17 Judaean Stamps*

[1969]

I the stratigraphy of Ramat RaJ:iel, 2 cEn Gedi, 3 and La• chish. 4 It is more difficult to fix the precise fioruit of the The series of official or quasi-official stamps used on lam-melek series with its several types. The evidence that jars in Judah begins in the late eighth century BCE with all were made from a handful of master stamps suggests a the so-called lam-melek impressions. 1 The clarification short span of time for their usage. 5 There is no clear evi• of the date of Stratum III at Lachish appears to certify dence either from stratigraphic context or from palaeog• that both the royal stamps engraved with the scarab, and raphy6 that any of the stamps need be dated later that those engraved with the winged sun disk, belong wholly c. 700 BCE. The scripts of the two major groups 7 differ or in large measure to late in the reign of (727- BCE). 698 That these stamps did not continue in use until 2. Ramat Ra/:tel: 1959 and 1960 (above, n. 1): 59--60. The royal the end of the kingdom is established by the evidence of stamped handles were found only under the floor of the courtyard and beneath the floors of the buildings. If we follow the excavator in dating the citadel to the time of Jehoiakim, we must then conclude that Ramat 'This paper has been revised to remove error and to conform to Ral;iel provides negative evidence for the discontinuance of the stamps my present views. Bibliography has not been systematically updated; after Josiah's reign. The same may be said for the lam-melek handle but a number of important papers have been added. found at ijirbet es-Samrah. See F. M. Cross and J. T. Mililc., "Explora• 1. Among the important studies of the stamps, see Paul W. Lapp, tions in the Judaean Buqe'ah," BASOR 142 (1956): 5-17, esp. Fig. 2. No "Late Royal Seals from Judah," BASOR 158 (1960): 11-22; Y. Yadin, doubt some jars from Hezekiah's reign survived in use into the seventh "The Four-fold Division of Judah," BASOR 163 (1961): 6-12; Y. Aha• century; it is doubtful that any were manufactured so late. roni, Excavations at Ramat Ra/:tel: Seasons 1959 and 1960 (Rome: Cen• 3. B. Mazar and I. Dunayevsky, "'En Gedi: Fourth and Fifth Sea• tro di Studi Semitici, 1962): 51-56; Excavations at Ramat Ra/:tel: sons," /El 17 (1967): 137; En-Gedi: The First and Second Seasons of Seasons 1961 and 1962 (Rome: Centro di Studi Semitici, 1964): 33-34, Excavations. 'Atiqot 5 (1966): 34-38. Stratum V has yielded but a 61-63; The Land of the (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967): 340- single royal handle, of the sun-disk type, in a stratum dating between the 46; A. F. Rainey, "Royal Weights and Measures," BASOR 179 (1965): late seventh century and the early sixth century. Even more interesting 34-36; "Private Seal-Impressions: A Note on Semantics," /El 16 is the seal imitating the royal handle, but bearing what I should argue is (1966): 187-90; "Wine From Royal Vineyards," BASOR 245 (1982): a private name, nr', in place of lmlk. This seal must have been designed 57--62; F. M. Cross, "Jar Inscriptions from Shiqmona," /El 18 (1968): after the winged sun disk ceased to be issued by the royal house. 226-33; "Ammonite Ostraca from Heshbon: Heshbon Ostraca IV• 4. See the articles of Ussishkin cited inn. I. Earlier, in the original VIII," AUSS 13 (1975): 1-20 [see also Paper 6 above]; P. Welten, Die version of this paper, published in 1969, I followed the views of those Konigs-Stempel. Ein Beitrag zur Militarpolitik Judas unter Hiskia und who held that Stratum III dated between 701 and 597 BCE. On this dat• Josia (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1969); A. Lemaire, "Classification des ing, which is effectively disproved by Ussishkin's more recent work at estampilles royales judeennes," Eretz-lsrael 15 (1981): 54*-60*; Lachish, see G. E. Wright, VT5 (1955): 97-105; W. F. Albright: BASOR N. Na'aman, "Hezekiah's Fortified Cities and the I.MLK Stamps;' 132 (1953): 46; B. W. Buchanan: AJA 58 (1954): 335-39; and J. W. BASOR 261 (1986): 5-21; Yosef Garfinkel, "2 Chr 11: 5-10. Fortified Crowfoot, et al.: Samaria III (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, Cities List and the lmlk Stamps-Reply to Nadav Na'aman," BASOR 1957): 204, 208. 271 ( 1988): 69-73; and, most important for establishing the chronology 5. See the studies of Lapp, Welten, and Lemaire listed inn. I. of the lam-melek stamps, David Ussishkin, "Royal Judean Storage Jars 6. Professor Lapp has referred to my palaeographic views in his and Private Seal Impressions;• BASOR 223 (1976): 1-13; and "The De• study listed in n. I. struction of Lachish by and the Dating of the Royal Judean 7. As Lapp has shown, there is no real palaeographic divergence Storage Jars," Tel Aviv 4 (1977): 28-60. between the two scarab types.

138 Judaean Stamps 139 slightly. The scarab seals are inscribed in a more formal quality. But it matters little where grains are grown or script, the sun-disc stamps in a more cursive or typologi• where oil is pressed. cally advanced hand. But most letter forms could be con• Yadin's suggestion that the symbol on weights is a temporary, and none require more than a generation of conventionalized scarab, a royal mark, is appealing, as is separation in time. One is tempted to date the entire se• his further suggestion that the !et symbol had a similar ries to the time of Hezekiah, one innovation among the origin. 12 One notes that the conventionalized four• several reforms introduced by the vigorous king in his winged scarab (or sun disk) in its circular stamp was ambition to reorganize his realm and to recreate the glory early equated with the Phoenician and Hebrew fet, and of the Davidic empire. evolved with the letter !et as is evident from fifth-century The precise function of the royal stamped jars has Phoenician jar inscriptions with fet, 13 in a fourth-century been a matter of dispute. Few theories provide an expla• Phoenician inscription from Shiqmona, 14 and on stamped nation for the several jars which bear both a private and a handles of Carthage. 15 Three yhd stamps of the fourth royal stamp. 8 The set of place names on the royal handles century, inscribed in lapidary Aramaic, utilize the !et sign z(y)p, mmst, J:tbrn, and swkh is no doubt the key to the in its proper lapidary theta form. 16 This lapidary Aramaic function of the stamped jars. I cannot believe that the fet in degraded form survives on Ptolemaic stamps in• towns named were administrative centers or military scribed with Palaeo-Hebrew yhd. 17 The scarab symbol store cities. 9 What would be the point of naming the ad• ties together the Judaean weights and the lmlk handles. ministrative center? Why would the government fabri• We note also that lmlk appears with the numeral 2 on a cate jars with the names of towns on them? And in either weight of two shekels from . 18 case, why these towns and only these towns? With the exception of , the names are of minor villages. 10 They are clumped in the south. The random distribution 12. "Ancient Judaean Weights and the Date of the Samaria Os• of the jars throughout Judah suggests that the towns were traca," Scripta Hierosolymitana 8 (1961): 9-25. For an alternative points of origin for general distribution, not the destina• explanation, see 0. Goldwasser and J. Naveh, "The Origin of the Tet• tion for the jars. Symbol," IEJ 26 (1976): 15-19 and PL 3. Analogy suggests-and the analogies are many• 13. See also N. Avigad, "Yehfid or Ha'ir," BASOR 158 (1960): 23-27. that the place-name is recorded to specify the location of 14. F. M. Cross, "Jar Inscriptions from Shiqmona," IEJ 18 (1968): vineyards, and that the jars are wine jars. This is the ex• 226-33 [Paper 44 below]. See also B. Delavault and A. Lemaire, "Les planation which best fits the Gibeon handles 11 (inscribed inscriptions pheniciennes de Palestine," RSF 7 (1979): 14-16; and J. Naveh, "Unpublished Phoenician Inscriptions from Palestine," IEJ 37 after firing), Mo~oh stamps (as Avigad has suggested), (1987): 28. My readings are now to be corrected as shown by Naveh and, as we shall see, stamps of the Persian and Hellenistic with his Phoenician parallels. The best preserved text reads: eras from Judaea, Phoenicia, and the Greek isles. Wines (1) [l]bn mtn 'b1 10.10.lll ll lm/k are known by their district. It is the key to their taste and (2) f:tmr gt krml (3) ! (1) Belonging to Ben-Matton. In (year) 25 of the king: 8. Ramat Raf:tel: 1959 and 1960 (above, n. 1): 53f.; PL 6: 2; Fig. (2) wine of Gat Karmel 14: 2. It is intriguing that the name nr' turns up on two unique handles, (3) fet symbol. the doubly-stamped handle of Ramat RaJ:iel and the imitation royal 15. That the {et sign survived on wine amphorae from Carthage stamped handle from 'En Gedi. For references to other doubly-stamped was first suggested by Vincent on the basis of inconclusive data, "Les handles, see Ussishkin, "Destruction" [see n. l]: 57; and Lemaire, epigraphes judeo-arameennes postexiliques," RB 56 (1949): 274-94. In "Classification" [seen. l]: 58*. the McDaniel collection at Harvard are a number of Carthaginian 9. The latter theory has been more elaborately developed recently stamped-handles now published by Nancy L. Hirschland and Mason by N. Na'aman. See above, n.l. Hammond, "Stamped Potters' Marks and Other Stamped Pottery in the 10. Indeed mmst remains unidentified. The attempt of Aharoni to McDaniel Collection," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 72 resurrect Ginsberg's theory that the name is an abbreviation of mmslt is (1968): 369-82. Note the stamps on PL I, 1-3. Stamps 1 and 2 are par• not persuasive. Except for weights and measures, we encounter no other ticularly interesting, bearing the Punic fet and no other letters. examples of abbreviation in Hebrew epigraphic material. Ginsberg's 16. It is remarkable that the theta-shaped fet has not been recog• other example of an abbreviated place-name, m$h, has been proven false nized as the lapidary form of fetin Aramaic. One need only refer, for ex• by Avigad in his decisive study, "New Light on the M$h Seal Impres• ample, to the Nerab inscriptions where the theta-form is used regularly. sions," IEJ 8 (1958): 113-19. The three stamps in question are discussed below. 11. J.B. Pritchard, Hebrew Inscriptions and Stamps from Gibeon 17. See P. Lapp, "Ptolemaic Stamped Handles from Judah," (Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1959): 16-17; cf. F. M. Cross, BASOR 172 (1963): 22-35. Evidently the seal cutters no longer under• "Epigraphical Notes on Hebrew Documents of the Eighth-Sixth Centu• stood the symbol as an Aramaic fet or they would have shifted it to the ries B.c.: Ill. The Inscribed Jar Handles from Gibeon," BASOR 168 proper Palaeo-Hebrew form for the sake of consistency. (1962): 18-23, esp. p. 23 and n. 37 [Paper 13 above, p. 128 and n. 37]. 18. Diringer: Pl. XXIII, 18.