Image Details

Inscribed carnelian seal with pomegranates. Two stylized pomegranates lying on their sides with their three petals facing outward decorate this seal at either end of double curved lines. Above and below the lines is an inscription which reads: “Belonging to ’Eliyahu [the son of] Yaqimyahu.” (The letters on the seal were purposely reversed so that when the seal was pressed into wet clay, the letters would appear in their proper orientation.) The script closely resembles the script on the ivory pomegranate and on the Siloam inscription; most likely this half inch-long seal was manufactured about 700 B.C. This date precludes the possibility that the ’Eliyahu [Elijah] of the seal is the Biblical prophet, who lived more than 150 years earlier. The seal probably came from Gezer; it was purchased from a Bedouin who lived nearby and claimed it was found at Gezer.