Borowski Festschrift

Fifty-eight months have elapsed since my post about the Borowski Symposium. All I was able to say at the time was that Andy Vaughn would be defending the popular belief that all 21 LMLK seals were designed & used prior to Sennacherib's destruction layer. I suspected it would be some years before I'd see the symposium papers, but they finally came to my attention courtesy of a recent Weekend Roundup at BiblePlaces Blog. You can imagine my delight when I saw that the entire 611-page volume is now available for free.

Compared to other festschrifts, this one has the most LMLK & LMLK-related content, though not necessarily the most useful. That distinction still belongs to Eretz-Israel vol. 15 (honoring Yohanan Aharoni), which contains Lemaire's landmark (albeit defective) "Classification" with its stunning impression photos. The fact that it's still utilized by Lipschits in this new festschrift testifies to Lemaire's lasting impact.

That being said, I'll now share some highlights from my perspective spanning the entire work. The formal title of the volume is, "Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah", edited by Zev I. Farber and Jacob L. Wright.

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"Introduction" by Jacob L. Wright

P. 5:

"Judah had long lagged behind Israel’s urban development, and the increased urbanization that we witness during this period was prompted by several factors: the expansion of the olive oil industry, the mass-production of pottery, and the development of a robust bureaucracy, as evidenced by the LMLK jar handles (discussed by Lipschits and Vaughn in this volume)."

Did Judah really lag Israel long in urban development? I had never noticed this point by anyone, & am not aware of the evidence to support it. Israelites outnumbered Judahites, but was a greater percentage of their territory more developed? If anyone can answer this, or point me towards some supporting data, feel free to post a comment. For now, I'd encourage everyone to consider the Qeiyafa depression handles & their distribution (formally published by Hoo-Goo Kang in 2015, but informally available to scholars prior to this 2014 symposium; for example, see Aren Maeir's 2010 blog post).

Pp. 8-9, 3 relevant paragraphs total beginning with:

"Another important object from late eighth-century Judah are the lmlk stamps."

Wright is probably not aware of LMLKs found at northern/Israelite sites. If it's true that Judah lagged Israel in development, self thinks it's odd to find evidence of sophisticated development from Judah in Israel rather than vice versa.

Pp. 11-12:

"The death of Sargon II in 705 gave Judah an occasion to revolt, and Aster brings to bear biblical texts that support the material evidence for the rebellion (including the Siloam Tunnel, the Broad Wall in Jerusalem, and the distribution of the LMLK jars). What is arguably more significant is how Judahite scribes turned a military conflict into a theological one, and as an expert on biblical and cuneiform literature, Aster reveals the biblical scribes’ impressive literary and intellectual finesse."

In his latter sentence, Wright assumes Aster is right, when actually both Aster & Wright are wrong ... based on what Wright wrote, right?!?

P. 13:

"Many of the claims presented in this book are controversial and will provoke debate among the experts. Yet they all are presented in a way that allows non-experts and especially students to consider the evidence, bringing the newest techniques of archeological research into conversation with the interpretation of the biblical texts that emerged from the dramatic events of the late eighth century."

As you read my rants below, bear in mind Wright's green-light here to be controversial & provoke debate. The main problem I've encountered from many academicians is when they present opinions/interpretations as facts, because it implies they can't distinguish between the two. Sound demonstration of this ability should be a prerequisite to earning/receiving any academic credentials.

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"Assyria’s Expansion West of the Euphrates (ca. 870–701 BCE)" by K. Lawson Younger Jr.

P. 29:

"The lmlk jar handles appear to date to the reign of Hezekiah and indicate his preparations for the invasion."

God brought my life into existence just so I could repeatedly remind scholars that LMLKs could also indicate worship activity by being receptacles for tithes. And I love God for it! I think God also likes it when I emphasize that military preparations would've only been made in the first half of his reign prior to the invasion, whereas tithing receptacles would've been made throughout his entire reign, especially after the invader retreated after miraculously failing to conquer Hezekiah's capital city, which was also the location of his kingdom's worship center.

"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto [a 21st-century electronics test engineer who likes to climb skyscraper staircases carrying iron weights]."

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"Bethsaida: The Capital City of the Kingdom of Geshur" by Rami Arav

Pp. 91-2, 3 relevant paragraphs total beginning with:

"The Bible also preserves information about religious functions performed AT THE CITY GATE."

Dear students--scholars of the future, I emphasized that last prepositional phrase in Arav's quotation (referencing Deu 14:28, not his 18:28 typo--hello editors) because I want you to remember it when you learn where most of the restored LMLK jars that David Ussishkin's Lachish team recovered were found. Here's how it's described in his most recent publication ("Biblical Lachish", 2014, p. 357):

"In the inner GATEHOUSE, in a storeroom behind it and in the Level III domestic houses in the trench in the western part of the mound, some 10 or more jars were found with lmlk stamps on their handles--crushed beneath the heaps of debris of Level III."

I felt obligated to provide this quotation in my non-peer-reviewed blog because it wasn't deemed worthy of mention by any of the scholars in this 611-page peer-reviewed volume.

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"Society and Culture in the Kingdom of Judah" by Avraham Faust

P. 186:

"Writing is also greatly advanced in this era, beyond what was known in the past, and this is reflected in a wide array of evidence, from the increase in the number of ostraca, bullae with writing, lmlk impressions, and more."

Faust doesn't specifically mention "what was known in the past" before LMLK impressions, so I'd like to imitate a broken record by re-mentioning the Qeiyafa depression jar-handles. And oh, by the way, have I mentioned the Qeiyafa depression jar-handles lately? No? Okay, thanks for reminding me! Their distribution spanned Dan to Beersheba, bizarrely complementing a fairytale about some united kingdom somewhere with priests collecting tithes ... though in fairness, I suppose they could've been building up military supplies in anticipation of a prophetic invasion by Sennacherib a few centuries later too...

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"The Pottery Assemblage of the Eighth Century" by Hayah Katz

Pp. 314-316, 9 relevant paragraphs total beginning with:

"LMLK STORAGE JAR (fig. 3:1–3)."

Note that drawings of the 4-handled LMLK jars in fig. 3:1-3 do not show any marks on the handles, but the 2-handled one in fig. 3:5 does (either a plain Qeiyafa-style depression or a circular personal-seal impression lacking detail in the illustration). Katz describes it on p. 316:

"STORAGE JAR WITH TWO HANDLES (fig. 3:4-6). ... A jar with an ovoid body tapering toward the base. The rim is rounded, the neck conical, sometimes with a groove in its middle, and the base rounded. The two handles are extended from the carinated shoulder. This type is prevalent in Judah in the eighth century BCE and is found concurrently with LMLK storage jars."

She thanked Faust in note 5 on p. 310 for allowing her to pre-publish the figures from his Tel 'Eton expedition, so I'll be interested in seeing photos &/or reading more about this jar when it's formally published in detail.

Katz gives a decent overview of LMLKs on p. 315, managing to mention Demsky's link between Mommsen et al.'s 1984 chemical analysis & 1Ch 4:23's potters; Rainey's 1982 vineyards theory; Fox's estate/household consumption theory; & Na'aman's military-prep model, noting its weakness with respect to product origins. However, she concludes with a flawed criticism of Lipschits et al. on p. 316:

"Yet, even if we accept that the LMLK jars were still in use in the first half of the seventh century BCE, their proposal that the various impressions of the LMLK seal have chronological significance is highly problematic: In the Assyrian destruction layer in Lachish, dated to 701 BCE, various types appear side by side"

Such a pity that she's never done a careful study of the seal designs, nor their stratification.

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"Judah under Assyrian Rule and the Early Phase of Stamping Jar Handles" by Oded Lipschits

Ladies & gentlemen, behold pp. 337-355, the centerpiece of this important volume by the 2018 BAS-Fest Plenary Speaker! Footnote #1 on p. 337 kicks off my interest:

"It seems that these late First Temple period symbols represented the local god or the local king, and were influenced by similar symbols in neighboring cultures."

...or an authorized symbol of the one true God, preserved by eyewitnesses to one of God's manifestations on Earth, which were probably plagiarized by neighboring cultures to represent their false god(s) or local king.

Footnote #5 on p. 338:

"Grena published 2251 stamped handles on his website
(http://www.lmlk.com/research/index.html), but 725 of them are from private collections or of unknown origin."

I'm grateful for his link to the LRW's Home page, but the Corpus page would've been more relevant to his statement, had he done a careful study of the URL.

Footnote #7 on p. 340:

"However, a careful study of this handle demonstrated that it actually bears a stamp impression of Type XII."

Scholars of the distant future, possibly living on other planets in other galaxies (if Elon Musk's dream for SpaceX comes true, which it won't), behold a highly lauded university professor claiming to be "careful" while making a grandiose mistake, preserved in print forever now. Here's a link to Aharoni's original, controversial photo of Ramat Rahel 1321-4. Although I classified it as an x2x (meaning I can't say for sure which 2-winged seal made it), it's definitely NOT a G2T (Lemaire's X II) because of the light-rays having 3 raised lines instead of 2. I would not expect Lipschits or his students to know this since they only plagiarized the surface-results of my work, & never excavated its full precision-treasure!

Also in #7 on p. 340:

"The same is true regarding another handle from the Jewish Quarter Excavations in Jerusalem (Avigad and Barkay 2000, 261: 27) which also had been classified as Type OII but is undoubtedly another exemplar of Type XII."

Ditto. This time he claims JQE 4410-1 is "undoubtedly" a G2T, but again is definitely not. It's too shallow to identify based on the icon's light-rays, but its outline resembles the unique curves of the H2D, & it bears some raised clay in the precise position of the H2D's initial Lamed, nowhere near the G2T's. However, because it's weak, I can't legitimately disqualify other possibilities, with the exception of a G2T because the design doesn't match Lemaire's X II despite its weak/sloppy impression. When students read Lipschits, I'm hoping their impression will be "weak/sloppy" with regard to seal identifications.

P. 340:

"Altogether, there are 19 subtypes of the lmlk stamp impressions, which means that 19 seals were in use."

There were 21. The only people who think there were less than 21 are those who've never seen my publications (LRW, Lv1, or my "LMLK seal" entry on Wikipedia) or those who've plagiarized my drawings without having studied the actual impressions used to make my drawings. (Note that Lipschits references LRW & Lv1 herein, so that rules out the first option. Just sayin'...)

P. 340 again:

"The similarities and unity of the Ib type indicate that it was produced as a series, probably by the same artisan, and at the same time."

Actually, the same could be said for each of the 5 sets, which is why they're classified in sets. A more interesting aspect of the series is why so many more H4L & S4L impressions were made (at least 108 & 56 = 164) compared to those of the M4L & Z4L (10 & 8 = 18) if, as Lipschits recognizes, the seals were made at the same time. Similarly skewed ratios exist for pairs in the other sets (particularly the x4C, Lemaire's Ia).

P. 342:

"Surprisingly, nearly 30 years passed before a careful and precise study of the exact location of each type, its stratigraphy and distribution was published (Lipschits, Sergi, and Koch 2010)."

Actually, it was only about 20 years from Lemaire's landmark publication till I put the LRW's Typologies, Stratigraphy, & Distribution pages online. What is surprising, is that nearly 8 years passed before a tenured university professor & 2 of his students plagiarized my work.

P. 342 continues:

"A careful and precise study of the exact location, stratigraphy, and distribution of each type shows that some types of the winged sun-disk stamp impressions (Types IIb, IIc, XII) were found unsealed by the 701 BCE destruction debris at Lachish or by any destruction layer assigned to the 701 BCE Assyrian campaign in all the many sites excavated in Judah (Lipschits, Sergi, and Koch 2010)."

If I ever reprint my 2004 Lv1 book, I think I'll include that quote on the back cover since it adequately describes my illustrated arrangement of the 21 LMLK seals there. It's like one of those complimentary quotes an eminent scholar gives to a subordinate to help introduce the latter's work to a wider audience.

P. 342 continues:

"This study isolated the four-winged scarab Type Ia and Ib and the winged sun-disk Type IIa as those found sealed under the destruction level of Lachish III and contemporaneous strata."

Shown in Table 29 of Lv1, pp. 334-5, published in 2004 by 4000 Years of Writing History, Redondo Beach, CA. Printed on acid-free paper too, per LoC policy, though not explicitly stated as it is on the copyright page of this Borowski volume. Maybe that's why Lipschits et al. didn't credit my book--they didn't know for sure if it was legitimate because it didn't include the statement about acid-free paper. I'm being as generous as I can here...

P. 342, the gift that keeps on giving:

"Accordingly, these types were defined as the “early types,” used before the 701 Assyrian attack on Judah (Lipschits, Sergi, and Koch 2010, 11 and fig. 1)."

Or as I defined them on p. 7 of Lv1 in 2004: "B.S., before Sennacherib (specifically, before his Judean campaign; not to be confused with the speech of his Rabshekah, which was a different kind of B.S.)".

P. 342, now my favorite page:

"Therefore, these types were produced after the 701 campaign, and should be defined as 'late types,' dated to the beginning of the seventh century BCE (Lipschits, Sergi and Koch 2010, 11, 13–17)."

Or as I defined them on p. 7 of Lv1 in 2004, 6 years before Lipschits et al. was published: "A.S., after Sennacherib (specifically, after his Judean campaign)".

Footnote #9 on p. 343:

"9. The first scholar who wrote about this chronological separation between the different lmlk types is Chang-Ho Ji (2001), who reconstructed four stages in the evolution of the Judahite royal stamp impressions. According to Ji, the four-winged scarab and the two-winged disc were used concurrently before Sennacherib’s 701 BCE campaign, and only the two-winged emblem was used during the seventh century BCE. Prior to the early or mid-seventh century BCE, King Manasseh introduced the concentric incision, which was employed alongside the two-winged disc. It is not clear on what ground Ji suggests that the two-winged symbol alone continued to be used until the last third of the seventh century BCE, when the rosette symbol replaced it. On the separation between 'pre-Sennacherib' and 'post-Sennacherib' lmlk stamp impressions, see also Grena (2004)."

This note struck me as simultaneously funny & bizarre. When discussing LMLKs, Ji's chronological remarks followed those of 20th-century scholars (primarily W. Albright, D. Ussishkin, & A. Mazar). Ji's ground was "not clear" to Lipschits because Ji didn't study the seal designs! His main points concerned post-fired (thus, post-jar-production) CCs. Of course I wouldn't expect Lipschits to understand this distinction since he didn't do a careful study of them either, or he would recognize all 21 instead of only 19. While I'm grateful to him for adding the final sentence referencing my Lv1, it seems odd after having taken grandiose credit for "a careful study" on p. 342. Question for my sentient readers: Wouldn't a genuinely careful study have recognized my separation of the 21 seal designs?

P. 344:

"From the historical perspective, it is more reasonable to reconstruct the idea, hypothetical though it may be, that the system of stamped jars was initiated in the early stages of Judah's subjugation to the Assyrian empire, and continued for about 600 years, disappearing only after the Hasmonean Revolt."

Of course, you could add a few more centuries to it if you'd take into consideration the Qeiyafa depression-handle jars. But then you wouldn't be able to connect the dots to foreign subjugation & your hypothesis would fizzle; so better to ignore this data in true scholarly fashion. Kind of like Darwinian-evolution proponents who'd prefer not to explain to their students how ordered organic cells randomly evolved from disordered non-organic matter in a world governed by the observed laws of thermodynamics & biogenesis, where the concept of "random behavior" is a misrepresentation of complex reality. But I digress...

P. 348:

"This observation can now be updated, since all the cases mentioned by Ussishkin are indeed of the winged sun-disk types, and furthermore they are all 'early types' (IIa), except for one case of a 'private' stamp impression stamped on the same handle of a four-winged scarab impression (Lipschits, Sergi and Koch 201 [sic], 26; and n. 45; and cf. Avigad and Barkai 2000, 248–49, no. 54)."

Say what?!?! His parenthetical references are to Sass/Avigad #688. No personal seal has yet been found on the same handle or jar with an x4x. The only way I can save Lipschits from this mistake, is that maybe he was thinking of the two rare/unusual x4x handles with CCs. The "Koch 201" typo indicates he wrote this "update" in a bit of a hurry. No excuse though for editors Wright & Farber, who hold the distinguished responsibility for checking each scholar's references.

P. 349:

"New data, based on paleomagnetic research, indicate an inner chronology of the four-winged scarab types and on the processes of development of Types Ia and Ib."

For a thorough rebuttal of this point, see my February 2017 post, Royal Magnetism. While paleomagnetic data may one day help refine pottery chronology, & even prove my hypotheses wrong, this one reported by Ben-Yosef et al. doesn't.

P. 349:

"It collected agricultural products such as olive oil and wine, exchanged it for silver and gold, and with this paid its annual taxes."

I don't understand why the Judahite government would exchange anything with its citizens when collecting taxes from them. If it exchanged these commodities (in stamped jars) with other societies, why are they found exclusively in Judah/Israel? Why not in Africa or Asia or anywhere else? Of course, those neighboring societies would have had the same dilemma of needing to exchange their products for silver/gold. Tithing within the Judah/Israel society better fits the evidence, & comports with the Bible's record.

P. 350:

"The new research on stamp impressions was not connected in any way to the renewed excavations at Ramat Rahel which I co-directed. Rather, it was based on a careful study of the distribution of the lmlk stamped handles, according to the detailed typology set out by Andre Lemaire in 1981, something that was not done in the many years that passed until our 2010 study."

His new research WAS connected to the renewed excavations at Ramat Rahel, because after I learned of him leading that project, I sent a complimentary copy of Lv1 to him, which led to his "careful" plagiarism of the work I had done, including some important corrections to Lemaire's typology.

P. 351:

"Vaughn fails ... Vaughn claims ... Vaughn does not deal with ... Vaughn disregards..."

Wow, this Lipschits guy is relentlessly harsh!

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"Should All of the LMLK Jars Still Be Attributed to Hezekiah? Yes!" by Andrew G. Vaughn

Spanning pp. 357-362, Vaughn showcases the worst of scholarship here, beginning with the title. His main opponent on this occasion is Lipschits, whose main argument is not that some LMLKs were made during another king's reign, but that a chronological division can be discerned from the archeological data (the same sermon yours truly has been preaching since 2002).

P. 357:

"It is possible that a handful of isolated jars remained in use into the seventh century, but the manufacture of jars ceased shortly after Sennacherib’s campaign in 701 BCE."

Vaughn provides no positive evidence to support this assertion. Such a conclusion is far from proven and only a possibility until some positive evidence is presented. His entire refutation is based on arguments from silences, assumptions, and possibilities that are not proven.

P. 358:

"The entire hypothesis or theory is based on arguments from silences, assumptions, and possibilities that are not proven."

Is there an echo in here?

P. 359:

"Such a conclusion is far from proven and only a possibility until some positive evidence is presented."

Apparently apparently there there is is!

Pp. 359-360:

"Likewise, the hypotheses of Lipschits et al. will be dramatically altered or disproven if even a couple impressions of Type IIb are found in eighth century contexts or at sites that were not occupied in the seventh century."

Likewise, the hypotheses of Vaughn (& Barkay & Ussishkin by the way) will be dramatically altered or disproven if even a couple impressions of any types are found in ninth century contexts or at sites that were not occupied in the eighth century. See how easy it is to refute an arbitrary position? Logic 101 my friends! A class Vaughn apparently never took en route to his PhD.

P. 360:

"Moreover, many of these so-called later types of lmlk impressions are found in the same archaeological context with what Lipschits et al. identify as earlier types or in the same archaeological context with official seal impressions (which they also date the [sic] eighth century)."

That's because Hezekiah's reign began before Sennacherib formed the archaeological context, & continued afterwards. I know Vaughn knows this about Hezekiah's reign, because it comprises the first chapter of his doctoral dissertation; I just don't know why he doesn't employ that knowledge to test a logical inverse case: If a jar was made before the invasion, it could have survived intact & be found in context with jars made using a new seal design after the invasion. It doesn't imply that the jars found in the later context must have been made in the earlier context.

For university students who've taken a course in Logic, you'll recall that Vaughn's committing a False Analogy fallacy: X has property Y. Z is like X. Therefore Z has property Y.

x4x & x2U seals pre-date Sennacherib's conquest of Lachish. x2D & x2T seals are like x4x & x2U seals (in that they're all LMLKs). Therefore all LMLKs pre-date Sennacherib's conquest of Lachish. Vaughn assumes this to be true, but the only evidence he offers is one where X is found with Z in non-Y contexts.

P. 360 continues:

"Yet, one should ask if there is positive evidence to suggest the opposite theory--that all (or almost all) of the lmlk impressions and related jars date to the late eighth century."

The evidence Vaughn erroneously labels "positive" is actually "circumstantial" or "indirect", & subject to bias. Unstratified artifacts can be dated to a variety of periods by "arguments from silences, assumptions, and possibilities that are not proven." They can only be viewed as positive evidence for a stratified context in which they were actually found.

P. 361:

"Stager’s dissertation specifies that the handle came from the occupational debris (not a fill), so it should be dated conclusively to the late eighth century."

Again, an unstratified context (debris or fill) cannot be conclusively dated to an absolute period, only a relative one. In this example, there is no positive evidence that Sennacherib visited Khirbet es-Samrah after the LMLKs found there had been made. (Note that Samrah is roughly midway between Ramat Rahel & the Dead Sea; & one night an angel with anger-management issues discouraged Sennacherib's army from going east of Jerusalem!)

P. 361 continues:

"The presence of jars impressed with these impressions makes the most sense during the reign of Hezekiah when the boundaries of Judah were expanded and when Judah likely had a wider sphere of trade with the surrounding regions."

Such poor scholarship. Doesn't grasp the point his opponents are making. The issue is not how wide/expanded Judah's territory was, but whether the jars were only made before Sennacherib's invasion, or whether they were also made (in similar quantities for a similar duration) after his invasion. It's an important distinction that either harmonizes or conflicts with the Biblical record of events during Hezekiah's reign.

In defense of Lipschits, whose position on Ahaz I don't support, he could've made the initial batch of LMLKs before his son expanded Judah's boundaries, which would've accommodated increased production (& more seals) during Hezekiah's reign. Vaughn exposes his weakness by resorting to a fallacious "makes the most sense" cliche in lieu of a reason.

P. 361 doesn't know when to quit:

"The impressions do not come from stratified contexts, but to date Tappy has not found evidence of (any?) significant occupation at Tel Zayit during the seventh century. These impressions (especially the Type ZIIb impression) provide further evidence against the hypothesis of Lipschits et al. that Type IIb impressions were not used in the late eighth century. This jar handle is the clear, single exemplar that they claim has not been found."

Here Vaughn relies on "oral communication" from Tappy, who's not yet demonstrated expertise on LMLKs. In any case, if the handles are actually Z2Ds (Lemaire's Z IIb), & are not stratified, they'd be no different from the x2D handles found unstratified at Lachish. They cannot possibly be used as "further evidence against" my hypothesis, because they're not positive evidence; they're "arguments from silences, assumptions, and possibilities that are not proven."

Furthermore, somebody please explain to Vaughn that lack of "significant occupation" (i.e., negative evidence) based on the excavation of a small fraction of a site, is an extremely weak basis for a "clear" smoking-gun conclusion.

P. 361 goes down for the count:

"We can still safely and confidently conclude that lmlk jar phenomenon is limited to Hezekiah’s reign, with the possible exception of a few jars that remained in use in the seventh century."

We can safely and confidently conclude that Vaughn's article demonstrates poor scholarship: 1) He hasn't provided a single exemplar of positive evidence to counter the hypothesis of Lipschits that the first LMLKs were made during Ahaz's reign (using his own standard of truth based on an interpretation of positive evidence). And 2), he has again misrepresented the discussion (or demonstrated a misunderstanding of his opponents' position) by stating that jars "remained in use" rather than that their production continued using new sets of seals.

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"Death and Burial in Eighth-Century Judah" by Elizabeth Bloch-Smith

These 2 sentences emphasize tithing as a cultural norm in 8th-century Judah:

P. 371:

"Post-mortem divine status is evident in the appellations elohim and qedosim as well as the receipt of offerings and tithes."

P. 372:

"Cultic service, beyond mere veneration, seems indicated by legislation forbidding offering tithed food to the dead."

Yet Lipschits & Vaughn (& most scholars) focus on destruction contexts, military supplies, & payments to foreign rulers, which were not the cultural norm leading up to LMLKs.

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"Judean Pillar Figurines (JPFs)" by Erin Darby

P. 410:

"Yet unlike other measures normally associated with national identity, such as lmlk seals or weights, there is no evidence that JPFs were imposed by the central government."

If Lipschits & Darby are correct, then Judah's national identity changed from nothing to a scarab to the sun to Target's logo to a rosette to a lion to a 4-letter word to a 3-letter word to a star with a 5-letter word.

P. 421:

"Linking the distribution of JPFs with lmlk seals and rosette stamps (the other quintessential IA II Judean artifacts), Wilson (2012, 19–54) notes that during the seventh and eighth centuries BCE, 'Judah, as an ethnos, was maintaining boundaries between itself and its neighbors—-and vice versa-—and the imperial force of Assyria provided a catalyst.'"

If Lipschits & Wilson are correct, then maintaining boundaries demonstrated equal submission by the societies on each side of those boundaries. Makes sense, doesn't it? One used seals & stamps; the others used ... nothing?

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"Religion in Eighth-Century Judah: An Overview" by Zev I. Farber

P. 431:

"Using archaeological data in conversation with critical biblical scholarship, this article will offer an overview of what we know, and what we can speculate, about religious beliefs and practices in eighth-century Judah."

No specific mention of LMLKs, despite the likelihood of them expressing a religious belief & practice, but MLK as "a matter of debate" on p. 442:

"The Holiness Collection in Leviticus (18:21, 20:2–4) forbids a ritual of passing a child to a god called molekh, meaning 'king.' Whether this is the god’s name or his epithet, and whether he should be understood as an instantiation of the Ammonite god Milkom, the Israelite god Yahweh (Stavrakopoulou 2012–2018), or an independent god is a matter of debate."

True!

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"Scripture and Inscriptions: Eighth-Century Israel and Judah in Writing" by Christopher Rollston

P. 457:

"For this reason, writing was a technology that normally resided in elite hands, that is, those associated with the royal bureaucracies of the great powers: scribes, priests, high-level governmental officials, military officers, ambassadors."

Normally. The royal x4C seals were inscribed by Abby Normal. And no, I will NOT be angry with anyone who disagrees!

P. 467:

"Furthermore, although the most famous of the Lachish inscriptions hail from the early sixth century BCE, some inscriptions from Lachish are from the eighth century, including and especially the 'Bat-Lamelech Jar Inscription,' as well as a very beautiful seal with a four-winged beetle and Egyptian ankhs."

To not hurt the BT-LMLK jar's feelings, I think it's very beautiful too.

P. 468:

"Also hailing especially from the late eighth century and the early seventh century are the lamelech jar handles, totaling in excess of a thousand, mostly from the reign of Hezekiah (r. ca. 715–687 BCE), connected with officialdom’s control of, and activities in, agricultural commodities (among the many works on the subject of the lamelech jar handles, see especially Vaughn 1999)."

"Mostly", said he who opines most cautiously with regard to ancient-history speculations.

P. 468:

"Because most of these inscriptions (e.g., Reisner Samaria Ostraca, the Samaria Joint-Expedition Inscriptions, the Siloam Tunnel Inscription, the Gibeon Inscribed Jar Handles, the lamelech Jar Handles) hail from officialdom, it is most reasonable to contend that most scribes functioned in some component of the governments of Israel and Judah."

Vaughn's influence shows with Rollston's resorting to a "most reasonable" cliche! But he retains his title of most-cautious opiner with "most scribes" & "some component" for "most of these inscriptions"!

P. 471:

"This campaign loomed so large in the mind of Sennacherib that he had massive reliefs of the siege of Lachish made so as to decorate his palace. Finally, it is worth noting that although it occurred in the early seventh century (namely, 681 BCE), the authors of Kings also accurately recorded the fact that Sennacherib was assassinated as well as the very name of his primary assassins..."

Great point! This is mostly some of Rollston's most very-beautiful writing!

*******

"The Shock of Assyrian Imperial Ideology and the Responses of Biblical Authors in the Late Eighth Century" by Shawn Zelig Aster

P. 480:

"Further emphasizing the distance between man and God, the prophet bemoans 'Woe is me, for I am destroyed, for the King the Lord of Hosts I have seen' (6:5). This statement of the prophet, emphasing [sic] that man must not arrogantly place himself on a plane with God, underlines the actions of the winged creatures, who hide their faces so as not to see God (6:2)."

Can't resist emphasizing some "emphasing" here. If the purpose of the wings covering their faces was to not see God, I wonder why Aster thinks they covered their feet. They used the other pair to fly, so they weren't necessarily standing on holy ground. Even if they stopped flying, why would it be okay for their wings to touch the ground but not their feet? I think a better explanation of the face-wings was to shield their eyes from God's light, which was symbolized by LMLK icons based on earlier appearances of God's glory. My best guess for the feet-wings was for aerodynamic reasons, similar to the multi-purpose stow/deploy design of landing legs on SpaceX rockets. Remember this if you ever hear someone say theology isn't rocket science!

P. 482, 3 relevant paragraphs total beginning with:

"There is further evidence that Judah prepared for a possible rebellion against Assyria over a period of several years."

There is also evidence that during Hezekiah's reign, Judah prepared their hearts to seek God, the LORD God of their fathers (2Ch30:18-20).

P. 483:

"I have therefore argued that large parts of this source were composed by Isaiah of Jerusalem, shortly after the events of 701 BCE (Aster 2017, 248–74)."

I consider this progress, that a scholar would acknowledge a real Isaiah recorded an eyewitness account.

P. 484: No significant content, but I like the page number!

*******

And last but not least, from pp. 577-8, 580, & 585:

Place Index
Hebron (HBRN) 8, 238, 245–47, 315, 337, 339–41, 359, 491, 522
Mamshit (MMST) 8, 315, 337, 340–41
Socoh (SWKH) 8, 315, 337, 340–41, 349
Ziph (ZF) 8, 315, 337, 340–41

Modern Authors Index
Grena, George M. 338–39, 343 n. 9, 352

I'm thrilled I was mentioned on almost as many pages as MMST & ZF!!! As Madonna & Orbit would say, it's "Amazing"...

G.M. Grena

Franklin Reflects on Jezreel

Today I received a courtesy copy of a chapter Norma Franklin wrote for a new volume edited by Shuichi Hasegawa, Christoph Levin, & Karen Radner, The Last Days of the Kingdom of Israel. It appears in "Part III: Views from Archaeology" with the title, "Megiddo and Jezreel Reflected in the Dying Embers of the Northern Kingdom of Israel." The only other LMLK-related author appears to be Ron E. Tappy, just ahead of her in Part III with "The Annals of Sargon II and the Archaeology of Samaria: Rhetorical Claims, Empirical Evidence."

Apparently the electronic version was published last month, but the hardcover is scheduled for a 2019 printing (according to its copyright page).

In her section 5, "Jezreel after Tiglath-pileser III" she includes the 2 Jezreel LMLKs as "evidence for activity ca. 701 BCE." The "circa" is important, because one of the handles bears an unclassified stamp; & the other bears an M2D, which I (& Lipschits et al.) contend belongs to the post-Sennacherib period down in Judah. Most of the other items she lists belong to that mushy chronological horizon as well:

1) a restorable storage jar that has close parallels in the southern Coastal Plain and Judah, best known from contexts dating to the late 8th and 7th centuries BCE

2) a 7th–6th-centuries-BCE wedge-shaped decorated bowl

3) two ceramic horse heads that date to the 8th–7th centuries BCE

4) three weights that compare with similar weights found in Megiddo Stratum III or II

5) a fragment of a stone-carved incense bowl that compares with examples from Megiddo Stratum III or II (dated to the 7th and 8th centuries BCE)

6) a stone cosmetic palette dated to between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE (with parallels from Megiddo Strata I to III)

7) Grave 1260 contained an alabaster palette dated to the 7th century BCE

So it would seem to me that until the other Jezreel handle is located for classification purposes (which might never happen), Jezreel will remain a battleground for LMLK dating.

G.M. Grena

x4C Gone from NEASB

This past week the annual meetings for ASOR, BAS, NEAS, & SBL were in Denver. Normally I don't receive the NEAS Bulletin till a few months later, but it arrived in harmony with the actual meeting this time. I almost didn't recognize it though, because instead of the plain-blue cover graced by a hand-drawn x4C icon, it bears a color photo of tiles to complement one of the articles therein:

The x4C design dominated the cover from 1996 to 2017 ... not bad. The credits go to Jim Campbell for the fresh cover design & logo; & to Frankie Snyder for the photo. Here's the main ToC:

"Slinging in the Biblical World: And What We Can Learn about David Defeating Goliath" by Boyd Seevers & Victoria Dennis (a slight deviation from the paper's title at the meeting)

"A Matrix of Potsherds: An Indicator of Prefabricated Opus Sectile Panels from the Byzantine Period" by Frankie Snyder.

"Iron Age I Israelite Looms: An Archaeological and Experimental Study" by Boyd Seevers & Arianna Winslow

And yes, the 1st & 3rd articles were co-written by the same person (I double-checked). This issue also contains 9 book reviews, & a notice for next year's meeting in San Diego. That's another surprise. I attended & blogged about them there in 2007 & 2014, so shame on my cold/calculating brain for not expecting to go again till 2021.

G.M. Grena

Are You Age 10-14?

If so, your age matches the main numbers associated with my next book ... & qualifies you for the Sababa Society! Today I received an E-mail that will unravel this riddle, which you can view online at this link.

This year I've been blessed to acquire some of the rarest specimens of "10-14" postage stamps, particularly one related to the Jewish National Fund (Sababa's parent organization). I'm now overly concerned about documenting them in a formal, philatelic manner. So last month I acquired a gaming computer, & plan to launch into the task next year with a target publication date in 2020. Like Lv1, it will be the first comprehensive book on the subject (in any language), & contain a new classification system for the main collectible configurations & plating errors.

How sababa is that?

G.M. Grena

Read Is Gray and Paper White

While spending another day's useless energy searching for info pertaining to my previous post about the new Hebron park, I found this page:  Inauguration of Tel Hevron Archaeological Garden. At the bottom it has some "recommended articles" including King Seal Artifacts Attest to Hebron's Jewish History. That one has THREE links to works of yours truly, & one to a work of which yours truly was totally ignorant: a 21-page, 2015 white-paper by Ilka Knuppel Gray at Towson University, What Were The LMLK Seals?

Overall, she presents a decent summary of the complex mystery. I'm surprised that her latest citation dates to 2004 (my book & Ussishkin's RAEL) since more-recent publications should've been available to her. I don't have time for an extensive review, but I'm grateful for her numerous citations of my work alongside that of academic giants. Chalk up another one for the Redondo Beach underdog! I'm actually disappointed she cited my Lv1 book when quoting points made by some of those giants, but it's just a white paper; her purpose was to demonstrate subject-knowledge to fulfill coursework, not an attempt to school others.

Naturally I look back & lament her decision to accept/affirm the war-prep theory, but we can each decide which is right, & which is an illusion, right?

G.M. Grena

Official Inauguration of Tel Hebron

Tonight I received an E-mail from The Hebron Fund announcing a celebration next week that I'd really like to attend, but it would be a bit beyond my normal walking/jogging/biking distance!

"This Tuesday is the inauguration of Tel Hevron - the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel National Parks Authority site. To attend, see flyer below. We also have a dedication ceremony for a donor and much more:

Official Inauguration of Tel Hebron, Tuesday October 16, 2018 at 6:00PM.

Tel Hevron has always been known as one of the oldest sections of the city, but the 2014 excavation by the Israeli Antiquities Authority took the site to another level by uncovering mikvot, wine presses and pottery.

Speaking at the event in a "TED Talk" style lecture series will be:
* Prof. Gershon Bar-Kochba
* Noam Arnon
* Prof. David Ben Shlomo

A musical performance by world-renown Israeli singer David D'or will take place.

The ceremony will be presided over by:
* Avraham Ben Yosef, head of the Hebron municipal committee
* MK Uri Ariel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
* MK Eli Ben-Dahan, Deputy Minister of Defense
* Shaul Goldstein, Head of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority

The event is sponsored by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Jewish Community of Hebron.

To register call 02-996-5333 or visit https://tickchak.co.il/2886?ref=13Bw."

Since that page won't last as long as Hebron has, here's a screenshot showing their H2U:

G.M. Grena

Everywhere I Go, There I Am

And I'm not complaining! I'm flattered, grateful, privileged, & thrilled to be used by God, even if it's in a relatively small, esoteric niche.

Back in July, the IAA announced the launch of their online reference library:

"The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Library is the most important archaeological library in the Middle East, which was established during the British Mandate around 1926. It holds an extensive collection of the archaeological and historical research of the Land of Israel and the Levant."

First term I entered in their Search box was "lmlk". Very happy to see more results than I had time to explore (53, some of which are redundant), but not thrilled that the ones I did explore were the typical library catalog entries rather than full texts (bearing in mind that I visited the site as an ordinary browser rather than through an academic institution's portal).

Kudos for Nadav Naaman for having the top-ranked result for his landmark TA v43#1 article. Kudos to my not-so-secret alter-ego for the #40 result, which is the Wikipedia entry for "LMLK seal". I was happy to see the LRW mentioned in the IAA's catalog Description field:

The library's Advanced interface is helpful for narrowing the results, but it's very slow in response to clicks due to a ridiculously long-running background script. So sad that many websites nowadays are more difficult to browse than ones I used back in the early days of my LMLK research, circa 2002. I hate it when organizations hire programmers to design websites for the most powerful computers with the weakest security settings rather than the weakest computers with the highest security settings, but I digress...

My 2nd entry was "grena", & although I was disappointed that my Lv1 book wasn't listed, at least one of my philatelic articles was! Woo-hoo! I'm officially & permanently a part of the IAA!

***

Also at the end of July, I finally found a significantly discounted copy of David Ussishkin's 2014 popular-audience book, "Biblical Lachish". I thought it would simply be a highly condensed, slightly reworded version of his landmark, 5-volume, highly technical final reports; however, I was thrilled to see a freshly written chapter on LMLKs, including remarks about my work! Woo-hoo-number-two! In fact, I'm even listed in the book's index!

(And yes, I know this image is rotated, but that's Blogger/Google's fault--not mine, because I also uploaded 3 alternate versions where I manually rotated & re-saved it, but they all appear upside-down thanks to the millionaire programmers at Blogger/Google who know what's best for you. To view it properly, visit their competitor's version at LMLK WordPress.)

I need to write a detailed review/rebuttal, so that's all I'll say about it for now. I'd really like to read the entire book, but have too much else on my personal agenda at this time ... which is a good thing--again, not complainin', just sayin'.

***

Also last month, I learned that Michael Hasel, Yosef Garfinkel, & Shina Weiss published a book last year on their 2010 Socoh survey, & promptly found a highly discounted copy for sale. I knew it would be excellent due to an awesome S2U photo on its cover; but when it arrived, I was even more ecstatic to see references to Lv1!

As with Ussishkin's book, I need to read the entire work before making any explicit comments; however, in addition to the S2U, it contains photos of a splendid S4L, & an x2x, which is probably an H2D. The authors also mention Yuval Goren's 2011 survey, but simply note that he's not yet published a report on it. Interestingly, this book contains photos of pottery/kiln slag, & indicates it may date to the Crusader/Mamluk period(s) rather than to the Iron Age. In other words, Goren's theory about the site possibly being the LMLK factory seems less likely now.

***

Then last month, I learned that Raz Kletter posted a pre-print PDF chapter from a book edited by Amit Re'em. It's "Chapter 10: Lmlk and Concentric Stamp Impressions". The Israel Exploration Society had published this back in May about excavations conducted many years ago at a Jerusalem police-station site named Qishle. Here's an overview from the back cover:

"The archaeological excavations near the Jaffa Gate, the main entryway to the Old City of Jerusalem, are among the most significant excavations of recent decades. They uncovered a large area beneath the Qishle, a historical prison within a 19th-century structure, revealing remarkable findings from the Iron Age to modern times. The remains of an imposing wall were found - probably a city wall of the First Temple period, dating to the 8th century BCE, as well as a large portion of the First Wall - Jerusalem's Hasmonean-era fortification. Other noteworthy discoveries include retaining walls and a sewage system from the time of Herod the Great that were part of Herod's Upper City palace; medieval installations, and a section of the curtain wall from the Crusader/Ayyubid period. The Qishle excavations have opened an extraordinary window onto underground Jerusalem, revealing a striking example of the ancient city's stratigraphy and allowing us a glimpse of the fascinating history of ancient Jerusalem."

The Hebrew word sometimes gets transliterated "Kishleh" or "Kishle", as in this 2014 IBA News report, which includes an interview with "Reem":

Raz mentioned in his Introduction that all 12 handles found at the site are nowhere to be found today. Fortunately he included photos of them rather than mere textual descriptions. In his Discussion, I was thrilled to see him reference Lv1, & list it in his Bibliography!

He had drafted the article in 2002 at the time I was building the LRW, then updated it 2010 & 2015 in the midst of Lipschits scandal. Again, this publication merits a detailed review, which I'll treat in a separate post when I find the time amidst this shower of blessings! In 2002 I did not even dream of seeing my own name in a major archeological book, on the same page with Aharoni, Barkay, Vaughn, Cross, Diringer, Garfinkel, & Lapp. Wow!

"The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it."--Proverbs 10:22

G.M. Grena

Wisdom vs. Wisdumb

I had an excellent staircase workout today. God enabled my legs to carry over 80 pounds of iron weights up 3/4's of a mile in 3.5 hours. Quite possibly more extra weight than any other elite staircase racer in the world has ever carried for such a distance. I hope I never take the good health God has granted me for granted!

I enjoy challenges. And today's workout reminded me of the event recorded in Matthew 14:1-11 & Mark 6:14-28.

It's too bad King Herod [Antipas] didn't "exercise" the wisdom of Solomon with the daughter of Herodias. Instead of simply caving to her request for the Baptist's head, he should've challenged her:

"I graciously offered to YOU whatsoever YOU would ask, unto the half of my kingdom. I did NOT extend this offer to your mother, Herodias. Because I keep my oaths, I am going to grant your request. Then, after the executioner delivers the Baptist's head to you, I am going to order him to cut off your legs. You danced so well & pleased me so greatly, that I want to keep them here to remind me of this occasion, since you probably won't be able to dance this well as you grow old & feeble ... unless of course you think there is something else you'd rather have than the head of this just and holy man."

G.M. Grena

Older Hole Holders

The Incisions page of the LMLK Research Website lists 4 handles bearing Hole Marks. Interestingly, they represent 4 of the 5 series of seal designs (x4C, x4L, x2D, x2T). 3 of them were from formal excavations, while 1 is in my unprovenanced collection. Here's a descriptive paragraph from p. 96 of my 2004 Lv1 book:

"The 4 specimens listed below have marks resembling the anchor holes of Concentric Circles but there's no indication that the circles were attempted. They may just be craters formed during firing by a large, round grit that fell out afterwards, or they may be damage caused during excavation; I include them here in case they carried some symbolic meaning. The Hole of Lachish ID# 11207/1 resembles the crater made during the chemical analysis performed in 1984 (I observed this on the Mizpah donor handles at the Bade Institute), & it was included in that study but the scientists noted the dot in their report so it's unlikely that it was made by them. Aside from comments about the Lachish specimen, nobody else has said much about these so curators & collectors need to re-examine the corpus for additional specimens."

Last week I received the latest issues of MAARAV & PEQ. The former contains interesting articles (accompanied by excellent photos) about the inscribed bowl from Qubur al-Walaydah, Aramaic ostraca from Idumea, Ammonite ostraca, & multimodality of the monumental Ekron & Tel Dan stelae. The latter contains an even more interesting one on jar-handles with hole marks found at Tell Sufan in Nablus, Palestine. Here's the descriptive paragraph spanning pp. 153-4 by authors, Loay Abu Alsaud & Amer Qobbaj:

"Two handle fragments found at Tell Sufan, one with an incision between two horizontally placed holes and the other with two vertically placed holes, resemble handles from Tell Shiloh, which is located between Nablus and Ramallah. Handles with holes are first seen at the beginning of the twelfth century BC and continue to appear into the tenth century BC and perhaps even later: Giloh, Mt. Ebal, Taanach IA, Taanach IIB, Megiddo V. It is not possible to determine whether the holes had administrative significance, or were purely for decorative purposes, until more examples of complete vessels come to light."

The authors did not explicitly mention what's obvious in the photos, which is that one handle's marks are near the top of the loop, while the other handle's are near the bottom. Although the Lachish H4L's hole is also near its bottom, the holes on the other 3 LMLKs are over their mid-loop stamps.

The article's abstract notes that this pottery was excavated in 1999 & campaigns spanning 2013-16. Furthermore, "[T]his ancient pottery has never previously been the subject of research nor has any literature been published on it."

The handle with an incision between the holes resembles neither a Drag Mark nor a Plus Mark seen on LMLKs. Likewise, all 4 LMLKs bear single holes, whereas both of the Sufan handles bear pairs. So it's safe to say these series of incisions are completely unrelated, but very interesting.

G.M. Grena

TAU Lachish Fragment #2

Last month I continued practicing what I preached 6 years ago to Morag Kersel on the ASOR Blog, acquiring another piece of pottery excavated & marketed by David Ussishkin's Tel Aviv University team (which included Gabriel Barkay). Unfortunately the full text & photos I posted there (including a photo of my 1st Lachish shard) are no longer available (at least not on my computer using the current IE & FF browsers), even while logged into my ASOR account. Although there's a link on that page to show "more" after displaying my foreword, it's unresponsive ... just like ASOR's staff when I sent an E-mail to them about the problem. As President Trump would say, "Not good."

This 2nd fragment complements the first one because of its distinct ware/firing. Instead of an orange exterior & gray interior (indicating a lower temperature), this second one has a tan/cream-colored exterior & orange interior (indicating a higher temperature). The lucite encasements have approximately the same shape & size, but slightly different face-angles. And this 2nd one also included rubber pads, though it's shorter than the 1st one without them.





G.M. Grena

Inappropriate Image Duplication

On June 24, a preprint article appeared online, "Analysis and Correction of Inappropriate Image Duplication: The Molecular and Cellular Biology Experience" by Elisabeth M. Bik, Ferric C. Fang, Amy L. Kullas, Roger J. Davis, & Arturo Casadevall.

"[A]s many as 35,000 papers in [the MCB journal published from 2009-2016] are candidates for retraction due to image duplication. ... [D]eliberate image manipulation and fabrication indicate misconduct. ... Most peer reviewers do not have the expertise to analyze papers for scientific misconduct. Consequently, the responsibility of screening for plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, and other forms of science misconduct often lies with editors."

On the bright side, archaeological journals such as Tel Aviv don't publish as frequently as MCB.
G.M. Grena

Wiseman Once Said

Last month while shopping for the lowest price on a book featured in my previous post ("Israel: Ancient Kingdom or Late Invention?"), I noticed that the bookseller offered free shipping for orders over $25. Rather than simply paying an extra $6 for shipping, I searched their Bible Archeology section & found 2 interesting titles priced under $7 each.

I gambled on whether they would contain any LMLK content, & I broke even: one did, & one didn't.

"Archaeology and The Bible: An Introductory Study" by Donald J. Wiseman & Edwin Yamauchi was published in 1979, & it's evident by this now-way-outdated LMLK content spanning pp. 48-9:

"The fiscal organization of Judah can be followed in the taxes paid in kind to the king (lmlk) in jars with stamped handles showing the collection centers--Hebron, Sokoh, Ziph, and mmst--and bearing a symbol of a four-winged scarab-beetle for the reign of Hezekiah, a more stylized form with inscription in a later style for the reign of Manasseh, and a winged flying scroll for the period of Josiah and his successors (640-587 B.C.). About six hundred of these jar handles are known, a large number coming from Tell en-Nasbeh (Mizpah) and Lachish."

Wiseman wrote the first half of the book, including the quotation above, covering the Old Testament; while Yamauchi (the professor emeritus who openly expressed doubt over my 2014 NEAS lecture) covered the New Testament. We should not fault Wiseman's overview of the subject since Albright's interpretations had not yet been conquered by the then-ongoing work of David Ussishkin at Lachish. It's also worth noting that Wiseman mentioned Ramat Rahel before & after the LMLK paragraph with regard to it being King Uzziah's home (per Aharoni) & its destruction by the Babylonians. His sole mention of Gibeon is in a description of water shafts during the united Israelite monarchy.

"Archaeology and Bible History" was originally written by Joseph P. Free in 1950, but I got the 1992 revised & expanded edition by Howard F. Vos. It's a decent overview of the subject, & although it contains no LMLK content per se, Vos is Professor Emeritus of History & Archaeology at The King's College in New York, which is a nice name for an educational institution. The chapter where LMLK content might've appeared is only 11 pages, "Judah, 722-640 B.C." I wasn't surprised to see a photo of The Oriental Institute's cylinder therein, but I was surprised by 3 Qumran/DSS-related photos. Can you guess why those dominated? Here's a hint:

G.M. Grena

Two Minor Typos

Earlier this month, I received an E-mail from Barnea Levi Selavan (of Foundation Stone) kindly informing me of a typo on LDC's Geography page (which was replicated on the Corpus page thanks to my copy/paste proficiency).

Hard to comprehend, but it's been about 6 years since I made any updates to those pages, the main reason being I've been concentrating on my physical health after turning 50, finally crossing into the point-of-diminishing-returns phase of life, hoping to delay the inevitable. When I was young, along with other bad investments, I bet against myself making it this far. Although I'm grateful to God for enabling me to live this long, "damage control" takes priority nowadays!

Meanwhile, after the last time my main computer met its own inevitable demise in 2015, I didn't bother setting up access to LDC on my current PC. I could, but it just hasn't seemed worthwhile given all else going on in my life. Besides, in 2013 I began designing a new, easier-to-maintain version of LMLK Dotcom, which will not only be searchable, but will present visitors with customizable content such as corpus statistics & maps with precise coordinates for LMLK loci.

So I'm grateful when I occasionally get notes such as the one from Barnea, but I'm simply going to post it here for now:

"Burj (Khirbet el-Burj in the northen end of Ramot Alon"
should be
"Burj (Khirbet el-Burj in the northern end of Ramot Alon"

As God continues dropping jelly beans along life's trail for me, within a few days of receiving Barnea's message, I received a copy of a new book by Clive Anderson & Brian Edwards, "Evidence for the Bible" (published by Master Books; free 27-page PDF sample).

Page 38 is about Hebron, & unfortunately does not mention the HBRN seals; however, an S2U from Lachish (RAEL #260) on display at The British Museum appears on p. 74 along with the Assyrian siege ramp at Lachish. Here's what they say about the handles:

"Hezekiah had clearly made preparations for a long siege by taxation. Many handles from large storage jars have been found across Judah and dated to the 8th or 7th centuries B.C. The handles have been stamped with a seal bearing the message "belonging to the king"--in Hebrew lmlk--and the name of one of four administrative centers, from where they would have been taken to Lachish or Jerusalem. It is generally agreed that these date to the reign of Hezekiah (JBA p 106), although some authorities suggest they were first made in the reign of Ahaz (IAK p 17). Second Chronicles 32:28 refers to his storehouses."

Ugh!!! ...in general, though I was pleasantly surprised by the 2Chr reference.

Alas, I've been venting my ughs since 2002, so I won't repeat them here. The only point I'll take the time to make today is that the first citation, JBA is for the 2003 book, "Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period" by editors Andrew G. Vaughn & Ann E. Killebrew. I do not have this book, & was not aware of any significant LMLK content therein when I published Lv1 in 2004.

The second citation, IAK, which also surprised/intrigued me, is not actually in Anderson/Edwards' bibliography. So I switched to typo-catching mode, & discovered AKI. It stands for the 2008 book, "Israel: Ancient Kingdom or Late Invention?" by editor Daniel I. Block. I promptly ordered a copy, & received it last week.

Block dedicated the book to "Alan R. Millard, Scholar, Mentor, Friend". It contains 15 essays delivered at a "conference held in Louisville in January, 2004" coincidently as I began finalizing Lv1. Block wrote one, & Millard three, including the one with relevant text from p. 17 ("The Value and Limitations of the Bible and Archaeology for Understanding the History of Israel--Some Examples"):

"The Assyrians required their vassals to pay an annual tribute. ... Neither the biblical nor the Assyrian records specify the tribute Ahaz had to pay, but he would certainly have had to send an annual levy to Assyria, which would have had a negative impact on the Judaean economy. As far as I am aware, excavations have not demonstrated any change in the material remains of the second half of the 8th century BC. However, based on written records, the destruction levels that excavators attribute to Sennacherib's campaign to crush Hezekiah's revolt in 701 BC contained large numbers of storage jars. Many of these jars had handles stamped by seals bearing the words "royal property" (lmlk), followed by the name of one of the towns: Ziph, Hebron, Memshat, or Sokoh. Scholars usually interpret these jars as containers prepared for provisioning Hezekiah's garrisons when he expected the Assyrian attack. The fact that they lie in debris of destruction set in Hezekiah's reign need not mean they were made only in the year or two before the towns were sacked. Although the greatest quantity of material derives from the occupation level of the latest period of habitation, it spans more than a few years. Therefore, I suggest that the jars stamped "royal property" were first made in the reign of Ahaz for collecting produce to be sent to Assyria, and that potters constructed them for as long as he and Hezekiah, his successor, paid tribute to Assyria. They could still have been used for collecting taxes when Hezekiah was preparing to face Assyria's attack."

I love Prof. Emeritus Millard for the encouraging words he's written to me over the years; however, if the purpose of the jars was for sending stuff to Assyria, why haven't the majority of them been found in excavations there?

Corollary point: Is there any evidence suggesting that Judahites sent Rosette (a.k.a. Star) jars to Babylon a century later?

***

In other news, today I received the 2018 issue of TAU Review. It contains the usual happiness/peace/love/joy photo of smiling President Joseph Klafter; an obligatory anti-God, Darwinian-evolution propaganda piece for an ordinary-human jawbone discovered at Mount Carmel; another happiness/peace/love/joy photo, this time of Israel Finkelstein regarding his collaboration with Eli Piasetsky on the Arad ostraca; & a brief announcement on the appointment of LMLK VIP Oded Lipschits as incumbent of the Austria Chair in Archaeology of the Land of Israel in the Biblical Period (formerly held by LMLK VIP, David Ussishkin from 1996-2006).

I'll conclude today's blog with a humorous verbal-typo on David Willner's YouTube channel, featuring a 1-minute clip of Prof. Lipschits using "BC" & "AD" instead of the standard history-denying TAU/academia anti-Christian-speak of "BCE" & "CE":

With happiness/peace/love/joy to all my blog's readers,
G.M. Grena

MOTB IAA Gallery

No time for a long commentary tonight, just 3 screenshots from a new video posted by DC's Museum of the Bible showing off some LMLKs from the IAA, as if the 200 or so they acquired from Michael Welch's collection were not enough ... though it is very cool to know the famous "Nera Shebna" H2D handle is temporarily in the USA! Total of 8 handles shown, plus the important Arad "Bath" ostracon.

The LMLK stamp jars were ... century BCE. Their stamped handles include a four-winged scarab ... accompanied by a Hebrew inscription LMLK, "(belonging) to the king," and the name of one of four cities: Hebron, Zif, Sochoh, Mameshat. The administrative system continued into the seventh and sixth centuries with jars incised with concentric circles, followed by jars marked with a rosette stamp impression.

Bearing two seal impressions: Two-winged lmlk hbrn "(belonging) to the king Hebron" and a private seal impression"Belonging to Nera (son of) Shebna."

G.M. Grena

Hebron Captcha

Last month my current engineering contract ended somewhat suddenly when the company folded. In many ways it's been the best job I've ever had, affording me time & money to turn my health/fitness around (in a positive direction) as I race toward life's Finish Line.

A few years have elapsed since my last search for new employment, & although the Internet has helped tremendously compared to what it was like back in the 1980s, it's getting more complicated now: more online forms, more bogus inquiries from nether-regions, & captchas to ensure I'm not a bogus candidate.

Most of the captchas are jumbled letters & numbers, but you can imagine how cool it was to be presented with one of the 5 LMLK words:

And today, YouTube-channel "Hebron Israel" posted an equally cool 6-minute video from a drone flying over the city of Hebron, with captions pointing out the highlights (including the archeological site):

Coolest caption: "Researchers believe they were making wine for the Holy Temple in Jerusalem"

Thanks to all of my friends/alliances (i.e., "Hebrons") who prayed for me during this employment transition!

G.M. Grena

LMLKs on LLBN

The Loma Linda Broadcasting Network not only televises the annual post-Thanksgiving Heritage Singers concert I attend at Loma Linda University Church, but also a series of half-hour shows from nearby La Sierra University: "Excavating the Bible:  Archaeology and the Bible, Book by Book". It's hosted by Dr. Doug Clark, who discusses archeological topics with Drs. Lawrence Geraty, Kent Bramlett, & concentric-circles expert, Chang Ho Ji.

This weekend I finally took the time to peruse some of the 152 episodes, & LMLK seals were mentioned & shown in shows 96 & 114 for 2Kings 18-20 & Isaiah 36-39 respectively. Dr. Bramlett expresses his opinion in support of the seal words representing cities of origin, & the jars' distribution in the context of a revolt against Assyria. He also mentions an ongoing debate regarding the duration of LMLK usage, possibly extending to Josiah's reign.

Unfortunately, the handles shown in this episode are too far from the camera for me to identify, & actually one of them looks non-LMLK. It's also unfortunate that LMLKs were not mentioned in the episode for 2Chronicles, which places more of an emphasis on the worship-reformation led by Hezekiah. Be that as it may, it's always nice to see these artifacts getting some TV airtime.

I'm embedding both videos below as a courtesy, but if you visit them directly on YouTube, you can see comments I posted with links to the LMLK-segment timing.

G.M. Grena