[Avodah] Ishbaal's Jar

[Lisa Liel via Avodah]

On 6/18/2015 8:50 AM, Micha Berger wrote:
> According to TOI <http://www.timesofisrael.com/inscription-bearing-name-from-davidic-era-found-at-ancient-site>
> or <http://j.mp/1dMdZVd>, discusses finding a jar that dates to around
> 1020-980 BCE (Iron Age), breating the name the name of Ishbaal ben Beda.
>
> Ishbaal is Divrei HaYamim's name for the son of Shaul whom seifer
> Shemuel calls Ishboshet. (Probably because bearing the name of Baal
> is a bushah.)

The standard form for names in most of the ancient near east was 
DN-stem, or stem-DN, where DN is a divine name.  We have this pattern 
ourselves with names like Chizki-Yahu and N'tan-El, or El-Chanan and 
Yeho-natan.

 From what I've seen, it wasn't unheard of for people to refer to the 
same person, but exchange the DN.  So Ish-Boshet for Ish-Baal is in line 
with Hado-Ram (I Chron 18:10) for Yo-Ram (II Sam 8:10), or Hado-Ram (II 
Sam 20:24, I Kings 12:18, II Chron 10:18) for Adoni-Ram (I Kings 4:6, 5:28).

I don't see any indication that this pattern of name was different 
towards the beginning or towards the end of the monarchy.  That said, 
Baal in particular sort of declined after the time of Eliyahu.  They had 
newer avodah zarahs to play with.

I don't really see a lot of chronological significance here.  Yes, they 
did some radiometric dating, but as always, I would take that with grain 
of salt until I saw the raw results.  When you send something for carbon 
dating, you tell them first what your target date is, so that they can 
discard results that are off from that too significantly.  Not very 
scientific, but I guess it's "science-y".

Lisa