Many Higgaion readers will already have seen the Israeli Antiquities Authority’s story about the seal of one “Rephayahu (ben) Shalem,” recently announced by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron. A couple of years ago, Reich and Shukron unearthed quite a few seals and bullae (seal impressions) decorated with various motifs—but no words, no names. They dated those seals and bullae to the 9th century BCE.

More recently, however, Reich and Shukron discovered a few seals and bullae with inscriptions. These—which include inscriptions—they dated to the 8th century BCE. The best-preserved is the seal pictured here, which seems to be inscribed רפאיהו שלם or “Rephayahu Shalem.”

Members of the ANE-2 mailing list have had a lively discussion about the seal over the last few days. One fairly common opinion is that the inscription implies a בן or “son of” between רפאיהו and שלם. Opinions seem to be split on the iconographic function, if any, of the (palm?) frond on the seal.

G. M. Grena offers the following line drawing of what a bulla produced by the seal would look like:

Michael Welch suggests that the “<” shape on G. M.’s bulla drawing (reversed on the seal, of course) may be a ל, which of course makes perfect sense of an otherwise odd marking. On the other hand, that ל would look rather unlike the ל in שלם. Despite that difficulty, however, I lean toward rather than away from Michael’s suggestion.