Francesca Stavrakopoulou, «Exploring the Garden of Uzza: Death, Burial and Ideologies of Kingship», Vol. 87 (2006) 1-21
The Garden of Uzza (2 Kgs 21,18.26) is commonly regarded as a pleasure garden
in or near Jerusalem which came to be used as a royal burial ground once the tombs
in the City of David had become full. However, in this article it is argued that the
religious and cultic significance of royal garden burials has been widely
overlooked. In drawing upon comparative evidence from the ancient Near East, it
is proposed that mortuary gardens played an ideological role within perceptions of
Judahite kingship. Biblical texts such as Isa 65,3-4; 66,17 and perhaps 1,29-30 refer
not to goddess worship, but to practices and sacred sites devoted to the royal dead.
14 Francesca Stavrakopoulou
garden location of some of the offerings (51). Certainly, the seasonal
and spatial setting of these rituals would appropriately cohere, for as
Pardee observes, spring would be evident in the garden itself (52). Some
scholars, notably Xella (53) and del Olmo Lete (54), have interpreted this
Ugaritic ritual as a funerary practice (55), drawing on the support of
comparative inscriptional and archaeological evidence from Ebla
concerning the veneration of dead kings and royal burial in the palace
garden (56). Consequently, and in independent support of the proposal
here, they suggest that in this context, Ugaritic gn should be rendered
“cemeteryâ€, rather than “garden†(57). Though neither Xella nor del
Olmo Lete associates this ritual with those texts in Isaiah describing
cult practices in a mortuary garden, they do draw attention briefly to
the designation and function of the biblical az[ ˆg as a royal burial
ground (58).
The prominent role of the garden in the royal rituals of Ugarit is
also suggested by archaeological excavations of the royal palace,
which attest to a vast courtyard located within the eastern part of the
palace complex. The courtyard contained a large enclosure filled with
fertile soil, which has been widely identified as a garden (59). Whilst the
royal tombs appear to have been located in an adjacent part of the
(51) DEL OLMO LETE, Canaanite Religion, 219-220.
(52) D. PARDEE, Les textes rituels (Ras Shamra-Ougarit 12; Paris 2000) I, 596-
597; ID., Ritual and Cult at Ugarit (Atlanta, GA 2002) 104, n. 57.
(53) P. XELLA, “Aspekte religiöser Vorstellungen in Syrien nach den Ebla-
und Ugarit-Texteâ€, UF 15 (1983) 279-290.
(54) G. DEL OLMO LETE, “Liturgia funeraria de los reyes de Ugarit (KTU
1.106)â€, SEL 3 (1986) 55-72.
(55) Contra PARDEE, Les textes rituels, I, 597.
(56) P. XELLA, “Gunu(m)(ki) dans les texts d’Eblaâ€, Nouvelles Assyriologiques
brèves et utilitaires 89 (1995) 80-81; P. MATTHIAE, “Princely Cemetery and
Ancestors Cult at Ebla during the Middle Bronze II: A Proposal of Interpretationâ€,
UF 11 (1979) 563-569. Royal garden burials are also known from Sumerian
literature and textual and archaeological material from Mari, so P. TALON, “Les
offrandes funéraires à Mariâ€, Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire
orientales et slaves 22 (1978) 53-75.
(57) G. DEL OLMO LETE, “GN, el cementerio regio de Ugaritâ€, SEL 3 (1986)
62-64; cf. P. XELLA, “Aspekte religiöser Vorstellungen in Syrien nach den Ebla-
und Ugarit-Texteâ€, UF 15 (1983) 279-290, esp. 288.
(58) DEL OLMO LETE, “GN, el cementerio regioâ€, 63-64; P. XELLA, “Il culto
dei morti nell’Antico Testamentoâ€, Scritti in memoria di Angelo Brelich (eds. V.
LANTERNARI – M. MASSENZIO – D. SABBATUCCI) (Rome 1982) 645-666.
(59) C.F.A. SCHAEFFER, “Un jardin dans le Palais d’Ugaritâ€, Ugaritica IV (ed.
C.F.A. SCHAEFFER) (Mission de Ras Shamra 15; Paris 1962) 15-25.
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