Die Zenoniden, Alexander Iannaios und die Zerstörung von Amathous. Zu den Schleuderbleien von Tulul adh-Dhahab (Jordanien)

Abstract

Since 2005, a German-led team has been studying the site of Tulul adh-Dhabab, in Jordan. These settled and fortified twin hills are located on both banks of the Nahr az-Zarqa/Jabbok, a tributary of the Jordan River. Two preliminary excavation reports published in 2016 and 2017 included four slingshots that were found close together in a burnt layer of a peristyle in a palatial complex atop the main hill. Only one of the inscriptions was fully legible from the photographs, two others were published with heavy textual supplements, and the last is badly damaged. This contribution reassesses the four slingshots based on cast impressions taken of them. One of the slogans this excavation revealed evokes the victory of Zeno and thus points to a ruling family in Transjordan – the «tyrant» in Philadelphia, Zenon «Kotylas» and his son Theodoros – mentioned by Flavius Iosephus on several occasions. He states that between roughly 130 BC and shortly before 80 BC, they were in conflict with the Hasmoneans, and especially with Alexander Iannaios. In the mid-90s BC, the latter apparently destroyed Amathous, «the strongest fortress on the far side of the Jordan, where Theodoros kept his treasures». The article links the slingshots and the burnt layer to the destruction of Amathous, with the result that the Tulul adh-Dhahab must be Amathous – an identification that had previously been contested.