First Temple-era ‘genie’ seal discovered in Jerusalem

A First Temple period stone seal featuring ancient Hebrew script and an image of a genie has been discovered in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority has confirmed.

Dr. Yuval Baruch and Navot Rom, directors with the IAA excavation firm said the small, black stone seal is “one of the most beautiful ever discovered in excavations in ancient Jerusalem, and is executed at the highest artistic level.”

The seal was discovered in the Davidson Archaeological Garden, just south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, during ongoing excavations.

Around 2,700 years old, the seal is engraved with the words “LeYehoʼezer ben Hoshʼayahu” — “For Yeho’ezer son of Hosh’ayahu” — in paleo-Hebrew script.

It is likely that the owner was a senior official during the Kingdom of Judah and used the seal to sign documents or certificates, the IAA said.

“This is an extremely rare and unusual discovery. This is the first time that a winged ‘genie’ – a protective magical figure – has been found in Israeli and regional archaeology. Figures of winged demons are known in the Neo-Assyrian art of the 9th-7th Centuries BCE, and they were considered a kind of protective demon,” Dr. Filip Vukosavović, an assyriologist and IAA archaeologist, said of the seal.