Discoveries in the Judaean Desert: Volume XXIV. Wadi Daliyeh I

The Wadi ed-Daliyeh seal impressions are clay sealings originally affixed to the Samaria Papyri (legal documents in the Aramaic language drawn up in the city of Samaria and securely dated to the mid-fourth century BCE). The images on these sealings belong to the Greek, Achaemenid Persian, and West Semitic artistic traditions. Because the sealings derive largely from the signet rings and stamps of the wealthy Samarian men and women mentioned in the papyri, they provide a rare glimpse of the cultural influences to which one area of Palestine was exposed before the coming of Alexander. This volume presents a catalogue and analysis of the legible sealings and two gold rings in the collection of the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem.