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Dating The Royal Seal With Geology And Patina The seal was subjected to a series of laboratory tests that showed it was sealed on a linen cloth, when its material was in a relatively dry state, and then baked at a temperature of about 750 degrees Celsius (1382 degrees Fahrenheit). Testing the bulla (medieval Latin for "a round seal"; plural bullae), the team was able to ascertain that it had come from a place where “limestone rocks are exposed in the vicinity of basalt-containing olivine.” Goren said he and the other researchers studied “hundreds of securely identified bullae from lega...

Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel's Jewish World and Archaeology editor. 2,700-year-old clay sealing from a stamp from the Israelite King Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE. (Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University) What is arguably the earliest inscribed clay seal impression from the Land of Israel — used at the court of Israelite King Jeroboam II — has been authenticated after years of strict laboratory testing under the supervision of Ben-Gurion University Prof. Yuval Goren. The inscribed clay, known as a bulla, was purchased without provenance from a Bedouin antiquities merchant i...