Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Ancient seals unearthed in a Jerusalem dig

So goes the headline at the Jerusalem Post, in an article Eliyahu sent to me. At first I was hopeful that they had discovered the tachash, which would be relevant to this week's parsha. After all, the pasuk states:
ה וְעֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים וְעֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים, וַעֲצֵי שִׁטִּים. 5 and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia-wood;
But no, the ancient seals they found were of another sort entirely. ;)

According to the article (though read it all):
A routine archeological excavation ahead of private construction in an Arab neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem has uncovered a series of seal impressions from the reign of the biblical King Hezekiah 2,700 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.

...

The seal impressions found include those of two high-ranking officials named Ahimelech ben Amadyahu and Yehohail ben Shahar, who served in the Judean kingdom's government.


The name Achimelech occurs in Tanach, but not Achimelech ben Amadyahu, as far as I can tell. Nor the other one. So I am not sure how we know they were high-ranking officials. Maybe there are other references to them?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that the authors assume that only high-ranking officials would have a seal on royal storage containers. It's not an unreasonable assumption, although it begs the question of what a high-ranking official is.

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