A First Temple period seal bearing a name that appears in the Bible (Natan-Melech) discovered in the City of David
Video: https://youtu.be/jMR-vk3gO8I
A rare and exciting discovery: A bulla (seal impression) and a 2,600-year-old stamp bearing Hebrew names were uncovered in the City of David.
The seal impression, dated to the First Temple period, features the words:
“(belonging) to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King” (LeNathan-Melech Eved HaMelech). The name Nathan-Melech appears once in the Bible, in the second book of Kings 23:11, where he is described as an official in the court of King Josiah, who took part in the religious reform that the king was implementing: “And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned thechariots of the sun with fire.”
The title “Servant of the King” (Eved HaMelech) is appears often in the Bible to describe a high-ranking official close to the king. This title appears on other stamps and seal impressions that were found in the past. This seal impression is the first archaeological evidence of the name Biblical Nathan-Melech.
Dr. Mendel-Geberovich notes that the fact that this official was mentioned
by his first name alone indicates that he was known to all, and there was no
need to add his family lineage.
According to Mendel-Geberovich, “Although it is not possible to determine
with complete certainty that the Nathan-Melech who is mentioned in the Bible
was in fact the owner of the stamp, it is impossible to ignore some of the
details that link them together.”
The artifacts were discovered inside a public building that was destroyed
during the destruction of the First Temple and were uncovered in
archaeological excavations of the Givati Parking Lot in the City of David
National Park in Jerusalem. The dig was conducted by archeologists from the
Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University.
According to Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yiftah Shalev
of the Israel Antiquities Authority who were responsible for the dig, these
special artifacts were found inside a large public building, that was
destroyed in the sixth century BCE – likely during the Babylonian
destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Large stone debris, burnt wooden beams
and numerous charred pottery shards were discovered in the building, all
indications that they had survived an immense fire. The importance of this
building can be discerned, among other things, from its size, the finely cut
ashlar stones from which it was built and the quality of the architectural
elements found in the layers of destruction – for example, remnants of a
polished plaster floor, which had collapsed and caved into the floor below.
The stamp and bulla, which are about one centimeter in size, were deciphered
by Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Center for the Study of Ancient Jerusalem, who, according to the script,
dates them to the middle of the seventh century to the beginning of the
sixth century BCE.
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