Biblical archeology can be difficult, as many of the events, people, and places referenced in the Bible can be difficult, if not impossible, to prove. Still, though, sometimes archaeologists get lucky, as they did when they found a small seal depicting a man and a lion, dated to the time of the Book of Judges.
Samson was a hero in the Book of Judges. In many ways he was a sort of Superman: He is said to have killed 1,000 Philistines with a single donkey’s jawbone, but he also married Philistine women.
Samson’s story is what is known as a “border saga,” in that his character is capable of transcending borders between people
But evidence that Samson actually existed has proven elusive. The discovery of the seal, which is about 15mm wide, depicts a man next to a lion, possibly fighting it.
Samson is famous for having fought a lion barehanded, a common motif in a number of religions and mythologies, as lions were widely considered to be powerful, dangerous beasts who could only be killed by heroes.
The seal was found in Beth Shemesh, which falls between the Biblical cities of Zorah and Eshtaol, the region where Samson is said to have lived and died. It was also dated around the 12th Century BCE, the time in which he is said to have lived. As such, it doesn’t seem out of place for the seal to refer to Samson himself.
“If we are right and what we see on the seal is a representation of a man meeting a lion, it shows that the Samson legend already existed around the area of Beth Shemesh during that time period,” says Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz of Tel Aviv University, a co-leader of the dig in which the seal was found.
Unfortunately, while we can date the time the seal was made or even figure out where the materials came from, we can’t learn enough from this to know if Samson was real or not, only that he was important at the time.