The Shema Seal is an ancient Jasper seal that dates back to the 8th century BCE and mentions the King of ancient Israel, Jeroboam.^[1][2][3]

Archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher and his team began excavating at Megiddo and found the seal during a three-year excavation program.^[4] The seal was discovered in 1904, in an excavation dump. The layers in which it was found were dated to the eighth century BCE.^[5][6] Schumacher send the original seal to Istanbul but it never returned.^[7] Its current location is unknown. A bronze cast made before it was sent away.^[8][9]

In the 1980s Yigal Ronen, a nuclear engineer and amateur antiquities collector from the Ben Gurion university, visited the Bedouin market in Be'er Sheva.^[10] He was offered a tiny clay lump stamped with the image of a roaring lion and ancient Hebrew writing. Ronen bought it for 10 Shekels, even though suspecting it to be a forgery.^[11][12]

It turned out to be authentical.^[13] It is not the original Meggido seal, but features the same images and dates from the same period as the original.^[14][15][16]

“Belonging to Shema (שמע)^[17] the servant of Jeroboam.”^[18][19]

Hebrew to English translation:

‘Ishm’ ‘bdyrbm’^[1]

• List of inscriptions in biblical archaeology
• Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
• Kingdom of Judah
• Kings of ancient Israel and Judah
• Beersheba Settlement
• Governor of Jerusalem Seal
• Kosher Bread Stamp