Hilkiah

On the seal is a three-line inscription, in reverse letters, as is usual, so that the letters will read properly when impressed in a lump of clay. The script incised in the seal is what scholars call paleo-Hebrew, used by the Israelites before the Babylonian captivity, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The inscription reads: "(Belonging) to Hanan, son (of) Hilkiah the priest". It begins with the Hebrew letter lamed, meaning “belonging to”, indicating the seal’s ownership. Then the name of the seal’s owner, the name of his father and the function of the seal’s owner.

The second object is a bulla found in Jerusalem in 1982. A bulla was used to seal a document. The owner of the document took a lump of soft clay; he affixed the clay to the string binding the document and then stamped it with his seal. This bulla was one of the 51 bullae discovered during his excavations in the eastern slope of Jerusalem, in a clearly dated archaeological context. This collection of bullae was found in level 10, dated between Josiah’s rule and the destruction of the city by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, and more precisely from the highest ground of the building (level 10B). This level was destroyed by the final burning which provoked the baking of the bullae and so provided a better conservation. Read Less