Signs of Administration in the early Kingdom of Judah?

A new article by Hoo-Goo Kang and Yosef Garfinkel on marked jar handles is available for free download. These handles date to the early 10th century and point to governmental authority in the region of Judah. The authors conclude the impressed handles were precursors to the stamped handles known from later governments in Judah.

Stamped jar handles are known in Judah throughout most of the 1st millennium BC. Handles from the 8th and 7th centuries were stamped with the Hebrew letters “LMLK” (Belonging to the King”). The authors believe this marked the jars’ contents as taxes collected by the government. The tradition of stamped government jars continued in Judah throughout Judahite, Persian, Greek, and Hasmonean administrations.

Hundreds of finger-impressed handles were recently found in an early 10th century context at Khirbet Qeiyafa. The authors believe this indicates a change in the political organization of Judah around that time.

You may downloaded the article here: The abstract reads as follows:

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2007–13 revealed an extraordinary number of finger-impressed jar handles of the Iron Age. They are classified into six types and their geographical and chronological distributions examined. Although some excavators define them as potter’s marks, this is not the case. It is also clear that the number of impressions is not related to the jars’ capacity. This paper attempts to understand the finger-impressed handles as part of the Judean tradition of stamped jar handles, and we suggest that they may be a precursor of the LamMeLeKh (LMLK) jars and a marker of administration in the early Iron Age IIA. The impressed jar handles are indicative of a major change in political organization, from Bronze Age Canaanite city states to Iron Age nation states.

Impressed jar handles from Khirbet Qeiyafa. They appear to have served an administrative function and may indicate a taxing authority in early 10th century BC Judah. (Courtesy of the Khirbet Qeiyafa Expedition)

The authors suggest the handles in the above photo were precursors to this type of handle stamp from the later Judahite governments:

LMLK stamped jar handle from the Kingdom of Judah, ca. 8th century BC.  (courtesy of Funhistory at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

By the end of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BC, these kinds of jar handles were stamped in the same location with a rosette (or sun with rays?) image. The tradition of stamped governmental jars continued for centuries.

Stamped jar handle from ca. 6th century BC, in the final stages of the Kingdom of Judah. (Photo by Luke Chandler)

 

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