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

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 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

The Valley of Elah

Photo: The ostracon from the Valley of Elah


The Biblical Archaeological Review has posted a visual tour of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a site located in the Valley of Elah. It was in this place that Yosef Garfinkel, professor at the Hebrew University, discovered a fortified city from the Iron Age IIa (1000–900 B.C.).

Carbon dating and the pottery found at the site date the city to the time of King David, that is, in the early tenth century.

Garfinkel also discovered an ostracon containing five lines of text totaling 50 letters. According to the information provided by BAR, “The inscription also dates to the early tenth century and is written in proto-Canaanite script-the longest inscription of its kind-but the language is Hebrew. According to Garfinkel, the words "don't do," "king," "judge" and "servant" are all legible. Although a full translation has yet to be completed, it is already the earliest Hebrew inscription ever found, predating the rest by 100 years or more.”

Visit BAR online and take a visual tour of the Valley of Elah.

I have already written posts on the ostracon and on the significance of the Hebrew text.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Valley of Elah, Yosef Garfinkel

A Slide Presentation on Khirbet Qeiyafa

Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority have developed a slide presentation on Khirbet Qeiyafa.

I want to thank Chris Heard for calling my attention to the presentation and for pointing out that I had the wrong picture of Khirbet Qeiyafa in my previous post.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Shaaraim, Yosef Garfinkel,

The City Where David Killed Goliath

Photo: Khirbet Qeiyafa

Gwen Ackerman has written an article on Khirbet Qeiyafa, “a walled city over a plain where the Bible claims David killed Goliath.” The article was published on Bloomberg.com. The following is an excerpt from the article:

The remains of a walled city over a plain where the Bible claims David killed Goliath; a pottery shard bearing script that experts claim is the oldest Hebrew text ever found; an ancient water tunnel.

Do these support Scripture's story of King David and his empire? It depends on who you ask. Recent archeological finds have reopened the debate on David and Solomon, whose reigns almost 3,000 years ago as chronicled in the Bible left so little physical proof that scholars like Neil Asher Silberman, a University of Massachusetts historian, question biblical accuracy.

Hebrew University professor Yosef Garfinkel, in an interview, said his findings amid the ruins of a fortified city in Khirbet Qeiyafa, a five-acre site 20 miles west of Jerusalem, support the biblical portrayal of David as a ruler of a kingdom strong enough to field an army. The findings, the most important of which were a second city gate and the shard, dispute claims by some scholars that David was a chieftain of a largely illiterate tribe.

The remnants might be the most important archaeological find about David since 1993 when a piece of basalt rock bearing an Assyrian king's inscription about a Davidic dynasty was found in Tel Dan in northern Israel.

To read the article, visit Bloomberg.com.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Goliath, Khirbet Qeiyafa

New Evidence Surfaces of David’s Kingdom

“New Evidence Surfaces of David’s Kingdom”: This is the title of an article written by Matthew Kalman, a writer for The San Francisco Chronicle and published in the SFGate.

The article describes the discovery of the city of Sha’arayim (Khirbet Qeiyafa), a Hebrew name that means “Two Gates.” The city was discovered by Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University.

The name of the city is mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:52 as the place where many Philistines were killed: “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.”

The finding of this 10th century city is important because “Garfinkel believes the city provides evidence that King David ruled a kingdom from his capital of Jerusalem.”

He also said that Sha’arayim “appears to have been a fortress on the western border with the Philistines” and “indicates a kingdom with a developed political and military organization that was powerful enough to include a major fortified city.”

The discover of Sha’arayim comes a few weeks after Garfinkel and his team of archaeologists discovered the oldest Hebrew inscription ever found in Israel. That inscription was the 3,000-year-old pottery fragment bearing five lines of text in proto-Canaanite script, a precursor of Hebrew. The ostracon found at the site contains the words “king,” “judge,” and “slave” (see my posts on this Hebrew text here and here).

According to the article, “Garfinkel knew from the biblical text that Sha'arayim was near the location of the famous duel between David and Goliath and wondered whether the ruins might be the city. Locating the second gate confirmed his belief that he had found the only site mentioned in the David and Goliath narrative that has yet to be discovered.

Read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

HT: Jim West

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Shaaraim, Yosef Garfinkel,

Earliest Known Hebrew Text In Proto-Canaanite Script

Science Daily has an excellent article about the ostracon containing the earliest known Hebrew text in proto-Canaanite script.

Excepts:

The Elah Fortress archaeological site could prove the existence of the United Monarchy, which scholars often question ever existed. The artifacts found at the site thus far all indicate that there was most likely a strong king and central government in Jerusalem - earlier than any discovered until now - rather than a number of small villages scattered throughout Judea. This would verify descriptions and narratives found in Samuel and Chronicles.

Over 100 jar handles bear distinct impressions which may indicate a link to royal vessels. Such a large quantity of this feature found in one small locale is unprecedented.

According to Prof. Garfinkel, this is the only site in Israel where one can investigate the historical King David. "The chronology and geography of Khirbet Qeiyafa create a unique meeting point between the mythology, history, historiography and archaeology of Kind David."

Read the article here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: David, Elah Fortress, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Ostracon, Yosef Garfinkel