The Shelomit seal is an elliptical black stone seal (2.1 x 1.8 cm) excavated by Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem, January 2008. It was found in a stratified layer estimated at 2,500 years old, just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate.

Design

Two bearded priests stand on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship. A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar. It's been described as a common and popular Babylonian cultic scene.^[1]

At the bottom are four Paleo-Hebrew letters: Shin, Lamed, Mem, Tau. (For a detailed paleographical analysis, see Ryan Byrne's online article published by the Biblical Archaeology Society.^[2]

Controversy

Misreading

Mazar initially read the inscription as "Temech" (three letters: Tau, Mem, Het), and associated it with a family named "Tamah" in Nehemiah 7:55.^[3]

Other scholars (initially Peter van der Veen^[4], followed by others^[5]) read the seal's letters in reverse order, as normally done, and suggested a reading of "Sh-l-m-t" (Shelomith), a name found in 1Chronicles 3:19 and Ezra 8:10 dating to the same approximate time.

On January 30, 2008, the Biblical Archaeology Society published analyses by scholars with epigraphy expertise, Robert Deutsch^[6] and Anson Rainey^[7], and Mazar agreed to revise her reading.^[8]

Biblical connection

Christopher Heard has pointed out that the coincidence of names on the seal and in Chronicles does not necessarily imply that this seal belonged to the person named in the Bible.^[9]

Gender

Ryan Byrne published an online article presuming the name to be feminine.^[10] Christopher Heard challenged this with a comparison of all examples named in the Tanakh.^[11]

See also

• Biblical archaeology

References