JERUSALEM, Dec. 2 (UPI) — Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they’ve discovered the mark of the royal seal of King Hezekiah, the 13th king of Judea who ruled between 715 and 686 B.C.
The oval impression was found on a piece of pressed clay, or bulla, unearthed Ophel excavations, a series of dig sites near the southern wall of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The inscription reads: “Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah.”
The rare bulla was found among the remains of what is believed to be a garbage dump. It was found along with pottery shards and other artifacts. Archaeologists also found 33 other bullae featuring the marks of other seals.
Cloth stuck to the backs of the other bullae suggests they were mostly pressed atop closed sacks of foodstuff, but the King’s seal was used to mark a rolled and tied piece of papyrus paper.
“This is the first time that a seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king has ever come to light in a scientific archaeological excavation,” Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist at Hebrew University and leader of the Ophel excavations, said in a press release.
Hezekiah’s seal has been found among artifacts traded on the antiquities market, but being discovered during a dig allows scientists to link the seal directly to the location of its final resting place.
