**6. Religious Specialists**

The evidence for gods and goddesses as well as cultic space and associated practices implies the existence of religious specialists (priests, diviners, prophets, etc.) and rituals (offerings, divination, ecstatic utterances, etc.) about which we know little specific.<sup>64</sup> One indication of a tradition of religious specialists close to Ammon comes from the famous site of Deir ގAlla where the plaster inscription of Balaam son of Beor, a seer (*h. zh*) known from the Bible (Numbers 22–24) was found. The function of room EE335 (the room containing the Balaam texts written on the wall plaster) at Tall Deir ގAlla is generally considered to be religious in nature because of the content of the text itself. The benches in the room also suggest a cultic function (in connection with the texts), because other known sanctuaries have benches in them,<sup>65</sup> but the room was otherwise empty of artifacts.66 The entrance to the room

<sup>62</sup> On the excavations of the relevant buildings (102, 113, 200, 300, 700, 800, 900, 910), see (Daviau 2003, chp. 6–9).

<sup>63</sup> For figurines found in tombs and other sites in Ammon see (Clark 2017, pp. 379–81; Dabrowski 1997; Dabrowski 2000, 2009; Daviau 2002, pp. 51–73; Dornemann 1983, pp. 131–40; Herr 2014, pp. 400–7; Herr and Platt 2002, pp. 393–99; Platt 1989, p. 361; Platt and Herr 2002, pp. 166–69).

<sup>64</sup> Texts from the biblical book of Jeremiah suggest the titles of some of these religious specialists amongst the peoples surrounding Israel (Jeremiah 27:9, 49:3), but it is impossible to know whether these titles represent categories native to the Ammonites (Hübner 1992, p. 276). Presumably, Ammonite religion conformed to the general trends in Levantine religion, and so some of these titles were relevant to the Ammonites. A non-provenanced seal (Ø*CAI*, no. 1b) that is partially damaged contains the name *bdmlkm*, which some have suggested can be reconstructed as ގ*bdmlkm*, "servant of Milkom," and thus may represent a priest. The reconstruction is not certain though, and even if it is, the name does not necessarily indicate profession.

<sup>65</sup> Notably, the bench room at Kuntillet ގAjrud (where plaster texts were also located on the walls), and Lachish cult room 49 (Zevit 2001, pp. 298–306).

<sup>66</sup> (Ibrahim and van der Kooij 1991, pp. 20–21).

also provided public access.67 The rest of the excavated areas appear to be rather modest storage and work areas,68 thus not giving any specific clues to the function of room EE335 except to say that it was not related to any items obviously sponsored by the state. The text discovered and reconstructed from the wall plaster that had fallen to the floor presents Balaam's oracular vision from ގEl of what the Šaddayin gods were going to do, which apparently involves upheavals of the natural order of things.<sup>69</sup> In addition to Balaam being a seer, Combination 1: line 11 mentions a priestess (*khnh*). The proximity of Deir ގAlla to Ammon suggests that these regular categories of religious specialists were probably also known in Ammon.
