Koch, I. and Lipschits, O. 2013. The Rosette Stamped Jar Handle System and the Kingdom of Judah at the End of the First Temple Period. ZDPV 129: 55–78 . (original) (raw)
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In this article, we discuss the seals used by the central administrative apparatus of Judah (later: Yehud and Judea) to mark jars intended to store wine and oil produced by its estates – a practice that developed in the late eighth century bce and lasted until the late second century bce. The longevity of the practice and the continuity of various aspects, such as the morphology of the jars and the location of the administrative focal points, have shown the stamped jars to be a nuanced tool for the study of the history of Judah throughout the long age of the empires. In what follows, we contextualise the images used in several phases of the system within their broader context and suggest their meaning as official insignia. We further propose a framework for assessing the absence of icons in the other phases.
Judahite Stamped and Incised Jar Handles: A Tool for Studying the History of Late Monarchic Judah
Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute …, 2011
The paper probes the distribution of the various stamped and incised Judahite jars with two criteria in mind: (1) their estimated date; (2) the assumption that in addition to Jerusalem, sites that yielded large quantities of stamped handles (mainly lachish and Ramat Ra el) served as major collection centres while sites that yielded only a few dozen stamped handles served as secondary administrative centres of the kingdom. Based on their findings, the authors reconstruct the evolution of the royal administrative system in the late 8th through the early 6th centuries BCe.
Tel Aviv, Vol. 32 (2005)
Twenty-two stamped and incised jar handles found at the site adjacent to the largest of the tumuli west of Jerusalem provide evidence for continuous administrative/ commercial activity in the region during the late Iron Age and Persian period. This evidence underscores the highly specialized character of economic activity in the Naúal Refa<im basin, borne out by the discovery of several dozen winepresses of late Iron-Persian date. A signifi cant connection with the administrative centre at Ramat Raúel is indicated, suggesting that the expansion into this previously underexploited ecological zone was state-sponsored, necessitated by the sudden growth of Jerusalem and the Judean economy in the late 8th-7th century BCE. large tumulus (9 m high and 40 m across), these excavations have uncovered extensive remains of agricultural industry and storage, but no architectural remains. The installations uncovered in the excavations were primarily winepresses; associated with them are storage caves and plastered cisterns. The winepresses were originally all of the same basic type: a modest treading fl oor (approx. 3 × 3 m), a settling basin and a plastered collecting vat. Most of the presses were altered over time; however, one of them remained intact , sealed by a fi ll containing late Iron Age and Persian period pottery.
In this paper I present two different methodologies and theories of understanding the stamped jar phenomenon that have recently come into dispute. Ussishkin (2011) has argued in favor of the 30-year-old scholarly consensus that claims that all lmlk jars were produced during the three years of Hezekiah's revolt and Judah’s preparations for the 701 BCE Assyrian attack. He has further claimed that all the concentric incised circles on jar handles should be dated to these three years, and that all the rosette stamped jars should be dated to the few years of Zedekiah's revolt against the Babylonians (588–586 BCE). Lipschits, Sergi and Koch (2010; 2011) have challenged this theory, claiming that this system of stamping jar handles endured for no less than about 600 years—maintaining that it was initiated at the beginning of the last quarter of the 8th century BCE with the early lmlk types, and perpetuated during the first quarter of the 7th century BCE with the late lmlk types, during the middle of the 7th century BCE with the incised concentric circles on jar handles, and during the last quarter of the 7th and early 6th century BCE with the rosette stamp impressions. They argue that this same administrative system of stamping jar handles continued in Judah after 586 BCE for an additional 450 years, when Judah was a Babylonian province (the mwṣh and lion stamped handles), as well as a Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid province (the yhwd and the yršlm stamped handles). Explaining and dating the stamped jar handles using these two diverse methodologies raises points of dispute regarding the archaeological material and its historical interpretation. This is also a good theoretical case-study for discussing how to deal with and interpret archaeological material and is an example of the implication of this archaeological data on our understanding of the history of Judah. Therefore, in this paper I summarize the point of dispute and discuss its implications on the connections between archaeological facts and its interpretation, as well as the meaning of all this for our understanding of the history of Judah.