The bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem is cast in stone, officials say in commenting upon the discovery of a 2,700-year-old relic in the city of David National Park.
The black stone seal was found near the southern wall of the Temple Mount's southern wall in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced, according to CBS.
Officials said the discovery shows the historic connection between Israel and the biblical past, according to Fox News.
"This singular find joins the list of countless archeological discoveries in the City of David - the historic site of Biblical Jerusalem - affirming Jerusalem's Biblical heritage," Ze'ev Orenstein, director of International Affairs for the City of David Foundation, said.
"It similarly serves as yet another affirmation of the thousands-of-year-old bond rooting the Jewish people in Jerusalem - not simply as a matter of faith, but as a matter of fact," he said.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu called the find "spectacular and unique," saying it "opens another window for us into the days of the Kingdom of Judah ... and attests to the administration's international connections."
"In doing so, it demonstrates the importance and centrality of Jerusalem already 2700 years ago," Eliyahu said.
"It is impossible not to be moved by such an unmediated and direct encounter with a chapter of our past, a time in which the First Temple stood in all its glory," he said.
The image on the seal is "depicted in profile... with wings; wearing a long, striped shirt, and striding towards the right. The figure has a mane of long curls covering the nape of the neck, and on its head is a hat or a crown. The figure raises one arm forward, with an open palm; perhaps to suggest some object it is holding," the IAA said, according to the Times of Israel.
"The seal, made of black stone, is one of the most beautiful ever discovered in excavations in ancient Jerusalem, and is executed at the highest artistic level," Yuval Baruch and Navot Rom, excavation directors, said in a news release, according to Fox News.
"The figure of a winged man in a distinct Neo-Assyrian style is unique and very rare in the glyphic styles of the late First Temple period," Baruch said, according to Fox News. "The influence of the Assyrian Empire, which had conquered the entire region, is clearly evident here."
The release said the seal shows a biblical connection through the names on the relic.
"The name Yehoʼezer is familiar to us from the Bible (Chron. I 12:7) in its abbreviated form - Yoʼezer, one of King David's fighters," The release said.
Another name on the stone is also found in the Old Testament, it said.
"in the book of Jeremiah (43:2), describing the events of this very period, a person is mentioned with a parallel name, ʼAzariah ben Hoshʼaya. The two parts of his first name are written in reverse order to the seal owner's name, and his second name is the same, appearing in its abbreviated form. This writing form in the text fits the name on the newly discovered seal and it is thus appropriate for this time period," the IAA said.
The experts believe a hole in the object allowed it to be worn around the neck of its owner, who they believed would have been a senior official in the administration of the Kingdom of Judah.
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