Sous les étoiles de Thot. Le dieu lunaire dans l’art phénicien.

Abstract

The iconography of an Aramaean metal bowl formerly in Teheran (Foroughi coll.) and now in London (S. Moussaief coll.) features a number of rarely attested designs with astral connotations, not all of which readily comprehensible. The present contribution focusses on the motif of the Thot baboon and retraces its ancestral pedigree in Phoenician art, the repertoire of Aramaean motifs offering but little help in this particular context. Reviewing the material evidence from the early 2nd millennium BC onwards in Egyptian and Levantine sources alike, the bearing of several documents on solar and lunar cycles and astronomical observations is underscored, all the while emphasizing the impact of early 1st millennium BC Phoenician trade networks in North Syria.