Last week, Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem announced that they had discovered a 2,700 year old clay seal impression that, in their estimation, once belonged to the governor of Jerusalem.
The excavator Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah said that the discovery “supports the Biblical rendering of the existence of a governor of the city in Jerusalem 2,700 years ago.”
This would make the seal impression significant in two ways: it would provide archaeological evidence that there was an Israelite administrative presence in the land roughly three millennia ago and it would confirm that the administrative structures described in the Bible actually existed.
The coin-sized impression is inscribed in Hebrew and reads “belonging to the governor of the city.” It also shows two standing figures who face one another and wear striped, knee-length garments. The Israel Antiquities Authority said that the seal was probably either a souvenir sent on behalf of the governor or originally attached to “an important transport” of some kind.
