Dear Itzhaq,

I just had a chat with Eilat Mazar and can now understand why she suggests the
reading 'tmh'. As words can be read mirrorwise during the Persian period (this
is often also the case with the famous YHD stamps) she reads the seal from right
to left (normally the inscriptions go from left to right as the seal is always
incised mirrorwise in order to get the 'right to left' impression on the bulla).
I told her about my reading and she found that it was interesting, but as she
had little time she could not check it now. Indeed more work must be done and
careful comparison with other seals is an absolute prerequisite. She felt that
reading a 'shin' would be somewhat problematic as the incised letter on the seal
depicts two 'V's written slightly across each other. But I believe that this is
not a problem at all. For this type has good parallels in the late Iron Age and
Persian periods. (parallels can be found in N. Avigad and Benny Sass' Corpus of
West Semitic Stamp Seals e.g. WSS 805, 1071).

Reading a 'het' here also requests that the letter had two vertical strokes on
the left, which is very unusual. The only problem with my reading is that the
'lamed' would have been executed merely as a vertical long stroke without a
horizontal side bar. This may be due to the carelessness of the engraver, but
needs to be observed and parallels for this need to be found.

Hence two readings stand at the moment:

'tmh' (i.e. reading the 'wrong' way round) as per Eilat Mazar,
'sh-l-m-t' (i.e. reading the 'right' way round) as per my suggestion,

Best wishes

Peter van der Veen PhD
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:12:07 +0100
> Von: "Peter van der Veen" <van_der_Veen@...>
> An: ANE-2@yahoogroups.com
> Betreff: Re: [ANE-2] Eilat Mazar finds another seal

> Dear Yitzhaq,
>
> I looked at the picture of the seal very carefully. Indeed the iconography
> with the two flanking worshippers at the altar does suggest a date
> somewhere in the 6th or 5th cent. BC. The name however does not seem to read
> 'temech' at all. I do not understand how such a reading came about. I suggest
> reading 'Schelomit' (sh-l-m-t) and already have had confirmations from
> colleagues with whom I shared the find this morning.
>
> best wishes
> Peter van der Veen PhD
>
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
> > Datum: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:05:43 +0200
> > Von: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir@...>
> > An: biblical-studies@yahoogroups.com, canaanite@yahoogroups.com,
> ane-2@yahoogroups.com
> > Betreff: [ANE-2] Eilat Mazar finds another seal
>
> > According to the Jerusalem Post, pointed out by Joseph Lauer and a
> reader
> > on Jim West's blog, Eilat Mazar found another seal during excavations:
> >
> >
>
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200475897717&pagename=JPost%2FJPArti\
cle%2FShowFull
> >
> > The seal reads "tmx" (TamaH) and Mazar dates it to 538-445 BCE. It
> > includes
> > an image of two priests sacrificing to the moon god Sin. A photo of
> > the seal is
> > included in the above link.
> >
> > Yitzhak Sapir