15/12/2022
The star 💫
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has brought us some surprises, but after all, the two teams that made it up to the finals have been known for decades as some of the best national teams in the world: Argentina and France, who both held the FIFA world championship twice (France is its current holder). In contrast, the third-place play-off, which is to take place this Saturday, will see the national team of Croatia facing that of Morocco, both countries not commonly considered as soccer superpowers. Interestingly, the flags of these two Mediterranean nations employ astral symbols originating in the ancient world.
The flag of Croatia has its base consisting of a red, a white and a blue stripe – perhaps the most common combination of colors in the world’s national flags. Yet, in the center it features Croatia’s coat-of-arms, which includes the historical emblems of the regions comprising this country. Two of those five emblems contain a golden six-pointed star, also known as the hexagram or the Star of David. Currently seen as a Jewish symbol, the six-pointed star originally represented the Venus, especially in its rise just before the morning (the morning star). In cylinder seals from ancient Mesopotamia, the most common symbol of the Venus, and of the goddess Ishtar identified with that planet, was an eight-pointed star, but sometimes a six-pointed star also had the same function. After Mesopotamia was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, the six-pointed star spread across the Hellenistic world and became a common magical symbol, but was not specifically identified with Judaism. The latter identification arose only in the High Middle Ages, when a six-pointed star was featured on the banner of the Jewish community of Prague; that was also the period when this symbol began to be called the Star of David. The Zionist movement adopted the Star of David as a Jewish symbol in the late 19th century, and consequently, the six-pointed star appears on the flag of modern Israel. But some other countries also employ the same symbol, without any Jewish connection.
The flag of Morocco was originally just a red banner, with no additional symbols. Yet, in 1915 the sultan Moulay Yusef added to the flag a green five-pointed star. In the Muslim world, this symbol was known as the Seal of Solomon, and the Jews imbued it with the same meaning from the Middle Ages onward. In Christian Europe, however, the five-pointed star was seen as symbolizing the five wounds of Jesus during the Crucifixion. In fact, this symbol originates from ancient Greece, where the philosophic school founded by Pythagoras considered it a symbol of well-being and good works. While modern Israel adopted the six-pointed star as its symbol, the earlier Jewish state – the Hasmonean kingdom – made use of the five-pointed star, which appears in stamp impressions on the handles of storage jars, surrounded by the Paleo-Hebrew inscription “Jerusalem.” Hundreds of jar handles of this type, dated to the late 2nd century BCE, have been found in Jerusalem and its environs, and one of them is on display in our museum. Come and see!
Jar handle with a stamp impression featuring a five-pointed star and the inscription “Jerusalem,” Judah, late 2nd century BCE, BLMJ 824