Hiker Finds 2,700-Year-Old Scarab Seal

Found in the Tabor Stream Nature Reserve at the foot of Tel Rekhesh, the scarab depicts a griffin and is made of carnelian. While scarab seals originated in Egypt in the fourth millenium BCE, the particular iconography of the seal is similar to Assyrian seals from the eighth century, shortly before the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It is possible the seal was a family heirloom that traveled with an Assyrian administrator to Israel after the conquest, as it was common for a son to continue using the seal of his father or grandfather.

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