2,300-year-old Iron Age seal found in Israeli market
Researchers revealed that a seal sold in a market for a couple of shekels to a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is in fact the earliest seal discovered in Israel.
By HANNAH BROWNSeal imprinted with a figure of a roaring lion standing on all fours(photo credit: DANI MACHLIS/BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV)
Researchers have revealed that a seal sold in a market for a couple of shekels to a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is in fact the earliest seal discovered in Israel, dating from about 2,300 years ago in the Iron Age. Also, in another first, there is compelling evidence that it was a royal seal.About fifty years ago, BGU’s Prof. Yigal Ronen walked through the Bedouin market in Beersheba and came across a piece of oval material with a seal imprinted with a figure of a roaring lion standing on all fours. Ronen asked the merchant where the stamp came from, but the seller could not answer and agreed to sell it for only 10 old shekels. It turned out to be more of a bargain than he could have dreamed of.Intriguingly, Ronen noticed that this seal bore, above and below the roaring fabric, the word “to hear,” and that it was oddly similar to the famous seal from Megiddo, inscribed with the words, "to hear Abed Yerba’am.” This seal was found in 1904 and aroused great interest around the world since it was the largest seal among the Hebrew seals discovered to that time.The fact that the seal Ronen bought was from a street market and so cheap immediately aroused his suspicion that it might not be an original and ancient seal, but he decided to present it to researchers in the field to check its provenance. It was authenticated and also shown to be a royal seal, a smaller version of others used by royal officials. The tests were carried out in collaboration with researchers from BGU, the Geological Survey of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority, including Prof. Eliezer Oren and Prof. Shmuel Ahituv of BGU, Dr. Avner Ayalon and Dr. Miryam Bar-Matthews of the Geological Survey of Jerusalem and Dr. Orit Shamir of the Antiquities Authority.Laboratory tests showed that the bulla was formed from the soil around it, where limestone rocks are exposed in the vicinity of basalt-containing olivine, which corresponds to areas in the Lower Galilee and the Jezreel and Beit She’an valleys. It was also found that the stamp was sealed on a linen cloth when its material was in a relatively dry state and then attached at a temperature of about 750 degrees Celsius.The article on this seal will be published in the journal, Eretz Yisrael and later in English in the Israel Exploration Journal.Following the discovery, the Ronen family agreed to hand over the seal to the Antiquities Authority and transfer it to an exhibition at the Israel Museum.
