Image Details
Courtesy Frank Moore Cross
Compare the Waw This bulla, a clay seal impression used to secure documents, bears a paleo-Hebrew inscription, “[Belonging to Yasa‘]yahu, son of [San]ballat, governor of Samaria.” Attached to it is the remnant of Papyrus 5—a contract pertaining to the sale of a vineyard—from Wadi Daliyeh, near Jericho. It probably dates to the reign of Artaxerxes III (358–338 B.C.). The form of the waw (w), the third letter from the left in the top line of the bulla (most clearly visible in the drawing), closely parallels the waw in the Bat Creek inscription, McCulloch argues.