Midian: Difference between revisions

An Egyptian temple of [[Hathor]] at [[Timna Valley|Timna]] continued to be used during the Midianite occupation of the site (terminal late Bronze Age / early Iron Age); the Midianites transformed the Hathor mining temple into a desert tent-shrine. In addition to the discovery of post-holes, large quantities of red and yellow decayed cloth with beads woven into it, along with numerous copper rings/wire used to suspend the curtains, were found all along two walls of the shrine. [[Beno Rothenberg]],<ref>{{cite book|first=Beno |last=Rothenberg |title=Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines |location=London |publisher=[[Thames and Hudson]] |date=1972}}</ref> the excavator of the site, suggested that the Midianites were making offerings to Hathor, especially since a large number of Midianite votive vessels (25%) were discovered in the shrine. However, whether Hathor or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is difficult to ascertain. A small bronze snake with gilded head was also discovered in the naos of the Timna mining shrine, along with a hoard of metal objects that included a small bronze figurine of a bearded male god, which according to Rothenberg was Midianite in origin. Michael Homan observes that the Midianite tent-shrine at Timna is one of the closest parallels to the biblical [[Tabernacle]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Michael M. |last=Homan |title=To Your Tents, O Israel!: The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of the Tents in the Bible and the Ancient Near East |journal=Culture and History of the Ancient Near East |volume=12 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |date=2002 |page=118}}</ref>

[[Midianite pottery]], also called Qurayyah Painted Ware (QPW), is found at numerous sites stretching from the southern [[Levant]] to NW Saudi Arabia, the [[Hejaz]]; Qurayyah in NW Saudi Arabia is thought to be its original location of manufacture.<ref>B. Rothenberg and J.Glass, "The Midianite Pottery," in ''Midian, Moab, and Edom: The History and Archaeology of the Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia,'' JSOT Supplement Series 24, ed. John F.A. Sawyer and David J.A. Clines (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), pp. 65–124.</ref> The pottery is bichrome / polychrome style and it dates as early as the 13th century BC; its many geometric, human, and animal motifs are painted in browns and dark reds on a pinkish-tan slip. "Midianite" pottery is found in its largest quantities at metallurgical sites in the southern Levant, especially Timna.<ref>Tebes, "Pottery Makers and Premodern Exchange in the Fringes of Egypt: An Approximation to the Distribution of Iron Age Midianite Pottery," ''Buried History'' 43 (2007), pp. 11–26.</ref> Because of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] motifs on Midianite pottery, some scholars including George Mendenhall,<ref>George Mendenhall, "Qurayya and the Midianites," in ''Studies in the History of Arabia'', Vol. 3, ed. A. R. Al-Ansary (Riyadh: King Saud University), pp. 137–45</ref> Peter Parr,<ref>Peter J. Parr, "Further Reflections on Late Second Millennium Settlement in North West Arabia," in ''Retrieving the Past: Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology'', ed. J. D. Seger (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996), pp. 213–18.</ref> and [[Beno Rothenberg]]<ref>Rothenberg, "Egyptian Chariots, Midianites from Hijaz/ Midian (Northwest Arabia) and Amalekites from the Negev in the Timna Mines: Rock drawings in the Ancient Copper Mines of the Arabah – new aspects of the region's history II," ''Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies'', newsletter no. 23 (2003), p. 12.</ref> have suggested that the Midianites were originally [[Sea Peoples]] who migrated from the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] region and imposed themselves on a pre-existing Semitic stratum. The question of the origin of the Midianites still remains open.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}