Francesca Stavrakopoulou

They have human like emotions on a supersized scale quite often.

Ashera, she's not a fertility goddess.

She is a protector.

She is a mediator.

She's very benevolent.

She's got a lot of sway.

But there is sacred prostitution associated with her sometimes.

No, no, no.

Yes, and they're absolutely wrong because it's ancient world polemic, trying to basically belittle and sort of other these different sorts of goddesses and religion.

And xenophobia too, quite often.

So we need to fast forward from the early Iron Age to the middle of the Iron Age.

So we fast forward to the 6th century BCE.

By this time, you've got the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, has been decimated in the 8th century by the Assyrian Empire.

Yeah, so that was the capital.

The Assyrians are the big power.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire is huge, and by the end of the 8th century, it dominates the known world, basically.

They have completely decimated the northern kingdom of Israel, leaving only Jerusalem

on its own, if you like.

So that's kind of the impression that we get.