242 . DE. E. W. G. MASTERMAN^ ON EECENT DISCOVERIES 



An inscription of a different character found on a jasper seal 

 at Tell MtUasellim is exceedingly interesting ; it may be the 

 earliest Hebrew inscription of known date. In the centre of the 

 seal is a lion, above and below which is an inscription which 

 runs : — 



To Shama' the servant of Jeroboam." It is extremely probable 

 that this Jeroboam was Jeroboam II., son of Joash, king of Israel, 

 so that we have, what so far has been so lamentably rare, a 

 Hebrew inscription contemporary with one of the Hebrew 

 kings. 



There is another source of inscriptions. This is the inscribed 

 jar handles w^hich have been found in increasing numbers in the 

 •excavations in South Palestine. These are in two languages, 

 Hebrew and Greek. The latter, the more plentiful, belonged 

 largely to Rhodian wine jars, and are of the Seleucidan period. 

 Tlieir variety is very great, but of no special interest to the 

 Bible student. The Hebrew inscriptions occur in the strata of 

 the later Hebrew occupation. The names occurring on them 

 have long been a puzzle. One whole series of these handles are 

 adorned with a sign generally accepted to be the flying scarabseus 



and with — Ic malek — " to the king" above and a Hebrew 



name below. In the first two of these, found in the earlier 

 Jerusalem excavations, twenty years ago, the names seemed to 

 read Zcplm and Sliat, and it was supposed that they must be the 

 names of some unknown kings in l^alestine. Later on in the 

 next excavations more names were found, but in this particular 

 series — with the scarabcTus and "to the king" — only the following 

 four names, Ziph, Hebron, Shocoh and Memshat. (It need 

 hardly be explained that the vowels are not expressed in the 

 Hebrew, and are only guess-work.) Two theories were started 

 to account for these names. Professor Sayce suggested that 

 they were tlie names of towns in which were situated the royal 

 potteries (three out of the four luerc identical with the names 

 of known towns). M. Clermont-Ganneau on tlie other hand, 

 thought that these jars were stamped with the names of the 

 towns from whicli were paid taxes of oil, wine, etc., " to the king." 

 Against the first theory it may be urged that the earthenware 

 of the jar handle is all of exactly the same kind, and docs not 

 .show tiiose varieties in composition which it certainly would if 

 the jars were made at different places. Against the latter theory 



