The Ammon Citadel Inscription is an Ammonite text from the 9th century BC, found at the citadel of ancient Rabbath-Ammon, capital of the Kingdom of Ammon. Inscribed with eight lines of alphabetic script in stone, the plaque appears to have been regarded as an official document or oracle recording the words or commands of the god Milcom (or Milkom), the primary god in the Ammonite pantheon.
In the 10th century Solomon forsook his sole faith in the God of Israel (YHWH) and began following other gods that the neighboring nations worshipped, including Milcom. The book of Kings referred to Milcom as a detestable idol. In the period of the divided kingdom, the Bible also mentions that some people in Judah worshipped Milcom during the time of Josiah and Jeremiah during the 7th century BC.
Milcom is also associated with the Topheth referring to a furnace or pyre (from the Greek word for “fire”) where children were sacrificed in the fire in the valley of Hinnom.
Outside of Rabbath-Ammon, archaeologists have unearthed a large stone altar dating from the Bronze Age that contained hundreds of burned human bone fragments. It also contained a cylinder seal depicting human sacrifice, likely associated with the cult of Milcom.
Interesting Side Note
Because of the similarity of the names, fire-sacrifices to Molech might conceivably refer to the same deity as Milcom, or may refer to the same practice of human fire-sacrifice.
Texts from Ebla, Ugarit, and Mari mention a deity mlk, which appears to have been a god of the underworld, and is probably the same as Molech. At the Topheth of Carthage, there is a massive cemetery filled with the burnt bones of infants and children. Inscriptions and images have been discovered that also appear to refer to a deity called Molech, and/or to the practice of human sacrifice by fire.
The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. (2 Kings 23:13 NASB95).
(See also: Leviticus 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 12:29-31; 1 Kings 11:5-7; Jeremiah 49:1)
