The Riddle of Ramat Raḥel: The Archaeology of a Royal Persian ...

17Fig. 4 – Storage Jars found at Pit 13174, dated to the sixth-fifth century BCE (Photo by P. Shargo)These finds, together with hundreds of stamp impressions on jar handles dated to the Persian andHellenistic occupation periods at the site, are the best indication that Ramat Raḥel was the maincenter of the yhwd system in which the jars circulated. This Persian period system of stamping jarhandles continued the lmlk and rosette systems of stamped handles from the late Iron Age and thelion stamped handles from the Babylonian period.In this regard, the place of the lion stamp impressions on the body or the handles of jarsdeserve special attention. Seventy-seven lion stamped jar handles were excavated at Ramat Raḥel,out of a total of about 110 stamped handles known to us to date (Lipschits 2010). Furthermore, amodified typological classification demonstrates that two out of 10 types were found solely atRamat Raḥel, one additional type was found at Ramat Raḥel and Nebi Samwil only, and that allthe other types are represented mainly at Ramat Raḥel (ibid).The lion stamp impressions can no longer be dated to the very beginning of the Persianperiod. 6 A new study of the iconography of this type hints at the connection of these objects withthe Assyrian-Babylonian world and interpret this “object” as a human head in profile, just as it iswell known from the Babylonian world (Ornan 2010; Sass 2010). Furthermore, petrographicanalysis of the lion stamped handles shows a resemblance of the rosette jar handles to Iron Agepatterns (pottery production in the Shephelah of Judah and in the area of Jerusalem) rather than toPersian-period patterns of the yhwd jars (pottery production solely in the area of Jerusalem) (Grossand Goren 2010: 11-12).6 The reason for dating the lion stamp impressions to the early Persian period is the absence of these stamped handles fromthe “classic” Persian period strata on the one hand, and the historical assumption that they cannot be dated to the pre-Persian period (i.e., to the “Exilic period”) on the other. Besides, Stern (1982: 209-210; 2001: 541; cf. to Ariel andShoham 2000: 141) interpreted the “object” or “indistinct signs”, which is part of a scene depicting a lion standing on hishind legs, with the two front legs stretched out wide, as an Achaemenid “fire altar.”