KING SOLOMON FOUND By Dan Willoughby
My friend Hershel Shanks in 1996 made a phone call to a Antiquities Collector named Shlomo Moussaieff who lived in London. Among his artifacts is a seal from the 10th century.
One side of this cylindrical seal, used to stamp official documents, contains 3 Hebrew characters, shin, lamed and mem (below), spelling "Shlomo", the Hebrew name for Solomon. In the Hebrew Bible, Solomon is spelled with a final letter, heh, though often in Hebrew such vowelless letters are left off. On the other side of the seal, a royal figure bearing a scepter is depicted; his skirt-like garment is reminiscent of the ephod worn by King David (2 Samuel 6:14). Both sides of the seal show a winged design, indicating Phoenician or Egyptian influence.
Whether this is King Solomon (971-931 BC) or an official in the King's court, it would be the only tenth-century B.C. Israelite seal that has turned up.