Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Dave Gordon.
Pottery fragments and other material await examination at the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem
Thousands of tons of debris salvaged from the Temple Mount have yielded ancient seals, pottery and other fragments of Jerusalem’s past—and a research backlog that could take decades to unravel. For the Temple Mount Sifting Project, washing history out of discarded earth has proved only the beginning: Some of its most significant discoveries emerge years later, when researchers recognize what the recovered objects may reveal.
A study of a First Temple-period seal impression that may be connected to an official in the biblical account of King Josiah is expected to appear in the Israel Exploration Journal by the end of 2026, according to Temple Mount Sifting Project co-founder and director Zachi Dvira.
The clay impression, recovered by the project, bears the name “Yeda‘yah (son of) Asayahu.” Researchers have tentatively linked the father’s name to Asaiah, an adviser to King Josiah mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The identification remains a possibility, not an established match.
“We just got the peer review correction that we have to do,” Dvira told JNS. The forthcoming research paper will expand on findings presented at an archaeological conference earlier this year.
The seal impression, found in 2025, is one of approximately 35 First Temple-period seal impressions recovered by the project. Its significance lies partly in the name, partly in its Temple Mount provenance—and partly in what such objects reveal about the administration of ancient Jerusalem.
Seal impressions were a means of securing documents, packages and containers. An official pressed a seal into clay attached to a closure; opening the contents would break or disturb it, leaving evidence of unauthorized access.
“It’s like a signature,” Dvira said.
Researchers also examine the reverse sides of these objects. Fabric impressions can indicate what the clay once secured. Dvira said the project’s comparatively high proportion of sealings with such impressions, considered alongside evidence from other ancient Near Eastern temples and palaces, suggests a connection to treasury administration.
The proposed biblical connection requires greater caution. Dvira argues that Asayahu’s uncommon name, the Temple Mount origin of the soil and the setting of the biblical account strengthen the possibility that the inscription refers to the son of Josiah’s adviser.
“We think [there are] good chances that this is the same person,” he told JNS, clarifying that the seal belonged to the man’s son, not to Asaiah himself.
A matching name and plausible historical setting, however, do not establish identity. The forthcoming publication will allow other scholars to evaluate the researchers’ argument in greater detail.
The project grew out of Waqf construction work in 1999 associated with the entrance to the Al-Marwani Mosque, also known as Solomon’s Stables. Large quantities of earth were removed from the Temple Mount without the archaeological oversight needed to record their layers. Some of the material was dumped in the Kidron Valley.
The excavation exceeded the scope of the permission granted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and proceeded without the required archaeological supervision, in violation of Israel’s Antiquities Law, according to reports.
Dvira, then an archaeology student, organized friends and fellow students to examine the discarded material. He had already been considering whether soil removed during renovations could provide information about a site that had never undergone systematic archaeological excavation.
Together with archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, one of his professors, Dvira obtained a permit and began the sifting project in 2004. Barkay died in January 2026. Dvira said he had assumed much of the project’s leadership as his colleague’s health declined.
The work carries an unavoidable limitation: Recovering an object does not restore the original archaeological layer in which it lay.
