More Seal Stuff That Makes You Go Hmmm…

Joseph Lauer notes on the Biblical Studies list

Has anyone else noticed the similarity in design (and perhaps lettering) to the recently discovered Rephaihu (ben) Shalem seal of a seal pictured among others from the Israel Museum in the just-published BAR (March/April 2008, p. 35), but without a branch/frond/tree as at the end of Shalem/Shallum? The BAR seal is at the upper right of the picture, just under a possibly similar but smaller green seal. The picture can be seen on-line in the free current issue of BAR at

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.asp by clicking on the “Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal” article and scrolling down until the picture is reached. However, the on-line picture is much smaller than the printed picture and the words on the seal cannot be made out. The article’s URL is http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=34&Issue=2&ArticleID=6

The first line of the BAR seal, the picture of which is small, appears to begin with L’LYQM (leElyakim). The second line is difficult to read but appears to begin with an ayin (eved?) and the fourth letter is an aleph. Does anyone know the provenance of the seal, its approximate date, what it actually says, and where it has been published? And would anyone care to comment on its possible connection to the Rephaihu (ben) Shalem seal?

Thank you!

Joseph I. Lauer

Hmmm……

And moments later Yitzhak Sapir writes in response

The picture is also published in Hestrin and Dayagi-Mendels’s book on seals, in the first page following the copyright notice, although the colors are somewhat different. The green seal Lauer speaks of is brown in Hestrin and Dayagi-Mendels. The seal is Hestrin and Dayagi Mendels 91. It reads “l?lykm (z?”. “Of Elyakim son of Azza.” It is described as made of bone, in Hebrew script, from the 7th century BCE, and of unknown provenance. Dimension 0.6 x1.4×1.7. At the end of the second line is a small vertical line. The top and bottom name are separated by two parallel horizontal lines. It is a pierced scaraboid seal.

I don’t think it has any connection with the rp?yhw seal. But both are scaraboid seals, both have two names separated by two parallel lines across the seal, and both have some kind of marking at the end of the second line. The ?lykm seal apparently has the pierced hole running through the body of the seal under the two lines although that is not visible in the picture. No such marking is visible in the seal. No information on this is given regarding the rp?yhw seal. Both have a circular frame. We don’t know of what material the rp?yhw seal was made. Presumably, it was dated to the 8th century BCE on the basis of stratigraphy, but Deutsch disputes that date [here].

Yitzhak Sapir