The
shape of the hexagram, two interwoven triangles, doesn't convey necessarily an
association of a star or a shield or a seal, but during the course of history
Jews called it the Shield of David, Muslims called it Solomon's Seal and
Christians called it The The Star of David. It seems that not this SHAPE but these
NAMES made people start drawing the Shield of David on shields, Solomon's Seal
on Seals and night stars in the skies as The Star of David.
Archaeologists
discovered hexagrams as stars or on shields or on seals, and their
"proofs" helped dividing the meanings of the hexagram into these
three main categories, while actually it is an abstract shape, invented by
geometers, and its main meaning, protection, is not depending on any physical
thing.
Here's
an example for The Star of David as an Astral Symbol Archaeological
interpretation:
Herbert
G. May reports in his book Material Remains of the Megiddo Cult, (Chicago 1935,
p. 6.) about the discovery of a Magen David from ninth or eighth century B.
C. incised on the wall of a temple of
Anat, Queen of Heaven, at Megiddo. Professor May explains that "on the
south face of the south wall of Room 340, near the southeast corner... is
incised a "shield of David" (See above). In view of the religious
associations of this building, this sign may be interpreted as the symbol of
the fertility goddess,
whose model pottery shrines were so numerous in this district. The
five-pointed seal of Solomon and the six-pointed shield of David are probably
of astral origin with their roots in the fertility cult. This is confirmed in
part by the occurrence of both a five- and a six-pointed star on an Astarte
plaque from Tell es-Safi. [In a note Professor May refers to a six pointed star
made from six lines, not a star of david]:
Astarte plaque from Tell es Safi
:Source
Bliss
& Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, London, 1902, Plate 67 No. 15s
Hildegard
Lewy, brings the Megiddo artifact as one of the proofs to her main claim in the
introduction to her article Origin and Significance of the Magen Dawid, (Archiv
Orientalni, Vol. 18, 1950, 330-65) that "the Magen Dawid can represent
only one of three planets ... Jupiter Mars and Saturn".
