Adjacent to the City of David in Jerusalem, a unique and rare archaeological discovery was made: a 2,600-year-old seal with a Hebraic name
The discovery was made in a massive building that was destroyed during the destruction of the First Temple which was revealed during archaeological excavations around the City of David.
A seal dating from the time of the First Temple was found among the discoveries with the inscription: “(belonging to) Nathan Melech, servant of the king”. The name Nathan Melech appears in the Bible in the book of Kings 23:11: He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire
In the very same where the arifact was foundlarge remains of stones dating back to the First Temple, traces of floorother elements that seem to have been incinerated during the destruction of the building.
Professors Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University and Yiftah Shalev of the Antiquities Authority explained that “the discovery of such a massive public building on the west side of the City of David provides a lot of information about the city structure in this period.” Furthermore, the remains of this building “reinforce our understanding of the intensity of the city’s destruction.”