Biblical World Tracker
A clay bulla the size of a fingernail, stamped with the words 'Belonging to Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah' in old Hebrew script. It was dug up in the Ophel in 2009 and sat unrecognised in the finds for six years until the inscription was read in 2015. It is the first seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king ever recovered from a scientific excavation rather than the antiquities trade.
Excavated in a controlled dig in the Ophel in 2009 and published after the inscription was identified in 2015 - which means, unusually for a royal bulla, that its findspot is documented rather than bought on the antiquities market. The reading 'Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah' is not disputed. Scholarly discussion has centred on the iconography, particularly what the winged sun and ankh symbols imply, not on whether the seal is genuine.
The bulla came out of Dr. Eilat Mazar's excavation at the Ophel, just south of the Temple Mount, in 2009 - part of a group of thirty-four bullae recovered from a refuse dump beside a royal building. Its significance was missed at the time. In 2015 Reut Ben-Arieh of the Hebrew University read the inscription and identified whose seal it was, and the discovery was announced on 2 December that year.
A bulla is a lump of clay pressed over the cord binding a document or a sack and stamped with a seal, so that the item cannot be opened without breaking it. This one reads, in the palaeo-Hebrew script, 'Belonging to Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah'. The backs of the group show the impressions of coarse cloth and thick cord, which suggests these particular seals closed sacks of goods rather than letters.
Seal impressions naming Hezekiah were already known, but they came through dealers, and an unprovenanced bulla can be neither dated by its context nor fully cleared of the suspicion of forgery. This one has a documented archaeological context in the royal quarter of the city it names. That is the difference between an object that supports an argument and an object that can only illustrate one.
The seal carries a two-winged sun with the wings turned down, flanked by two ankh signs. Both are borrowed from Egyptian and wider Near Eastern royal imagery, where the winged disc signifies divine protection over the king. Their appearance on the seal of a reforming king who removed the high places has drawn steady discussion - most readings connect the downturned wings and the ankhs to the illness and recovery recorded in Isaiah 38, though that is interpretation rather than settled fact.
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered the largest dam ever constructed in ancient Israel, dating to the late ninth century BCE during the reigns of kings Joash and Amaziah of Judah. The dam, located in the City of David, would have created the Pool of Siloam and reshaped the city's water system.
City of David Archaeological Park, Jerusalemlate ninth century BCE (Iron Age II)Site
An honorific inscription in the Yalvaç Museum (ancient Pisidian Antioch) mentions the Paulli family and L. Sergius Paulus, likely the proconsul of Cyprus who converted in Acts 13. This supports the idea that Paul and Barnabas traveled to Pisidian Antioch because of a connection with Sergius Paulus, possibly with a letter of recommendation. The find helps explain Paul's otherwise puzzling detour through rugged mountains.
Yalvaç Museum (ancient Pisidian Antioch)1st century AD (Roman period)Inscription
A salvage excavation conducted before construction of a new bus terminal uncovered a planned industrial and commercial district beneath the parking lot of Winter Stadium in Ramat Gan. The complex contained intersecting streets, shops, warehouses, pottery kilns, liquid-production installations, lamps, coins, tools, and other objects. It operated mainly during the early Islamic period and was later reused for housing.
Jaffa—biblical Joppa—with Jerusalem7th - 9th Centuries ADSite
Stay informed. Stay encouraged.
Weekly studies, news, and encouragement—straight to your inbox.
