event · E0314
Hezekiah Bulla בולת חזקיהו
A clay seal impression thirteen millimeters across, reading לחזקיהו [בן] אחז מלך יהדה — "Belonging to Chizkiyahu [son of] Achaz king of Yehudah" — around a two-winged sun flanked by ankh symbols. Recovered by wet-sifting in Eilat Mazar's Ophel excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount (excavated 2009–10, identified and announced 2015), it is the first seal impression of a king of Yehudah or Israel ever to come from a scientific excavation: the imprint of the royal administration itself. No licensed photograph of the excavated bulla is available, so this entry carries no image; the bulla is in state custody and, as of mid-2026, has no verified permanent public display in Israel.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- בולת חזקיהו
- Also known as
- King Hezekiah seal impression, Ophel bulla of Chizkiyahu
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3199–3228 AM — pressed by Chizkiyahu's administration during his reign, on the atlas's royal chronology
- Civil (computed)
- 3199–3228 AM · 562–533 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- c. 727–698 BCE
- Date range
- c. 727–698 BCE
- Duration
- ≈29 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
Why it matters
A bulla is what remains when a sealed document rots away: a fingernail-sized lump of clay that once closed a royal letter. This one was pressed by a seal reading "Belonging to Chizkiyahu son of Achaz king of Yehudah" — the king of the Sancheriv crisis, of the tunnel, of Yeshayahu's prophecies — and it came out of a sieve in a controlled excavation a stone's throw from the Temple Mount, which is precisely what separates it from the market-bought lookalikes. For one king of Tanakh we now hold the direct output of his chancellery: paperwork, eighteen centuries before paper.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The bulla was excavated in 2009–10 in Eilat Mazar's Ophel excavations (Hebrew University) at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount, and identified in wet-sifting and announced in 2015. It reads לחזקיהו [בן] אחז מלך יהדה — "Belonging to Chizkiyahu [son of] Achaz king of Yehudah" — around a two-winged sun disk flanked by ankh symbols, and it is the first seal impression of a king of Yehudah or Israel found in a scientific excavation. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The seal names both Chizkiyahu and his father Achaz with the royal title of Yehudah, matching the succession of Melachim II 18:1; the iconography (winged sun, ankhs) belongs to the royal symbol-world of Chizkiyahu's era, akin to the winged emblems of the lmlk jar stamps. | biblical archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| Custody honesty: the bulla is state property in Israel Antiquities Authority custody from a Hebrew University excavation; it is not an Israel Museum object. Its world-premiere public display was at Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma ("Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered," June 2018–August 2019), and no permanent public display in Israel could be verified as of mid-2026. | external | ★★★★☆ | |
| A second bulla found about three meters away reads ישעיהו נבי — possibly "Yeshayahu the prophet," which would be the prophet of Chizkiyahu's court. But the final word is broken (נבי without the aleph that would spell "navi"), and the reading is genuinely contested — Rollston and others note it could be a patronym or toponym. The find is authentic; the "prophet" reading is an open question, not a result. | archaeology reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The AM placement (3199–3228) is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction: the bulla is set across Chizkiyahu's reign on the atlas's royal chronology. The academic reign dates (c. 727–698 BCE) laid arithmetically onto the AM scale would give roughly 3034–3063; the two arithmetics do not merge, and the atlas places the object by its biblical synchronism. | tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |
Referenced by: Chizkiyahu, Achaz, Isaiah Bulla