IAA on clerks and merchants in 8th c. BCE

IAA today reports on the finding of a complete seal that bears the Hebrew name “Rephaihu (ben) Shalem”:

Finds recovered from the excavations in the City of David reveal an interesting development in the ancient world: whereas during the 9th century BCE letters and goods were dispatched on behalf of their senders without names, by the 8th century BCE the clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals.

And Ronny Reichs remarks:

“In contrast with the large cluster of bullae that was found two years ago, in which all of its items contain graphic symbols (such as a boat or different animals – fish, lizards and birds) but are of an earlier date (end of the 9th-beginning of the 8th century BCE), the new items indicate that during the 8th century BCE the practice had changed and the clerks who used the seals began to add their names to them.” (more...)

L’Autorità Israeliana per le Antichità riferisce oggi della scoperta di un interessante sigillo. È completo e porta il nome di “Rephaihu (ben) Shalem”. Mentre nella Gerusalemme del sec. IX a.C. tali sigilli commerciali raffiguravano animali, a partire dall’VIII circa la prassi cambiò e i commercianti iniziarono a intagliare il proprio nome su di essi.

mercoledì 27 febbraio 2008