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Peter van der Veen Collection / Photo by G.M. Grena

“Belonging to the King—Hebron” reads the stamp on this handle from an eighth-century B.C.E. storage jar. Such jars were made during the reign of Hezekiah in preparation for the attack on Judah by Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 B.C.E. These l’melekh handles (after the Hebrew word for king) typically bear the name of one of four cities in Judah; more than 500 examples with the name Hebron have been found so far, indicating that the city was a royal administrative center during the late Judean monarchy.