The lmlk storage jars
A kingdom-wide store of stamped royal jars, concentrated in the year Sennacherib invaded.
Fakapapau'i 'e he keliMe'alate 8th century BC
More than two thousand jar handles stamped lmlk — "belonging to the king" — with a winged sun or scarab and one of four city names. They cluster in the destruction layers of 701 BC and read as a state provisioning programme, of the kind Chronicles describes Hezekiah organising before the Assyrians came.
lmlk — "belonging to the king" — with Hebron, Ziph, Socoh or mmšt beneath.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Across Judah — Lachish, Jerusalem, Ramat Rahel and dozens of sites — Many excavations since the nineteenth century
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- Israel Antiquities Authority and museums worldwide
- Lea
- Hebrew
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e keli hake, pe 'oku kei tu'u 'i he potu na'e langa ai.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
The stamps name no king. The link to Hezekiah's preparations rests on their date and distribution, which is the mainstream reading.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
One of the most studied artefact classes in Levantine archaeology, used to date late-eighth-century strata.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Vaughn, Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chronicler's Account of Hezekiah (1999)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.