A pottery fragment, approximately 2.5 cm (1 inch) in size, was discovered during a wet-sifting process conducted at the "Archaeological Experience" in Emek Tzurim National Park (north of the City of David)—a joint project of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the City of David Foundation. It bears an inscription in Akkadian cuneiform. This is the only Assyrian inscription from the First Temple period (8th to 7th centuries BCE) found in the city.
 |
Photo: Eliyahu Yanai, City of David. The Assyrian Seal Impression
According to Dr. Ayala Zilberstein, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority: "The inscription provides direct evidence of official correspondence between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. The discovery reinforces our understanding of the depth of the Assyrian foothold in Jerusalem, and the extent of its influence on the conduct of affairs in the city. Additionally, it expands our knowledge about the status of the new neighborhood that developed in those days on the slopes of the hill west of the Temple. It appears that this area served as a focal point for the activities of ministers and high-ranking officials."
Dr. Peter Zilberg and Dr. Filip Vukosavović suggest that the inscription fragment was part of a royal bulla—a seal impression intended to seal an official letter or dispatch on behalf of the Assyrian royal court. "This type of bulla bore an impression that was sometimes accompanied by a short inscription, explaining the content or destination of the dispatch in Assyrian cuneiform, and they differ in size and shape from the local bullae known in Judah," the Assyriologists explain.
Analysis of the inscription fragment and its content reinforces the hypothesis that the sealed document concerns a delay in paying a tax or another obligation. The inscription specifies a due date—the first of the month of Av—and explicitly mentions a chariot officer (the "holder of the reins" in Assyrian). This title indicates a high-ranking official responsible for conveying official messages on behalf of the royal house, and such a figure is well known from the archives of the Assyrian administration.
Although the inscription fragment does not explicitly mention the name of the king of Judah to whom the dispatch was intended, the chronological context and the partial text allow us to assume that it was sent to the court of one of the kings of Judah: Hezekiah, Manasseh, or Josiah early in his reign, during which Judah was a vassal state of Assyria. Items of this kind served as a means of mediation between envoys of the Assyrian government and the ministers of Judah, conveying official instructions and tax demands.
"Although we cannot determine whether this was a technical delay or a deliberate step with political significance, the mere existence of an official appeal of this kind may indicate a point of friction between Judah and the imperial rule," the researchers state. One of the research directions being investigated is that the royal seal impression was sent to Judah during the reign of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, as the characteristics of the inscription and its dating to the period of this king's reign or one of his descendants may perhaps echo a story of a tax rebellion, similar to the biblical description of Hezekiah's revolt, recounted in 2 Kings (18:7): "He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him."
Petrographic testing of the bulla indicated that it was not produced in Jerusalem but was sent here from a great distance, most likely from one of the administrative centers of Assyria, such as Nineveh, Ashur, or Nimrud.
According to Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The material composition analysis of the inscription fragment clearly showed that the material from which it was made is completely different from the local raw materials used for making pottery, bullae, and clay documents in Jerusalem and the Southern Levant. At the same time, the mineral composition of the bulla generally corresponds to the geology of the Tigris Basin area, where the central cities of the Assyrian kingdom, such as Nineveh, Ashur, or Nimrud, were located. A chemical analysis of the bulla's composition is currently being performed in collaboration with Dr. Yehudit Harlavan of the Geological Survey of Israel, in order to precisely determine its production source."
The researchers add that, "This is a small fragment with great significance. The find opens a window to understanding the political and administrative ties between Judah and Assyria, and is the first evidence of its kind for the official, and perhaps even tense, communication that took place between Jerusalem and the most powerful empire of the period we are discussing."
The inscription will be displayed to the public for the first time this coming Thursday, 23/10, at the conference "New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region" hosted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University, at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה
תודה רבה על תגובתך. היא תפורסם אחרי אישורה.