Teaching Team
First Temple Seal Found
In a recent archaeological dig performed at the behest of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, an amazing discovery was made. Near the northwestern side of the Western Wall plaza a rare Hebrew seal dating from the latter part of the First Temple era was found; the seal dates to the 7th century BCE from the reigns of King Menasseh and King Josiah.
According to the excavation director and archaeologist Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah of the Israel Antiquities Authority stated that the seal appears to have belonged to a private individual. It is made of black stone and contains a decoration of an archer shooting a bow and arrow. The inscription on the stone is written in ancient Hebrew script stating "for Hagab."
The style of the archer is designed in modeled after Assyrian wall reliefs from the same era. This is the first seal of its kind: a seal belonging to a private individual decorated in Assyrian-style art with a Hebrew inscription. According to experts at Tel Aviv University, this style of decoration attests to the strong Assyrian influence that existed in Jerusalem at that time. It is suggested that the owner of the seal was likely a senior memeber of the Judaen military and chose to depict himself in the style of an Assyrian archer as is commonly seen on the aforementioned reliefs.
Pictures of the excavation site and the seal can be found here from which the information in this blog was taken.
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Visitor Feedback:
Very cool!
BTW, Is it just me or is the Old Hebrew script on the coin inversed?
Shalom,
Ryan
***Brian's response: The image is inverted on a seal so that when the impression is made in clay or the like it appears in its correct manner.
Ryan Blackwelder | November 5, 2008 5:32 PM