Strata: Pentagrams in Judea

The pentagram or five-pointed star was a popular symbol in the Hellenistic world as a magical religious symbol that had an apotropaic function (warding off evil). In the second century B.C.E. the pentagram became significant in Judea. For centuries, beginning in the late eighth century B.C.E., Judah would stamp jar handles as a mark of fiscal administration—perhaps as a governmental approval of the contents of the vessel or other certification.

In the Hellenistic period, the pentagram was adopted for this purpose. In ancient vowel-less Hebrew, Jerusalem is spelled with five consonants: ירשלם; YRŠLM. When the pentagram was adopted as a fiscal stamp on the handle of pottery vessels in Judea, the five letters of Jerusalem in ancient Hebrew script (the script used before the Babylonian destruction of 586 B.C.E.) were stamped between the five points of the star.

In a recent study, Efrat Bocher and Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University identified six different types of such seal impressions on pottery handles, all with a pentagram and the five letters of Jerusalem between the points.¹