event · E0316
Uzziah Epitaph Plaque לוח עוזיהו
A stone plaque inscribed in Aramaic: "Hither were brought the bones of Uzziah king of Yehudah — and do not open!" It is not from Uziyahu's own era but from the late Second Temple period, some seven centuries after him: a reburial notice, moved-bones marker, and warning in one, for the king whom Tanakh records as a metzora who had to be buried apart. Noticed by E.L. Sukenik in 1931 in the collection of a Russian convent on the Mount of Olives — its original findspot unrecorded — it is held by the Israel Museum. No freely licensed photograph of the plaque itself could be verified, so this entry carries no image.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- לוח עוזיהו
- Also known as
- Uzziah Tablet
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3700–3830 AM — the plaque itself is late Second Temple work, marking a reburial of the king who died 3167 AM on the atlas's count
- Civil (computed)
- 3700–3830 AM · 61 BCE – 70 CE
- Academic
- 1st century BCE–1st century CE
- Date range
- 1st century BCE–1st century CE (referring to the 8th-century BCE king)
- Duration
- ≈130 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
Why it matters
Uziyahu reigned fifty-two years, and Tanakh remembers the end bitterly: struck with tzaraat, he lived his last years in isolation, and even in death was buried apart — "for he is a metzora," his people said. Seven hundred years later, Jews of the Second Temple era moving old graves outside a growing Jerusalem handled his bones and labeled them, with the anxiety of the generations audible in four Aramaic words: and do not open. The plaque proves nothing about the king's own century; what it attests is stronger in its way — that seven centuries on, Jerusalem still knew whose bones these were, and still treated the metzora king's remains as a thing set apart.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The plaque reads, in Aramaic: "Hither were brought the bones of Uzziah king of Yehudah — and do not open." It is dated paleographically to the late Second Temple period (1st century BCE–1st century CE) and marks a reburial of remains identified as the 8th-century BCE king's. It is held by the Israel Museum (collection no. 353190). | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| Tanakh records that Uziyahu was struck with tzaraat and lived apart until his death (Melachim II 15:5), and that he was buried "with his fathers in the burial field of the kings, for they said: he is a metzora" (Divrei HaYamim II 26:23) — a separate grave in the royal burial grounds. The plaque's reburial notice and its "do not open" warning fit that tradition: bones that carried both royalty and tumah-anxiety, moved and resealed. | biblical archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| Provenance honesty: the plaque was noticed by E.L. Sukenik in 1931 in the antiquities collection of the Russian convent on the Mount of Olives; where it was originally found is unrecorded. The inscription is accepted as a genuine ancient text, but it attests Second Temple-era memory and reburial of Uziyahu — not evidence from the king's own era. | archaeology external reconstruction | ★★★★☆ |
Referenced by: Uziyahu