Bonus 45 - Ahaz Bulla

Reproduction of a Seal (Bulla) with the inscription
“Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yotham King of Judah.”
Original housed in the Shlomo Moussaieff Collection, London.

In 1995 a 8th century BCE (732-716) clay seal bulla impression was discovered by Robert Deutsch in the possession of an antiquities dealer. It was soon discovered to contain the name of King Ahaz of the Bible (Isaiah 14:28) and his father, Yehotam (Jotham). The seal is presently a part of a private London collection of antiquities by the name of Shlomo Moussaieff. His private collection exceeds 60,000.1.  Deutsch describes its condition and use as:

"This lump of clay, called a bulla, was used to seal a papyrus document. We know this because the back of the bulla still bears the imprint of the texture of the papyrus. Also on the back of the bulla, we can see the impression of the double string with which the document was tied." 2.

 The bulla also contains a fingerprint which may belong to Ahaz himself. 3.

The inscription "l'hz*y/hwtm*mlk*/yhdh" has been translated as:

    Belonging to Ahaz,
    son of Yehotam,
    king of Judah 4.

An additional extra-biblical source, supporting the historicity of Ahaz, comes from Tiglath-Pileser III who is recorded providing a gold and silver tribute to King Ahaz. 5.

See also the Hezekiah Bulla below:
 

Reproduction of a Seal (Bulla) with the inscription
“Belonging to Hezekiah (Son of) Ahaz King of Judah.”

The seal reads l’hzqyhw ’hz mlk yhdh.

Translation: “Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, King of Judah.”6.

 
Footnotes

• 1. Robert Deutsch, Messages from the Past: Hebrew Bullea from the Time of Isaiah Through the Destruction of the First Temple-Shlomo Moussaieff Collection and an Up-To-Date Corpus. Archaeological Center Publications, Tel Aviv, 1997. (in Hebrew); 
• 2. Robert Deutsch, "First Impression: What We Learn from King Ahaz’s Seal." Biblical Archaeology Review 24 no. 3 (1998): 56.  LINK 
• 3. ibid.
• 4. Lawrence J. Mykytiuk, Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E., SBL Academia Biblica 12 (Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004); Frank Moore Cross, “King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery,” Biblical Archaeology Review 25, no. 2 (April 1999): 42–45.
• 5. James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1955), 28/
• 6. Lubetski, Meir. “King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited: Small Object Reflects Big Geopolitics,” Biblical Archaeology Review 27/4 (2001): 44-51, 59; Swanson , Kristina. “A Reassessment of Hezekiah’s Reform in Light of Jar Handles and Iconographie Evidence.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 64 (2002):460-69; Frank Moore Cross, “King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery,” Biblical Archaeology Review 25, no. 2 (April 1999): 42–45. 

For Further Study

• "Original Historical Documents: The List of Seal Impressions and Ostracon" Website
• Reproduction of a Seal (Bulla) with the inscription “Belonging to Hezekiah (Son of) Ahaz King of Judah.”
• Frank Moore Cross, “King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery,” Biblical Archaeology Review 25, no. 2 (April 1999): 42–45+
• Hershel Shanks, “Messages from the Past: Hebrew Bullae from the Time of Isaiah Through the Destruction of the First Temple,” Biblical Archaeology Review 26, no. 2 (April 2000): 64–67.