Review: Why Objects from the Antiquities Market Matter

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When I was a practicing lawyer, I was always eager to know the best argument the other side could make. In order to test my own position, I had to know what the opposition could muster. With that in mind, I would like to hear from anyone who thinks that Robert Deutsch should be condemned for publishing a series of books—some by himself,¹ some with other scholars²—of Biblical-period inscriptions from private antiquities collections. That is, the inscriptions—seals, bullae, plaques, ostraca, vessels, etc.—are unprovenanced. We don’t know where they were found. Many of them were probably looted. Yet they have much to teach us.

The official position of the professional archaeological societies, however, is that they should not be looked at. They may not be published in their professional journals nor spoken of at their professional meetings.

Deutsch himself is a member of a reviled profession. He is an antiquities dealer, with a shop in Tel Aviv. That is how he makes his living. He is also a Ph.D. student—at two universities, Tel Aviv University and Haifa University, in Semitic epigraphy and numismatics. He is a field archaeologist, too, working as an area supervisor at Megiddo under the direction of Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, two very prominent Israeli archaeologists.

Deutsch’s most recent book of epigraphic materials in private collections is Biblical Period Hebrew Bullae: The Josef Chaim Kaufman Collection, which publishes 515 Hebrew bullae (Deutsch and Kaufman are shown in the photo above). That nearly doubles the number of such bullae that has thus far been published from all other sources. A bulla is a tiny piece of clay impressed with a seal that was used to seal the string holding a document. Occasionally, the seal and the consequent bulla was used to seal a sack of comestibles, and sometimes the bulla was given as a receipt (a so-called fiscal bulla).

Most of the bullae have the impression on the back of the string against which they were 021pressed, as well as the impression of the papyrus on which the document was written. Sometimes we find an ancient fingerprint.

Obviously one seal can be used to make an unlimited number of bullae. And some of the bullae in this collection we already know from other publications, although even these often clarify an incomplete or damaged bulla or an uncertain seal inscription. However, 490 bullae are published here for the first time. It is indeed a quite remarkable collection.

On the seal side of the bullae there is almost always a rim made by pressing the bezel of the ring into the clay, indicating that that the seal was kept in a mounting—a finger ring or a pendant. Included in this book are two seals (as opposed to bullae), one of which is mounted in its original finger ring (photo opposite, bottom). This belonged to “‘Ala’ wife of Shallum,” one of several women’s seals represented on bullae in this collection. This particular seal is made of glass; the ring in which it is mounted is made of silver. But both the seal and the ring are heavily corroded and extremely fragile. The seal is so full of tiny cracks that the owner and editor dared not make an impression of it, lest it fall apart. But the collection includes a number of bullae made with this seal—before it had corroded and cracked, leaving no doubt about the authenticity of the seal and the bullae made from it. (A bulla from this seal in another collection was mentioned in my review, “Festschrift for Moussaiff,” in the November/December 2003 BAR.)

Because of the “forgery frenzy” going on in Israel at the present time, caused largely by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s declaration that the James ossuary inscription (reading “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”) and the Jehoash inscription (purporting to record repairs to the Temple)—are forgeries,^a Deutsch considers whether this collection as a whole might also consist of forgeries. His answer is no. He examined each of the bullae individually with a high-powered microscope and observed “many phenomena which argue for their authenticity.” He goes on:

Weather damage was detected on the surfaces, on the edges, in the cracks and on fractured surfaces. Most important, crystals of different shapes and forms are present. These were growing on the surface of the clay during ca. 2700 years, as well [as] from the inside outwards, causing cracks and breaks to the surfaces. Such phenomena are not observed on recently damaged areas. No less important is the negative evidence: environmental contamination, such as wires, hair and other organic materials were not detected on or in the clay. These certainly existed in antiquity, when they were produced, but decomposed and vanished over time. The impressions of tiny fibres which existed in the clay but decayed over the centuries, are also visible, as are the many cavities and channels through the clay left by the cords which the bullae once sealed. Taking into consideration that the bullae are not fired, all these phenomena would be impossible to reproduce in modern times.

Where do all these bullae come from? Deutsch does not even speculate. All he says is that they must have come from a room where an archive of papyrus documents was 059kept. The rumor, however, is that they come from Khirbet el-Kom, ancient Makkedah, about 12 miles west of Hebron. It is just inside the border of the West Bank, within a stone’s throw of Israel. I have a dream—that one day a joint Israeli-Palestinian-American team will excavate this important site. It has never been extensively excavated. Several surveys and a brief excavation in the spring of 1971 revealed a city gate and evidence of occupation in the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period. The Bible records that Joshua defeated the five Amorite kings who tried to retake Gibeon from the Israelites and chased the coalition forces “all the way to … Makkedah” (Joshua 10:10). Joshua discovered the five kings hiding in a cave near Makkedah, so he rolled stones against the mouth of the cave to prevent their escaping while his troops continued to pursue the fleeing enemy army. After his troops wiped them out, he returned to Makkedah and had the five kings impaled on stakes (Joshua 10:16–28). Apparently, Makkedah was an important city-state inasmuch as it was ruled by a king (Joshua 12–16).

Probably the most striking bullae in this collection are impressed with the seals of King Hezekiah. Yes, it is now clear that this late eighth-century B.C.E. king of Judah had more than one seal—three so far (a fourth omits the title “king”; perhaps it was used while his father, Ahaz, still sat on the throne). But it was not uncommon for people to have more than one seal. One of the “servants of Hezekiah,” a man named Domla, had five different seals—that we know of!

Several years ago, another collector who owns bullae of King Hezekiah offered to have them exhibited in the Israel Museum, provided he could take them back afterward to his London apartment, where he keeps them. The museum was anxious for the exhibit, but the Israel Archaeological Council, composed of professional archaeologists and scholars, refused to allow it with that proviso. So the Israeli public has never seen a bulla of the famous Judahite king. This year Mr. Kaufman gave one of his Hezekiah bulla to the museum. So now the Israeli public can see one.

The Hezekiah bullae are especially important because they should make it possible to pin down the date of the writing quite closely. This would provide an absolute date for the style of the writing (paleography), which could then be used as a standard by which to date other inscriptions. However, scholars disagree over the precise dates of Hezekiah’s reign, although the difference is only a decade. Deutsch opts for the lower date: 716–687 B.C. In the Biblical Archaeology Society’s standard volume, Ancient Israel,^b Johns Hopkins professor Kyle McCarter opts for dates ten years earlier.

Some seals seem to belong to an office rather than to an individual. One bulla in this collection has no name but simply states that it belongs to “the Commander of the Army.” The word for commander (sr) is actually a more general term for a high officer and can mean variously commander, governor, minister and the like.

“Servant” is another title that denominates a high royal official, similar to the title Secretary, as in Secretary of State. We now have 24 seals and bullae belonging to “servants” of Hezekiah.

Almost all of the seals on the bullae in this collection are what scholars call aniconic—just inscriptions, no images. The inscriptions are in the original script used to write Hebrew before the Aramaic script brought back by the Babylonian exiles came into use (and used to write Hebrew today).

The few iconic seals seem to fall into two categories. One shows animals, like grazing does, unidentifiable birds and fishes, or a palm branch. Sometimes an inscription is encircled with a ring of pomegranates, a symbol of fertility. The second category uses Egyptianized icons, such as winged dung beatles, two- and four-winged sun disks, falcons,³ winged griffins, ankhs (the Egyptian key of life) and four-winged cobra serpents (uraei). In one seal with facing winged griffins, one of the griffins wears the crown of Upper Egypt and the other the crown of Lower Egypt.

A number of other bullae contain a doe or a pair of does, which is thought to be an Israelite symbol. Many years ago, some bronze bowls were found at the Assyrian capital of Nimrud, in modern Iraq; on many of them are does, either individually or in pairs. In 1967 the late Yigal Yadin proposed that these bronze bowls were booty taken by the Assyrians from the palace of the king of northern Israel at Samaria before its fall in 721 B.C. The bullae in this collection impressed by seals with a doe or pairs of does lends powerful support to this insight.

Two bullae in the collection bear iconography only, but no inscription. One of these pictures a two-winged dung beetle and the other a sacred tree flanked by two seated sphinxes. These may not have belonged to Israelites. But Egyptianizing iconography was clearly used by Israelites, including King 060Hezekiah. His seals include winged sun disks and winged dung beetles.^c

An Israelite named Shallum used a seal featuring an Egyptian-like god-figure with two large wings, wearing an Egyptian kilt. Sometimes what might be thought to be an Israelite symbol, like the doe, is featured on the same seal with an ankh. So it is a pretty confused situation, although an Egyptianizing influence on Israelite society is clear.

One bulla in the collection appears to identify for the first time another Biblical character,^d albeit a minor one. The inscription reads, “[Belonging] to ‘Amaryahu, son of Hananyahu, servant of Hezekiah.” In 2 Chronicles 31:15, ‘Amaryahu is named as an official in Hezekiah’s administration working in the office of Freewill Offerings to God.

People didn’t have last names in those days, so they were identified by their own name and their father’s name. Sometimes we find “X son of Y,” but more often “son” is not there. The editor tells us that it was understood. Yes and no. A man’s second name was simply his father’s name. I recently interviewed the head of the Baghdad Museum, who is regularly identified in the newspaper as Donny George. George is his father’s name, not his last name. The word “son” is not missing or understood; the father’s name is part of the son’s name. And so it was in ancient Israel.

The Israelite onomasticon (collection of names) is vastly increased by this publication. The bullae contain over 265 different proper names (if my counting is correct).

This publication will surely be welcomed by most scholars. It is difficult to understand the view that we should not look at it because the bullae come to us from the antiquities market.

When I was a practicing lawyer, I was always eager to know the best argument the other side could make. In order to test my own position, I had to know what the opposition could muster. With that in mind, I would like to hear from anyone who thinks that Robert Deutsch should be condemned for publishing a series of books—some by himself,1 some with other scholars2—of Biblical-period inscriptions from private antiquities collections. That is, the inscriptions—seals, bullae, plaques, ostraca, vessels, etc.—are unprovenanced. We don’t know where they were found. Many of them were probably looted. Yet they have […]