was corrected to read ’gym ’. Researchers have tried
to interpret Sngl’ as a compound with the name of the moon-god of Mesopotamia, Sin. The fol-
lowing will demonstrate that these three de- ities are Aramaic and originate from Syria. The
Aramaic Pantheon Writing about the Aramaic pantheon is a difficult task, not only because of
lack of evi- dence about the early Aramaic deities, but also because little is known of the early
his- tory of the Aramaeans. The most important sources for the early Aramaic pantheon are the
Akkadian texts, Aramaic inscriptions, and Biblical and Classical references. The Akkadian texts
give us some information about Aramaic deities, in particular those of Akkadian provenance,
such as Aramaic nb‘l nbw =Akkadian Nabd. We do not know exactly which deities were
worshipped by the Aramaeans in the 2nd millennium BC because these details have not yet
been found in the written sources. In the Old and Imperial Aramaic inscriptions (c. 1000-300
BC), we have neither mythological texts nor psalms like those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ugarit or
the Old Testament. However, we can say that these texts contain religious in- formation. The
Old Aramaic inscriptions from various places give us information about the Aramaic deities:
from Tell al- Fakhiriya the deities hdd, nyrgl, swl(2), from Zingirli rkb‘l and ’rqrSp, ’I, etc.; from
Hamat in the Zakkar inscription ’trs’nzyn, ‘lwr, SmS, 17
MOHAMMED MARAQTEN ihr; and from deity lists of Arpad in the Sfire inscriptions mlS, mrdk,
zrpnt, nb‘, tSmt, nSk, nvgl, Is, SmS, nr, sit, nkl, etc. (3). The Aramaic religion developed with the
beginning of the first millennium and the emergence of the Aramaic states. This de- velopment
can be traced from different sources of the Aramaic religion, which in- form us about the
religion of these states and the various deities of the dynasties which governed them.
Therefore, we can speak of different local deities, that is dif- ferent Aramaic pantheons. For
example, the Aramaic god rkb’l, the main god of the Ara- maic Dynasty of Zingirli, is a local deity
which can only be found in Zingirli. We also know that the Aramaic moon-god S’ (GAk- kadian
Sin), which also has the Aramaic name Shr, had a main temple in Harran (4), as well as the fact
that hdd was primarily worshipped in Damascus (5). It is inter- esting to observe that most of
the Old Ara- maic inscriptions were set up by Aramaic kings, except for the inscriptions of Nerab
written by priests (6). In addition to the local Aramaic deities and the local pantheons, the
Aramaeans adopted foreign deities as early as the begin- ning of the first millennium BC,
particularly gods from Mesopotamia such as mrdk (eAkkadian dMarduk) nrgl (&Nergd), nkl
(cdNikkukdNIN.GAL), and others. The Aramaeans also adopted northwestern Se- mitic deities
like Haddu / Hadad, Canaanite gods such as rip and mlqrt, as well as deities from Asia Minor like
kbb’ (7). Historically, the Aramaean states were not unified politically. It is well known,
however, that their cultural influence in the Ancient Near East was great. From approxi- mately
the beginning of the 7th century BC, most of the Aramaic states lost their political
independence through the As- syrian domination of the Ancient Near East. The Aramaeans
spread throughout the whole of this region and formed a major part of the population of the
Assyrian Em- pire and, later, the New Babylonian Empire, the Aramaic language becoming the
lingua franca of the Ancient Near East. The con- tinuing influence of the Aramaic deities in the
Hellenistic and Roman period must also be taken into account (g), for example the Aramaic
goddess Atavgatis (GAramaic ’tr+’t’) in Hierapolis. Lucian gives us important information about
the cult of the Aramaic god Hadad (9). Palmyrenian, Hatraean, and Old Edessean inscriptions
also testify that the worship of Aramaic deities continued throughout this period. These
traditions can be followed up to the early Islamic period in Harran, where Sin had been
worshipped until that time. All these facts had a formative influence on the Aramaic pantheon.
In spite of all these prob- lems, we should not only consider local Ara- maic deities but also look
at the common Ar- amaic pantheon which gives some diffi- culties. It is possible to say that
Hadad was a kind of national god. However, defining the role and function of many of the
Aramaic local deities still remains a problem. It is within this context that we must look for the
identity of the deities of Tayma’. The Pantheon of Taym%’ (’lhy tym’) The Aramaic inscriptions
from Taym.?‘ men- tion three deities together in the following order: slrn, Sngl’, Tym’ (10). This
trias of de- ities is not attested in other Aramaic docu- ments, except ‘iym’, which is always
found compounded with byt’l in the Imperial Ara- maic texts from Egypt. The old
Tuyma’stelefound 1880 111) - The deities of Tayma’ in the order slm zy mhrm, SngZ’and
’Sym’give their consent to the introduction of slrn zy lzgm. - The deities of Tayma’ offer
protection for Tayma’. Anyone who destroys the monument would be uprooted, he him-