Dating The Royal Seal With Geology And Patina
The seal was subjected to a series of laboratory tests that showed it was sealed on a linen cloth, when its material was in a relatively dry state, and then baked at a temperature of about 750 degrees Celsius (1382 degrees Fahrenheit). Testing the bulla (medieval Latin for a round seal ; plural bullae), the team was able to ascertain that it had come from a place where “limestone rocks are exposed in the vicinity of basalt-containing olivine.”
Goren said he and the other researchers studied “hundreds of securely identified bullae from legal excavations to get a reference point.” The geologists were able to successfully narrow down the possibilities to areas in the Lower Galilee, and the Jezreel and Beit She’an valleys.
Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel s Jewish World and Archaeology editor.
2,700-year-old clay sealing from a stamp from the Israelite King Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE. (Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University)
What is arguably the earliest inscribed clay seal impression from the Land of Israel used at the court of Israelite King Jeroboam II has been authenticated after years of strict laboratory testing under the supervision of Ben-Gurion University Prof. Yuval Goren. The inscribed clay, known as a bulla, was purchased without provenance from a Bedouin antiquities merchant in the 1980s and is now thought to be from Jeroboam II’s 8th century BCE reign.