religion 181
of the temple. there are no written sources that allow us to attribute this
temple to a specific deity.
the acropolis of hazrak is most likely the origin of the stele with the
Zakkur inscription (Kai 202). the inscription mentions that the stele was
erected before iluwer, i.e., before his statue (Kai 202 a: 1; B: 13–15), as a
votive offering.
a basalt stele from the 8th or 7th century B.c., found in 1994, offers
another indication of cult practices in hazrak (tell afis). the stele is
rounded at the top and depicts an eight-pointed star above a recumbent
crescent moon in its upper image field. even though this stele was found
in a necropolis outside of the ancient city, it comes from the more highly
situated acropolis where the Zakkur stele (Kai 202) was also erected.266
the fragmentary inscription might point to King hazael’s way to Unqi.267
3.4 Prophecy and Divinationthe trilingual inscription of incirli gives a possible indication of the phe-
nomenon of prophecy in Bit agusi. the text reports that while the king
was about to conduct a sacrifice a wise man rose and advised him not to
offer a human sacrifice. the very fragmentary text unfortunately allows
no further insight.268
prophecy is explicitly attested for the kingdom of hamath, though.
When the city of King Zakkur of hamath was beleaguered by a coalition
of aramaean kings he called upon his tutelary god Baʿalšamayin for help
and the god spoke to him through “seers” (ḥzyn) and “messengers” (ʿddn).
they gave the king the following oracle:
(15) “Do not be afraid! since i have made [you king, i will (14) stand] beside
you. i will save you from all [these kings who] (15) have besieged you.”269
(Kai 202 a: 13–15)the prophets mentioned here are probably visionaries or ecstatics and their
messengers, who were in the service of the temple of Baʿalšamayin.270
266 cf. Mazzoni 1998b and amadasi guzzo 2009.
267 cf. amadasi guzzo 2009: 341–344 and above, 3.1.
268 textual reconstruction and translation in Kaufman 2007.
269 cf. on the translation gibson 1975: 9, 11 and Millard 2000b.
270 on prophecy in hamath, cf. ross 1970; Zobel 1971; greenfield 1972; lemaire 1997:
172–175; lipiński 2000a: 509. on prophecy in the religion of the aramaeans, cf. the texts
from til Barsib (see above, section 2.4) and tell Deir ʿalla (see below, section 4.4).