Endnote 7 – Tracking Down Shebnayahu, Servant of the King
The shape of the juglet is typical of Lachish Level III, in the end of the eighth century B.C.E. (Orna Zimhoni, in D. Ussishkin et al., The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994), vol. 4 [Tel-Aviv, 2004], p. 1794, Fig. 26.4:13–17). The typology of the bullae and the shape of the letters also point to a date in Hezekiah’s reign. For example, two identical bullae of Yirmeyahu son of Sefanyahu son of Nobai from Lachish, are written in three horizontal lines without field divider, similar to the royal bulla of Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, and of those of Hezekiah’s ministers (Robert Deutsch, Messages from the Past: Hebrew Bullae from the Time of Isaiah Through the Destruction of the First Temple [Tel Aviv, 1999], p. 61, fig. 1; Robert Deutsch, Biblical Period Hebrew Bullae: The Josef Chaim Kaufman Collection [Tel Aviv, 2003], p. 33, figs. 12a–b). The inscribed shekel weights found in the same Locus are also to be dated as late eighth and seventh century B.C.E. (Raz Kletter, Economic Keystones [Sheffield, 1998], p. 48).