Yehud Seal Impressions

Seal impressions bearing the name Yehud, the name of the province of Judah (Yehudah) in the Babylonian and Persian periods, appear on the bodies and handles of jars. (The name also appears on coins from the Persian period.) The inscriptions are in Aramaic, the language of administration in the Persian Empire. They come from Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem (City of David), and other sites, and indicate that the contents of the jars belonged to the provincial government, perhaps collected as taxes in kind and intended for use in supporting its operations and meeting demands of the imperial government.