Image Details

A seal from the Altman collection. In this greyish chalcedony seal, an Egyptian ankh, a star and a crescent separate the two lines of the inscription, which reads “Belonging to Shamash’azar son of ‘Abdsahr servant of Sahr.” Though the language on this late-eighth- to seventh-century B.C. seal is Hebrew, the lettering bears some Aramaic characteristics. Scholars have speculated that the owner was a Hebrew with an Aramean name or an Aramean who employed a Hebrew artisan.