Chapter 4 Identifications in Unprovenanced Inscriptions 4.1 The scope of potential identifications evaluated in this chapter The corpus of inscriptions treated in Chapters 3 and 4 is defined in section 3.1 above. Since the deadline at the beginning of October 1997, several publica- tions of relevant “new,” unprovenanced inscriptions have appeared.1 4.2 Is the biblical Uzziah, king of Judah, named in the seal of Abiyaw? Description, transcription, and translation This unpierced agate seal,2 which was probably used in a ring, measures 16.1 mm. long by 12 mm. wide by 3.8 mm. thick, and its reverse side is nearly flat. Down the center of its ellipsoid face, in a vertical or “portrait” orientation, is a carved figure variously identified as the Egyptian sun god,3 the Egyptian in- 1 See Appendixes B and C below, which are updated through July 2002. In these appendixes, footnotes frequently mark the addition of updates (post-deadline items). 2 The seal of Abiyaw, minister of Uzziyaw, purchased on the antiquities market, was first published in Ernst Otto F. H. Blau, “Bibliographische Anzeigen,” ZDMG 12 (1858): 726. Its last published location is La Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, specifically in “le Cabinet des Médailles, la collection François Chandon de Briailles, no. 156” (CSOSI, 45). It is listed in AHI, 129, no. 100.065, and in WSS, 51, no. 4. 3 G. A. D. Tait, “The Egyptian Relief Chalice,” JEA 49 (1963): 113, Fig. 4, 115, no. 16, 134–36, 135, Fig. 7. 153 154 Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions fant solar deity Nefertum,4 the newly born Horus,5 or as Harpocrates.6 Wearing an Egyptian wig or hairstyle topped by an Egyptian crown, he is kneeling on his right knee atop a lotus blossom between two lotus buds. In impressions pro- duced by this seal, he is facing the reader’s left and has his right hand raised, palm forward, as if in a gesture conferring blessing, while his left hand covers his solar plexus. Below his head, his only discernible clothing seems to be a belt. Vertically, behind the figure’s crown and back, is engraved db( wyb)l, “belonging to Abiyaw, the minister (of),” which reads downward. In front of the figure and the lotus blossom the name wyz(, “Uzziyaw,” is also engraved verti- cally but reads upward.7 A single line surrounding the face of the seal is broken by three minor chips which do not interfere with the text or image. (4.2) Question 1: reliability of inscriptional data Access: 3) Purchased on the antiquities market in 1858 or earlier. Provenance: 4) Unknown. Authenticity: 2) Presumable, because when it was purchased in the mid- nineteenth century, knowledge of epigraphy was not sufficient to forge letters that would fit in with the typology of letter shapes that developed later.8 The au- thenticity of this seal is virtually certain, because the specific letter shapes con- sistent both with each other and with the date of the biblical Uzziah certainly could not have been known by forgers when the seal was purchased, ca. 1858. (4.2) The setting of the seal of Abiyaw, apart from biblical data Date: 5) Dated by epigraphy: mid- to late eighth century. Among the diagnostic letters are the two waws; the fact that in them the right stroke does 4 CSOSI, 45. 5 Max E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains (New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1966), 475. 6 Diringer, 221, no. 65. 7 The PN Abiyaw means, “Yaw is my father.” Uzziyaw means, “Yaw is my might.” 8 This concept is not original with this study and perhaps not with the source used here, which is the following statement regarding the authenticity of the Mesha Inscrip- tion: “The form of the letters is consistent with other inscriptions of the 9th cent. B.C. and could not have been known when the stone was discovered” (Patrick D. Miller Jr., “Moabite Stone,” ISBE 3:396). Identifications in Unprovenanced Inscriptions 155 Fig. 12 The Seal “of Abiyaw, the Minister of Uzziyaw” (Reversed to appear as an impression. Drawing by the author) 156 Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions not cross over to the left side of the vertical shaft is a reliable indicator of an eighth-century date (All but one of the extant examples of such a form of waw are early to mid-eighth century; the one exception is late eighth century).9 The form of the aleph has parallels as early as the second half of the eighth cen- tury.10 The zayin with its cursive-style ticks on both horizontals is found on ex- emplars as early as the late eighth century.11 The ligatured beth and daleth in db( find close parallels in the late eighth-century seal zx) · db / (· )n#)l (treated below in section 4.4). A date in the second half of the eighth century best accommodates these paleographic traits.12 Language: 5) The language of the inscription cannot be specifically de- termined on linguistic grounds. If language parameters are set solely by vocabu- lary, morphology, and syntax, most Northwest Semitic languages of the day are viable alternatives. Socio-political classification: 3) Determined by the two theophoric ele- ments -yaw13and the Hebrew script. Permitted by the onomasticon of inscrip- tional Hebrew,14 the language parameters, the arrangement of the text on the face of the seal,15 and the material characteristics of the seal:16 Hebrew. (4.2) How the seal of Abiyaw correlates with the historical framework Although two texts of Tiglath-pileser III (r. 744–727) refer to a man named Azriyau, it does not appear demonstrable that he is to be identified with the bib- 9 See Chapter 2, note 3, second paragraph, above. 10 SANSS, 89, no. 14, 127, no. 102, Hebrew Seal Script Fig. 64, nos. 14, 102. 11 Ibid., 136, no. 127, Hebrew Seal Script Fig. 67, no. 127. 12 Bordreuil proposes a date between 780 and 740 (CSOSI, 45); Cross dates it “ca. 768–734” (Cross, “Seal of Miqnêyaw, Servant of Yahweh,” in Ancient Seals and the Bi- ble,[ed. Gorelick and Williams-Forte], 56). 13 See Chapter 3, note 136, above. 14 The PN Abiyaw occurs in three or four other Hebrew inscriptions, of which one or two are Samaria ostraca (ca. second quarter of the ninth century to mid-eighth cen- tury), one is an undated seal from Carthage, and one is an unprovenanced seal dated to the eighth century (AHI, 266; WSS, 475). The forms Abiyah and Abiyahu also appear in Hebrew inscriptions (AHI, 266; WSS, 475). PNs formed from b), “father,” are found also in at least nine other socio-political classifications (Fowler, 280; WSS, 475). The PN Uzziyaw is present in only one other Hebrew inscription, the seal of Shub- nayaw (see section 4.3 below), which is also unprovenanced (WSS, 522; AHI, 458). There are four other Hebrew theophoric compounds and hypocoristica based on the root zz( (WSS, 521–22; AHI, 457–58). PNs based on the root zz( appear in inscriptions of at least six other socio-political classifications (Fowler, 288; WSS, 521–22). 15 See sections 2.2 above and 4.3 below. 16 Several Hebrew seals are unperforated, iconic, and made of semiprecious stone. Identifications in Unprovenanced Inscriptions 157 lical Azariah/Uzziah.17 The Hebrew script, the two theophoric elements, and the use of the term ebed as a title on a seal, however, make it evident that the seal owner’s master was a Hebrew monarch. It is not possible on purely inscriptional grounds to say which kingdom he ruled. Extant inscriptions of the northern kingdom of Israel exhibit the syncopated suffix, /-yaw/, spelled wy-, to the exclu- sion of /-yahu/ (written as why-). But until the late eighth century, the seals and bullae of Judah display both of these theophoric endings.18 Therefore, the in- scriptional evidence reveals only that Uzziah was a mid-eighth-century Hebrew king, not which kingdom he ruled. Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions mention four kings of Judah: Jehoa- haz (see section 4.4 below), Hezekiah (see section 4.6 below), Manasseh,19 and Jehoiachin,20 but not Uzziah/Azariah. 17 For a discussion of Azriyau, whose ID as Azariah/ Uzziah, king of Judah, was once widely accepted, see Na’aman, “Sennacherib’s ‘Letter to God,’” 25–39 (contra ANET, 282); cf. Hayim Tadmor, “Azriyau of Yaudi,” Scripta Hierosolymitana 8 (1961): 232–71; ITP, 273–74. Tadmor observes that “had it been the name of an Aramean, or had it been transmitted to Assyria through Aramaic, the name would probably have been ren- dered Idri-yau in Akkadian transcription . .” (ibid., 273, n. 1). His current position seems to be that the question of this potential ID cannot be resolved without new evi- dence (ibid., 274). For bibliography of works for and against this ID, see Becking, Fall, 3, n. 9. 18 See Chapter 3, note 136, above. 19 “Manasseh (mme-na-si-i), king of Judah (KUR ia-ú-di),” according to Prism B of Esarhaddon (r. 680–669), was among those who paid tribute to the latter (Esarhaddon’s Prism B, column 5, line 55; R. Campbell Thompson, The Prisms of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal [London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1931], 25; ANET, 291; Galil, Chronology, 154). Also, Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627) records that “Manasseh, king of Judah (mmi-in-si-HV@DU KUR ia-ú-di)” paid tribute to him (Ashurbanipal’s Cylinder C, col. 1, line 25; Maximilian Streck, Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Könige bis zum Untergang Niniveh’s, [Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 7; Leipzig: J.