Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars first issued in the reign of king hezekiah”. Today it says “first issued during the reign of hezekiah around 700 bce”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars dating from reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC)”. It now reads “Ancient Hebrew seal stamped on Judahite jars Type H2D”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish .1LMLK stamp; Redondo Beach collection #22 None of the original seals have been found, but about 2,000 impressions (also referred to as stamps ) made by at least 21 seal types have been published. Photos of more than 600 stamps on broken handles are viewable on the LMLK Research website .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17174849.
The opening as it stood in 2010
LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish . LMLK stamp; Redondo Beach collection #22 None of the original seals have been found, but about 2,000 impressions (also referred to as stamps ) made by at least 21 seal types have been published. Photos of more than 700 stamps on broken handles are viewable on the LMLK Research website .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 371097989.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
LMLK jar-handle stamps with LMLK postage stamps LMLK seals are ancient Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars dating from reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) discovered mostly in and around Jerusalem .Several complete jars were found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish .While none of the original seals have been found, some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 650705335.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars dating from reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) LMLK jar-handle stamps with LMLK postage stamps LMLK seals (with LMLK meaning 'of the king') are ancient Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars first issued in the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) and discovered mostly in and around Jerusalem . Several complete jars were found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish . While none of the original seals have been found, some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published. The iconography of the two and four winged symbols are representative of royal symbols whose meaning "was tailored in each kingdom to the local religion and ideology"."The lmlk seal impressions reconsidered." Tel Aviv 43.1 (2016): 115.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 924118246.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars (circa 700 BC) Ancient LMLK jar-handle stamps with modern LMLK postage stamps LMLK seals (with LMLK meaning 'of the king') are ancient Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars first issued in the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) and discovered mostly in and around Jerusalem . Several complete jars were found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish . While none of the original seals have been found, some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published. The iconography of the two and four winged symbols are representative of royal symbols whose meaning "was tailored in each kingdom to the local religion and ideology". "The lmlk seal impressions reconsidered." Tel Aviv 43.1 (2016): 115.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1173304813.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Ancient Hebrew seal stamped on Judahite jars LMLK stamps from the Kingdom of Judah atop LMLK-bearing Israeli postage stamps , 2006 The LMLK seal appears on the handles of several large storage jars from the Kingdom of Judah , where it was first issued during the reign of Hezekiah around 700 BCE.Seals bearing these four Hebrew letters have been discovered primarily on unearthed artifacts in and around Jerusalem , with some in northern Israel .Several complete jars were found in situ at the ancient city of Lachish , where they were buried underneath a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib , who reigned over the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 BCE to 681 BCE. While none of the original stamp seals have been found, some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published. The iconography of the two- and four-winged symbols are representative of royal symbols whose meaning " was tailored in each kingdom to the local religion and ideology ". "The lmlk seal impressions reconsidered." Tel Aviv 43.1 (2016): 115.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298177664. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars first issued in the reign of king hezekiah”. Today it says “first issued during the reign of hezekiah around 700 bce”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars dating from reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC)”. It now reads “Ancient Hebrew seal stamped on Judahite jars Type H2D”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since October 7, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
ancient hebrew seals stamped on the handles of large storage jars first issued in the reign of king hezekiah
Now
first issued during the reign of hezekiah around 700 bce
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
