Yeda'yah (son of) Asayahu bulla

Overview

A small clay bulla bearing a seal impression in Paleo-Hebrew script, recognised in 2025 by Mordechai Ehrlich of the Temple Mount Sifting Project among bones that had been sifted about two years before. The soil it came from was dug out of the Temple Mount during 1996-1999 construction and dumped in the Kidron Valley, so the object has no archaeological layer; only its script dates it.

The epigrapher Anat Mendel-Geberovich and project co-director Zachi Dvira, using RTI (reflectance transformation) photography, read it as ליד[ע]יה (בן) עשיהו, 'Belonging to Yed[a']yah (son of) Asayahu'. The square brackets mark the ayin as restored; the round brackets mark the word 'son of' as supplied by the readers, i.e. the seal gives two names in a row, as is common on Judahite seals. The sealing preserves a fingerprint, and marks on its back show it closed a bag or container.

The project announced that the father's name Asayahu is the long form of Asaiah, the 'servant of the king' whom Josiah sent to Huldah (2 Kings 22:12, 14; 2 Chronicles 34:20), and called the link 'highly plausible' but not certain. A paper was announced for submission in August 2025; the find was presented at the 50th Archaeological Congress in Israel in June 2026, and the project says full details await the article. No peer-reviewed publication had been located as of Sept 2026.

What the text says (summary)

lyd['y]h ('s)yhw -- 'Belonging to Yed[a']yah, (son of) Asayahu'Our literal rendering of the reading published by the Temple Mount Sifting Project (Mendel-Geberovich and Dvira), 30 July 2025: ליד[ע]יה (בן) עשיהו. No public-domain translation exists (found 2025).

What the evidence shows

• Reading as published by the excavators: ליד[ע]יה (בן) עשיהו, 'Belonging to Yed[a']yah (son of) Asayahu' (TMSP, 30 July 2025).
• The ayin of Yeda'yah is restored, not read (bracketed in the published reading).
• The word 'son of' (bn) is not on the seal; it is supplied in round brackets by the readers.
• The father's name is written in the long form -yahu (Asayahu); the Masoretic text of 2 Kings 22:12 / 2 Chronicles 34:20 spells the official's name in the short form 'Asaiah'. Dvira: 'The longer and shorter versions of the name were often used interchangeably' (Times of Israel, 30 July 2025).
• Date is palaeographic: late 7th-early 6th century BCE (TMSP; JNS: 'second half of the 7th century BCE to the beginning of the 6th century BCE').
• No stratigraphic context: the soil was removed from the Temple Mount by construction machinery in 1996-1999 and dumped in the Kidron Valley (Times of Israel, 30 July 2025).
• A fingerprint is preserved on the sealing; impressions on the back show it sealed a bag or container (TMSP; BAS 2025).
• Dvira: only the second time in the project's 20+ years that a sealing with so complete an inscription has been found (Times of Israel, 30 July 2025).
• Dimensions have not been published in any source located.

Open questions

• Is this Asayahu the Asaiah of 2 Kings 22? The Temple Mount Sifting Project (Mendel-Geberovich and Dvira, announcement 30 July 2025; Armstrong Institute report) calls it 'highly plausible' because the date by script matches Josiah's reign (c. 640-609 BCE) and the object came from Temple Mount soil, but they state it is not 'entirely certain'. The seal itself carries no title (no 'servant of the king') and the Asaiah of Kings has no recorded son; by the criteria the Jerubba'al editors cite from Mykytiuk (2004) for a firm identification (a matching patronymic, title or epithet), the match here is a name plus a date range only. The Bible also names other men called Asaiah (1 Chr 4:36; 6:30; 9:5; 15:6, 11), though none of them in Josiah's court.
• Whose fingerprint? The fingerprint belongs to whoever pressed the clay; the seal owner named is Yeda'yah, not Asayahu. Nothing on the object identifies the person who left the print.
• Full technical publication (dimensions, photographs, reverse, palaeographic argument) was still pending as of the June 2026 congress report; the reading and date cannot yet be checked against a peer-reviewed edition.

Since 2024

• 2025-07Find announced by the Temple Mount Sifting Project (30 July 2025); paper said to be going to a peer-reviewed journal. [1]
• 2026-06Presented by Mendel-Geberovich and Dvira at the 50th Archaeological Congress in Israel; the scientific article is still described as upcoming. [2]
• 2026-08Biblical Archaeology Society republished its report (10 Aug 2026); no new data. [4]

Sources

1. Temple Mount Sifting Project. "Has the Name of King Josiah's Trusted Official Been Found on an Ancient Sealing?" 30 July 2025. link excavation report
2. Temple Mount Sifting Project. "The Sifting Project at the 50th Archaeological Congress: A Seal Impression from the Days of Josiah and the Evolution of the Eastern Temple Mount." 11 June 2026. link excavation report
3. Borschel-Dan, A. (Times of Israel). "Tiny 2,600-year-old clay sealing inscribed with biblical name found in Temple Mount soil." 30 July 2025. link study
4. Steinmeyer, N. "Ancient Seal Impression May Connect to Biblical Figure." Biblical Archaeology Society, Bible History Daily, 15 Aug 2025 (republished 10 Aug 2026). link study
5. JNS. "Rare First Temple-era seal impression found in Jerusalem." 30 July 2025. link study

Checked against new publications through 2026-09.