A newly discovered personal seal and bulla from the excavations of the givcati parking lot, Jerusalem

This article reports on the finding of a seal and a bulla found in the Givcati Parking Lot excavations at the City of David ridge, Jerusalem. The two objects were found within the destruction debris of a public building that was heavily burnt during the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. The seal is scaraboid and reads: '(belonging) to 'kr son of Matanyahu'. The bulla (seal impression) reads: '(belonging) to Netanmelek Servant of the King'. On the basis of palaeographic considerations and their archaeological context, the two objects can be dated to the late seventh century BCE. Their finding adds to the known corpus of names from Judah dating from that era and contributes to our understanding of the Judahite royal bureaucracy and to the urban layout of Jerusalem.