Age of Empires: The History and Administration of Judah in the 8th–2nd Centuries BCE in Light of the Storage-Jar Stamp Impressions

Oded Lipschits

Published by Penn State University Press 2021

Age of Empires

The History and Administration of Judah in the 8th–2nd Centuries BCE in Light of the Storage-Jar Stamp Impressions

Oded Lipschits

Volume 2 in the series Mosaics: Studies on Ancient Israel

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781646021741

Overview
Contents

About this book

Storage jars of many shapes and sizes were in widespread use in the ancient world, transporting and storing agricultural products such as wine and oil, crucial to agriculture, economy, trade and subsistence. From the late 8th to the 2nd century BCE, the oval storage jars typical of Judah were often stamped or otherwise marked: in the late 8th and early 7th century BCE with lmlk stamp impressions, later in the 7th century with concentric circle incisions or rosette stamp impressions, in the 6th century, after the fall of Jerusalem, with lion stamp impressions, and in the Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid periods (late 6th–late 2nd centuries BCE) with yhwd stamp impressions. At the same time, several ad hoc systems of stamp impressions appeared: “private” stamp impressions were used on the eve of Sennacherib’s campaign, mwṣh stamp impressions after the destruction of Jerusalem, and yršlm impressions after the establishment of the Hasmonean state. While administrative systems that stamped storage jars are known elsewhere in the ancient Near East, the phenomenon in Judah is unparalleled in its scale, variety and continuity, spanning a period of some 600 years without interruption.

This is the first attempt to consider the phenomenon as a whole and to develop a unified theory that would explain the function of these stamp impressions and shed new light on the history of Judah during six centuries of subjugation to the empires that ruled the region—as a vassal kingdom in the age of the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian empires and as a province under successive Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid rule.

Author / Editor information

Lipschits Oded :

Oded Lipschits is Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and the Director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. He is also the Incumbent of the Austria Chair of the Archeology of the Land of Israel in the Biblical Period and the head of the international M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Ancient Israel Studies. Professor Lipschits directed the excavations at Ramat Raḥel between 2005 and 2010. Since 2012 he has been the Director of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition, and in recent years he has also been directing excavations in the new temple of the biblical period discovered in Moẓa, a few kilometers from Jerusalem.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction The Importance of the Stamp-Impression System for an Understanding of the History and Administration of Judah in the First and Second Temple Periods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Storage-Jar Stamp Impressions in the Ancient Near East Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2. The Jar-Stamping Phenomenon in Judah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. The Stamped Judahite Storage Jars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
4. Main Stamp-Impression Types: Typology, Corpus and Distribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
5. The Chronology of the Stamped Storage-Jar Systems in the Kingdom of Judah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
6. The Function and Modus Operandi of the Stamped Storage-Jar System in the Kingdom of Judah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
7. The Stamped Storage-Jar Systems in Their Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Contexts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
8. Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index of Geographic Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index of Historical Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Index of Modern Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 250
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 10
- Images: 18
- Coloured Images: 23
- Tables: 4
- Other: 23 color/18 b&w illustrations/10 maps
Keywords: Stamp Impressions; Kingdom of Judah; Jerusalem; Ramat Rahel; Biblical Period; Iron Age Archaeology; Babylonian Empire; Babylonian Period in Judah; Persian Empire; Persian Period in Judah

eBook

Published: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 9781646021741