Enduring Impressions

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Placing stamp impressions on the handles of large storage jars was a well-known phenomenon throughout the ancient Near East, from prehistoric times to the Bronze and Iron Ages and later. Some of these impressions were likely akin to a manufacturer’s label, serving to brand particular varieties of wine or oil. Other impressions served to indicate private ownership or mark provisions reserved for palace or temple elites. Most stamp impressions were relatively short-lived phenomena, limited in their distribution and lacking any indication of continued use or a larger administrative function.

Beginning in the late eighth century B.C.E., however, the Kingdom of Judah—for the first time in world history—began using stamped storage jars as part of a widespread, centrally organized administrative system. This system, which appears to have been primarily administered from the Judahite center of Ramat Rahel south of Jerusalem, was used to collect, store, and transport the agricultural products—mainly wine and olive oil—supplied across an expansive network of royal estates, to support Judah’s economy and pay the kingdom’s annual tribute to the Assyrian empire. We also see, for the first time, the mass production of standardized, large-capacity storage 056jars that could be easily stored and shipped for large-scale distribution. These innovations indicate the transition to a more centralized, state-organized economy, which could be effectively supervised and controlled by a central authority.

This administrative system proved so effective that it continued to develop across a period of 600 years: from Judah’s final years as a vassal kingdom of the Assyrians and then Babylonians, through the four centuries it was a province under the mighty Babylonian, Persian, and then Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. During these periods, we see an abundance of similar stamp impressions that are widely distributed across the territory of Judah and strong evidence for administrative continuity from the late eighth to late second centuries B.C.E.¹ Throughout, Ramat Rahel served as the heart of this administrative system, as evidenced by the great number of stamped handles discovered at the site that date to the various periods the system was in use.²

Before examining the specific stamp impressions from each period of Judah’s history, let us first look at storage jars in ancient Judah and their usage. The most common type of storage jar used between the eighth and second centuries was the ovoid storage jar with a straight neck, rounded base, and wide, rounded shoulders. Four thick handles, set beneath the shoulder, were presumably used for tying and securing the jar during transit and storage. The vessels are quite large, some reaching nearly 2 feet in height and having a volume of about 12 gallons. They were probably used to transport oil 057and wine over short distances, from pressing and production sites to nearby storage facilities. The same type of jar, with only slight modifications, continued to be produced for the more than six centuries that the administrative system was in place.

The first stamp impressions employed in Judah as part of a large and established system were the lmlk stamp impressions that expressed ownership by the king. The system first appears in the late eighth century and, despite its early date, is outstanding in the quality of its seals, large number of stamp types and stamped handles attested, and widespread distribution at sites within Judah. It was likely introduced, either by King Ahaz or Hezekiah, in response to taxes imposed on Judah as it became an Assyrian vassal during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (2 Kings 16:7–8). Each stamp impression consists of three elements: a symbol (either a four-winged scarab or a two-winged sun disk), the denotation of possession (lmlk, “[belonging] to the king”), and a place name (Hebron, Socoh, Ziph, and possibly Mamshit).

Similar stamp impressions continued in use during the seventh century, although there is a notable decline in the use of writing: several stamps lack the phrase lmlk, while others lack the place name. Archaeological evidence suggests these later types were produced only after Judah had begun to recover from the massive destruction wreaked by Sennacherib’s campaign of 701 B.C.E. that threatened Jerusalem and destroyed many towns in the 058Judean Foothills, including Lachish and Azekah.

Rosette-stamped storage jars—which feature a rosette symbol with no text—were the last to be introduced during the monarchic period of Judah and evidence a similar though slightly more limited administrative system. This system began to operate in the second half of the seventh century and stayed in use until the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.

New stamp impressions appeared in the early sixth century B.C.E., following Judah’s incorporation as a province of the Babylonian empire. The stamps feature a picture of lion and appear—in a variety of types—on the handles and sometimes bodies of the same type of storage jars. As in the case of the rosette seal impressions, a single iconographic motif was used, without any text. Most types depict a lion pacing to the right or left; one type depicts a lion standing on its hind legs.

The use of stamped storage jars continued into the Persian period, with the main change being the total disappearance of iconography from the seals. During the 250 years of Persian rule in Judah, stamps were marked only with the name of the province in Aramaic writing: spelled either in full, as yhwd (Yehud), or with defective spelling, as yhd or even just yh. This system of stamp impressions continued in use until the beginning of the Hasmonean period in the second century B.C.E.

The final chapter in the history of Judah’s system of stamped storage jars is the yršlm stamp. These stamps are characterized by the return of iconography: an engraved pentagram with five letters inserted between its points, reading yršlm, an abbreviation for Jerusalem, the capital of the Hasmonean kingdom. They first appear in the mid-second century B.C.E., when the Hasmonean kingdom was firmly establishing itself in Judah, and likely they represent an ad hoc administrative system that aimed to consolidate Hasmonean rule in Jerusalem.

With the establishment of the Hasmonean kingdom—the first fully independent Judean kingdom in more than six centuries—there was no longer any need to pay taxes or tribute to a foreign imperial power. Ramat Rahel—Judah’s long-lived royal administrative center—was destroyed to its foundations, with no further evidence for stamped storage jars found at the site. A Jewish village, with many ritual baths and a large columbarium, was erected at the site, and a Hasmonean citadel may have been built nearby. The administrative system that had begun under the kings of Judah in the late eighth century and persisted through most of the Second Temple period disappeared by the end of the second century, buried, like Ramat Rahel, under layers of rock and stone.

In ancient Judah, seal impressions stamped onto storage jars supported a centuries-long administrative system designed to collect and store agricultural products to pay the kingdom’s annual tribute to its foreign overlords. Examine the different impressions, attested from the eighth to second centuries B.C.E., that evidence this long lived, centrally organized system.