Jar handles stamped in Aramaic script with YHD or YHWD ("Yehud"), sometimes with a name or the title "governor," were used by the Persian and early Hellenistic administration of Judah. Most come from Ramat Rahel and Jerusalem; a 2020 tabulation counts several hundred from Ramat Rahel. Together with 4th-century YHD coins, they show a province called Yehud. They do not name Ezra, Zerubbabel or Nehemiah.
Province of Yehud: documented · Link to specific events or persons in Ezra: none
1 What Scripture says
"Now these are the children of the province (medinah)" (Ezra 2:1). "We went into the province of Judea" (5:8).
2 What evidence we might expect
Administrative marks naming the province; evidence of taxation in kind; governors' names.
3 What ancient sources survive
Yehud stamp impressions and YHD coins
Language
Aramaic (some later in paleo-Hebrew script)
Composed
Late 6th–2nd century BC (stamps); 4th century BC (coins)
Oldest surviving copy
Original jar handles (Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem, Tell en-Nasbeh, etc.) and coins
Status
Not scripture
Some stamps add a personal name or the title pḥw' ("governor"). A bulla from an archive of unknown provenance reads "Elnathan the governor"; 4th-century coins name "Yehezqiyah the governor."
Ramat Rahel, 4 km south of Jerusalem, has produced the largest group and is interpreted as an administrative center collecting produce for the empire. The types change over time (from YHWD with symbols to YHD and later YH), allowing a typological chronology.
5 How interpretations compare
Scholarly reconstruction
Taxation in kind
The stamps marked jars of wine or oil collected as tax.