A newly discovered seal impression from Umm Tuba

The Israel Antiquities Authority has a press release online in which the discovery of royal seal impressions dating to the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (last quarter of the eighth century BCE) is reported. It is said that four [two is the correct number, so far as I can see] “LMLK” type impressions were discovered in southern Judah at Umm Tuba on handles of large jars used to store wine and oil. They were “found together with the seal impressions of two high ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the kingdom’s government.” (HT: Ferrell Jenkins – Jenkins provides a link to an IAA zip file with excellent high resolution photos). In this post, I briefly discuss one of the personal seal (not LMLK) impressions. My purpose is to illustrate how much we do not know with certainty about ancient Hebrew names.

The seal impression in the excellent photo by Mariana Saltzberger in the press release reads as follows:

אחמלכ עמדיה

To judge from the press release, the excavators take this to be equivalent to:

לאחימלכ

בנ עמדיהו

Belonging to Ahimelekh

ben Amadyahu

As anyone who has worked with seal impressions and ancient Hebrew names knows, all of that is possible, but far from proven. There are a minority of seal impressions with inscriptions that lack an initial ל, “belonging to, for.” It is not clear what to make of the variation. Go here for online data.

Perhaps אחמלכ Ahmelekh = אחימלך Ahimelekh known interdialectally from cuneiform sources, Ugarit, Phoenician sources, ancient Hebrew seals, and the Bible. On the other hand, it might be a name meaning king’s brother, not unlike אחאב or עבדמלך, father’s brother and king’s servant, respectively. Bar Hebraeus as reported by Eusebius explains the Syriac equivalent of אחאב Ahab as meaning “the spitting image of his father” (ob maximum cum patre suo similitudinem). In that case, Ahmelekh might be named for the fact that he looked a lot like – at least ideally – the reigning king.

Then again, and more probably, אחאב Ahab might have meant, in the Iron Age, “Father is (my) brother,” with “Father” a stand-in name for a deity, not unlike מלך “King=Melech (Molech in the Bible is probably a distorted pronunciation of Melekh based on the vowels of Boshet shame)” and בעל “Lord=Baal.” On this understanding, אחמלכ “The King is (my) brother” would be no different than אחאב “Father is (my) brother.” Compare אחיו Ahyaw “YW is (my) brother” (Avigad, NN 16:1; cf. 1 Chr 2:25), אחיה Ahijah (of 8 individuals in the Bible), and אחיהו Ahijahu (often in the seals; more rarely in the Bible as a variant spelling of a certain אחיה).

Robert Deutsch, on a Jim West thread, vocalizes עמדיה Amudiyahu. I don't know why. The whole field of ancient Semitic onomastics is a fascinating one. If there is a good, linguistically adept introduction to the field, I don't know about it. 

UPDATE: part of a vast archive of material collected by G. M. Grena, details and pics of the Umm Tuba LMLK seals here.

Comments

[Duane]

John,

Very nice discussion. I can't find Phoenician examples of ah(i)mlk. Can you give me a reference? I did fine A-hi-e-ma-lik among Huffmon's list of Amorite Personal Names (p. 160). Sorry for the "h"s but you know what I mean in both cases.

[JohnFH]

For the Phoenician, HALOT has:

Ph. > חמלך Ιμυλχ, Ιμιλχων, cf. (א)חמלכת, Himilko (Harris Gr. 75f)

Koehler, Ludwig ; Baumgartner, Walter ; Richardson, M.E.J ; Stamm, Johann Jakob: The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Leiden; New York : E.J. Brill, 1999, c1994-1996, p. 33

The apocopation is like that in the name "Hiram." Phoenician is a sloppy language (lame ethnic joke alert).

[ed cook]

Note also that one of the IAA discoveries is a partial abecedary (evidently from much later).

[Duane]

Thanks, now that I know what to look for, it turns out that it is fairly common in Phoenician, hmlkt more than hmlk. All of them seem to be late, Punic. Interesting.

[Alan Lenzi]

Interesting John. Just a note on a typo: >>On this understanding, אחמלכ “Father is (my) king”<< You mean "Brother is (my) king," right?

[JohnFH]

Alan,

Thanks for pointing that out. You can be my proofreader anytime. [Fixed]