Seals Lmlk

The word LMLK, the vocalized-melech, covered jars can mean:

• belonging to the king
• belonging to an individual acting on behalf of King
• belonging to the royal government
• to send the king

Seals LMLK to Hecht Museum of Haifa ( Israel )

In addition to the word LMLK, some of the jars is a second line on which is written one of four names: SOKhoH (), Chevron (), ZYF () and MMST (). These names are identified with cities Sokho , a walled city in the Valley of Elah was an administrative center and military at the time of the First Temple, Hebron , Ziph Ziph in the desert south of the Judean Desert. MMST alone is not identified with certainty. Several proposals have been issued. One of them is identified with the city Nabatean of Mamshit in the Negev. After the excavation of Ramat Rachel by Yohanan Aharoni , another hypothesis has been issued by Ygal Yadin, and after him by Gavriel Barkai who excavated Ramat Rachel in the 80s. MMST () would actually (), c ' is to say the center of royal power of Hezekiah, and according to archaeologists at the time of Hezekiah, the center would be established precisely at Ramat Rachel.

At the center of the seal contains a wheel with 2 or 4 wings. Some see a representation of a sacred beetle , symbolizing power.

Besides seals LMLK was also found other seals bearing personal names from the same period.

Most of the seals have been discovered in the highlands of Judea (in 68 sites), only a small portion have been found in Galilee and in the plains (4 sites). The 20 sites where we found the largest number of seals LMLK are:

A copy was also found at the site of Qumran ^{Origin seals}

Since the first explanations of Charles Warren in 1870, various explanations have been proposed for the significance of these seals. After the excavation of Lachish in the 1970s, the number was reduced to an explanation:

• the jars were used to store food for times of crisis and were sent from the central cities to the border towns for a short time in preparation it seems the invasion of Sennacherib.
• the jars contained in fact made from agricultural taxes rural areas toward the center of power during the reign of Hezekiah
• These jars contained the Ma'aser, that is to say the tithe , taken for the worship of the Temple of Jerusalem after the religious reform and centralization of worship that began at that time

References

• (He) This article is partially or entirely from the article in Hebrew called " "" (see the list of authors )

External Links

• (In) The LMLK Research Website (map of sites where seals were found)

• Archaeology portal
• Portal of ancient Israel and Jews in Antiquity
• Portal of the Ancient Near East