MMST


MMST is a word written in Paleo-Hebrew abjad script. It appears exclusively on LMLK seal inscriptions, seen in archaeological findings from the ancient Kingdom of Judah, whose meaning has been the subject of continual controversy.

ממשת transliterations into Latin alphabet

  • Mamsatt
  • Mamshat & variants
  • * Mamshath
  • * Mamshat
  • * Mamschat ; reads in German like Mamshat in English
  • * Mameshat
  • Mamshet
  • Mamshit & variants
  • * Mamshith
  • * Mamshit
  • Memsath
  • Memshat & variants
  • * Memshat
  • * Memshath
  • '''Mimshat'''

    A place?

excavated the first two specimens in the original 1868–1869 excavations at Jerusalem ; however, those were both only partial impressions showing the final two letters ST. The first complete inscription was published by F. J. Bliss after excavating it from Tell Ej-Judeideh, later determined to be biblical Moresheth-Gath. Beginning then, here is a list of all the ancient sites scholars have associated with it:
These proposals fall into two main streams of thought. One school places MMST in a geographical region based on the identification of three other regions surrounding Hebron, Sokho, and Ziph. The chief problem is that the majority of the seal impressions were not found in any particular region associated with one of the four inscriptions. For example, the majority of HBRN stamps were found at Lachish significantly to the west. An alternative strategy identifies MMST in the vicinity of Jerusalem based upon the datum that the majority of MMST stamps were excavated in and around there. The chief problem is that there were more HBRN stamps than MMST found at Jerusalem and more ZF stamps than MMST found at Ramat Rachel.
In further support of a place name interpretation is the notion that MMST was lost from the Hebrew Masoretic version of the Book of Joshua, but preserved in a form corrupted beyond recognition through Greek transliteration in the Septuagint. The Septuagint version contains eleven additional place names, one of which could correspond to the lost MMST :
"...eleven cities, and their villages..."
  • Theco
  • Ephratha
  • Phagor
  • Aetan
  • Culon
  • Tatam
  • Thobes
  • Carem
  • Galem
  • Thether
  • Manocho

    A person?

In 1905, R.A.S. Macalister suggested that MMST could also mean Mareshah, but instead of identifying it with the town, he proposed that the seal referred to a potter.

A proclamation?

If the LMLK seal inscriptions were votive slogans or mottoes instead of geographical places, MMST may share the same etymological root as MMSLTW, a Hebrew word used in the Bible translated alternately as domain, dominion, force, government, power, realm, responsibility, rule. The parallel passage found in and deserves special attention for its association of the word in the same chronological context as the LMLK seals:
Likewise :
Note that Ginsberg suspected such a literal reading of the inscription in a paper presented in 1945, but changed to the geographic association with Jerusalem in 1948.
Note also the well-known Moabite inscription from Kerak that begins with the fragmented phrase ...MSYT MLK. While we may never know if the first word is a compound of KMS, the Moabite deity mentioned in the Bible as Chemosh, the MMST on the LMLK seals may have been "MMSYT" written scriptio defectiva with a possible relation to the Arabic "mumsa", "place where one spends the night".

A tax?

Recently, Daniel Vainstub pointed out that some of the MMST seals appear to include the Hebrew letter נ between the two letters מ or א over the space between the ש and ת. Vainstub suggested that the more common MMST was a short-form of the Hebrew מ-משאת, which was an ad-hoc tax of agricultural products occasionally used by the kings of Judah. At times, makers of the MMST seals preferred to use longer forms of the word. The appearance of the letter nun signifies the longer מן משאת, which has the same meaning as ממשאת or ממשת.