This is exciting:
The royal seal of an ancient biblical king has been unearthed near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The seal, a clay impression depicting a two-winged sun with two ankh symbols on either side, was once used to seal papyrus documents associated with King Hezekiah, who ruled the kingdom of Judea from 727 B.C. to 698 B.C. The seal was unearthed in a trash heap near the walls of the ancient Temple Mount....
King Hezekiah is one of the most famous of the Israelite kings. During his reign, he rooted out idol worship, spruced up the decrepit temple and centralized power, as told in biblical accounts.
His reign is also one of the best documented by nonbiblical sources. The chronicles of the Assyrian kings Sargon II and Sennacherib, who laid siege to Jerusalem under Hezekiah’s watch, describe the Israelite ruler paying tribute to them to fend off attacks. The Assyrians laid siege to Jerusalem but did not vanquish the Judean kingdom in Hezekiah’s lifetime, according to the Assyrian chronicles.
The team found the seal while sifting through archaeological remains from a trash heap found outside what was once the Royal Building, essentially the food pantry for the ancient kingdom.
When the researchers took a closer look, they realized the item was a seal with the following inscription: “Belonging to Hezekiah, [son of] Ahaz, king of Judah.”
Read the rest of the article. One aspect of Christianity (and the Judaism it began with) that makes it unique among religions is its connection to history. Christianity is not a collection of wise sayings received by a guru; it’s the story of history—of reality. I love hearing periodic reminders of this from the work of archaeologists.