The study of the yehud stamp impressions, which appear on the handles or bodies of store jars, has persisted for over a century, beginning with the discovery of the first of these impressions at Gezer in 1904. Nevertheless, until the pioneering work of Stern in 1973, who cataloged, classified, and discussed the stamp impressions known up to 1970, discovery and publication of new stamp impressions were scattered, and analysis was cursory at best. Furthermore, a gap in research has persisted since then.
Now, Oded Lipschits and David Vanderhooft are pleased to present a comprehensive catalog (through the winter of 2008–9) of published and unpublished yehud stamp impressions, with digital photographs and complete archaeological and publication data for each impression. This long-overdue resource provides a secure foundation for general reflection on the whole corpus and illuminates more-narrow fields such as stratigraphy, paleography, administration, historical geography, and Persian-period economic developments within Yehud. The catalog clarifies what is nebulous apart from a complete corpus, matters such as distribution, petrographic analysis of the clay, new readings of the seal legends, use of the toponym yehud, and significance of the title phwa. The scope of this catalog renders it a worthwhile tool for all future study of these invaluable artifacts and the period of history that produced them.
Acknowledgments
Preface
A. Introduction
1. History of Research
a. The Early Phase of Research: First Discoveries and First Hypotheses
b. The Middle Phase of Research: The Main Corpus and the Main Points of Agreement
c. The Late Phase of Research: Expanded Corpus Refined Conclusions, Improved Typology
2. The Need for New Research
3. Persian and Hellenistic Stamp Impressions Not Included in the Corpus
4. The yehud Stamp Impressions: Basic Facts on Numbers and Sites
B. Geopolitical and Archaeological Considerations
1. Geopolitical Considerations
2. Archaeological Considerations
3. Petrography of the yehud Jar Stamp Impressions
C. The Paleographical Framework for the yehud Stamp Impressions
1. Chronological Framework
2. Arrival of Aramaic Script in Yehud
3. Outline of the Development of the Script
4. The Development of the Lapidary Script and the Place of yehud Stamp Impressions in the Sequence
5. Summary
D. The Toponym Yehud and the Title pḥwʾ
1. The Toponym Yehud
2. The Title pḥwʾ
E. The Early Types
1. Introduction to the Early Types
2. Type 1: לאחיב פחוא “Belonging to ʾAḥîab, the Governor”
3. Type 2: יהוד | אוריו “Yehûd ʾÛrīyaw”
4. Type 3: יהוד | מלכיו “Yehûd Malkiyaw”
5. Type 4: יהוד | חננה “Yehûd Ḥananah”
6. Types 2–4: Summary Discussion
7. Type 5: יה | וד “Yehûd”
8. Type 6יהוד Yehûd”
9. Type 7: יהוד יהועזר “Yehûd, Yehôʿezer, the governor”
10. Type 8: ?????? ? ???? “Belonging to ?anûnah, Yehûd”
11. Type 9: יאזנ בר ישב ׀ יהוד “Yaʾazan, son of Yašub, Yehûd”
12. Type 10: ליהעזר “Belonging to Yehoʾezer”
13. Type 11: גדליה “Gedalyah”
14. Type 12: יהוד פחוא “Yehûd Paḥwaʾ”
15. Summary of the Early Types
F. The Middle Types
1. Introduction to the Middle Types
2. Type 13: יהד “Yehud”
3. Type 14: יה “Yeh(ud)”
4. Type 15: יה “overlapping”
G. The Late Types
1. Introduction to the Late Types: Dating the Late Types on Archaeological Grounds
2. Type 16: יה-ligature
3. Type 17: יהד ט “ṭet + Yehud”
4. Summary of the Late Types
H. Summary and Synthesis
Distribution of the Early Types
Distribution of the Middle Types
Distribution of the Late Types
Function
Abbreviations of Periodicals and Series
Bibliography
Indexes
Index of Toponyms
Index of Authors
