Facts about the postal system in Biblical Israel revealed.

City of David Dig Reveals Information on Ancient Postal System
by Ezra HaLevi

Artifacts from City of David excavations in Jerusalem reveal an
interesting tidbit of information about the ancient postal system in
Israel.

In an archaeological excavation being carried out at the "Spring
House," near the Gihon Spring in the City of David in the valley east
of Jerusalem's Old City, soil was excavated which contained pottery
shards that date to the Iron Age 2 (eighth century BCE).

Whereas during the ninth century BCE, letters and goods were
dispatched on behalf of their senders without names, by the eighth
century BCE the clerks and merchants had already begun to add their
names to the seals, concluded the Antiquities Authority.

Wet sifting and sorting through the soil revealed three fragments of
clay stamps used to seal letters or goods in ancient times. Two more
stone seals were recently found as well. All of the objects bear
Hebrew names and all date to the eighth century BCE.

Among them is a seal that was discovered intact, bearing the Hebrew
name Rephaihu (ben) Shalem, who lived in the City of David in
Jerusalem during this period. The seals were primarily used by public
officials, according to Professor Ronny Reich of the University of
Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who oversee
the dig.

In contrast with the large cluster of bullae (seals) that was found
two years ago, in which all of its items contain graphic symbols (such
as a boat or different animals fish, lizards and birds) but are of an
earlier date (end of the ninth-beginning of the eighth century BCE),
the new items indicate that during the eighth century BCE the practice
had changed and the clerks who used the seals began to add their own
names to them.

The Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the Nature and Parks
Authority and the Elad Association, discovered the seals during
ongoing intensive excavations being carried out on the eastern side of
the Old City of Jerusalem.
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