Archaeologists have found an ancient seal in Israel that shows a man worshipping the moon and stars, offering new evidence of religious practices from more than 2,600 years ago.
The small stone object turned up at a large pottery-making site near Tel Yavne, on Israel’s southern coastal plain, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from Ashdod. Researchers date the find to the 7th century BC, a period when the Assyrian Empire controlled much of the region.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has excavated the Yavne site since 2019, ahead of a planned housing development. Crews uncovered nine kilns, a potter’s wheel, and several work surfaces used for making pottery.
The seal turned up on one of those surfaces, alongside storage jars, a mortar, and loom weights. A nearby grave held a single burial with a small jug and a knife.
Carvings on the ancient seal reveal Israel’s astral rituals
The seal is carved from reddish limestone and measures under 15 millimeters (0.6 inches) long. It weighs less than three grams (0.11 ounces). Its flat base shows a bearded man facing left with one arm raised.
He appears to be gesturing toward a cult stand, a crescent moon, and an eight-pointed star, which researchers say represents the planet, Venus. A cypress-like tree stands behind him.
The moon and star symbols point to worship of a moon god and a major female deity, according to the study. The seal belongs to a wider group of similarly styled stone seals found across the region, from Phoenicia to Transjordan.
Though shaped by Assyrian influence, none of these seals have turned up in Assyria itself, which suggests local craftsmen made them rather than importing them from the empire’s core.
Assyrian influence reshaped religious symbols and burial customs
Christoph Uehlinger, the study’s lead author and a religious studies professor at the University of Zurich, said the find reflects a broader shift in regional religious imagery.
Seals from the 8th century BC tend to focus on solar symbols, he said, while seals from the following century increasingly favor the moon, planets, and stars. That shift lines up with the westward expansion of the Assyrian Empire under kings such as Tiglath-pileser III and Ashurbanipal.
Assyrian forces gained influence over the area starting in the 730s BCE and later took control of nearby Ashdod. Excavators also found Assyrian-style burials at Yavne, including two graves covered with large inverted ceramic vessels and a brick tomb, a burial style otherwise unknown in the region.
Researchers say those graves, combined with the seal, point to the presence of people connected to the Assyrian administration. The study, detailing the ancient seal’s discovery in Israel, appears in the Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University.
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