UGARIT, CANAAN, AND ISRAEL.pdf - Tyndale House

CRAIGIE: Ugarit, Canaan, and Israel 151
assume on this basis that the cult of Baal was in all
places the same; indeed, it may be safer to refer to
the cults of various baalim. To give an example, one
of the two temples in Ras Shamra has been identified
(though with somewhat fragile evidence) as a temple of
Baal. If the identification is correct, it is
particularly interesting to note the manner in which
several stone anchors have been physically
incorporated into the temple structure. 21 If it may
be surmised that the presence of these stone anchors in
the temple has religious significance, then presumably
we may see the way in which Ugarit's maritime location
has influenced the local cult of Baal. On the other
hand, one would assume that the cult of Baal in most
Canaanite centres was typified by the more traditional
agricultural emphases. And whether the mythology of
Baal, as it is known from the Ugaritic texts, was
typical of Ugarit, or Canaan, or neither, cannot be
known with certainty; the commonality of that
mythology with Mesopotamian patterns 22 may indicate
either foreign or universal themes.
The necessity of caution, in the matter of the religion
of Baal, is implied further by the general character of
other archaeological data. Rudolph Dornemann has
warned of the dangers of taking Syria and Palestine
together, as if they formed a single cultural unit. 23
He notes that in the matter of pottery and other
artefacts, there are such differences between the
northern and southern regions, that terms such as Syria-
Palestine can be used only with extreme caution.
Care is needed especially in the matter of the
languages and dialects of the two regions. The
question of the linguistic classification of Ugaritic,
21. H. Frost, 'The Stone Anchors of Ugarit,'
Ugaritica 6 (1969) 235-43.
22. T. Jacobsen, 'The Battle between Marduk and
Tiamat,' JAOS 88 (1968) 104-08.
23. R. H. Dornemann, 'The Excavations at Ras Shamra,'
in G. D. Young (ed.), Ugarit in Retrospect 59-67.
(1983)