Excavators sifting earth dumped from a Muslim excavation on the Temple Mount have discovered an inscribed First Temple period (tenth-early sixth century B.C.) bulla—a lump of clay bearing a seal impression. The top portion of the bulla is damaged, but the excavators say it originally bore three lines of writing, with the lines separated by two sets of double lines.
Gabriel Barkay, who heads the sifting project, told BAR that the second line contains the letters lyhw, apparently a Yahwistic name (one that contains a form of Yahweh, the name of the Israelite God), while the third line has ‘mr. Barkay speculates that the bulla may have been inscribed “l’galyahu [ben] immer,” “belonging to Galyahu [son of] Immer.”
The bulla is oval shaped and measures 0.4 of an inch across. Barkay described it as similar to the seventh-early sixth-century B.C. bullae found in earlier excavations in the City of David, south of the Temple Mount.
Barkay has been leading a team that is systematically sifting through earth that had been removed from the Temple Mount by the Muslim religious trust known as the Waqf during the erection of a monumental entrance to an underground mosque. The excavated earth, removed by a bulldozer, was then dumped into the Kidron Valley (see “Sifting the Temple Mount Dump,”BAR 31:04). Barkay told BAR that his sifting project is working six days a week, with sometimes just a few volunteers and with dozens at other times. The team has so far recovered scores of coins, ivory figurines, arrowheads and many other small finds. Barkay says that about 15 per cent of the pottery found dates to the First Temple period.
Excavators sifting earth dumped from a Muslim excavation on the Temple Mount have discovered an inscribed First Temple period (tenth-early sixth century B.C.) bulla—a lump of clay bearing a seal impression. The top portion of the bulla is damaged, but the excavators say it originally bore three lines of writing, with the lines separated by two sets of double lines. Gabriel Barkay, who heads the sifting project, told BAR that the second line contains the letters lyhw, apparently a Yahwistic name (one that contains a form of Yahweh, the name of the Israelite God), while the third line has […]
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