Two New Hebrew Seals and Their Iconographic Background

Abstract

This little scaraboid (pI. IlIA) was found in summer 1959 during agricultural operations in an orchard of the village of Revadim, in the northern Shephelah, at point 132131. As there are no ruins, no large number of potsherds, no indication of a Tell in the whole district, it has to be assumed that the seal was accidentally dropped by its owner, or, alternatively, that it has been washed down by one of the many rivulets in winter-time, from a site at an appreciable distance, not to be identified any more. The seal is I· 7 cm. long and I· 5 em. broad, made of steatite. The inscription ~~~ is easily recognizable: belonging to Abba. Below the inscription we have a scene, executed in a half-schematic manner and not very well preserved. On the left we see a person, facing the centre of the lower register and presenting an object to the central figure. His other arm is well behind his body. The central figure seems to be sitting, right hand pointing to its mouth, left arm behind. It is impossible to make out on what this figure is sitting; it may be an elaborate podium, a chair, or plants. On the right we have an additional figure, in a position similar to the first one, one hand raised in adoration. We have before us a scene of adoration directed at the Sun-child. The Sun-child appears frequently in the ivory carvings of the first millennium B.C. at Nimrud2, at Arslan Tash3, where there were found 19 ivory panels with the subject, belonging, as it seems, to one single bit of furniture, and

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