The Head of Amenhotep III

Image: The Head of Amenhotep III










A massive, 3,400-year-old, granite head of Amenhotep III, the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, was discovered recently in Luxor, Egypt.

Read the story here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Amenhotep III

Bread and Beer

Image: Hieroglyphs at the burial chamber of Queen Behenu







A recent translation of the hieroglyphs found at the burial chamber of Queen Behenu shows that the queen was offered bread and beer during her funeral.

The following is an excerpt from an article published by Discovery News:

One loaf of bread and one jug of beer: that's what Egypt's Queen Behenu was offered during her funeral, according to a translation of hieroglyphics engraved on white stone found in her 4,000-year-old burial chamber this week.

Known as the "Pyramid Texts," these hieroglyphics represent the oldest body of Egyptian religious writings and were widely in use in royal tombs during the 5th and 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom.

Discovery News asked one of the top scholars of the Pyramid Texts, James P. Allen, a Wilbour Professor of Egyptology and Chair of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies at Brown University, to translate part of the newly discovered hieroglyphs.

****

The Offering ritual accompanied preparation for and presentation of a great meal. For example, in the case of Queen Behenu, we have (middle of the third complete column in the middle of the image):

Recitation: Osiris Behenu, accept Horus’s Eye: gather it to your mouth.
Presentation, 4 times.
1 loaf of bread and 1 jug of beer.

The offering is usually called "Horus's Eye," referring to the mythical struggle in which the eye of the falcon-god Horus was torn out by his opponent Seth, and later restored.

Read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

Read my previous post on Queen Behenu.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

If you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to my posts here.

Tags: Archaeology, Bread, Beer, Queen Behenu, Hieroglyphics

Netaim, The City of Potters

The Hebrew Bible identifies the city of Netaim as a city of potters: “These were the potters who were inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah. They lived there in the king’s service” (1 Chronicles 4:23). The reference that these potters were “in the king’s service” may indicate either that the king had a production of pottery for export (or local sale) or that the pottery were being made for the king’s personal use and not to be sold.

It is also possible that the expression “in the king’s service” may indicate the existence of a guild that specialized in the production of pottery, similar to the statement that a family of scribes lived at Jabez (1 Chronicles 2:55) and that a clan of linen workers lived at Beth-ashbea (1 Chronicles 4:21).

In a recent article published by the University of Haifa, Professor Gershon Galil of the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa has identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as the city of Netaim, the city of potters mentioned in the book of Chronicles.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Has another mystery in the history of Israel been solved? Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa has identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as “Neta’im”, which is mentioned in the book of Chronicles. “The inhabitants of Neta’im were potters who worked in the king’s service and inhabited an important administrative center near the border with the Philistines,” explains Prof. Galil.

Khirbet Qeiyafa is a provincial town in the Elah Valley region. Archaeological excavations carried out at Khirbet Qeiyafa by a team headed by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Mr. Saar Ganor have dated the site to the beginning of the 10th century BCE, namely the time of King David’s rule. A Hebrew inscription on a pottery shard found at the site, also dating back to the 10th century, has recently been deciphered by Prof. Galil and indicates the presence of scribes and a high level of culture in the town.

The genealogy of the Tribe of Judah dated to the same period is recorded in 1 Chronicles. The last verse of this genealogy, 1 Chronicles 4:23, mentions two important cites: Gederah and Neta’im, both of which were administrative centers, since they were inhabited by people who work “in the king’s service”: “These were the potters, the inhabitants of Neta’im and Gederah, they dwelt there in the King’s service.” Gederah has been identified by A. Alt with Khirbet G(udraya, near the Elah Valley, but Neta’im, which is mentioned only once in the Bible, remained unidentified.

You can read the article in its entirety by clicking here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, Netaim, Gershon Galil, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Elah Valley

The Invention of the Alphabet

In an article published in the March/April issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review, Orly Goldwasser contends that the alphabet may have been invented almost 4,000 Years ago by Canaanite workers. According to the article, inscriptions similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics left behind during a mining expedition by Canaanite miners 4,000 years ago may be the beginning of the alphabet.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

The Canaanites at Serabit probably connected this pictogram, which they saw everywhere at the site, with a loud call or order emitted by an official when he raised his hands to assemble the people, a typical shout such as Hoy! (also known in Biblical Hebrew),5 which may be the origin of the letter h in the Proto-Sinaitic script.

If I am correct that the first alphabetic script was invented at Serabit el-Khadem in the reign of Amenemhet III (mid-19th century B.C.E.), I believe I can plausibly explain the process by which it was invented—not by sophisticated scribes, but by comparatively unlettered Asiatic workers.

The inventors at Serabit clearly used models of hieroglyphs taken from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom inscriptions around them. The Proto-Sinaitic pictograms were adapted from the hieroglyphic pictograms and appear mostly in the area of the turquoise mines and the roads leading to the mines.

It may seem strange, but I believe the inventors of the alphabet were illiterate—that is, they could not read Egyptian with its hundreds of hieroglyphic signs. Why do I think so? The letters in the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions are very crude. They are not the same size. They are not written in a single direction: Some are written left to right, others right to left and some from top to bottom. This suggests that the writers had mastered neither Egyptian hieroglyphic nor any other complex, rule-governed script.

The article is very informative and it is illustrated with pictures and drawings that show the development of the alphabet. Highly recommended.

Read the article in its entirety by visiting BAR online.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Alphabet, Canaanite, Orly Goldwasser, Serabit

Queen Behenu

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the burial site of Queen Behenu. Queen Behenu has been called “the mysterious queen” because archeologists do not know whether she was the wife of King Pepi I or II, two pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty.

The following is an excerpt from the news report:

CAIRO – French archaeologists announced Wednesday the discovery outside Cairo of the burial chamber of a mysterious queen from Egypt's Old Kingdom more than 4,000 years ago.

The necropolis of Saqqara outside Cairo has yielded a string of new discoveries as 10 different teams excavate a previously untouched area of these burial grounds were used continuously for more than 2,000 years until Roman times.

French mission head Philippe Collombert said the mummy of Queen Behenu was destroyed, but the chamber contained green hieroglyphics picked out on white stone known as the "Pyramid Texts."

"We are excited because the texts are well conserved," he told The Associated Press, adding that the queen's titles were written on the walls of the 33 by 16 foot (10 meter by 5 meter) burial chamber inside her small pyramid.

Read the news report in its entirety by clicking here. The article also contains a photo of a section of the burial chamber showing some of the hieroglyphics found at the site.



Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Queen Behenu, Egyptian Queen

Hellenistic Coins from the Time of Alexander the Great

Image: Hellenistic Coins



A collection of Hellenistic coins dating back to the time of Alexander the Great were found in northern Syria.

The collection contains two groups of silver Hellenistic coins: 137 tetra drachma (four drachmas) coins and 115 drachma coins.

One side of the tetra drachma coins depicts Alexander the Great, while the other side depicts the Greek god Zeus sitting on a throne with an eagle on his outstretched right arm. 34 of these coins bear the inscription "King Alexander" in Greek, while 81 coins bear the inscription "Alexander" and 22 coins bear "King Phillip."

The drachma coins bear the same images as the tetra drachma, with "Alexander" inscribed on 100 of them and "Philip" on 15 of them.

Read the story in its entirety by clicking here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Coins, Drachma

Solomon’s Wall - Again

Sci-Tech Today has published an article giving details about the wall found in Jerusalem that may be dated to the time of Solomon.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

An excavated wall in Jerusalem may hold proof of the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time, a point of dispute among scholars. The fortifications are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history -- including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar -- others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel."

You may read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

You can also read my original post (with photos) dealing with the discovery by clicking here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Solomon, Solomon’s Wall

Excavating at Tel Burna

How do archaeologists decide where to gig? In an interesting article published in the Biblical Archaeology Review, Joe Uziel and Itzick Shai discuss how they selected the site for their excavation this summer. Joe Uziel and Itzick Shai are codirectors of the Tel Burna excavations in Israel. They are also longtime staff members of the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations, and both hold lab positions at the Institute of Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

In 2009, we made a tentative choice of a site: Tel Burna. We proceeded to survey the entire area. With the help of friends, archaeology students, local kibbutz members with an interest in archaeology, and people from all over Israel who heard about the project and wanted to get a taste of fieldwork, we walked around the site for days upon days, collecting artifacts—mostly pottery, but also some flint tools and stone vessels—and mapping different features on the ground, such as burial caves, agricultural installations and architectural features. This fieldwork confirmed our original hypothesis that the site was intensively settled from the Early Bronze Age through Iron Age IIB, which ended with the Babylonian destruction in 586 B.C.E.

***

We’re not sure what Tel Burna’s name was in ancient times. One of Israel’s leading historical geographers, Anson Rainey, contends that it was Libnah. In the Bible, Libnah was a Canaanite town conquered by Joshua; he allotted it to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 10:29–30, 15:42). Libnah was also chosen as one of the Levitical cities of refuge (Joshua 21:13), which points to its role as a border site. According to 2 Kings 8:22, in the ninth century B.C.E., Libnah was involved in a rebellion against Jehoram, the king of Judah. In the seventh century another Judahite king, Josiah, married Hamutal from Libnah (2 Kings 23:31–32, 24:17–18). This may suggest the importance of the site along the border and the attempt by Josiah to create a bond through marriage between his capital in Jerusalem and its frontier. There are plenty of questions but few answers at this point.

Read the article in its entirety by visiting Biblical Archaeology Review online.

Are you interested in being part of a dig in Israel? You can join Joe Uziel and Itzick Shai and join the excavation at Tel Burna this summer. If you want to excavate at Tel Burna, the season will be from June 13 to July 1.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Libnah, Tel Burna

King Solomon’s Wall?

Image: Eilat Mazar and the ancient wall of Jerusalem




Hebrew University has announced that archaeologist Eilat Mazar has excavated a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem that probably was built in the tenth century B.C.E. According to Mazar, the wall was probably built by King Solomon.

Below are a few excerpts from the press release:

A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon - has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.

***

"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering," Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley. "A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar.

"This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "The Bible tells us that Solomon built - with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders - the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."

***

In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word "to the king," testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, also indicating the royal nature of the structure.

Image: Handles of jars inscribed with 'to the king' (LMLK) that were found at the excavation site.

Photo: Sasson Tiram







If this discovery confirms that the wall was built by Solomon, or, if the wall is dated to the time of Solomon, then this finding will again confirm that Jerusalem was more than just a small city in the tenth century.

Those scholars who take a minimalist approach to interpreting the reigns of David and Solomon continue to affirm that the monarchy of David and Solomon did not exist as the Bible describes it. However, evidence continues to appear that dispute the minimalist view of Jerusalem in the tenth century. Archaeologists have already found a stela mentioning the name of David. Will a discovery of a monument with the name of Solomon be next?


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar,Solomon, Jar Handles, Jerusalem Wall, LMLK Seals

King Tut’s Family Album

Andy at Egyptology News has posted several pictures showing the members of King Tut’s family. Tutankhamun’s family album is based on an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which studies King Tut’s life and death.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

King Tut’s Illness: The Video

Here is a video describing King Tut’s problem with malaria.





HT: Egyptology News

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

King Tut the Warrior

Recently, several articles on King Tut have been published, showing that popular interest in Boy King’s life and reign has not diminished.

In the current issue of Archaeology Magazine (March/April 2010), W. Raymond Johnson, director of the Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago has an article in which he said that sculptures from Luxor prove the King Tut was the scourge of Egypt’s foes.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Little was known about Tutankhamun when his tomb was discovered in 1922. He ruled sometime after the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten--who abandoned the traditional Egyptian pantheon headed by the god Amun in favor of Aten, a solar deity--and presumably died young after an insignificant reign. Since then, the "boy king" tag has colored our understanding of the young king. But new discoveries contradict that early assessment. Recent CT scanning of his mummy shows that Tut was no boy at death, but was a grown man by the standards of the time and may have been 20 years old. And his 9- to 10-year reign toward the end of the 14th century B.C. was one of the greatest periods of restoration in the history of Egypt. Under Tut, the damage caused by Akhenaten's iconoclastic fury against the state god Amun, which tore the country's social, political, and economic fabric asunder, was repaired and Amun's cult restored.

The rich array of objects found in Tutankhamun's tomb speak to the opulence of the Egyptian court and the young king's pampered life. But other items, including numerous throwsticks (sort of non-returning boomerangs), spears, bows and arrows, and chariots--many inscribed with his name and clearly used--attest his athleticism and youthful energy. Today, new evidence of Tutankhamun's reign has emerged that shows he was much more active than was thought, and may have led military campaigns against the Syrians and Nubians before he died.

*****
Two sets of battle-themed carvings from Tut's mortuary temple survive, one depicting a Nubian campaign, and one larger group that shows several episodes of Tutankhamun in a chariot leading the Egyptian forces against a Syrian-style citadel. Other blocks depict the king receiving prisoners, booty, and the severed hands of the enemy dead, as is traditional, though in this case the hands have been strung on spears like shish kabobs, a detail that is unique in Egyptian art. The second set shows a royal flotilla returning up the Nile, with a manacled Syrian prisoner hanging in a cage from the sailyard of the king's barge. Pieces of a concluding scene show the king offering prisoners and booty to the divine family of Amun, his wife Mut, and son Khonsu. Before now, we thought that Sety I of the 19th Dynasty invented this genre of battle narrative, but it is now clear that the tradition goes back at least to Tutankhamun and the late 18th Dynasty, and probably earlier.

Archaeology Magazine has made the full text of Johnson’s article available free online. The article also contains several images of King Tut, one showing him fighting Nubians and Syrians and another showing him as a sphinx, trampling Egypt’s enemies.

Read this interesting article by visiting Archaeology Magazine online.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, King Tut

King Tut and His Medical Problems

Image: King Tut





A recent DNS study performed on the mummy of King Tut, one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt, reveals that King Tut was a sick young man who had problems with malaria and a bone disorder that probably forced him to walk with a cane.

According to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, some of King Tut’s health problem was due to his incestuous origins. Archaeologists have concluded that King Tut’s mother and father were brother and sister. This kind of biological relationship compromise the immune system of children born of incestuous relationships and increase the chances these children will be born with physical malformations.

Read more about King Tut, the results of the DNA study, and some facts about King Tut’s life, family, and reign by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

Professor Donald Wiseman

Professor Donald Wiseman, a great archaeologist and Assyriologist, died on February 2, 2010 at the age of 91. Wiseman was an evangelical Christian who made several attempts at demonstrating the connection between archaeological discoveries and Old Testament stories.

Wiseman was better known for his involvement in the translation of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) and for his excellent commentaries on the Old Testament.

The Telegraph of London has a lengthy obituary describing aspects of his life as an archaeologist and his many contributions to Biblical studies. Below is a brief excerpt from the article:

During his lunch breaks, meanwhile, Wiseman gave talks to Christian Unions on the connections between the Bible and archaeology. He wrote Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology (1958) and also appeared on BBC programmes on the subject. His paper Archaeological Confirmation of the Old Testament (1958) coolly examined the archaeological evidence for the great flood and the tower of Babel, drawing particular attention to the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. "As the story unfolds it is impossible not to be struck by the resemblances with Genesis 6-9," Wiseman noted. "As with the creation story, it may also be argued that this 'myth' also reflects an historic fact."

May his contribution to archaeology and Biblical studies continue to influence students of the Bible for years to come.

R.I.P.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Donald Wiseman

The Shroud of Turin

Heather Pringle, writing for the Archaeology Magazine’s weekly blog, has an article on the Shroud of Turin. The article, “Who Made the Shroud of Turin?,” compares the Shroud of Turin with burial shrouds dating from the first century A.D. The following is an excerpt from the article:

If you are not Catholic, you may not have heard yet that the Vatican has decided to put the very famous Shroud of Turin on public display for six weeks, beginning on April 10th. Exhibitions of the controversial shroud–believed by many devout Catholics to be the winding cloth that covered Jesus after his crucifixion–are relatively rare. Indeed, the Vatican has authorized only five such expositions since 1898. As a result, the faithful are hastening to their computers to obtain online tickets.

I notice that the Vatican will not permit any scientific experimentation or testing of the shroud during the exhibition. Quite possibly, it is a little disenchanted with the latest archaeological findings related to the controversial cloth. In December, Shimon Gibson, an archaeologist and senior research fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jersualem, announced tantalizing results from a new study that he and Boaz Zissu, an archaeologist at Bar Ilan University, just completed on a 1st century B.C. shrouded burial they excavated in a tomb in Jerusalem. Gibson and several colleagues published the first part of the study in a paper in PLoS One on December 16th.

The entire study will clearly shed much new light on the authenticity of the more famous Shroud of Turin. As the team points out in the PLoS One paper, archaeologists rarely find ancient shrouded burials in the Jerusalem region: the city’s high levels of humidity quickly destroy organic materials. So, as Gibson recently explained to a reporter at The Catholic Review, ”this is the first shroud from Jesus’ time found in Jerusalem and the first shroud found in a type of burial cave similar to that which Jesus would have been buried in, and (because of this) it is the first shroud which can be compared to the Turin shroud.”

To read Pringle’s article, visit Beyond Stone and Bone by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini

Professor of Old Testament

Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Burial Shrouds, Shroud of Turin

Stones and Bones or People?

Time Magazine has a very informative article which deals with two controversial issues: politics and archaeological excavation in Jerusalem.

A question asked by the writer of the article provides the tenor for the article. He asked: “What matters more, the stones and bones of antiquity, or the lives of the people who live on top of all that history?”

Read the article in its entirety by visiting Time Magazine online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Excavation, Jerusalem, Politics

The Bible and the Lunar Calendar

Image: Lunar Cuneiform Tablet 4000 years old

Image Courtesy: Ynet News




According to Ynet News, the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem is hosting an international conference titled "Living the Lunar Calendar: Time, Text and Tradition.” The conference will take place on January 30 through February 1, 2010.

Invited speakers include Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University; Prof. Sacha Stern, University College London; Prof. Wayne Horowitz, Hebrew University Jerusalem; Prof. John Steel, Brown University USA; Prof. Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico; and Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa.

The following is an excerpt from the press release published by Ynet News:

The “Living the Lunar Calendar” conference — held under the full moon of the Tu B'Shvat Jewish festival (new Year for trees)— will investigate the place of calendar reckoning in human society and culture.

Focusing on the moon as a marker of the passage of time, the conference will address a wide variety of issues regarding the application of astronomical and calendrical rules to everyday life, and beyond to the shaping of cultural identity.

The conference will begin on Saturday night with introduction lectures to Astronomy, the moon’s movements and its importance in determining the time. The second day of the conference will be devoted to the history of the Jewish calendar: with sessions devoted to Mesopotamia and to the use of the traditional Jewish lunar calendar.

The press release also provides the following information about a 4000 year old cuneiform tablet that contains information about the origins of the Hebrew calendar:

The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem collection includes an extremely important rare cuneiform tablet is prominently displayed in the heart of the Museum's Gallery of the Patriarchs.

This large clay tablet is written in cuneiform on two sides and careful study and decipherment has revealed text that sheds light on the roots of the Hebrew calendar whose origins stem from Ancient Babylon. It describes the religious practices of the Babylonians from the time of Abraham.

The rare tablet takes the visitors to the ancient month Shabatu, 4,000 years ago. It is an example of a text recording the daily routine followed in the temples of the capital city of Larsa, which neighbored Ur in ancient Mesopotamia. In over six hundred and thirty lines, the tablet registers the rites performed in the temples during the month of Shabatu. This month is identical to the Hebrew month of Shvat and they are both the eleventh month of the year.

Read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Hebrew Calendar, Lunar Calendar

The Timeless Teachings of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has written a good article on the timeless teachings of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The following is an excerpt from the article:

They speak of a Teacher of Righteousness and a pierced messiah, of cleansing through water and a battle of light against darkness.

But anyone looking to the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of proof, say, that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah presaged by the prophets, or that John the Baptist lived among the scroll's authors, will be disappointed.

What the scrolls provide instead, scholars say, is a window into a world of religious ferment 2,000 years ago that gave rise to Judaism and Christianity as we know them today.

"It is an entire library from this crucial period that opens up to us the interreligious debate that is the background for everything that happened after," said Lawrence H. Schiffman, chairman of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, who has written extensively on the scrolls.

Read the article in its entirety here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Dead Sea Scrolls

The Birthplace of Emperor Vespasian

A news report has announced that archaeologists have found the birthplace of the Roman emperor Vespasian. The following is an excerpt from the news release:

Rome, January 28 (ANI): Reports indicate that an international team of archaeologists has claimed to have unearthed the 2000-year-old birthplace of the Roman emperor, Vespasian, north of the Italian capital.

Vespasian ruled the Roman empire in the first century A.D. and was behind the construction
of the Colosseum, one of Italy's most popular landmarks.

According to a report by Adnkronos International, archeologists believe they have located his birthplace in the Falacrinae valley near the hill town of Cittareale, 130 km northeast of Rome.

"Ancient Roman historian Suetonius says Vespasian was born in the Falacrinae valley area. Field surveys and information from locals have told us tell us this must be Vespasian's birthplace," one of the project's directors, British archaeologist Helen Patterson told Adnkronos International.

Vespasian was the ninth Roman emperor, who reigned from 69-79 AD.

He was believed to come from humble beginnings and founded the short-lived Flavian dynasty after the civil wars that followed Nero's death in 68 AD.

"During recent excavations, the archaeologists uncovered sumptuous marble floors and mosaics at the site of the 3,000-4,000 square metre Villa of Falacrinae," Patterson said.

The team of 30-60 archaeologists recovered pots, numerous coins, ceramic and metal artefacts from the site which is 820 metres above sea level, overlooking the surrounding Falacrinae valley.

"It was obviously a very,very big structure and very luxurious," she said, adding that the marble
used in the villa's floors had been imported from all over the Mediterranean.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Vespasian

The British Museum, Iran, and the Cyrus Cylinder

An article published in The Guardian describes the controversy between the British Museum and Iran over the status of the Cyrus Cylinder. The following is an excerpt from the article:

The discovery of fragments of ancient cuneiform tablets – hidden in a British Museum storeroom since 1881 – has sparked a diplomatic row between the UK and Iran. In dispute is a proposed loan of the Cyrus cylinder, one of the most important objects in the museum's collection, and regarded by some historians as the world's first human rights charter.

The Iranian government has threatened to "sever all cultural relations" with Britain unless the artefact is sent to Tehran immediately. Museum director Neil MacGregor has been accused by an Iranian vice-president of "wasting time" and "making excuses" not to make the loan of the 2,500-year-old clay object, as was agreed last year.

The museum says that two newly discovered clay fragments hold the key to an important new understanding of the cylinder and need to be studied in London for at least six months.

The pieces of clay, inscribed in the world's oldest written language, look like "nothing more than dog biscuits", says MacGregor. Since being discovered at the end of last year, they have revealed verbatim copies of the proclamation made by Persian king Cyrus the Great, as recorded on the cylinder. The artefact itself was broken when it was excavated from the remains of Babylon in 1879. Curators say the new fragments are the missing pieces of an ancient jigsaw puzzle.

Irving Finkel, curator in the museum's ancient near east department, said he "nearly had a coronary" when he realised what he had in his hands. "We always thought the Cyrus cylinder was unique," he said. "No one had even imagined that copies of the text might have been made, let alone that bits of it have been here all along."

Finkel must now trawl through 130,000 objects, housed in hundreds of floor-to ceiling shelving units. His task is to locate other fragments inscribed with Cyrus's words. The aim is to complete the missing sections of one of history's most important political documents.

Read the story in its entirety by visiting The Guardian online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Cyrus, Cyrus Cylinder, Irving Finkel

Pictures of Khirbet Qeiyafa

Image: Ostracon from Khirbet Qeiyafa

Blackpetero at 80% Blog has a post with several pictures of Khirbet Qeiyafa. Khirbet Qeiyafa has been identified with the Ella Fortress and the biblical site of Sha’arayim.

Sha’arayim (the town appears in the English Bible as Shaaraim) was a town in the Shephelah. After David killed Goliath, the Philistines fled to Gath and Ekron by the way of Sha’arayim: “The troops of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron” (1 Samuel 17:52).

Read my posts on Khirbet Qeiyafa:

The Valley of Elah

The Oldest Hebrew Text

The Most Ancient Hebrew Inscription Deciphered

Claude Mariottini

Professor of Old Testament

Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Elah Fortress, Sha’arayim,

The Location of Solomon’s Temple

In a lecture at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer said that he has found the location of Solomon's Temple.

The following is an excerpt from Ritmeyer’s lecture as published by Baptist Press:

According to Ritmeyer, the original Temple Mount platform measured 500 cubits by 500 cubits. The "royal cubit" used for the temple was 20.67 inches long. Later, King Herod expanded the platform on the Temple Mount, doubling its size. It is the expanded, Herodian platform that tourists in Jerusalem visit today.

***

From information in the Mishnah, he theorized that the temple stood where the Dome of the Rock shrine now stands. If so, the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant would have rested on the rock inside the Dome of the Rock. Though some archaeologists dispute his claims, Ritmeyer presents a compelling case for his view.

The Mishnah stated that the temple was not located in the center of the 500 cubit by 500 cubit platform but was slightly northwest of center. This gave credence to his view. Ritmeyer then looked for confirmation on the surface of the rock.

The archaeologist saw that the large rock had numerous cuts, lines and indentions on its surface. Many other archaeologists had rejected the rock as a source for clues because of the number of cuts on the surface. Not so with Ritmeyer.

"I look at every stone on the Temple Mount as archaeological evidence," Ritmeyer said.

Ritmeyer searched for marks consistent with the information he knew about the Holy of Holies. Again, he relied on the Bible, historical records and a tape measure to test his theory. He speculated that some of the cuts were made to level the site for the temple's foundation.

Ritmeyer knew the dimensions of the Holy of Holies from 1 Kings 6 -- 20 cubits by 20 cubits. He also knew the thickness of the walls. Ritmeyer discovered that cuts on the rock matched the thickness of the walls and the width of the room. He also found cuts made for the back wall of the Holy of Holies.

Another rectangular mark caught Rimeyer's attention. He believed that this depression was the place the Ark of the Covenant stood in Solomon's Temple. Ritmeyer went to Exodus 25 for the ark's dimensions -- two and a half cubits by a cubit and a half. Using photographs and computers to measure the depression, scholars have found that the cut measures two and a half cubits by two cubits -– ample space to receive the ark.

Ritmeyer has presented a compelling argument for finding the original location of Solomon’s temple. Visit Baptist Press online and read all the evidence Ritmeyer has presented in his search for the location of Solomon’s temple.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Leen Ritmeyer, Solomon, Temple

William G. Dever and the Existence of Solomon’s Kingdom

In a recent lecture at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, archaeologist William G. Dever defended the existence of an Israelite state in Palestine during the 10th century B.C., the biblical era of Solomon's reign.

The following in an excerpt from Dever’s lecture:

"Tonight, I want to talk about the age of Solomon, but before I do that, I want to set it up by telling you something about a school of European biblical scholarship," Dever said. "These people call themselves revisionists because they are rewriting the history of ancient Israel, but when they finish, there is no history. They call themselves revisionists. I call them nihilists."

According to Dever, the revisionist scholars deny that an Israelite united monarchy, like the biblical kingdom that flourished under Solomon, ever existed. Dever contested this claim, arguing that the archaeological evidence confirms the existence of a centralized Israelite state in 10th century Palestine.

According to a "wonderful, detailed description" in 1 Kings 9:15-17, the Egyptian pharaoh attacked and destroyed the city of Gezer, Dever said. The pharaoh then gave the city as a dowry to his daughter when she married Solomon. The passage then states that Solomon fortified or refortified four sites: Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer and Jerusalem.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had archaeological evidence from those sites for an early stage? Well, we do," Dever said. "And what do you suppose the revisionists make of this evidence? They just ignore it, because it is inconvenient for their theories."

Dever reported that excavations, especially at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer, have uncovered "monumental architecture" that cannot be explained without reference to a centralized government. The architecture of each of these cities is adapted to topography for strategic military advantage, but all the cities show the same structural patterns, such as six-chambered gates, double or casemate fortification systems, similar palace structures and Phoenician masonry (according to 1 Kings, Solomon utilized Phoenician craftsmen in his building projects).

These architectural structures can be dated to the 10th century B.C., Dever said, with reference to stratigraphy, ceramic typology and ancient Egyptian chronology. This process is aided by the discovery of destruction levels, filled with rubble and showing evidence of fires "so fierce that it melted the limestone and it flowed down like lava." According to Dever, the destruction can be attributed to the military invasions of the Egyptian Pharaoh Sheshonq, that is, the biblical Shishak (1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12).

"At one time, there stood a monumental Egyptian inscription at the site of Megiddo celebrating the destruction by Shishak," Dever said. Shishak was the first pharaoh in the 22nd Egyptian dynasty, and archaeological evidence shows that he raided Palestine in the late 10th century B.C. Amid the rubble of destruction, archaeologists also have discovered the hand-burnished pottery characteristic of the 10th century. According to Dever, this implies that the monumental architecture that Shishak and his army destroyed "must have been built a generation or so earlier -- and that places us precisely in the middle of the reign of Solomon."

"Of course, the revisionists argue that, 'Well, you've never found anything from the 10th century, nothing monumental in Jerusalem.' That's true, because we never were able to excavate [in Jerusalem]," Dever said. Jerusalem was the fourth city that Solomon refortified, and it was the center of his kingdom. Despite the lack of access to the archaeological evidence that lies below modern Jerusalem, Dever argued that biblical descriptions of Solomon's Temple resemble other 10th-century temples in the Middle East.

"All the descriptions in the Hebrew Bible," Dever said, "make good sense in the light of what we know about ancient architecture."

Revisionist scholars also contend that a centralized state could not have existed in 10th century Israel because literacy was not widespread, and the knowledge of reading and writing is necessary for the administration of a kingdom. Archaeological evidence like the Gezer calendar, however, has shown that even in rural areas young boys were learning to read during the 10th century and earlier, Dever said.

To read the article in its entirety as published in the Baptist Press, click here.

To learn more about Southwestern Seminary's involvement in biblical archaeology, visit http://www.swbts.edu/ or http://www.gezerproject.org/.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Solomon, Minimalists, William Dever

Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments of Daniel Chapter 6

The Baptist Press is reporting that fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been acquired by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. According to the press release, the fragments owned by the seminary include portions of Exodus 23, Leviticus 18 and Daniel 6.

Southwestern Seminary also acquired a pen made from a Palm tree, which was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls and presumably used by the scribes who wrote them. It is only one of three pens known to exist from the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries.

You can read the news release here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Dead Sea Scrolls, Daniel 6

The Temple of the Cat-goddess Bastet

Image: Cat-goddess Bastet from Kom el-Dekkah

Credit: Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities




Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is announcing that the remains of a temple of Queen Berenike, who was the wife of King Ptolemy III, have been discovered by archaeologists in the Kom el-Dekkah area of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Egypt.

According to Egyptian archaeologists, the temple dates back more than 2,000 years and it was dedicated to the ancient cat-goddess Bastet. Several Bastet statues were unearthed in three different areas of the temple.

You can read more about the discovery and about the goddess Bastet here and here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Bastet, Cat-goddess, Kom el-Dekkah, Queen Berenike

A Shrine Dedicated to Zeus

Image: The Greek god Zeus

Discovery News is reporting that a shrine dedicated to the Greek god Zeus was discovered at an open-air sanctuary atop Mount Lykaion. The following is an excerpt from the article:

Excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus atop Greece's Mount Lykaion have revealed that ritual activities occurred there for roughly 1,500 years, from the height of classic Greek civilization around 3,400 years ago until just before Roman conquest in 146.

"We may have the first documented mountaintop shrine from the ancient Greek world," says project director David Romano of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Ritual ceremonies were conducted in a part of the open-air sanctuary called the ash altar of Zeus. It now consists of a mound of ash, stone and various inscribed dedications to Zeus, the head god of Greek mythology. Romano's team has found no evidence of a temple or structures of any kind on Mount Lykaion.

Read the article in its entirety by visiting Discovery News online.

Claude Mariottini

Professor of Old Testament

Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Mount Lykaion, Zeus

New Cyrus Cylinder Pieces Found in the British Museum

Image: The Cyrus Cylinder




The Cyrus Cylinder contains the decree Cyrus the Great issued after he conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. restoring the proper worship of Marduk in Babylon and allowing the return of the captive gods to their own countries. Cyrus’ decree also allowed the exiled people in Babylon to return to their native lands. The Cyrus the Great cylinder is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform and is considered by some to be the world’s first charter of human rights.

The Cyrus Cylinder is partially broken, but the British Museum has announced that several new fragments of the Cyrus Cylinder have been found in their archives. The following is an excerpt from a news release announcing the discovery:

Iranian inscription expert Abdolmajid Arfaei says the newly-found pieces of the Cyrus cylinder had been housed in the British Museum.

“The pieces have most probably been housed in the museum and only recently recognized as parts of the Cyrus cylinder.”

The British Museum recently announced that some new parts of the cylinder’s broken pieces have been found, which might be a clue to some other documents sent by Cyrus the Great to other regions.

“If there are any new pieces, then they can provide more information about the contents of the cylinder,” Arfaei said.

I believe the discovery of additional pieces of the Cylinder is very important. If these pieces indeed belong to the Cylinder, they may supply additional information about Cyrus and his decree.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Cyrus the Great, Cyrus Cylinder

An 8,000-year-old Building in Tel Aviv

Photo: Hippopotamus bone discovered at the oldest known building in Tel Aviv.

Courtesy: Israel Antiquities Authority





Haaretz is reporting that archeologists have discovered the remains of an 8,000-year-old building in Tel Aviv. The following is an excerpt from the article:

Remains of a prehistoric building, the earliest ever discovered in the Tel Aviv region and estimated to be between 7,800 and 8,400 years old, were recently discovered in an archaeological excavation in Ramat Aviv.

Ancient artifacts thought to be 13,000 and 100,000 years old were also discovered there.

Archaeologist Ayelet Dayan, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that "this discovery is both important and surprising to researchers of the period. For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region 8,000 years ago."

"The site is located on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, not far from the confluence with Nahal Ayalon. We can assume that this fact influenced the ancient settlers in choosing a place to live. The fertile alluvium soil along the fringes of the streams was considered a preferred location for a settlement in ancient periods," she said.

During the Neolithic period (also known as the New Stone Age) man went from a nomadic existence of hunting and gathering to living in permanent settlements and began to engage in agriculture.

Remains of an ancient building with at least three rooms were discovered at the site. The pottery shards that were found there attest to the age of the site, which dates to the Neolithic period. In addition, flint tools such as sickle blades were discovered, as well as numerous flakes left over from the knapping of these implements, which are indicative of an ancient tool-making industry.

Read the article in its entirety by vising Haaretz online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Ayelet Dayan, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv

The Temple of the God Hadad

Image: The Citadel at Aleppo




Archeologist Paolo Matthiae has published an article in which he said that the discovery of the temple of the god Hadad in the Aleppo Citadel may be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the late 20th century.

The following article by H. Sabbagh was published in the Global Arab Network:

Syria (Aleppo) The discovery of the temple of the god Hadad in Aleppo Citadel is considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the late 20th century, according to an article published by Prof. Paolo Matthiae of Italy.

The god Hadad was mentioned in texts from Mari, Ebla and most other ancient Eastern sites, as old kingdoms uses to make offering to the god of storms in his main temple at the centre of the Amorite kingdom centered in Aleppo.

Head of the excavations department at the Aleppo Department of Archaeology and Museums Yousef Kanjo said the temple was discovered in 1929-1930, and later a Syrian-German expedition began work in the site in 1996, uncovering most of the temple over 12 seasons.

The expedition found out that the temple dates back to the third millennium BC, and is one of the largest temples of that period to be discovered in Syria and the East in general, and there is a strong likelihood that parts of it remain undiscovered.

Kanjo said that the temple sheds light on important periods in the history of the city, particularly its religious significance during the time of the Yamhad Kingdom, with documents from Mari and Ebla indicating that Aleppo was a significant religious center.

He also noted that the temple bears similarities to other temples found in Ein Dara, Tal Halaf and Karkmeish in design and sculptures, but the one in Aleppo is the most intact, which encouraged the Aleppo Department of Archaeology and Museums to establish a museum dedicated to it on the site itself.

Member of the Syrian-German expedition Mohammad al-Miftah the temple was renovated at various points during the middle of the third millennium BC (the Bronze Age), when the Hittite influence began to show in the temple, with sculptures and relief carvings replacing polished stone, in addition to the construction of a large statue of Hadad near the eastern wall.

The temple was vandalized after this and was later rebuilt in the 11th century BC, while the 10th century witnessed modifications and additions to the sculptures, with most of the old stones being used for different purposes. At this point, the temple contained a mixture of Assyrian, Hittite and Aramaic cultures.

The temple fell into disuse afterwards, losing its religious significance by the Hellenistic period when a large hole was dug in it and its stone was used to build other structures. However, the statue of Hadad was left intact and the hole was sealed, preserving many of the sculptures from harm and theft until major digs during the Byzantine caused damage to the eastern side of its main entrance.

These discoveries at the Temple of Hadad are a testament to the deep-rooted and ancient history of Aleppo Citadel, which makes it a living witness to the periods and ages from the third millennium BC.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Aleppo Citadel, Archaeology, Hadad, Paolo Matthiae

Agatha Christie and Archaeology

The British Museum is offering a free seminar on “Agatha Christie and Archaeology.” Below is an introduction to the seminar:

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is still, more than 25 years after her death, one of the world{A146}s most successful authors. Her books are read in more than 100 countries and have been translated into 44 languages. But behind the famous name lies an unexpected story. In 1930 Agatha Christie married the archaeologist Max Mallowan (1904-78) and afterwards accompanied him on all his excavations in the Middle East.

In this seminar, Henrietta McCall, special curator for the "Agatha Christie and Archaeology" exhibition at The British Museum, retraces Agatha Christie's travels to the Middle East, and explores how those travels and life on the archaeological sites she visited provided the inspiration and setting for several of her most popular books, including Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death. Archaeology benefitted as well: Agatha Christie's emotional, financial, and material aid helped Mallowan to become one of the great archaeologists of the twentieth century. His career started at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (southern Iraq), included the sites of Nineveh, Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak, and culminated at the major city of Nimrud, as he recorded in Nimrud and its Remains.

The seminar is divided into four sections and each seminar is illustrated with pictures of Agatha Christie and several artifacts belonging to the British Museum.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Agatha Christie, Archaeology

The Most Ancient Hebrew Inscription Deciphered

Image: The Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription

Credit: Courtesy of the University of Haifa


According to a published report, Professor Gershon Galil of the department of Biblical studies at the University of Haifa has deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign), that is considered to be the most ancient Hebrew inscription found in Israel.

The following information was released by the University of Haifa and presented in English by EurekAlert!:

Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa who deciphered the inscription: "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research."

A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written. Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa has deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign), and has shown that this is a Hebrew inscription. The discovery makes this the earliest known Hebrew writing. The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today in research and that the Kingdom of Israel already existed at that time.

The inscription itself, which was written in ink on a 15 cm X 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery shard, was discovered a year and a half ago at excavations that were carried out by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Elah valley. The inscription was dated back to the 10th century BCE, which was the period of King David's reign, but the question of the language used in this inscription remained unanswered, making it impossible to prove whether it was in fact Hebrew or another local language.

Prof. Galil's deciphering of the ancient writing testifies to its being Hebrew, based on the use of verbs particular to the Hebrew language, and content specific to Hebrew culture and not adopted by any other cultures in the region. "This text is a social statement, relating to slaves, widows and orphans. It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as asah ("did") and avad ("worked"), which were rarely used in other regional languages. Particular words that appear in the text, such as almanah ("widow") are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages. The content itself was also unfamiliar to all the cultures in the region besides the Hebrew society: The present inscription provides social elements similar to those found in the biblical prophecies and very different from prophecies written by other cultures postulating glorification of the gods and taking care of their physical needs," Prof. Galil explains.

He adds that once this deciphering is received, the inscription will become the earliest Hebrew inscription to be found, testifying to Hebrew writing abilities as early as the 10th century BCE. This stands opposed to the dating of the composition of the Bible in current research, which would not have recognized the possibility that the Bible or parts of it could have been written during this ancient period.

Prof. Galil also notes that the inscription was discovered in a provincial town in Judea. He explains that if there were scribes in the periphery, it can be assumed that those inhabiting the central region and Jerusalem were even more proficient writers. "It can now be maintained that it was highly reasonable that during the 10th century BCE, during the reign of King David, there were scribes in Israel who were able to write literary texts and complex historiographies such as the books of Judges and Samuel." He adds that the complexity of the text discovered in Khirbet Qeiyafa, along with the impressive fortifications revealed at the site, refute the claims denying the existence of the Kingdom of Israel at that time.

The contents of the text express social sensitivity to the fragile position of weaker members of society. The inscription testifies to the presence of strangers within the Israeli society as far back as this ancient period, and calls to provide support for these strangers. It appeals to care for the widows and orphans and that the king – who at that time had the responsibility of curbing social inequality - be involved. This inscription is similar in its content to biblical scriptures (Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, Exodus 23:3, and others), but it is clear that it is not copied from any biblical text.

English translation of the deciphered text:

1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

The significance of Galil’s work is that the inscription shows that writing in ancient Israel also occurred outside the court in Jerusalem. The inscription may indicate that some of the biblical material were written as early as the 10th century BCE.

Those who accept a minimalist view of the Bible will say that the inscription proves nothing or that one is reading too much into Galil's translation of the inscription. However, the evidence seems to indicate, at least to me, that in the tenth century there was a king in Israel and writing was occurring outside Jerusalem.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Elah Valley, Gershon Galil, Khirbet Qeiyafa