Conclusions-
Yahwehism did not arise from a series of revelations to Abraham in Canaan and the Negeb ca. 2000 BCE -there was no well of Beersheba before 1200 BCE, the Philistines did not arrive in Canaan until ca. 1174 BCE- this is a myth. Neither did it arise through a revelation to Moses in the 15th century BCE while he was wandering the Sinai wilderness (ca. 1446 BCE, cf. 1 Kings 6:1), because archaeology reveals no Late Bronze Age presence at Mt. Sinai (2 million people). The fact that Northern Israelite names bear the theophoric Yaw suggests that they remained truer to their polythesistic religious heritage.
I have posited that Yahweh is Yaw/Yam of the Ugaritic Myths (1500-1200 BCE).
Later ages fused Ugaritic El (Bull-El), Yaw and Baal together into the persona of Yahweh-Elohim. In taking on the attributes and feats of these gods, Yahweh also took on their wives and consorts. Athirat (Ashtirat, Attart, Asherah) wife of El, became fused with Baal's consort, Anat ("the Queen of Heaven" in Late Bronze Age myths), Yaw/Yam's wife was Ashtoreth/Asherah, "the bride claimed by the tyrant sea" in an Egyptian papyrus.
Yahweh was also called Baali by Israel (Hosea 2:16.) Attart-shem-Baal ("Attart-name of-Baal") suggested to Leick, that Attart may be a MANIFESTATION of Baal. If correct, male and female gods could, at times, be aspects of each other. Perhaps Yahweh as Baali became a manifestation of Attart-shem-Baal ? Thus Attart as Asherah is a manifestation of Baali-Yahweh (God is bi-sexual, male and female) ? Langdon shows a coin from Gaza with a double faced head, male and bearded facing left, female to the right. Perhaps he is right in understanding this to be Yaw/Ashtart ?
Langdon-
"Yaw was associated with the Canaanitish Mother-goddess. `Ashart-`Anat, as we know from the name of the deity of the Jews at Elephantine, `Anat-Yaw, where two other father-mother titles of divinities occur, such as Ashim-Bethel, `Anat-Bethel, in which the titles of Astarte are combined with the sun-god Bethel. It is precisely at Gaza. where Yaw as a sun-god appears on a coin (fig. 23), that coins frequently bear the figure of this `Ashtart-Yaw, Anat-Yaw, Anat-Bethel, corresponding to the Phoenician Melk-Ashtart, Eshmun-Ashtart. Fig. 24, of the Persian period, is charcteristic of this male-female, or female-male deity, and the heads, being joined, prove that under these names was worshipped a deity who combines the attributes of both." (p.44, fig. 24. Stephen Herbert Langdon. The Mythology of All Races- Semitic. Vol. 5. Boston. Marshall Jones Company. 1931. pp. 454)
Leick-
"Attart-shem-Baal (Canaanite Goddess). Her name means 'Astart name of Baal.' In the Baal myths she appears as a manifestation and consort of Baal. Her character resembles that of Anat, as a goddess of war and the chase. Her fertility aspect is more pronounced in the Old Testament, where she is called Ashtoreth. In an Egyptian papyrus from the 19th Dynasty she is called the 'bride of the tyrant sea.' (p.16, "Attart-shem-Baal," Leick)
A number of scholars have suggested that the biblical narratives identifying Yahweh as dawning from Seir and Paran suggest he was originally a god of these areas. They point to Egyptian lists which suggest to them that there was a place called Ya-h-wa, identified with S-r-r, which they claim is Seir. One scholar has challenged these assumptions, Astour, as noted in Thompson's article on Yahweh.
Thompson:
"Yahweh. The Origin of the Name-
"The date and origin of the name has been debated. Its earliest appearances are in the song of Deborah (Judges 5; which has been dated to the 11th century BC), on the Mesha stele (9th century; ANET, 320), in an ostracon from Kuntillet Ajrud (8th century, Freedman 1987: 246), and in the Adad and Lachish letters (6th century; ANET, 569, 322).
To move outside of the Levant, we find Egyptian name lists which include a Syrian site, Ya-h-wa (No. 97), which is identical to Yahweh. A Ramesses II (1304-1237 BC) list is found in a Nubian temple in Amarah West with six names (Nos. 93-98) following the designation "Bedouin area". Nos. 96-98 have been found at Soleb in Nubia on an Amon temple of Amenhotep III (1417-1379 BC). No. 93, Sa-ra-r, has been identified with Seir (Edom) and related to the biblical references (Deut 33:2) which associate Yahweh with Seir and Paran. This could be taken as evidence the name was known in Edom or Midianite territory ca. 1400 BC (EncRel 7: 483-84).
However, Astour (IDBSup, 971), notes that the writing "S-r-r" is incorrect as opposed to the spelling in other Egyptian inscriptions. Furthermore, three of the sites, including Yi-ha, on Ramesses III's temple in Medinet Habu, are in a Syrian context suggesting that Ya-h-wa/Yi-ha was also in Syria. Thus the name is not associated with Edom or Midianites but does seem to appear as early as 1400 BC in Syria.
From a later time, the 8th century BC, two Aramean princes have names with the element "Yau." This has been taken to mean that some Arameans may have worshipped Yahweh (Rankin 1950:95). This could relate to the earlier connection of the Patriarchs with the Arameans, e.g., Jacob's sojourn with Laban, the eponymous ancestor of the Arameans (Genesis 29-31). The divine name is not found in any cuneiform texts.
The formative -yw in some personal names from Ugarit (ca. 14th century BC) is not a divine element and has no connection with the name Yahweh." (Henry O. Thompson, "Yahweh." Anchor Bible Dictionary. 1992)
The "earliest" clue of possible Yahweh worship in Canaan is of the Amarna Era and the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, ca. 1350-1334 BCE. A clay tablet was found in an archive in Egypt, from a "Mayor" of Ta'anach in Canaan, called Ahi-Jami.
Professor Clay on a form of Yahweh appearing a theophoric element in a personal name of the "mayor" of Ta`anach, Canaan during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, ca. 1350-:1334 BCE :
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