New research sheds light on biblical Queen of Sheba and Temple Incense
A new study by scientists at the Hebrew University of an inscription on a clay jar found at Ophel in Jerusalem more than ten years ago suggests that one of the eleven ingredients of the incense used in the Temple service was brought to Jerusalem by the Queen of Sheba.
The study by Dr. Daniel Vainstub focuses on a seven-letter inscription etched on a large clay jar. It was published Monday in the Hebrew University’s Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology and was presented on Monday at the 48th annual Archaeology Congress held at the new campus of the IAA in Jerusalem. Dr. Vainstub believes the inscription, written in Ancient South Arabian, is a word in the Sabaean language that was spoken during the First Temple period in ancient Sheba which was located in the region now known as Yemen.
The inscription on the jar was made in wet clay that was made in Israel meaning that whoever made the inscription was a native Sabean speaker from the Kingdom of Sheba who was involved in supplying the incense spices.
Dr. Vainstub suggested this indicates strong trade between First Temple Israel and ancient Sheba.
“The inscription testifies not merely to commercial ties but to close relations between the two kingdoms,” Dr. Vainstub wrote. “This concurs with other information given by the historian Josephus Flavius. According to Josephus (A.J. 8.174), the first opobalsamum plants came to Israel from the Kingdom of Sheba during Solomon’s reign as a gift to the king, and from this time onward, they were cultivated locally in two places, geographically and climatically similar to Sheba: En Gedi and Jericho.”
The jug was one of seven discovered by Dr. Eilat Mazar, now deceased, in 2012 at the Ophel site, adjacent to the southern Temple Mount. The site, less than 300 meters from the site of the Temple, is believed to have been a First Temple-era administrative center. At the time, Dr. Mazar dated the find to the time of King Solomon in the 10th century BCE. This has been confirmed in a recent study by Ariel Winderbaum.
Since its discovery, several epigraphers and archaeologists have tried to decipher the inscription but were unable to, only being able to conclude that it was written in Canaanite script.
In an interview with the Times of Israel, Dr. Vainstub suggested a reason for their inability to decipher the inscription.
“Although the scripts have the same distant ancestor, those who deal with Canaanite inscriptions today are not familiar with Ancient South Arabian script. And those who work with Ancient South Arabian are not familiar with Canaanite scripts,” he said.
According to the new study, the inscription on the jar reads, “[ ]shy l’dn 5,” means five ” šǝḥēlet,” referring to one of the four ingredients mentioned in the Bible required for the incense mixture. The final three letters are inconclusive.
Named as Sh’chelet (שְׁחֵלֶת) in the Torah, the identity of the second element of the incense is uncertain. Based on a discussion in the Talmud, some scholars believe the second element of the Temple incense was onycha, or Tziporen (fingernail) in Hebrew. In modern Hebrew, this is the spice cloves. The ingredients of the incense are listed in Exodus:
And Hashem said to Moshe: Take the herbs stacte, onycha, and galbanum—these herbs together with pure frankincense; let there be an equal part of each. Exodus 30:34
The arrival of the Queen of Sheba bearing gifts for King Solomon is described in the Bible:
She arrived in Yerushalayim with a very large retinue, with camels bearing spices, a great quantity of gold, and precious stones. When she came to Shlomo, she asked him all that she had in mind. I Kings 10:2
If his theory is correct, the inscription would be the earliest Ancient South Arabian inscription found to date in the Land of Israel.
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