So there we have it. We can now confirm that archaeologists in Russia, excavating the 2,000 year old tomb of a female Sarmatian fighter found an ancient seal written in Ancient Hebrew inscribed with the name of an individual with the exact same name mentioned 17 times in the Holy Bible! ‘But what’, you asked cynically, is this not good enough for you? Do you want to know more? Do you want to know if there is a way of accurately dating the seal using archaeology and linguistics? Do we have any scientific or archaeological evidence or sources of the name Elyashiv? And what the Hell was an ancient seal that originated in Biblical Judea doing in Southern Russia anyways? Find out more in the near future in Part 2 and 3.As I have already noted, I agree that the seal is probably written in Hebrew. And, yes, a close paleographic analysis could certainly determine the date to within a century and probably also its national origin.
Although I was trained as a Northwest Semitic epigrapher and I still follow the field in a general way, it is not my immediate field of interest and I don't have the time to do the work (script charts and such) myself. Like Mr. Benedix, who emphasizes that he is no expert on this material, I certainly hope someone who specializes in such inscriptions will take some serious interest in this remarkable find soon. There is at least a peer-review article begging to be written on it.
Background here, here, and here.
