Bulla of Hezekiah from Jerusalem (Ophel)

Inscribed seals were used to stamp the names of their owners on clay. Some were stamped on containers to identify the owners of their contents or to indicate some other type of relationship. Others were stamped on clay bullas (tags) attached either to letters (to identify their writers) or to legal documents (to certify the parties or witnesses to the document). Hundreds of seals and seal impressions containing inscriptions in Hebrew and other scripts are known, dating mostly from the eighth through sixth centuries BCE. The seals usually bear the owner’s name, often the name of his or her father and occasionally grandfather, and sometimes the owner’s title or another phrase. Some of the owners are government or religious officials, and a few are individuals known from the Bible. Many seals also contain interesting iconography.