Squatters in Moab: A Study in Iconography, History, Epigraphy, Orthography, Ethnography, Religion and Linguistic of the ANE.

• Author: Dearman, J. Andrew
• Position: Review

By KOOT VAN WYK. Berrien Springs, Mich.: Louis HESTER, 1993. Pp. 208.

As the subtitle of the volume makes explicit, this is a study that attempts to cross disciplines in the analysis of ancient Moab. The point of departure is the collection of Iron Age seals and seal impressions that have been discussed previously by scholars as possibly Moabite. At the time of writing there were thirty-seven such seals. After the initial analysis of seals, Van Wyk offers a variety of conclusions related to Moab. He is open about his iconoclastic and sometimes eccentric views, stating in the preface that some readers may "hate" the book, and advising the reader to "enjoy what you can."

Van Wyk believes that too many modern scholars have an understanding of ethnicity, culture, and territory as "separate closed units" (p. 1). There is simply too much interchange in the region to think of closed cultures and ethnic markers, even if certain characteristics can be identified as ethno-religious. A reason that "Moabite" epigraphy is similar to that of Hebrew is that Israelite and Judean "squatters" may have lived and worked in the territory considered Moabite (pp. 102-8). It is not clear, however, why the hypothesis of Hebrew squatters is such a significant conclusion; the Hebrew Bible has a number of references to Reubenite and Gadite tribal elements that supposedly lived in Transjordan (cf. also line 10 of the Mesha Inscription).

Van Wyk is cautious about epigraphic analysis of the seal inscriptions that puts too much emphasis on a single ethnic marker for identity (e.g., the description of a nun with a "short-tail" as Moabite). Such caution is good; scholars may write as if they are certain when, frankly, they are weighing possibilities. However, he himself uses such terminology as "Moabite kaph" or "Hebrew mem" in his analysis. Van Wyk notes how a seal may have a "Phoenician," "Hebrew," and a "Moabite" letter; in other words, a mix of ethnic markers. There is an interesting discussion of this issue (pp. 65-74) in the analysis of a seal (found in western Amman) with the inscription lplty bn m s hmzkr. The seal has been regarded as Hebrew (i.e., Israelite or Judean) or Moabite. Van Wyk opts...