A TOURING STUDENT from Dubuque's Emmaus Bible College found a LMLK seal among the discarded potsherds at Ramat Rahel:

The group toured the entire country. At Ramat Rachel, south of Jerusalem, they examined an excavation of the important 8th century BC site. Discarded pottery fragments littered the ground, and the students picked through them. [Sarah] Lepisto spied a jar handle, picked it up and saw it bore an inscription. She didn't think much of her find at first.

"The chances were pretty slim that I had found anything significant on a site that had already been excavated and now was open to the public," Lepisto said.

But her find was important. [Faculty member Steve] Sanchez and the tour guide recognized the inscription as coming from the time of Israel's kings. It was one of thousands of LMLK seals, which were stamped on the handles of large storage jars around Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

Well spotted!