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Abstract
This book is part of a research which has been conducted during the past
few years at Tel-Aviv University, and which covers the history of Judah as
a vassal kingdom under the rule of Assyria (from the last third of the 8th
century to the last third of the 7th century BCE), Egypt (during the last
third of the 7th century BCE), and Babylon (from 604 to 586 BCE). Judah
continued to exist as a Babylonian province (586–539 BCE) and as a Persian
province (539–333 BCE). Subsequent thereto, until the Hasmonean revolt
(333–167 BCE), it was also a province under Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and
Seleucid rule.
Jars of various sizes and shapes were widely used throughout the ancient
world and throughout the course of history. This type of pottery vessel played
an important role in the transport and storage of liquid agricultural products,
such as wine and oil, products which played a central role in the agriculture,
economy, commerce, and diet of the inhabitants of the Ancient Near East.
Oval storage jars are known from the beginning of archeological
research in Jerusalem and in the Judean Shephelah at the end of the 19th
century. Typological studies on the development process of these jars were
conducted, and much attention was given to the stamps impressed on many
of the jar handles (and in several cases also on the upper part of the jar’s
body) since the end of the 8th century BCE. Until now, most discussions of
the stamp impressions on jar handles in Judah focused on the publication of
the stamped jar handles which were discovered in archeological excavations
or in the antiquities market, on specific types of impressions, on symbols
which characterize some of the types of the stamp impressions, or on stamp
impressions which characterized specific sites or periods. Nevertheless, these
stamp impressions have not yet been discussed in the research literature as a
phenomenon which is part of one system operating in Judah for hundreds of
years.
An overall view of the stamp impressions on jar handles as a phenomenon
which is not limited to a specific period in a specific site, a specific type of
stamp impression, or various technical aspects of the stamp impression
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