Hezekiah Bulla

Overview

A small lump of clay that once sealed a document or container, stamped with the personal seal of King Hezekiah. It came from wet-sifted soil of a refuse dump excavated in 2009 in the Ophel, just south of the Temple Mount, and was recognised as a royal seal impression during sifting; it was announced by the Hebrew University in December 2015 and published in the first volume of the Ophel final reports.

The impression reads, in Old Hebrew, 'Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, king of Judah'. The word 'son' is not written. The centre shows a two-winged sun with its wings turned downward, flanked by two ankh signs.

According to the excavators the dump dates to the time of Hezekiah or shortly after and came from an adjacent 'Royal Building' used for storing foodstuffs. It was the first seal impression of a Judahite or Israelite king recovered in a controlled excavation (as opposed to the antiquities market).

What the text says (summary)

lḥzqyhw ʾḥz mlk yhdh - 'Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, king of Judah'English as issued in the Hebrew University release (2 Dec 2015); transliteration as reproduced in secondary listings of Mazar 2015 (the final report chapter itself not read)

What the evidence shows

• Clay bulla 13 x 12 x 3 mm; oval seal impression 9.7 x 8.6 mm with the frame of the seal ring visible around it (Hebrew University release, 2015).
• Legend: 'of Hezekiah (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah'; no word for 'son' is present.
• Iconography: two-winged sun with downturned wings, flanked by two ankh (life) symbols.
• Findspot: refuse dump in Ophel Area A, dated to Hezekiah's time or shortly after; found in 2009 season material, identified in wet-sifting at Emek Tzurim.
• Published in E. Mazar (ed.), The Ophel Excavations to the South of the Temple Mount 2009-2013, Final Reports Vol. I (2015), whose final chapter presents the Hezekiah find.

Open questions

• Hezekiah's regnal dates are themselves disputed from the biblical numbers: 2 Kgs 18:1 puts his accession in the 3rd year of Hoshea of Israel (implying c. 727/726), while 2 Kgs 18:13 puts Sennacherib's invasion (701 BCE on the Assyrian record) in his 14th year (implying c. 715). The Hebrew University release uses 727-698 BCE; others use 716/715-687/686. The bulla confirms the person and title, not the dates.
• What the winged-sun motif means. LeMon (Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 13, 2024) reads the Hezekiah bulla's winged sun within Judahite royal iconography and uses it to argue that the voice of Psalms 61 and 63 (sheltering under God's wings) is the king's; that is his interpretation of the image, not something written on it.
• The wording without 'son' (ben) is unusual but also known from other Hebrew seals; a published parallel list has not been confirmed for this entry.

Since 2024

• 2024LeMon publishes an iconographic study of the Hezekiah bulla's winged sun and its bearing on the 'wings' imagery of Psalms 61 and 63. [3]

Sources

1. E. Mazar (ed.), The Ophel Excavations to the South of the Temple Mount 2009-2013: Final Reports, Vol. I (Jerusalem: Shoham Academic Research and Publication, 2015), 641 pp., ISBN 978-965-7726-01-3; ch. 13, 'A Seal Impression of King Hezekiah from the Ophel Excavations', pp. 628-639 link excavation report
2. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 'Impression of King Hezekiah's royal seal discovered in excavations in Jerusalem,' press release via ScienceDaily, 2 December 2015 link excavation report
3. J. M. LeMon, 'The »Hezekiah Seal,« Judahite Iconography, and the Winged Form of God in Psalms 61 and 63,' Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 13.1 (2024): 33-62. DOI 10.1628/hebai-2024-0004 link study

Checked against new publications through 2026-09.