CHAPTER NINE LOCALLY STAMPED HANDLES AND ASSOCIATED BODY FRAGMENTS OF THE PERSIAN AND HELLENISTIC PERIODS Donald T. Ariel and Yair Shoham A total of 171 stamped pottery handles and body fragments found in Strata 9-5 in the 1978-1985 seasons of the City of David excavations are understood to be local in origin (Table 1). Other handles bearing stamp types that are known to antedate Stratum 9 (the Persian period) are published by Shoham and Cahill (this volume, Chapters V-VII). All but two of the handles published in this chapter (L 123, 167) belong to storage jars. For 109 of them, or 64% of the total, datings have already been proposed for the stamps. However, many stamps have not previously been dated or are unidentified; for example, one "private" seal impression (L 1) has no known parallels, and hence it is not clear if the Persian period level in which it was found provides an Table 1. Tabular summary of contexts of stamped fragments.* STRATUM Anepigraphic private Lion r. Lion r. + dot Lion I. Lion humped (?) Lion on hind legs m:jh yhwd/zmnh Anepigraphic body fragment Incompletely deciphered body fragments yhwd/yh'zr/pziw ' pziw' yhwd yhwd-? yhd yh yh ligature (?) "Wheel" Cross ?et-symbol yhd-? yrslm Gem Unclassified TOTALS 9 3 I 2 2 I I 6 2 9 I 4 37 8 2 5 10 7 3 1 6 6 4 6 13 5 47 6 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 2 19 5 2 2 3 2 7 3 4 6 5 36 Unstratified .- 2 4 5 4 22 * Artifacts of loci spanning a number of strata are tabulated under the latest stratum of the locus. TOTALS 10 2 6 4 4 2 2 1 9 1 JO 22 20 3 10 12 22 25 171 137