Strata

We Have A Winner

But No Picture

Never since archaeology began has the seal of an Israelite king been seen. Sometimes, on a seal or a bulla, the name of someone mentioned in the Bible appears; sometimes, a high official from the Israelite royal court is inscribed; sometimes, the king who the servant serves is mentioned. But never the seal belonging to the king himself—until now.

In our July/August 1996 issue (Strata, BAR 22:05) we announced that for the first time we would be able to see such a seal—or such a seal impression; that is, a small lump of clay impressed with a seal, called a bulla. The name of the king would be revealed in a paper to be read at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans this past November. Who would the king be? And who would make the revelation—an American scholar, an Israeli scholar or some other nationality? And did the artifact come from a controlled excavation or did it surface on the antiquities market? The first person who correctly answered these three questions, we said, would be the winner of our “Big Contest” and win “fabulous prizes.”

The winning answers are as follows:

The name of the king is Ahaz, who ruled Judah for two decades from 735 to 715 B.C.

The announcement was made by Robert Deutsch, an Israeli graduate student who is about to publish the bulla in his master’s thesis at Tel Aviv University. For several years, Deutsch has been publishing inscriptions from the collection of Shlomo Moussaieff of London,^a and this is one of stars of the collection.