LMLK seal

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LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish.

LMLK stamp; Redondo Beach collection #22

None of the original seals have been found, but about 2,000 impressions (also referred to as stamps) made by at least 21 seal types have been published.  Photos of more than 700 stamps on broken handles are viewable on the [LMLK Research website].

Contents

1 '''למלך'''
2 Sites
3 Theories
4 Drawings
5 Personal seals
6 Incisions
7 References
8 See also

למלך

LMLK stands for the Hebrew letters Lamed Mem Lamed Kaf (L' Melech), which can be translated from Hebrew as:

"belonging to the king" (of Judah)
"belonging to King" (name of a person or deity)
"belonging to the government" (of Judah)
"to be sent to the King"

In each of the above readings, the prefix L' could be read as "to (belonging to or towards)", "for" or "of". The word Melech is translated "king", but can refer to a specific king, to any king, or to the king's government.

Sites

LMLK sites as of March, 2006

Though most of these stamped jar handles have been found in the southern kingdom (68 sites in the ancient territory assigned to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon), some have also been found in the northern kingdom (4 sites in the northwest region).  Here is an abbreviated list of the top 20 sites where most specimens have been found through scientific excavations:

Quantity	Site
415	Lachish
281	Jerusalem
163	Ramat Rahel
92	Gibeon
88	Mizpah
71	Beth Shemesh
39	Moresheth-Gath
37	Gezer
24	Khirbet el-Burj (northwest suburb of modern Jerusalem)
19	Mareshah
17	Azekah
15	Timnah
14	Gibeah
13	Tel Erani
13	Hebron
13	Sokoh (Khirbet Abbad NW of Hebron, not the Sokoh SW of Hebron)
11	Beth Zur
9	Arad
8	Nahal Tut
6	Gath (Tell es-Safi)

Theories

Beginning with the editio princeps by Charles Warren in 1870, a diverse assortment of theories has been promulgated to explain their function (Grena, 2004). Since the landmark excavations at Lachish by David Ussishkin during the 1970s (Ussishkin, 2004), the number of feasible explanations has narrowed down to these:

Military rations collected as an emergency during a short period (several months to a few years at most) preceding the Assyrian invasion by Sennacherib

Government taxes collected throughout the majority of Hezekiah's reign (either 14 or 26 years depending on chronological interpretations) as a long-term economic buildup until the Assyrian invasion by Sennacherib

Religious tithes collected throughout Hezekiah's 29-year reign in response to his worship reformation following his accession (completely irrespective of the Assyrian invasion by Sennacherib)

NOTE: Hezekiah (which means "whom God has strengthened") was king of Judah, the son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chronicles 29:1). He reigned twenty-nine years (2 Kings 18:2). Albright has dated his reign to 715 - 687 BC, while Thiele offers the dates 716 - 687 BC.

In support of the first two theories are the inscriptions, which can be read as the names of four places; in support of the third theory are the geographic statistics, which do not associate any of the four words to a particular place or region other than the entire southern kingdom of Judah. Furthermore, approximately 10 - 20 percent of the excavated jars and jar handles were stamped (Grena, 2004, p. 377).

Depending on which of the above theories are preferred, several other aspects of the operation need interpretation:

The people who performed the stamping were either government officials working directly for King Hezekiah or Levites and/or priests associated with Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

The icons symbolize either royal stature or a religious nature (Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Ruth 2:12, Psalms 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, 91:4, and Malachi 4:2).
*The 2-winged icon represents either the sun as a god, or God as a light.
*The 4-winged icon represents a dung beetle (scarab), a symbol popularized in Egypt associated with resurrection/rebirth as well as royal authority.

The super-inscription, LMLK, denotes the Judean government or a specific, divine being (see Moloch, but also consider its application to the Israelite YHWH as in Psalms 10:16, Isaiah 6:5, and Zechariah 14:9)

The sub-inscriptions (Hebron, MMST, Socoh, and Ziph) record either 4 places or 4 votive statements.

Drawings

Types of LMLK seals:

H2T

M2T

S2DR

Z2T

G2T

H2D

M2D

S2DW

Z2D

H2U

M2U

S2U

Z2U

H4L

M4L

S4L

Z4L

H4C

M4C

Z4CI

Z4CY

Notice that the engraving styles indicate at least two, possibly five, people made the seals. The 21 types can be grouped together in five or six sets, but they may have been created or utilized in pairs based on quantities of their impressions found so far (Grena, 2004, p. 349) and internal evidence such as inconsistent use of divider dots.

Researchers frequently use a lowercase "x" as a wildcard character when referring to a series such as x4C instead of using an uppercase "G", "H", "M", "S", or "Z" for the first letter designator. Likewise, an "x" can be used for the second letter designator when referring to all seals with the same word, such as H2x in lieu of H2D, H2T, and H2U.

Thus far, significant quantities of x4C, x4L, and x2U stamps have been excavated from below the destruction layer caused by the Assyrian conquest of Sennacherib, but only a single specimen each of the G2T and M2D stamps (excavated from Jerusalem, which was not destroyed by Sennacherib). This suggests that 12 of the 21 seals were made prior to the attack, and the remaining 9 afterwards. The first significant evidence to support this datum came from the landmark excavations at Timnah led by George L. Kelm and Amihai Mazar (Mazar and Panitz-Cohen, 2001).

Personal seals

Several hundred seal impressions made on the same type of jar handle have been found in the same contexts as the LMLK stamps. Over 50 types have been documented, and most of them have a 2-line inscription divided by two somewhat parallel lines. Some have an icon in addition to the inscription; others are strictly anepigraphic (Vaughn 1999).

Incisions

In addition to the seals, which were stamped in the wet clay before being fired in a kiln, certain other marks were incised on these jar handles:

Concentric circles (usually two--sometimes only one; sometimes applied to unstamped handles but it is uncertain whether they were ever incised on unstamped jars)

Plus marks (resembling "+" or "t" or "X")

Hole marks (resembling the central anchor dot of the concentric circles)

Drag marks (probably attempts to cancel or obliterate the LMLK stamp)

Hundreds of the Circles have been found, but only a few of the Plus, Hole, and Drag marks. Several LMLK stamps may have had additional inscriptions incised over them containing marks resembling the letters "I V" (hence "Ivy incisions"); however, one or more of these handles may just contain stray Drag marks resembling the letters "I V" with no literate semantics intended.