Early Alphabetic Scripts

Tel Zayit Abecedary [2005] (10th [9th] Century BCE)

Image source: Alchetron. Additional images: The Zeitah Excavations.

Transliteration source: Tappy, McCarter, Lundberg, Zuckerman (2006).²

Notes

Wikipedia: The Zayit Stone is a 38-pound (17 kg) limestone boulder discovered on 15 July 2005 at Tel Zayit (Zeitah) in the Guvrin Valley. ... It is the earliest known example of the complete Phoenician, or Paleo-Hebrew, alphabet. ... There has been some disagreement as to whether the inscription should be associated with the coastal (Phoenician) or highland (Hebrew) cultural sphere. Consequently, there has been debate on whether the letters should be described as Paleo-Hebrew, as Phoenician, or more broadly as South Canaanite.³

Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS]: At Tel Zayit, archaeologists unearthed a limestone boulder embedded in a wall. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet were inscribed on it in their traditional order. The stone was part of a wall dated to the 10th century BCE, leading to the conclusion that this is the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet.⁴

Biblical Archaeology Society (2020): [Christopher] Rollston continues his analyses on some other contenders for the oldest Hebrew inscription. He finds the Tel Zayit Abecedary to be fully Phoenician script, despite the excavation epigrapher claiming that the abecedary indicates the transition between the scripts.⁵

Parker (2013, 2018): The Tel Zayit abecedary was recovered in 2005 during the excavations of Tel Zayit led by R. E. Tappy. It was found in Tel Zayit Local Level III, which the excavators date to the tenth century BCE.⁶

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): An abecedary from Tel Zayit, incised on a large stone mortar in secondary use in a wall of a building was dated to the tenth century BCE.⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... While the script is quite close to that of the unstratified Gezer calendar, the diagnostic mem and nun of Tel Zayit are far more developed, practically identical to their counterparts in the considerably later Phoenician “Baal Lebanon” bowls, and earliest Greek alphabets.⁸

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): This Philistian inscription was discovered in a context that probably dates to late Iron IIA/1. ... According to stratified inscriptions, Proto-Canaanite was still the only script-style in use in early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880], which would exclude such a dating for cursive-inspired Tel Zayit. ... We consider the stratigraphic situation of the Tel Zayit abecedary reasonably established in late Iron IIA/1, absolute dating towards 850.... The level-headed mem lasted for a long time—well into the eighth century (or even seventh). ...When more Tel Zayit letters are considered, such as the nearly legless dalet, “crescent on pole” waw and tall zayin, the time-range may end earlier, say a little after 800, or still within late Iron IIA/2 [ca. 840/830-780/770].⁹

1. Image:

2. Transliteration: Ron E. Tappy, P. Kyle McCarter, Marilyn J. Lundberg, and Bruce Zuckerman, An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 344 (November 2006), https://www.academia.edu/9206107/An_Abecedary_of_the_Mid_Tenth_Century_B_C_E_from_the_Judaean_Shephelah [pp. 5-46] (accessed ...), p. 26.

3. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Zayit Stone, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayit_Stone (accessed ...).

4. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Tel Zayit Inscription, 10th century BCE, http://cojs.org/tel_zayit_inscription-_10th_century_bce/ (accessed ...).

5. Note: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 03 July 2020, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/the-oldest-hebrew-script-and-language/ (accessed ...).

6. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 123, n. 538.

7. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

8. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 166-167.

9. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), pp. 30, 32-33.

Izbet Sartah Abecedary [1976] (12th-11th [10th-9th] Century BCE)

Izbet Sartah Ostrakon; BAS Library. Source: Minkoff (1997).¹

Izbet Sartah Abecedary; Aaron Demsky. Source: Demsky (2015).²

Izbet Sartah Abecedary; Frank M. Cross. Source: Cross (1980).³

Izbet Sartah Abecedary; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).⁴

Izbet Sartah Abecedary. Source: Colless (n.d.).⁵

Transliteration and translation source: Colless (n.d.): Note that this is work in progress and is continually being modified.⁶ Colless (2020): A scribe reflects on how this writing system works.⁷

Notes

Broyles (n.d.): During...the excavation [of ‘Izbet Sartah], two fragments from a large earthenware jar were found at the bottom of a storage pit. The fragments fitted together, and upon close examination, proved to bear writing. ... [The find] bridges a gap in our knowledge of the development of writing. The earliest system of writing, dating around 3500 B.C., was pictographic. ... Eventually it was replaced by alphabetic writing. The ‘Izbet Sartah inscription dates from the time when writing was undergoing this fundamental change. Pictographic elements are present in several of the letters. The aleph is still drawn like an ox’s head, horns to the left. Kaf is drawn like a hand with three (or five?) fingers. ... Aaron Demsky, summing up the significance of the find, says that it is the missing link in the evolution of the alphabet from Proto-Canaanite to the Old Hebrew and Phoenecian scripts. Some of the letters hark back to the older alphabets while others anticipate later forms.⁸

Naveh (1978): The ostracon recently found at ʿIzbet Sartah...is the largest inscribed item among the scant late Proto-Canaanite inscriptions dating from ca. 1300-1050 B.C. ... There are five lines... the letters of [line] 1 [when the ostracon is inverted]...form an abecdary. The letters of [lines] 2-5...do not seem to comprise a text in any Semitic language. For the time being the ostracon can be best be described as the scratchings of some semi-literate person.⁹

Colless (n.d.): An...attempt to find continuous meaning in the first four lines has been made by [A.] Dotan; initially [M.] Kochavi and [A.] Demsky tried this approach, but both eventually decided that it was simply an exercise in writing the letters of the alphabet. ... The message obtained from [my] proposed interpretation for lines 1-3 seems fairly plausible: a student (apparently of mature age) has been learning to write with the alphabet, and muses over the art of writing on ostracon-tablets. If line 4 is a continuation of this, we might suppose that the scribe's name is embedded in the long uninterrupted sequence of signs (bnḥg could be son of Haggi).¹⁰

Millard (2011): Assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.¹¹

Azevedo (1994): ʿIzbet Sartah 12th BC.¹²

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., the ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah ostracon] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.¹³

1. Image: Harvey Minkoff, As Simple as ABC, Bible Review (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 13:2 (April 1997), https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/13/2/11.

2. Drawing: Aaron Demsky, A Proto - Canaanite Abecedary Dating from the Period of the Judges and its Implications for the History of the Alphabet, Tel Aviv Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 4:1-2 (2011), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/033443577788497786?journalCode=ytav20 (accessed ...), p. 14, Fig. 1: Proto-Canaaite abecedary from Izbet Ṣarṭah.

3. Drawing: Frank Moore Cross, Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts [1980], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000033.xml (accessed ...), p. 221, Figure 32.6: A tracing of the ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah sherd.

4. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 240, Fig. 19: ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah ostracon (Sass 1988: Fig. 175).

5. Image: Brian E. Colless, The Izbet Sartah Ostrakon: Musings of a Student Scribe, Collesseum: A Museum-Theatre for Scripts (n.d.), https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/abgadary (accessed ...).

6. Transliteration and translation: Colless (n.d.), Interpretation of the Text.

7. Note: Brian E. Colless, Honey Bees at Ancient Rehob, CRYPTCRACKER, 07 October 2020, http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2020/10/ancient-rehob-and-its-apiary.html (accessed ...).

8. Image: Stephen Broyles, The Alphabet from ‘Izbet Sartah: The State of Writing in the Period of the Judges, The Andreas Center (n.d.), https://www.andreascenter.org/Articles/Alphabet.htm (accessed ...).

9. Note: Joseph Naveh, Some Considerations on the Ostracon from 'Izbet Ṣarṭah, Israel Exploration Journal [IEJ] 28:1/2 (1978), https://www.jstor.org/stable/27925644?seq=1 (accessed ...), p. 31.

10. Note: Colless (n.d.).

11. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

12. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

13. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 159.

Serabit el-Khadim Inscriptions [1905] (19th-16th Century BCE, ca. 1850-1500)

Wikipedia: In the winter of 1905, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie and his wife Hilda Petrie (née Urlin) were conducting a series of archeological excavations in the Sinai Peninsula. During a dig at Serabit el-Khadim, an extremely lucrative turquoise mine used during between the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasty and again between the Eighteenth and mid-Twentieth Dynasty, Sir Petrie discovered a series of inscriptions at the site's massive invocative temple to Hathor, as well as some fragmentary inscriptions in the mines themselves. ... In 1916, Alan Gardiner...published his own interpretation of Petrie's findings. ... [Gardiner] was able to assign sound values and reconstructed names to some of the letters by assuming they represented what would later become the common Semitic abjad. ... His model allowed an often recurring word to be reconstructed as lbʿlt, meaning "to Ba'alat" or more accurately, "to (the) Lady" – that is, the "lady" Hathor. ... Gardiner's hypothesis allowed researchers to connect the letters of the inscriptions to modern Semitic alphabets.¹

Haring (2020): In an article published in 1916, Sir Alan Gardiner gave his interpretation of the inscriptions. ... Just as in later Semitic alphabets, the individual signs stood for single consonants. ... Several more characters could be explained in this way, but the phonetic reading and graphic derivation of others remain highly problematic to this day. Even the total number of different signs in this writing system remains unclear.²

Haring (2020): [B.] Sass lists 22 signs with phonetic identifications, five of them with a question-mark, beside several unidentified and unclear signs. The quasi-absence of g(imel) is especially disturbing. Its single occurrence in Sinai 367 (as supposed by Sass) is not convincing and was identified as y(od) by Hamilton. The latter author distinguishes 31 different signs in the Sinai corpus, not counting g(imel) and ǵ(ain), and assuming that seven consonants (b, d, h, y, n, ṣ, θ) were each expressed by two different signs.³

Goldwasser (2011): About 30 early alphabetic inscriptions have been found in Sinai. Most of them come from the areas of the mines (some were written inside the mines) in Serabit el Khadem, and a few have been found on the roads leading to the mines. ... In Egypt itself, on the other hand, two lines of alphabetic inscription have been found to date [Wadi el-Ḥôl]. ... Another tiny ostracon was found in the Valley of the Queens and should probably be dated to the New Kingdom. ... In the entire region of Canaan and Lebanon, less than a dozen in-scriptions dating from the 17th to the 13th centuries B.C.E. have been discovered. Moreover, they were found at different sites far apart from each other. There is hardly a site that has yielded more than a single inscription. ... A unique situation was created in Sinai where some illiterate (although surely not primitive or less advanced) workers with strong Canaanite identity were put in unusual surroundings for months: extreme isolation, high, remote desert mountains, dangerous and hard work. There was nothing in the area of the mines to divert their attention — except hundreds of hieroglyphic pictures inscribed on the rocks. ... The Egyptian pictorial script was the necessary tool for the invention of the alphabet. The Egyptian signs presented the inventor with the hardware for his invention: the icons, the small pictures that he could easily recognize and identify. Without this basic material, which he utilized in a completely innovative way, the invention would probably not have taken place.⁴

1. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Proto-Sinaitic script, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script#Discovery (accessed ...), Discovery.

2. Note: Ben Haring, Ancient Egypt and the earliest known stages of alphabetic writing, in Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets, ed. Philip J. Boyes and Philippa M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020), https://www.academia.edu/41166286/Understanding_Relations_Between_Scripts_II_Early_Alphabets (accessed ...), p. 54.

3. Note: Ibid., p. 54, n. 6.

4. Note: Orly Goldwasser, The Advantage of Cultural Periphery: The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai (circa 1840 B.C.E), in Culture Contacts and the Making of Cultures: Papers in Homage to Itamar Even-Zohar, ed. Rakefat Sela-Sheffy and Gideon Toury (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University / Unit of Culture Research, 2011), https://www.academia.edu/37555692/2011_The_Advantage_of_Cultural_Periphery_The_Invention_of_the_Alphabet_in_Sinai_circa_1840_B_C_E_In_Culture_Contacts_and_the_Making_of_Cultures_Papers_in_Homage_to_Itamar_Even_Zohar_Eds_R_Sela_Sheffy_and_G_Toury_Tel_Aviv_Tel_Aviv_University_Unit_of_Culture_Research_251_316 [pp. 251–316] (accessed ...), pp. 264-265, 267.

Sinai 345 (17th-16th Century BCE, ca. 1700-1500)

Sinai 345 Figure; Trustees of the British Museum. Source: The British Museum.1	Sinai 345 Inscriptions; Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet. Source: Haring (2020).2

Transliteration source: ???? (????).³

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006).³ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁴)

Notes

Hamilton (2006): Poorly executed but clear Egyptian inscription mry ḥtḥr mfk3t, beloved of Hathor, [lady of] turquoise on its right shoulder.⁵

Goldwasser (2010): Sir Alan Gardiner...noticed a group of four signs that was frequently repeated in these unusual inscriptions. Gardiner correctly identified the repetitive group of signs as a series of four letters in an alphabetic script that represented a word in a Canaanite language: b-‘-l-t, vocalized as Baalat, “the Mistress.” Gardiner suggested that Baalat was the Canaanite appellation for Hathor, the goddess of the turquoise mines. ... An important key to the decipherment [of the Serabit inscriptions] was a unique bilingual inscription [Sinai 345]. It is inscribed on a small sphinx from the temple and features a short inscription in what appears to be parallel texts in Egyptian and in the new script. The Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on the sphinx reads: “The beloved of Hathor, the mistress of turquoise.” The text in the strange script, now identified as a Canaanite text, reads: m-’-h (b) B-‘-l-t, “The beloved of Baalat.” Each of the critical letters in the word Baalat is a picture—a house, an eye, an ox goad and a cross. Gardiner correctly saw that each pictograph has a single acrophonic value: The picture stands not for the depicted word but only for its initial sound. Thus the pictograph bêt, “house,” drawn as the four walls of a dwelling represents only the initial consonant b. ... Each sign in this script stands for one consonant in the language.⁶

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1700-1500 B.C.⁷

1. Images: The Trustees of the British Museum, Museum number EA41748, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA41748 (accessed ...).

2. Drawings: Ben Haring, Ancient Egypt and the earliest known stages of alphabetic writing, in Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets, ed. Philip J. Boyes and Philippa M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020), https://www.academia.edu/41166286/Understanding_Relations_Between_Scripts_II_Early_Alphabets (accessed ...), p. 55, Figure 4.1: Hieroglyphic and Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions on sphinx BM EA 41748 from Serabit el-Khadim. Facsimiles from Gardiner and Peet 1952, pl. lxxxii, no. 345. The chalk filling of the inscriptions is modern.

3. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 334.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 323.

5. Note: Ibid., p. 334.

6. Note: Orly Goldwasser, How the Alphabet was Born from Hieroglyphs, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 36:2 (March/April 2010), https://www.academia.edu/6916402/Goldwasser_O_2010_How_the_Alphabet_was_Born_from_Hieroglyphs_Biblical_Archaeology_Review_36_2_March_April_40_53_Award_Best_of_BAR_award_for_2009_2010_Discussion_with_Anson_Rainey_http_www_bib_arch_org_scholars_study_alphabet_asp_ [pp. 38-51] (accessed ...), pp. 41-42.

7. Note: Ibid.

Sinai 346 (19th-18th Century BCE, ca. 1850-1700)

Sinai 346 Figure; Flinders Petrie. Source: Petrie (1906).1	Sinai 346, Right; Hubert Grimme. Source: Grimme (1923).2	Sinai 346, Right Side; Orly Goldwasser. Source: Goldwasser (2011).5

Sinai 346, Top; Orly Goldwasser. Source: Goldwasser (2011).3	Sinai 346, Front; Orly Goldwasser. Source: Goldwasser (2011).4	Sinai 346, Right Side, Direction of Reading; Orly Goldwasser. Source: Goldwasser (2011).6

Transliteration and translation source: Krahmalkov (2017).⁷ (Krahmalkov (2017): The inscription consists of four lexical segments which, for the sake of reference, are designated by number as follows: on the front, two parallel columns, (1) a right column and (2) a left column, and beneath them, (3) a horizontal line; on the right side, (4) a single column. ... Translators of the inscription disagree about the proper sequencing of these four segments, with the inevitable result that their translations differ substantially from one another.⁸)

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006): 346a: vertical column on the left turning into a left to right-horizontal line; a second vertical column on the right. 346b: vertical column turning into a boustrophedon quadrant of letters.⁹ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.¹⁰)

Notes

Goldwasser (2011): [As one evidence that the inventors of the Canaanite alphabetic script in Sinai were illiterate,] in most [of the Sinaitic] inscriptions with more than one word...the direction of writing can be very confused. ... In [Sinai 346] one can follow the winding road of [the statuette's owner's] inscription on the right side of the statue.¹¹ (Goldwasser (2016): Sinai alphabetic inscription no. 349...is the only Proto-Sinaitic inscription in which the writer made the effort to write between baselines imitating more closely the Egyptian stelae tradition.¹²)

Wilson-Wright (2017): Beginning in in 1905 and continuing until the 2000s, excavators uncovered a series of early alphabetic inscriptions associated with the Egyptian turquoise mining installation at Serabit el-Khadem in the Sinai desert. Scholars quickly identified the language of these inscriptions as Semitic due to the presence of marquee Semitic words like lady (BʿLT), chief (RB), and miner (NQB), but a full decipherment has remained elusive.¹³

Krahmalkov (2017): After having cleared the debris at the entrance to the hall of the grotto-shrine of Ptah in the Temple of Hathor on Mt Serabit el-Khadem in SW Sinai, W.M. Flinders Petrie discovered a small cuboid statue of a man whom the dedicatory inscription (Sinai 346) identifies as the Chief of Miners, Moses (MŠ, Mashe/ Moshe), the son of Mahub-Baalt of Gath, the leader of a copper and turquoise mining community that flourished c. 1300-1250 BCE. Moses the Miner, as he calls himself in Sinai 351, is well attested in the Serabit inscriptions, which are the personal monuments of the members of his family, his father, Mahub-Baalt, his two brothers, Shubna-Sur and Shesha and Shesha’s wife, Arakht, and of course himself.¹⁴

Wilson-Wright (2017): The Sinaitic inscriptions do not contain the name Moses. ... The two letter sequence that Krahmalkov transcribes as MŠ appears in five of the Sinaitic inscriptions: Sinai 349, Sinai 351, Sinai 353, Sinai 360, and Sinai 361. [Wilson-Wright (2017): Krahmalkov also identifies MŠ in Sinai 346, but I could not find these letters in the images available to me.¹⁵] Already in 1928 Romain Butin identified MŠ with the name Moses. ... Subsequent scholars have not followed Butin’s identification. Following Butin’s 1928 article, epigraphers recognized that the Sinaitic script contained at least four more letters than the Phoenician alphabet. These extra letters represented sounds that were lost in Phoenician, but were preserved in other Semitic languages. ... One of these letters was Ṯ, which represented the sound found at the beginning of the English word thin. The letter that Butin and Krahmalkov transcribe as Š, no doubt based on its visual resemblance to the later Phoenician Š, is actually a Ṯ. ... the Sinaitic inscriptions do not contain the name Moses, but it is theoretically possible that they record the exploits of a man named Māṯ.¹⁶

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1850-1700 B.C.¹⁷

1. Image: W. M. Flinders Petrie, Researches in Sinai (London: John Murray, 1906), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044019341643&view=1up&seq=307 (accessed ...), p. 131, Fig. 138: Sandstone fiture, foreign work and inscription.

2. Image: Hubert Grimme, Althebräische Inschriften vom Sinai: Alphabet, Textliches, Sprachliches mit Folgerungen (Hannover: Orient-Buchhandlung Heinz Lafaire, 1923), https://archive.org/stream/althebrischein00grimuoft?ref=ol#page/n115/mode/2up (accessed ...), Tafel 8: Männliche Hockerstatue, Nr. 346 (2). Rechte Seite.

3. Drawing: Orly Goldwasser, The Advantage of Cultural Periphery: The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai (circa 1840 B.C.E), in Culture Contacts and the Making of Cultures: Papers in Homage to Itamar Even-Zohar, ed. Rakefat Sela-Sheffy and Gideon Toury (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University / Unit of Culture Research, 2011), https://www.academia.edu/37555692/2011_The_Advantage_of_Cultural_Periphery_The_Invention_of_the_Alphabet_in_Sinai_circa_1840_B_C_E_In_Culture_Contacts_and_the_Making_of_Cultures_Papers_in_Homage_to_Itamar_Even_Zohar_Eds_R_Sela_Sheffy_and_G_Toury_Tel_Aviv_Tel_Aviv_University_Unit_of_Culture_Research_251_316 [pp. 251–316] (accessed ...), p. 256, The Statue of N-ʿ-m chief miner / Sinai 346 top and front (after Hamilton 2006: Fig. A9).

4. Drawing: Ibid.

5. Drawing: Ibid., p. 312, Fig. 9a: The Statue of N-ʿ-m arrangement of words (after Sinai I, Temple, 346b, right side).

6. Drawing: Ibid., p. 313, Fig. 9b: The Statue of N-ʿ-m direction of reading (after Sinai I, Temple, 346b, right side).

7. Transliteration and translation: Charles R. Krahmalkov, The Chief of Miners, Moses (Sinai 346, c. 1250 BCE), Université catholique de Louvain BABELAO 6 (2017), https://cdn.uclouvain.be/groups/cms-editors-ciol/babelao/2017/03-Ch._R._Krahmalkov%2C_The_Chief_of_Miners%2C_Moses_%28Sinai_346%29.pdf [pp. 63-74] (accessed ...), p. 67.

8. Note: Krahmalkov, pp. 65-66.

9. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 336.

10. Note: Hamilton, p. 323.

11. Note: Goldwasser, p. 272.

12. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear – The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), p. 147.

13. Note: Aren M. Wilson-Wright, Wandering in the Desert?: A Review of Charles R. Krahmalkov’s The Chief of Miners Mashe/Moshe, the Historical Moses, The Bible and Interpretation (University of Arizona), March 2017, https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/sites/bibleinterp.arizona.edu/files/docs/Review%20of%20Krahmalkov%203_0.pdf (accessed ...), p. 2.

14. Note: Krahmalkov, p. 64.

15. Note: Wilson-Wright, p. 2, n. 3.

16. Note: Ibid., pp. 2-4.

17. Note: Hamilton, p. 336.

Sinai 347-355

Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet. Source: Gardiner, Peet (1917).¹

Notes

Gardiner, Peet (1917): The consecutive numbers 1 to 355 are those by which, the editors hope, the inscriptions [of Sinai] will henceforth be known; for purposes of reference Sinai 147 ought to prove an adequate mode of quotation. The principles of classification followed by us must here be explained. The main division is between Egyptian and non-Egyptian inscriptions: the latter (345-355) consist of no more than eleven monuments exhibiting the new script discussed in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. iii, pp. 1-21.²

1. Drawings: Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet, The Inscriptions of Sinai: Part I; Introduction and Plates (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1917), https://archive.org/details/EXCMEM36/page/n106/mode/1up (accessed ...), Plates LXXXII-LXXXIII.

2. Note: Ibid., p. 4.

Sinai 356-

Hamilton (2006): The Proto-Canaanite Inscriptions from the Sinai: Sinai 345-347, (348?), 349-354, (355?), 356-365, (366?), 367, 374-375, 375a, 375c, 376-380, 527¹

1. Note: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,W.Sem%20Alphabet,1.pdf [pp. 1-64] (accessed ...), pp. xiv-xv, Contents.

Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions [1999] (19th-18th Century BCE, ca. 1850-1700)

Wadi el-Hol Inscription No. 1; West Semitic Research Project. Source: Wayback Machine.¹

Wadi el-Hol Inscription No. 1; Marilyn Lundberg. Source: Wikimedia Commons.²

Wadi el-Hol Inscription No. 2; West Semitic Research Project. Source: Wayback Machine.3	Wadi el-Hol Inscription No. 2; Marilyn Lundberg. Source: Wikimedia Commons.4

Transliteration source, Hamilton (2006): Lines below the bêt [in text 1] appear to be a curved palm type of yôd.... This could be a subscript correction of rb, great one, chief to rby, my great one, my chief. But one would need to examine the original to be sure these were intentional and not just random marks (as taken in the editio princeps).⁵ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁶)

Notes

Haring (2015): Two inscriptions in a writing very similar to the Sinai texts were discovered in 1999 in the Wadi el-Hol, in the desert to the northwest of Luxor. The two short sequences (together showing fourteen different signs) have so far not yielded any satisfactory translation, but the characters are so similar to those of the Sinai inscriptions that they must be related.⁶

Wikipedia: The inscriptions are graphically very similar to the Serabit inscriptions, but show a greater hieroglyphic influence, such as a glyph for a man....

Goldwasser (2011): The main paleographic difference between the two early examples of the alphabet — the inscriptions in Sinai and the inscriptions in Wadi el-Ḥôl in Egypt, lies in the execution of two letters — bêt and mem.⁷

Goldwasser (2016): Iconic Proto-Canaanite Inscriptions in Egypt—Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze II...Wadi el-Hôl Inscriptions....⁸

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1850-1700 B.C.⁹

1. Image: Internet Archive Wayback Machine, http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/wadi_el_hol/inscr1.jpg, https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184024/http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/wadi_el_hol/inscr1.jpg (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Wikimedia Commons, Wadi el-Hol inscriptions I drawing, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wadi_el-Hol_inscriptions_I_drawing.jpg (accessed ...), Drawing by Marilyn Lundberg, West Semitic Research.

3. Image: Internet Archive Wayback Machine, http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/wadi_el_hol/inscr2.jpg, https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211918/http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/wadi_el_hol/inscr2.jpg (accessed ...).

4. Drawing: Wikimedia Commons, Wadi el-Hol inscriptions II drawing, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wadi_el-Hol_inscriptions_II_drawing.jpg (accessed ...), Drawing by Marilyn Lundberg, West Semitic Research.

5. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), pp. 323, 325, 328.

6. Ben Haring, The Sinai Alphabet: Current State of Research, in Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Conference on the Sinai Desert (Cairo: Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/12439545/The_Sinai_Alphabet_Current_State_of_Research_in_R_E_de_Jong_T_C_van_Gool_and_C_Moors_eds_Proceedings_of_the_Multidisciplinary_Conference_on_the_Sinai_Desert_Cairo_2015_18_32 (accessed ...), p. 24.

7. Note: Orly Goldwasser, The Advantage of Cultural Periphery: The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai (circa 1840 B.C.E), in Culture Contacts and the Making of Cultures: Papers in Homage to Itamar Even-Zohar, ed. Rakefat Sela-Sheffy and Gideon Toury (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University / Unit of Culture Research, 2011), https://www.academia.edu/37555692/2011_The_Advantage_of_Cultural_Periphery_The_Invention_of_the_Alphabet_in_Sinai_circa_1840_B_C_E_In_Culture_Contacts_and_the_Making_of_Cultures_Papers_in_Homage_to_Itamar_Even_Zohar_Eds_R_Sela_Sheffy_and_G_Toury_Tel_Aviv_Tel_Aviv_University_Unit_of_Culture_Research_251_316 [pp. 251–316] (accessed ...), p. 294

8. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linea – The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), p. 136.

9. Note: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), pp. 325, 328.

Lahun Heddle Jack [1890] (19th-14th Century BCE)

Lahun Heddle Jack; Trustees of the British Museum. Source: The British Museum.¹

Lahun Heddle Jack Inscription; Carla Gallorini. Source: Gallorini (2009).2	Egyptian Heddle Jacks; University College London. Source: Digital Egypt for Universities3.

Transliteration source: Haring (2020): The inscription has been read as ʾḥyṭb (Eisler 1919, 125 and 172), ʾḥyṣb (Dijkstra 1990, also allowing for a dating as late as the fourteenth century) or ʾdʿṣb (Hamilton 2006, 331: eighteenth–seventeenth century).⁴

Hamilton (2006): When in use, with its point down, the text incised around this heddle jack reads from right to left. This was likely intended as the primary direction of reading to judge from the archaic stances of ʾālep and ṣādê when viewed from that direction. ... The incision of the owner’s name was likely intended to differentiate this heddle jack from others.⁵

Colless (2020): The second sign appears to be Het (H̱ or H.).... However, there is a small projection at the top left corner, indicating a doorpost, and defining the character as a door, Dalt, hence D (so Hamilton).⁶

Transliteration source: Colless (2020): The Heddle Jack inscription is regularly exhibited irregularly [upside down] to achieve a proto-alphabetic text. ... The marks above the first letter...Hamilton (2007: 29) suggests that a probable interpretation of this deeply incised horizontal line is as a separation mark signaling the end of the owner's name; but he is at a loss to explain the three shorter, shallower nicks. Let us suppose that the longer incision at the top serves to indicate the start of the text. The two parallel lines are known to be the letter Dh (D) in the proto-alphabet, and is often found as saying This (is) at the beginning of Sinai inscriptions at the turquoise mines. ... Finally, we can no longer see the ox-head, and I doubt that we can ever find an `Alep or Alpha with a right angle. ... Speaking for myself, I would like it to say: This is a heddle jack.⁷

Hamilton (2006): The only surprise from a paleographic perspective is the presence of a linear A-form of ʾālep in an inscription that would be dated to ca. 1850-1700 B.C.... Yet compare a similar but atypical form of the hieroglyphic antecedent of that letter, F1, on a rock inscription from Nubia dating to the early Middle Kingdom which provides an analogy for the parallel development of this linear form in early alphabetic scripts. See also the A-forms of ʾālep, with a different stance, that occur on the front of the Shechem Plaque.... There is thus nothing in the paleography of the Lahun Heddle Jack that precludes its assignment to late in the Middle Kingdom.⁸

Notes

Burlingame (2019): The Lahun heddle jack, which, though known for some time, was more recently rediscovered in the British Museum.⁹

Haring (2020): The wooden heddle jack found during [W.M.F.] Petrie’s excavations at El-Lahun (Kahun) is inscribed with linear signs believed by many scholars to be alphabetic.¹⁰

Goldwasser (2006): [Benjamin] Sass is of the opinion that the signs do not resemble Proto-Canaanite letters of any date, let alone the earliest examples.¹¹

Sparks (2004): Textile production is one of the crafts in Egypt that used a high proportion of Asiatic personnel, often acquired as prisoners of war. A wooden heddle jack from Lahun bore a proto-Canaanite inscription, suggesting just such an owner.¹²

Colless (2020): Its fir-tree wood is not native to the Nile Valley region, so it must have been brought from elsewhere.¹³

Dijkstra (1991): On the basis of the archeological evidence either a 16th century date, or a 14th century date are acceptable. This means that the Kahun inscription is datable within the range of established alphabetic origins, i.e., between the scarce inscriptions of the outgoing Middle Bronze period like the Nāgīlā sherd, Lachish dagger, Shechem plaque and probably the Gezer sherd and the better attested Proto-Canaanite inscriptions of the Late Bronze Age script of the 13th century B.C.¹⁴

Digital Egypt for Universities: A number of such jacks were preserved at Lahun, dating to the late Middle Kingdom, about 1850-1750 BC.¹⁵

Hamilton (2006): Found at Lahun/el-Lahun, in the town area sometimes referred to as Kahun. ... ca. 1850-1700 B.C.¹⁶

1. Image: The Trustees of the British Museum, Museum number EA70881, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA70881 (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Carla Gallorini, Incised Marks on Pottery and Other Objects From Kahun, in Pictograms or Pseudo-Script? Non-Textual Identity Marks in Practical Use in Ancient Egypt and Elsewhere, ed. B.J.J. Haring and O.E. Kaper (2009), https://www.academia.edu/435313/Incised_Marks_on_Pottery_and_Other_Objects_From_Kahun [pp. 107-142] (accessed ...), p. 119, Fig. 4: Wooden heddle-jack EA 70881 (scale 1:4).

3. Image: Digital Egypt for Universities, Textile production and clothing: Technology and tools in ancient Egypt, (University College London) 2003, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/textil/tools.html, LOOMS and weaving.

4. Transliteration: Ben Haring, Ancient Egypt and the earliest known stages of alphabetic writing, in Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets, ed. Philip J. Boyes and Philippa M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020), https://www.academia.edu/41166286/Understanding_Relations_Between_Scripts_II_Early_Alphabets (accessed ...), p. 60.

5. Note: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 331.

6. Note: Brian E. Colless, Lahun Syllabic Heddle Jack, CRYPTCRACKER, 12 August 2020, http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2020/08/lahun-syllabic-heddle-jack.html (accessed ...).

7. Note: Ibid.

8. Note: Hamilton, p. 297.

9. Note: Andrew Burlingame, Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Recent Developments and Future Directions, Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXVI N. 1-2 (January-April 2019), https://www.academia.edu/40309512/Writing_and_Literacy_in_the_World_of_Ancient_Israel_Recent_Developments_and_Future_Directions (accessed ...), p. 49, n. 8.

10. Note: Ben Haring, p. 59.

11. Note: Orly Goldwasser, Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs: Horus is Hathor? — The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai, Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant 16 (2006), https://www.academia.edu/6465779/Goldwasser_O_2006_Canaanites_Reading_Hieroglyphs_Part_I_Horus_is_Hathor_Part_II_The_Invention_of_the_Alphabet_in_Sinai_Ägypten_und_Levante_16_121_160 [pp. 121-160] (accessed ...), p. 132, n. 64.

12. Note: Rachael Sparks, Canaan in Egypt: Archaeological Evidence for a Social Phenomenon, in Invention and Innovation: The Social Context of Technological Change 2: Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East, 1650-1150 B.C., ed. Janine Bourriau and Jacke Phillips (Oxbow Books, 2004), https://www.academia.edu/401045/Canaan_In_Egypt_Archaeological_Evidence_for_a_Social_Phenomenon [pp. 27-56] (accessed ...), p. 43.

13. Note: Colless.

14. Note: Meindert Dijkstra, The So-called ʾĂḥīṭūb-Inscription from Kahun (Egypt), Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins [ZDPV] 106 (1991), https://www.academia.edu/34809620/M_Dijkstra_The_So_called_Ahitub_Inscription_from_Kahun_Egypt_ZDPV_106_1991_51_56 [pp. 51-56] (accessed ...), p. 53.

15. Note: Digital Egypt for Universities.

16. Note: Hamilton, p. 331.

Valley of the Queens Ostracon [????] (13th-12th Century BCE)

Valley of the Queens Ostracon; Benjamin Sass. Source: Goldwasser (2016).1	Valley of the Queens Ostracon; Joseph Leibovich. Source: Goldwasser (2011).2

Transliteration and translation source, Colless (2010): My reading for the two lines (right to left): ' M H T (maidservants), ' Sh T (women).³

Notes

Colless (2010): Benjamin Sass...disallows this as proto-alphabetic, contra [J.] Leibovitch, [W. F.] Albright, [A.] van den Branden, and myself.⁴

Morenz (2018): I would suggest reading the bottom line [of the ostracon from the Valley of the Queens] as [Egyptian] hieratic script corresponding to the top line containing alphabetic letters. ... For any attempts of interpretation, we should consider the layout and the framing lines indicating a certain demarcation between the two distinctly different types of writing on the ostracon.⁵

Goldwasser (2016): Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze II ... Valley of the Queens Alphabetic (?) Ostracon (New Kingdom) ... The upper part of this little ostracon shows four signs that may be identified as iconic Proto-Canaanite. ... The lower part of this ostracon seems to present signs written, again, in a “non-Egyptian” style but not fitting any known letters of the Canaanite alphabet.⁶ [Morenz (2018): In contrast (to Orly Goldwasser) I’d rather understand the three signs to be distinctly hieratic.⁷]

Morenz (2018): We notice...correspondences between the signs in the two lines on this ostracon. ... The scribe chose rather similar hieratic forms as equivalents to the alphabet letters. ... The original alphabet letters and the earliest examples known from Serabit el Khadim were clearly based on other hieroglyphic prototypes, including, in many cases an acrophonic derivation within the Semitic language. Thus, we can expect a reinterpretation of the primary alphabet letters within the horizon of a scribe trained in Egyptian New Kingdom hieratic script. ... We might assume the scribe to have been more familiar with Hieratic than alphabetic writing, and this assumption fits nicely with the observation that the scribe of this ostracon appears to have chosen hieratic signs with formal similarities to the alphabet letters. ... This ostracon...provides...evidence for the question of how Egyptian scribes in the New Kingdom approached foreign writing systems to understand and probably learn them. ... The interest of the Egyptian scribes in alphabetic writing might have been fostered more by intellectual curiosity and probably a more individual approach to a certain foreign writing system. ... The ostracon...is another important document for the usage of alphabetic writing during the New Kingdom/Late Bronze Age...from 13/12 century BCE.⁸

1. Image: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), p. 140, Figure 14: Valley of the Queens alphabetic(?) ostracon. (After Sass 1988: Fig. 286.)

2. Drawing: Orly Goldwasser, The Advantage of Cultural Periphery: The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai (circa 1840 B.C.E), in Culture Contacts and the Making of Cultures: Papers in Homage to Itamar Even-Zohar, ed. Rakefat Sela-Sheffy and Gideon Toury (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University/ Unit of Culture Research, 2011), https://www.academia.edu/37555692/2011_The_Advantage_of_Cultural_Periphery_The_Invention_of_the_Alphabet_in_Sinai_circa_1840_B_C_E_In_Culture_Contacts_and_the_Making_of_Cultures_Papers_in_Homage_to_Itamar_Even_Zohar_Eds_R_Sela_Sheffy_and_G_Toury_Tel_Aviv_Tel_Aviv_University_Unit_of_Culture_Research_251_316 [pp. 251–316] (accessed ...), p. 309, Fig. 3b: Valley of the Queens ostracon (after Leibovich 1940).

3. Transliteration and translation: Brian E. Colless, Timna Inscriptions, CRYPTCRACKER, 08 April 2010, http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2010/04/timna-inscriptions-copper-mines-at.html (accessed ...).

4. Note: Ibid.

5. Note: Ludwig D. Morenz, Early Alphabetic Writing and Its Correspondence to New Kingdom Hieratic Considering a BI–graphic Sequence of Signs on an Ostracon from the New Kingdom, Abgadiyat: Journal of Arabic Calligraphy (Brill) 13:1 (Sep 2018), https://journals.ekb.eg/article_54831_ba016a8087499f2dbbd24c8c4b6c167d.pdf [pp. 14–18] (accessed ...), p. 15.

6. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), pp. 136, 139.

7. Note: Morenz, p. 17, n. 5.

8. Note: Ibid., pp. 15-16.

Gezer Sherd [1929] (18th-15th Century BCE, ca. 1800-1450)

Gezer Sherd; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.¹

Transliteration and translation source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.²

Transliteration and translation source: Colless (n.d.).³

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006).⁴ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁵)

Notes

Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible: The pottery discovered in 1929 in Tel Gezer by a group from the American Schools of Oriental Research, the size of the sherd is 7 x 5 cm, of a closed vessel. The shard was a fragment of a cylindrical cult stand, with an inscription incised before burning the clay. The shard was found in the fortress tower of the Canaanite city of the Middle Bronze Age, which has been dated to approximately 1600 BCE. On the shard were three letters which give the combination ‘KLB’ in Hebrew (כלב).⁶

Colless (n.d.): There are three characters of the proto-alphabet inscribed on [the Gezer sherd]. The one at the top is a hand showing its palm (kap) and thus K. The bottom letter is a square, representing the ground-plan of a house (bayt) and hence B. The middle sign might be W (waw, a hook), or L (a crook or a coil of rope); but the head is rather small for either of these choices (W or L); it is better to see it as a snake (nahhash) and so N. While the inscription is commonly read as KLB, offering Caleb as the name of the donor or maker of the cultic object, the reading BNK would produce thy son, as a reference to the person donating the stand to the temple.⁷

Azevedo (1994): Gezer sherd 1800-1600 BCE.⁸

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1500 B.C. (± 100 years)⁹

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... The Gezer sherd with an archaic-looking inscription incised before firing is a surface find, too small for typological dating beyond post Intermediate Bronze — pre Iron II on account of its fabric. We place it here tentatively.¹⁰

Goldwasser (2016): Iconic Proto-Canaanite ... Not found in a stratified context.... The [Gezer] sherd contains three letters. By their form, they could be assigned to the iconic phase. ... Most scholars regarded the small inscription to be a personal name.¹¹

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Elie Posner, Klb, part of a Proto-Canaanite inscription, perhaps from a cult vessel, in Pharoah in Canaan: The Untold Story; The Invention of the Alphabet (2016), https://museum.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/2016/pharaoh-in-canaan/page/?id=invention-of-the-alphabet (accessed ...).

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid.

3. Transliteration and translation: Brian E. Colless, Gezer Sherd, Collesseum: A Museum-Theatre for Scripts (n.d.), https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/gezer (accessed ...).

4. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 397.

5. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

6. Note: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, The Tel Gezer shard, 19 August 2017, http://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-gezer-shard.html (accessed ...).

7. Note: Colless.

8. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 103.

9. Note: Hamilton, p. 397.

10. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 153, 156.

11. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), pp. 140, 143.

Lachish Dagger [????] (18th-16th Century BCE)

Lachish Dagger; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Lachish Dagger. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.2 (Additional drawing: Edward Lipiński [2016], p. 128.)

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006).³ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁴)

Transliteration source: Lipiński (2016): Four Proto-Canaanite signs have been engraved on the dagger blade and should very likely be read ṭrnz, despite the reading lrnz proposed since by A.G. Lundin. ... W.F. Albright has suggested that ṭrnz was the name of the dagger’s owner, buried with his weapon. ... The meaning of the name is uncertain, but the sign ṭ is now paralleled in the Proto-Canaanite jar inscription discovered at Lachish in 2014 [Lachish Jar Sherd], where the last sign of line 3’ certainly represents the same letter.⁵

Notes

Compare the tet 𐤈 on the Lachish dagger with the 12th century Lachish jar sherd inscription.

Azevedo (1994): Lachish dagger 17th-16th century BCE.⁶

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1725 B.C. (± 25 years)⁷

Goldwasser (2016): Iconic Proto-Canaanite ... Middle Bronze Age ... The [Lachish] bronze dagger was found in a tomb that could safely be dated to the 17th century BCE. ... It is highly probable that this four-sign inscription is an example of an early Proto-Canaanite script. The four-letter inscription may be a name, and a personal weapon would be an ideal context for such a text. ⁸

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, []rn[], Proto-Canaanite Inscription on a dagger, in Pharoah in Canaan: The Untold Story; The Invention of the Alphabet (2016), https://museum.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/2016/pharaoh-in-canaan/page/?id=invention-of-the-alphabet (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, Qubur al-Walaydah inscription, 10 February 2019, http://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2019/02/qubur-al-walaydah-inscription.html (accessed ...), The Lachish Dagger 15 century BCE.

3. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 391.

4. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

5. Transliteration: Edward Lipiński, Hurrians and Their Gods in Canaan, Rocznik Orientalistczny, LXIX:1 (2016), http://journals.pan.pl/Content/82350/mainfile.pdf?handler=pdf [pp. 125-141] (accessed ...), pp. 128-129.

6. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 103.

7. Note: Hamilton, p. 391.

8. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), pp. 140-142.

Shechem Plaque [????] (17th-15th Century BCE, ca. 1650-1550 or 1450-1400)

Schechem Plaque; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Schechem Plaque; Benjamin Sass. Source: Harris, Hone (n.d.).2

Transliteration and translation source: Lipiński (2016).³

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006).⁴ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁵)

Notes

Lipiński (2016): As noticed already by the editor and more recently by S.J. Wimmer, the inscription should be read upwards.⁶

Azevedo (1994): Shechem plaque L[ate] B[ronze] Age.⁷

Hamilton (2006): either ca. 1650-1550 or 1450-1400 B.C.⁸

Goldwasser (2016): Iconic Proto-Canaanite ... Although found in an excavation, the find has no clear stratigraphic context. The inscription is possibly a later addition to a Middle Bronze relief. It might have been incised in two stages: 1. First stage–comprised of a row of 5 highly iconic reproduced letters.... 2. A much later, rather aggressive addition, of what seems to be two deeply incised cursive Alep letters.... The lower Alep is clearly intrusive.⁹

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Elie Posner, Unclear Proto-Canaanite inscription; the letter resh appears twice, in Pharoah in Canaan: The Untold Story; The Invention of the Alphabet (2016), https://museum.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/2016/pharaoh-in-canaan/page/?id=invention-of-the-alphabet (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: James R. Harris and Dann W. Hone, Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions, The Origins and Emergence of West Semitic Alphabetic Scripts, https://net.lib.byu.edu/imaging/negev/Origins.html (accessed ...), The second letter from the right is an intrusive abstract resh placed in the inscription at some later period, therefore we will simply ignore it. [From Benjamin Sass, (1988) pp. 56-57, translation by Harris and hone.]

3. Transliteration and translation: Edward Lipiński, Hurrians and Their Gods in Canaan, Rocznik Orientalistczny, LXIX:1 (2016), http://journals.pan.pl/Content/82350/mainfile.pdf?handler=pdf [pp. 125-141] (accessed ...), p. 131.

4. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 395.

5. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

6. Note: Lipiński.

7. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 103.

8. Note: Hamilton, p. 395.

9. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), pp. 140, 143-145.

Grossman Cylinder Seal aka St Louis Cylinder Seal aka Goetze Seal [1952] (15th-14th Century BCE, ca. 1500-1300)

Grossman Seal and Impression; Albrecht Goetze. Source: Goetze (1953).1 Grossman Seal Impression; Gordon Hamilton. Source: Dobbs-Allsopp (2012).2	Cylinder Seals; Gryffindor. Source: Wikimedia Commons.3

Transliteration source: Cross (1984).⁴

Transliteration source, Hamilton (2006): Boustrophedon, following Cross [1967: 10*, n. 14; 2003: 312]⁵ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁶)

Notes

Goetze (1953): [The Grossman / St. Louis seal cylinder] is the property of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Grossman of St. Louis who acquired it in London in 1952.⁷

Cross (1984): I have had doubts in the past about the authenticity of the St. Louis seal (now in the Harvard Semitic Museum), and the reading lbs ʿrqy. However, I have again changed my mind in view of new comparative data.⁸

Hamilton (2014): The Grossman seal is a genuine artifact with a genuine legend composed of Early Alphabetic B letters. Five of its letters have developed into linear forms: the short form of l; the b with a rounded head; the slightly damaged but clearly angular ṯ/š (note that the two halves of this letter do not connect, making any identification of it as a pictograph of a bow impossible); an r with a blockhead, pointing upwards; and a reduced form of q. The letter ʿayin has retained its pictographic form on this seal (although the size has diminished from earlier writings); the highest letter in the right-hand column, yod, may also be a recognizable depiction of a human hand.⁹

Hamilton (2014): Early Alphabetic B, ca. 1400-950 B.C.E. The shapes of many of the early alphabetic letters morphed early in the Late Bronze Age from a semi-pictographic sort of handwriting into a more complex cursive or linear script in which a few pictographic features can be recognized. Complex details found in some of the letters of Early Alphabetic A [represented by the Wadi el-Ḥol inscriptions and Lahun heddle jack], such as depictions of eyes in the profiles of bulls heads, where dropped in Early Alphabetic B [represented by the Tell el-ʿAjjul spouted cup, Tell el-Ḥesi bowl rim, and Grossman Seal]. During this second stage, letters also tended to develop simpler, sometimes more-geometric shapes.... ... And whereas most of the inscriptions from Early Alphabetic A that have survived were incised on stone, many of the inscriptions belonging to Early Alphabetic B were written on ceramic, often in paint or ink....¹⁰

Azevedo (1994): Saint Louis seal 1400 BC.¹¹

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1400 B.C. (± 100 years)¹²

1. Image: Albrecht Goetze, A Seal Cylinder with an Early Alphabetic Inscription, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 129 (February 1953), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/3219043?journalCode=basor (accessed ...), p. 8, Fig. 1: Early alphabetic seal, property of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Grossman, 7549 Parkdale Ave., St. Louis 5, Mo.

2. Drawing: Chip Dobbs-Allsopp, Space, Line, and the Written Biblical Poem in Texts from the Judean Desert, in Puzzling Out the Past: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Bruce Zuckerman, ed. Marilyn J. Lundberg, Steven Fine, and Wayne T. Pitard (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012), https://www.academia.edu/3770105/Space_Line_and_the_Written_Biblical_Poem_in_Texts_from_the_Judean_Desert (accessed ...), p. 42, Fig. 18: Grossman seal (Drawing by Gordon Hamilton).

3. Image: Gryffindor, Papiermuseum Basel 2008 (4), Wikimedia Commons, 19 March 2008, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Papiermuseum_Basel_2008_(4).jpg (accessed ...).

4. Transliteration: Frank Moore Cross, An Old Canaanite Inscription Recently Found at Lachish [1984], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000047.xml [pp. 293-294] (accessed ...), p. 294, n. 7.

5. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 398.

6. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

7. Note: Goetze.

8. Note: Cross.

9. Note: Gordon J. Hamilton, Reconceptualizing the Periods of Early Alphabetic Scripts, in An Eye for Form: Epigraphic Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, ed. Jo Ann Hackete and Walter E. Aufrecht (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=HNcNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 (accessed ...), p. 38.

10. Note: Ibid., https://books.google.com/books?id=HNcNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38, pp. 34-35.

11. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

12. Note: Hamilton (2006), p. 398.

Tell el-ʿAjjul Spouted Cup [????] (15th-14th Century BCE, ca. 1500-1300)

Tell el-ʿAjjul Spouted Cup (Missing Spout); UCL Institute of Archaeology Collection. Source: Sparks (2013).¹ (Drawing of inscription: Gordon J. Hamilton (2014), p. 35, Fig. 5.)

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2014).²

Notes

Hamilton (2014): The inscription painted below the rim of a spouted cup from Tell el-ʿAjjul Tomb 1109 is the most important of the three texts [Tell el-ʿAjjul spouted cup, Tell el-Ḥesi bowl rim, and Grossman Seal] that show a transitional semi-pictographic-linear script becuase it is the longest and was written on a vessel type with parallels from stratigraphic contexts that can be dated securely. ... Eight of its 11 letters can be identified securely, based on their close or very close resemblances to letter forms on other early alphabetic inscriptions (...letter no. 2, n; 3, l; 4, y; 5, r; 6, ṣ; 8, k; 9, n; 11, y). Two other letters are more damaged, but their consonantal identities can be established with some degree of confidence (letter no. 1, ḏ/w; 7, ʾ). Only one letter is too badly effaced to allow someone to read it (letter no. 10). ... The text of the Tell el-ʿAjjul spouted cup was written in a largely nonpictographic alphabetic script. Six of the eight clearly identifiable letters have linear forms. Since this type of vessel ceased to be made ca. 1300 B.C.E. this decorated cup provides solid evidence that early in the Late Bronze Age the early alphabet was already morphing into a kind of handwriting consisting of lines rather than a script that includes recognizable drawings of features of architecture, the human body in whole or part, weapons, animals, fiber elements, or plants. ... I recommend a date of ca. 1400 B.C.E. (± 100 years) for this decorated and inscribed vessel....³

Azevedo (1994): Tel el Ajjul handle 12th-11th BC ?.⁴

1. Image: Rachael Tyrza Sparks, Re-writing the Script: Decoding the textual experience in the Bronze Age Levant (c.2000–1150 BC), in Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium, ed. K. E. Piquette and R. D. Whitehouse (London: Ubiquity Press, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/1863102/Re_writing_the_Script_Decoding_the_Textual_Experience_in_the_Bronze_Age_Levant [pp. 75-104] (accessed ...), p. 79, Figure 4: Ceramic spouted cup (spout now missing) from Tell el-ʿAjjul Tomb 1109, with painted Proto-Canaanite ownership inscription reading: ‘this (belongs) to Yrṣʾ, (the) Can[aan]ite’ (Hamilton 2010: 107). UCL Institute of Archaeology Collections EXIII.115/1.

2. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, Reconceptualizing the Periods of Early Alphabetic Scripts, in An Eye for Form: Epigraphic Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, ed. Jo Ann Hackete and Walter E. Aufrecht (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=HNcNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 (accessed ...), p. 36.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

Tel Nagila Sherd [????] (18th-16th Century BCE, ca. 1750-1550)

Tel Nagila Sherd; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).¹

Transliteration source: Hamilton (2006).² (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.³)

Notes

Compare with the 13th century Lachish bowl fragment inscription.

Azevedo (1994): Tell el Nagila sherd 1600 BCE.⁴

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1750-1550 B.C., probably from the latter half of that period.⁶

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... The Nagila sherd with an inscription incised before firing may have originated in a late LB layer rather than late MB or early LB as believed previously. This is suggested by the archaeological situation (D. Ilan) as well as by the similarity of the Nagila letter shapes to those of the Late Bronze III Lachish bowl fragment.⁵

1. Drawings: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 238, Fig. 7: Nagila sherd (from Sass 1988: fig. 143).

2. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 392.

3. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

4. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 103.

5. Note: Hamilton, p. 392.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 153, 156.

Tell el-Hesi Sherd [????] (14th Century BCE, ca. 1400-1300)

Tell el-Hesi Detail. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.1	Tell el-Hesi Sherd. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.2

Transliteration source, Hamilton (2006): Although the identification of the highest configuration on this column remains uncertain, it can be delimited to a separation mark followed by a developed form of bêt or, less likely, a lāmed. ... The touching of each may be accidental. ... One of the alternate readings entertained by Sass (1988: 96) and Colless (1991: 45), l, is also possible given the similar form of this letter and the certain lāmed below it (but note their small contrasts as well)³ (Hamilton (2006): ẋ supralinear dot indicates a damaged but certain reading; x̊ supralinear circle indicates a very damaged or uncertain reading; <> angular brackets indicate a correction or a secondary hand.⁴)

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Tell el Hesi 1400 BC.⁵

Hamilton (2006): ca. 1350 B.C. (± 50 years)⁶

1. Image: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, Tel el-Hesi Shard, 22 August 2017, https://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2017/08/tel-el-hesi-shard.html (accessed ...), Tel el Hesi inscription.

2. Drawing: Ibid., Facsimile of Tel el-Hesi shard.

3. Transliteration: Gordon J. Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 40 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2006), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,9.pdf [pp. 388-438] (accessed ...), p. 399.

4. Note: Ibid., http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Hamilton,5.pdf [pp. 266-338] (accessed ...), p. 323.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

6. Note: Hamilton, p. 399.

Tel Halif Jar Handle [???] (13th Century BCE)

Tel Halif Jar Handle; William Shea. Source: Shea (1978).¹

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Tell el Halif 13th BC.²

1. Image: William H. Shea, The Inscribed Late Bronze Jar Handle from Tell Ḥalif, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 232 (Autumn 1978), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/1356705?journalCode=basor (accessed ...), p. 78, Fig. 1: The inscribed Late Bronze Age jar handle from Tel Halif (IEJ 27 [1977]: pl. 5B).

2. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

Lachish Ewer [1933] (13th Century BCE)

Lachish Ewer; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Lachish Ewer; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).2

Transliteration and translation source: Steiner (2016): According to Cross, the inscription begins with a personal name: mtn: šy ˹l˺[rb]ty ʾlt Mattan. An offering to my Lady ʾElat. ... This interpretation of mtn [as a personal name] is undoubtedly the standard interpretation today. ... In an earlier article, however, [Frank M.] Cross mentioned another possibility: The inscription could also be read, A gift: a lamb for my Lady ʾElat. ...This interpretation...had been suggested previously by William F. Albright. ... The interpretation is problematic, of course, because ewes and ewers do not go together[:] ... A sheep...[even] cut up into small pieces...would hardly be presented in a vessel with such a narrow neck. It is presumably this problem that has caused later scholars — including Cross himself, as well as [Joseph] Naveh — to tacitly reject the possibility that mtn is a common noun in the inscription. ... But is it really just a coincidence that, when the first word in the inscription is taken as a common noun [mtn, gift], it shares a meaning with the second word [šy, sheep/goat]? ... Brian E. Colless’s....translation: A gift: an offering [to] my [la]dy Elat...implies that šy stands in apposition to mtn. Another possibility, not previously noted, is that the first two words form a genitive phrase with the meaning tribute offering. In Hebrew, we find the noun mtn juxtaposed with near-synonyms in genitive phrases such as trwmt mtnm their gift dedication (Num 18:11) and mtn śkrn their reward gift (m. Avot 2:1, 16).³

Notes

Goldwasser (2016): The earliest example of the linear alphabet known to date is probably the famous find known as the Lachish Ewer. This ewer provides a link between the Proto-Sinaitic and Proto-Canaanite iconic script and the impending, more developed linear script.⁴

Ussishkin (1987): The pitcher’s shoulder bears a proto-Canaanite inscription: “Mattan. An offering to my Lady ’Elat.” The ewer and its now-missing contents were a tribute offered to the temple and to the deity ’Elat by a man named Mattan.⁵

Azevedo (1994): Lachish ewer 13th BC.⁶

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... The Lachish ewer, with an inscription painted before firing, comes from a Late Bronze II context — Fosse Temple III, contemporary with Level VII.⁷

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem by Neta Dror, Mattan. An offering to my Lady Elat, dedication to a goddess on a jug; IAA: 1934-7738/1, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/362973 (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 237, Fig. 3: Lachish ewer (from Sass 1988: fig. 156).

3. Transliteration and translation: Richard C. Steiner, The Lachish Ewer: An Offering and a Tribute, Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (Israel Exploration Society) 32 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/44014324/Richard_C_Steiner_The_Lachish_Ewer_An_Offering_and_a_Tribute_Eretz_Israel_vol_32_Joseph_Naveh_Volume_2016_103_112_ [pp. 103-112] (accessed ...), pp. 103-104.

4. Note: Orly Goldwasser, From Iconic to Linear –The Egyptian Scribes of Lachish and the Modification of the Early Alphabet in the Late Bronze Age, in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin and Thomas Römer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30713970/_From_Iconic_to_Linear_The_Egyptian_Scribes_of_Lachish_and_the_Modification_of_the_Early_Alphabet_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_In_Alphabets_Texts_and_Artefacts_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_Studies_presented_to_Benjamin_Sass_eds_I_Finkelstein_C_Robin_and_T_Römer_Paris_Van_Dieren_2016 [pp. 118–160] (accessed ...), p. 152.

5. Note: David Ussishkin, Lachish—Key to the Israelite Conquest of Canaan?, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 13:1 (January/February 1987), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/13/1/1 (accessed ...) Artifacts from the Fosse Temple.

6. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

7. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 153.

Lachish Bowl [2014] (13th Century BCE)

Lachish Bowl; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Lachish Bowl; Braman's Wanderings. Source: Braman's Wanderings.2	Lachish Bowl Inscription; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).3

Transliteration source: The Israel Museum.⁴

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Lachish bowl 13th BC.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... The Lachish bowl, with an inscription written in chalk(?), also belongs to Late Bronze II — it was found in a single-burial tomb.⁶

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, BSLST, Proto-Canaanite inscription on a bowl; IAA: 1938-126, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/395432 (accessed ...).

2. Image: Braman's Wanderings, Lachish Inscription, 11 December 2015, https://bramanswanderings.com/2015/12/11/lachish-inscription/ (accessed ...).

3. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 237, Fig. 4: Lachish bowl (from Sass 1988: fig. 166).

4. Transliteration: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 153.

Lachish Bowl Fragment [1983] (13th Century BCE)

Lachish Bowl Fragment; David Ussishkin. Source: Cross (1984).1	Lachish Bowl Fragment; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).2

Transliteration and translation source, Cross (1984): The inscription is to be read boustrophedon, the first line from left to right ending in a division marker, the second line from right to left, ending either with a broken letter, or with another division marker.³

Notes

Compare with the 18th-16th century Tel Nagila sherd inscription.

Cross (1984): I believe there is no doubt that we must read ]ʾlʾb. in the first line. ... In line 2 the second letter from the right is yod. It is virtually identical with the yod of the Tell Nagila Sherd, and similar to the yod of the Lachish Bowl and the ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah Ostracon. ... The second word in line 2 is clearly hwšb (or hwθb). Each letter is clear. The he is only slightly developed beyond the Serābîṭ el-Ḫâdem he and the Tell Nagila he. Waw too is virtually identical with the Tell Nagila waw. The agreement of waw, yod, and he with the Tell Nagila forms is remarkable.⁴

Azevedo (1994): Lachish fragment 13th BC.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... The Lachish bowl fragment with an ink inscription was unearthed in Late Bronze III Level VI. Typologically the bowl’s shape alsoagrees with this attribution.⁶

1. Image: Frank Moore Cross, An Old Canaanite Inscription Recently Found at Lachish [1984], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000047.xml [pp. 293-294] (accessed ...), p. 294, Figure 46.1: A photograph of the Lachish Ostracon. Photograph courtesy of Professor David Ussishkin.

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 238, Fig. 5: Lachish bowl fragment (from Sass 1988: fig. 164).

3. Transliteration: Cross, pp. 293-294.

4. Note: Ibid.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 153.

Lachish Jar Sherd [2014] (12th Century BCE, ca. 1130)

Lachish Jar Sherd; O. Dobovsky, A. Yardeni, and T. Rogovski. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).¹

Transliteration source: Lipiński (2016).²

Notes

Compare the tet 𐤈 on the Lachish jar sherd with the 18th century Lachish dagger.

Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015): On July 13, 2014, a sherd from a jar was found with an incised alphabetic inscription in Level VI at Tel Lachish, placing its date within the range of the 12th century B.C.E. to ca. 1130.³

Lipiński (2016): The last sign of line 3’ [if it is 'ṭ' (see also the Lachish Dagger)] allows reading the title ˻š˼pṭ, “judge”, under spr, “scribe”. The inscription seems therefore to have listed a few personal names, followed by a title.⁴

Azevedo (1994): Lachish sherd n. 7. 1400 BC.⁵

1. Images and drawings: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, and Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 235, Fig. 2: Lachish Jar sherd. (Drawings and reconstruction of the jar by O. Dobovsky; drawing of the inscription by A. Yardeni; photos by T. Rogovski).

2. Transliteration: Edward Lipiński, Hurrians and Their Gods in Canaan, Rocznik Orientalistczny, LXIX:1 (2016), http://journals.pan.pl/Content/82350/mainfile.pdf?handler=pdf [pp. 125-141] (accessed ...), p. 129.

3. Note: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, and Klingbeil, p. ???.

4. Note: Lipiński, p. 129.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

Qubur al-Walaydah/el-Walaida Bowl [1977] (12th-11th Century BCE)

Qubur al-Walaydah Bowl; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.¹ (Additional images: Nathaniel E. Greene.)

Qubur al-Walaydah Bowl; Giovanni Garbini. Source: Niesiołowski-Spanò (2007).²

Transliteration source: Niesiołowski-Spanò (2007): šmpʿl|ʾyʾl|š[.³

Transliteration source: Colless (2014): Sh M B? ` L | ’ Y ’ L | M H.⁴

Notes

Colless (2014): The bulk of the text is a personal name, the second part being the patronymic. As stated above, the Sh-sign (not “3” SHA nor “W” SHI) would be SHU. The Mem should be MI (though it has more angles than the Phoenician form). Thirdly B or P (but BA seems more likely than PA, because it is the god Ba`al). Then comes ‘Ayin with no dot, so it is ‘I. The Lamed here is not the same as the one further on, and I will not make a decision on their respective sounds; but it might be LI. Hence Shumiba`ili (“name of Ba`al”). Regarding the Mem Het combination (apparently separated from the rest by another dividing stroke), this could say MAH.U “a fatling” (a sacrifice, as at the end of the Wadi el-Hol horizontal inscription).⁵

Millard (2011): Assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.⁶

Azevedo (1994): Qubur el Walaida 1200 BC.⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): At least five or six Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, four of them from secure contexts, date to the Late Bronze Age II–III [ca. 1300-1130]. ... Bearing an inscription incised after firing, the Qubur el-Walaida bowl was found in a pit that, according to Gunnar Lehmann, the current excavator (with whom we had personal communication), contained Late Bronze III pottery only — which Lehmann labelled Iron IA – akin to Lachish VI.⁸

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, SMP’AL AYAL S[ ]; IAA: 1979-567, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/580798 (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, Early Alphabetic Scripts and the Origin of Greek Letters, in Haec mihi in animis vestris templa: studia classica in memory of Professor Lesław Morawiecki, ed. Beata Blahaczek and Piotr Berdowski (Rzeszów, PL: Instytut Historii UR, 2007), https://www.academia.edu/718525/Early_alphabetic_scripts_and_the_origin_of_Greek_letters (accessed ...), p. 184, Fig. 10: The Inscription from Qubur el-Walaydah; text reads from left to right: šmpʿl | ʾyʾl | š[ (G. Garbini, Introduzione all'epigrafia semitica, Brescia 2006, p. 99, Fig. 20).

3. Transliteration: Ibid.

7. Transliteration: Brian E. Colless, The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelite, The Ancient Near East Today (ASOR) II:2 (February 2014), http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/02/the-lost-link-the-alphabet-in-the-hands-of-the-early-israelites/ (accessed ...).

5. Note: Ibid.

6. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

7. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

8. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 153, 156.

Manahat Inscription [????] (12th-11th Century BCE)

Manahat Inscription; John Landgraf. Source: Landgraf (1971).¹

Transliteration source: Landgraf (1971).²

Notes

Cross (1993): From near Jerusalem comes the so-called Manaḥat sherd. Its reading is clear: lšdḥ, presumably l (belonging) to plus an otherwise unknown personal name, šdḥ.³

Millard (2011): Assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.⁵

Azevedo (1994): Manahat sherd 12th-11th BC.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): The undatable Manahat sherd from Jerusalem, a stray find, variously attributed in the past to the late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] or early Iron II [ca. 940–880].⁶

1. Drawing: John Landgraf, E. The Manahat Inscription: lšdh (Pls. XXXa-XXXb), Levant: The Journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant 3:1 (1971), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/lev.1971.3.1.92?journalCode=ylev20 (accessed ...), p. 92, Fig. 1 and n. 10: My original drawing, made by tracing the photograph and comparing this with the inscribed sherd.

2. Transliteration: Ibid., p. 92.

3. Note: Frank Moore Cross, Early Alphabetic Scripts [1975], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336 (accessed ...), p. 336.

4. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 106.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 164, n. 62.

Beth Shemesh Baal Sherd [2001] (12th Century BCE, ca. 1150-1100)

Beth Shemesh Baal Sherd; Avshalom Karasik. Source: McCarter, Bunimovitz, Lederman (2011).1	Beth Shemesh Baal Sherd; P. Kyle McCarter. Source: McCarter, Bunimovitz, Lederman (2011).2

Transliteration source: McCarter, Bunimovitz, Lederman (2011).³

Notes

McCarter, Bunimovitz, Lederman (2011): A date of 1150–1100 BCE for the provenance of the inscription is most likely.⁴

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., the Beth-shemesh Baal sherd] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.⁵

1. Image: P. Kyle McCarter, Shlomo Bunimovitz, and Zvi Lederman, An Archaic Baʿl Inscription from Tel Beth-Shemesh, Tel Aviv Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 38:2 (2011), https://www.academia.edu/13972460/An_Archaic_Ba_c_l_Inscription_from_Tel_Beth_Shemesh (accessed ...), pg. 37, Figure 1: The inscribed sherds, displayed using different imaging techniques: (a) studio photograph (P. Shrago); (b) 3D scanning image (Dr. A. Karasik).

2. Drawing: Ibid., pg. 44, Figure 5: Inscription, drawing by P.K. McCarter.

3. Transliteration: Ibid., p. 41.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 35.

5. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 157.

Beth Shemesh Ostracon [????] (13th-10th Century BCE)

Beth Shemesh Ostracon. Source: Colless (n.d.).¹

Beth Shemesh Ostracon; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Garfinkel, Hasel, Klingbeil (2015).² (Alternative drawings: William H. Shea [1987], p. 260, and William H. Shea [1990], p. 117.)

Transliteration and translation source: Shea (1987): Along the edge of the sherd [line 4], only the topmost parts of the letters written there can be seen above the break, and only an aleph in the third position from the top can be identified with probability. ... For clarity, the third line should be read first, inasmuch as it mentions the commodity being dispersed. Next comes the first line, as is evident because it begins with the preposition "to" [Baths of wine 8; to ʿUzzah 1, ʾAhʿuz 1, [- -]ʾa[-] 1, Simeon 4, Ḥanun 1]. ... The reason why the amounts—i.e., the baths of wine in each instance—are in question is that a circular sign commonly carried the value of "ten," whereas the value of "one" was more commonly represented by a vertical stroke. On this sherd, however, all of the numerical values are represented by circular dots, and no vertical strokes appear. This being the case, it is probable that the circular dots here represent units of one each, rather than representing tens.³

Transliteration and translation source: Shea (1990): ...The third name on the front side of the sherd. Because of the difficulty in reading these letters, most interpreters have not attempted to identify the names present here. Puech...read them as bt yn and translated this as "baths of wine." Since he saw eight dots above the word for the measure of baths, and since he found eight more dots elsewhere with the personal names in the text, he held that the initial total of eight baths of wine were all distributed to the persons named by the text. ... With further examination, this clever and interesting suggestion must, unfortunately, be rejected. Puech found eight of them here, but most other copyists have shown only three. I would reduce that number to two, because I think that one of those dots is actually the corner of a letter.⁴

Notes

Colless (2016): This double-sided document was discovered in Beth Shemesh in 1930, and its ink inscription has been fading ever since, so that old photographs are now our main source.⁵

Colless (n.d): Different forms of letters in a particular text may not be arbitrary (just scribal whims for the sake of variety) but significant (the various shapes and stances of each character represent consonant + vowel). Thus [the possibility that] the consonantal alphabet (which requires the reader to supply the vowels) is being used as a syllabary (so that there is a different form of B for ba, bi, bu). We noticed that the B in line 4 had a different stance from the B in line 5; also the 'Aleph in lines 3 and 4. The 'Ayin in line 3 is a circle with a dot, but the one in line 2 lacks the dot. The two instances of Het (H., Hh) are not the same. And the T in line 5 has the leaning posture of TI (as found in other ostraca).⁶

Parker (2013, 2018): Other inscribed fragments from southern Canaan...associated with the tenth-century...include: A fragment from Beth-Shemesh. Palaeographically this inscription may be dated to the eleventh-tenth centuries.⁷

Millard (2011): Assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.⁸

Azevedo (1994): Beth Shemesh 13th-12th BC.⁹

Malena (2015): 1200 BCE.¹⁰

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions are still wholly Proto-Canaanite. ... The unstratified Beth-shemesh ostracon is paleographically close to the Qeiyafa ostracon. The two are also the only post LB Proto-Canaanite inscriptions written in ink.¹¹

1. Images: Brian E. Colless, Beth Shemesh Riddle: Wine Whine, Collesseum: A Museum-Theatre for Scripts (n.d.), https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/winewhine (accessed ...).

2. Drawings: Benjamin Sass, Yosef Garfinkel, Michael G. Hasel, Martin G. Klingbeil, The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 374 (November 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316977263_2015_B_Sass_Y_Garfinkel_MG_Hasel_and_MG_Klingbeil_The_Lachish_Jar_Sherd_An_Early_Alphabetic_Inscription_Discovered_in_2014_Bulletin_of_the_American_Schools_of_Oriental_Research_374_233-245 (accessed ...), p. 240, Fig. 20: Beth-Shemesh ostracon (from Sass 1988: figs. 169-70).

3. Transliteration and translation: William H. Shea, A Potential Biblical Connection for the Beth Shemesh Ostracon, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 25:3 (Autumn 1987), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1794&context=auss [pp. 257-266] (accessed ...), pp. 259, 261.

4. Transliteration and translation: William H. Shea, Further Light on the Biblical Connection for the Beth Shemesh Ostracon, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 28:2 (Summer 1990), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1963&context=auss [pp. 115-125] (accessed ...), p. 124.

5. Images: Brian E. Colless, The Mediterranean Diet in Ancient West Semitic Inscriptions, Damqātum - The CEHAO Newsletter (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina [UCA]) 12 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/36973107/The_Mediterranean_Diet_in_Ancient_West_Semitic_Inscriptions_Damqatum_12_2016_3_20_Damqatum_The_CEHAO_newsletter_N12_2c_2016_pdf (accessed ...), pp. 7-8.

6. Note: Colless (n.d.).

7. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 123, n. 554.

8. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

9. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

10. Note: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 223.

11. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 159.

Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon [2008] (11th Century BCE, ca. 1000)

Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Peter Lanyi. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.¹

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Peter Lanyi, Hebrew correspondence(?) in Proto-Canaanite script; IAA: 2010-149, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/376828 (accessed ...).

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Haggai Misgav. Source: Demsky (2012).¹

Transliteration source, Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (2009): According to Dr. Misgav reading: The combined conclusions produce the following proposed reading of the text: ....². Translation source, Maeir (2009): A very rough translation of the general reading by Misgav! .... Please – don’t hold me responsible for this for the rest of my life....³

Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (n.d.): From the very first reading of the inscription, the words אל תעש were understood by Haggai Misgav as an indication that the language of the inscription is Hebrew. ... Prof. Shmuel Ahituv suggested in his publication that עבד (worship) is another indication for Hebrew.⁴

1. Drawing: Aaron Demsky, An Iron Age IIA Alphabetic Writing Exercise from Khirbet Qeiyafa, Israel Exploration Journal [IEJ] 62:2 (2012), https://www.academia.edu/7692671/An_Iron_Age_IIA_Alphabetic_Writing_Exercise_from_Khirbet_Qeiyafa [pp. 186-199] (accessed ...), p. 191, Fig. 2. The ostracon with its five columns (courtesy of Dr. Haggai Misgav).

2. Transliteration: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Qeiyafa Ostracon Chronicle (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/ostracon12_2.asp (accessed ...), 24 December 2009.

3. Transliteration and translation: Aren Maeir, For those who don’t know any Biblical Hebrew..., The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project Official (and Unofficial) Weblog, 16 October 2009 https://gath.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/for-those-who-dont-know-any-biblical-hebrew/ (accessed ...).

4. Note: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Open Letter to Prof. Gershon Galil, Haifa University, n.d., http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/galil.asp (accessed ...).

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Haggai Misgav. Source: Demsky (2012).¹

Transliteration and translation source, Demsky (2012).²

Demsky (2012): Despite efforts to impose continuous Hebrew sentences onto this document, there does not seem to be any real continuity, unless one has an accompanying angelus interpres to clarify the intent of the ancient writer. However, it seems to me that this text is no more than a list of indefinite nouns, sometimes repeated: שפט ,גר(ת) ,אלת [x2]אל ,אלמ ,. ... Since I find no recognizable continuity in the words, I assume that this is a list of terms, here noting professions of divine and human authority (not personal names, as suggested by Millard), as one would find in a school text of the kind that we call encyclopaedic lists.³

Demsky (2012): It should be emphasized that the Qeiyafa ostracon has two surprising features. For one, it was written on the concave side of the sherd. I assume that this unusual practice was intentional and is significant for its interpretation.... The other unusual feature that immediately catches the eye is the five drawn lines, creating five parallel rows of letters. Again, my assumption is that there was a purpose for these lines. ... I propose that the scribe wanted to create a text in which at least the first line was written vertically. If we turn Misgav’s copy of the ostracon 90% clockwise, we see five columns written fromright to left. This overall direction seems to have influenced the sinistrograde (right to left) stance of some letters in the first two lines. ... It seems to me that the changing or rotating directions of writing was the result of the novel choice of writing on the concave side of the sherd so that it could easily revolve on its axis.⁴

1. Drawing: Aaron Demsky, An Iron Age IIA Alphabetic Writing Exercise from Khirbet Qeiyafa, Israel Exploration Journal [IEJ] 62:2 (2012), https://www.academia.edu/7692671/An_Iron_Age_IIA_Alphabetic_Writing_Exercise_from_Khirbet_Qeiyafa [pp. 186-199] (accessed ...), p. 191, Fig. 2. The ostracon with its five columns (courtesy of Dr. Haggai Misgav).

2. Translation and translation: Ibid., pp. 192-194.

3. Note: Ibid., p. 194.

4. Note: Ibid., pp. 189-190, 192.

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Ada Yardeni. Source: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project.¹ Red boxes identify primary differences between Yardeni, Puech, and Galil drawings.²

Transliteration source, Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (2009): Dr. Ada Yardeni's drawing of the inscription was published for the first time in this final report. She suggest[s] the following reading: ....

1. Drawing: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Khirbet Qeiyafa, 22 March 2016, http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il (accessed ...), Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon (technical drawing by Ada Yardeni).

2. Transliteration: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Qeiyafa Ostracon Chronicle (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/ostracon12_2.asp (accessed ...), 24 December 2009.

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Emile Puech. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Red boxes identify primary differences between Yardeni, Puech, and Galil drawings.¹

Transliteration source, Wikipedia.fr: En 2010, l'épigraphiste français Émile Puech identifie l'écriture comme du protocananéen et publie une translittération en hébreu : ....² French translation source, Millard (2011): Émile Puech offers: ....³ Translation into English, Bible Archaeology Society (2012): Gerard Leval...reviewing Émile Puech’s translation and analysis for the first time in English....⁴

Leval (2012): One of the most fascinating interpretations is by Émile Puech, the senior epigrapher of the prestigious École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem. Because his analysis is written in French (published in the Revue Biblique), it is not well known outside of a small group of scholars.... In Puech’s view, the Qeiyafa Ostracon is the earliest known text relating to the establishment of the Israelite monarchy—likely referring to the installation of the first Israelite king, Saul, rather than to the accession to that throne by his more illustrious successor David.⁵

1. Drawing: Emile Puech, קובץ:Qeiyafa Ostracon-dr.jpg, Wikimedia Commons, 12 November 2010, https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/קובץ:Qeiyafa_Ostracon-dr.jpg (accessed ...).

2. Transliteration: Wikipedia.fr, s.v. Ostracon de Khirbet Qeiyafa, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracon_de_Khirbet_Qeiyafa#Traductions (accessed ...), Traductions.

3. Translation: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 7.

4. Translation: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, Qeiyafa Ostracon Relates the Birth of the Kingdom of Israel, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 07 May 2012, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/the-qeiyafa-ostracon-relates-the-birth-of-the-kingdom-of-israel/ (accessed ...).

5. Note: Gerard Leval, Ancient Inscription Refers to Birth of Israelite Monarchy, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 38:3 (May/June 2012), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/38/3/4 (accessed ...).

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Gershon Galil, University of Haifa. Source: www.eurekalert.org. Red boxes identify primary differences between Yardeni, Puech, and Galil drawings.¹

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Michael Netzer. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Dashed boxes identify primary differences between Galil and Netzer drawings.²

‘śh (עשה) ("did") and ‘bd (עבד) ("worked")

Transliteration source, Yellin (2010): The deciphered text [according to Galil]: ....³ Translation source: Yellin (2010); and Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (2010): Prof. Gershon Galil published a proposed reconstruction of the inscription: ....⁴

Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (2010): A press release by Haifa University states: 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.⁵

Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (n.d.): Most of the third line and the center of the fifth line of the ostracon are illegible and the letters...are entirely speculative. The main words that support [Prof. Galil's] thesis ([ʾbywn] אביון ,[ytwm] יתום ,[ʾlmnh] אלמנה) are reconstructed and do not appear as such in the legible parts of the ostracon.⁶

1. Drawing: EurekAlert!, Most Ancient Hebrew Biblical Inscription Deciphered (1 of 2), href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/19412.php (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Michael Netzer, Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon, Wikimedia Commons, 21 November 2011, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Khirbet_Qeiyafa_Ostracon.jpg (accessed ...).

3. Transliteration: Avi Yellin, Pottery Shard Supports Bible Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com, 01 August 2010, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135432 (accessed ...).

4. Translation: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Qeiyafa Ostracon Chronicle (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/ostracon12_2.asp (accessed ...), 7 January 2010.

5. Note: Ibid.

6. Note: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, Open Letter to Prof. Gershon Galil, Haifa University, n.d., http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/galil.asp (accessed ...).

Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription; Brian E. Colless. Source: Colless (n.d.).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Colless (n.d.).²

Colless (2020): A prophet delivers an oracle from Yahu, concerning a momentous event: a servant of God, named Dawid, has executed divine justice to the `Anaq, named Guliyut, who had cursed him.³

Colless (n.d.): A curious feature of the Qeiyafa ostracon inscription is that the scribe does not write his characters consistently. This might be a personal whim on his part, simply to add variety to his text. However, the possibility arises that the variations in the signs are not arbitrary [rather] this would be a syllabic alphabet, with not 22 letters (as in the later Phoenician and Hebrew consonantal alphabet) but 66 characters. ... Each letter would have three variants ('a, 'i, 'u; ba, bi, bu), and so this alphabet functions as a syllabary [i.e., each letter represents a consonant-vowel combination, not just a consonant]. ... An example of the syllabic system is provided by the two forms of the root Sh P T. [špṭ] ('judge') in line 2, which might be sha-pa-t.a and shi-pi-t.i [ša-pa-ṭa and ši-pi-ṭi]. ⁴

Colless (n.d.): The basic principle of the identification procedure [to identify every sign in lines 1 - 5] is that the consonantal letters of the standard alphabet (as represented on the Tel Zayit Stone and the Gezer Calendar) correspond to the signs with -i vowels in the syllabary [Colless (n.d.): ...When they...reduce[d] the number of signs from 66 to 22...it was the 'i, Bi. Gi, Di (etc) [variants] that survived.⁵]; and the forms of the letters on the bottom line of the Izbet Sartah Ostracon convey the -a vowels; the remaining forms would presumably be the -u syllables. Unfortunately this method will fail us sometimes, since consistency is not found in the various documents available to us; hindsight reveals that regional and scribal variations are at play.⁶

Colless (2014): Regarding...whether the various forms and stances of each letter [on the Qeiyafa Ostracon] constituted a way of denoting particular vowels...there was already an analogy for this in the West Semitic cuneiform alphabet, which was particularly associated with the city of Ugarit (on the Syrian coast, to the west of Cyprus) but it is also attested throughout the Levant. The scribes of Ugarit...had a cuneiform sign for each consonant, made up of wedge-shaped marks.... This is the relevant detail: on the clay tablets of Ugarit there were three distinct ’Aleph characters, representing ’a, ’i, ’u. ... This phenomenon could account for the trio of ’Aleph forms on the Qeiyafa Ostracon. But my idea goes further than that: in the early “Israelian” Hebrew alphabet each of its twenty-two letters had two additional forms, making a total of sixty-six signs. In fact, the system was not a simple consonantary (which the Phoenician alphabet certainly was, in the Iron Age) but a syllabary. ... In line 3 of the Qeiyafa Ostracon, I discern this sequence: M T G L Y T B ` L D W D, and the syllables seem to reveal GULIYUTU and DAWIDU, and the meaning is: “Goliath is dead, David has prevailed (ba`ala)”.⁷

Colless (2014): How can this syllabary hypothesis be tested? A first step would be to compare the letters found on the Qeiyafa inscription with their counterparts in the Izbet Sartah text. ... The copy of the alphabet presented to us on the Izbet Sartah Ostracon has the expected twenty-two letters. ... However, in the four lines of writing above the Izbet Sartah alphabet...we are offered Aleph in more than one stance.... And when we have established the shape of the Lamed in the bottom line (more like a 6 than a 9), we look higher and see 9s as well as 6s.... ... In my reading of...line 1b–2a...[of the Izbet Sartah, the writer says]: I see that the eye gives the breath of the sign into the ear. In this statement he uses the ‘Ayin sign for see and then for the eye, continuing the practice that goes right back to the inception of the proto-alphabet, and also to the West Semitic syllabary that preceded it, whereby the pictophonograms could act not only as consonantograms or syllabograms, but also as logograms, ideograms, and rebograms (rebuses), as happened with the hieroglyphs in the Egyptian writing system, which influenced the formation of these two West Semitic scripts.⁸

1. Drawing: Brian E. Colless, Shaarayim Inscriptions: The David and Goliath Ostracon and the Eshbaal Jar from Khirbet Qeiyafa (Sha`arayim), Collesseum: A Museum-Theatre for Scripts (n.d.), https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/qeiyafa-ostracon-2 (accessed ...), This old drawing by BEC is tentative and flawed.

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid., Tentative translation.

3. Note: Brian E. Colless, Honey Bees at Ancient Rehob, CRYPTCRACKER, 07 October 2020, http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2020/10/ancient-rehob-and-its-apiary.html (accessed ...).

4. Note: Colless (n.d), A syllabic alphabet.

5. Note: Ibid., Linguistic Considerations.

6. Note: Ibid., Reading the Qeiyafa Ostracon.

7. Note: Brian E. Colless, The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelite, The Ancient Near East Today (ASOR) II:2 (February 2014), http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/02/the-lost-link-the-alphabet-in-the-hands-of-the-early-israelites/ (accessed ...).

8. Note: Ibid.

Notes

Wikipedia: It is the longest Proto-Canaanite text ever found. ... The writing on the ostracon is poorly preserved and difficult to read. ... The inscription is written left to right in a script which is probably Early Alphabetic/Proto Phoenician, though...it might be written vertically.¹

Millard: The letters are difficult to read and the language may be Hebrew, Canaanite, Phoenician or Moabite. ... The Israeli scholar who published the ostracon, Haggai Misgav, only ventured to read some letters, as did Aaron Demsky, Shmuel Ahituv and the experienced palaeographer Ada Yardeni. Since the primary publication, Gershon Galil of Haifa University and Émile Puech of the École Biblique have each made their own drawings and proposed almost complete readings of this text.²

Wikipedia: On January 10, 2010, the University of Haifa issued a press release stating that the text was a social statement relating to slaves, widows and orphans. ... Other readings are possible, however, and the official excavation report presented many possible reconstructions of the letters without attempting a translation.³

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The earliest known Hebrew text written in a Proto-Canaanite script.... While the inscription has yet to be deciphered, initial interpretation indicates the text was part of a letter and contains the roots of the words "judge", "slave" and "king", suggesting it may be a legal text with insights into Hebrew law, society and beliefs. ... Carbon-14 dating of organic material (olive pips) found with the ostracon, administered by Oxford University, along with pottery analysis dates this inscription to the time of King David ca. 3,000 years ago.⁴

Millard (2011): The problem with this ostracon is that some letters are partly obliterated, that the same letter may have more than one stance or shape and that some are not certainly identified. ... On the basis of previous discoveries, the script is not what would be expected at about 1000 BC; it is ‘Canaanite’ rather than Phoenician or Hebrew, and some of the forms are unparalleled. ... It is the reading of the first five letters which has tended to impose the understanding of the text as Hebrew and as an instruction from a superior. Reading the first five letters as a negative command ’al ta‘aś ‘do not do, make,’ immediately suggests the language as Hebrew because the verb ‘śh is well known only in Hebrew (and Moabite).... Yet before accepting that identification, we should check for alternatives, not because we do not want the text to be Hebrew, but in order to avoid precluding other possibilities and so, perhaps, prescribe the translation to some extent. Ed Cook has observed that the first five letters could be read as a personal name, Ellat-‘aš, ‘the goddess (or Ellat) helped’. ... There is no proof the text is written in Hebrew rather than Canaanite.⁵

Biblical Archaeology Society: The faded text on the Qeiyafa Ostracon has challenged potential translators; what is known is that its variations and left-to-right orientation signal a pre-Hebrew script deriving from Early Alphabetic rather than Phoenician writing. Most scholars agree with Christopher Rollston about the type of script, but he suggests that the language may not be Hebrew. The lexemes, or word roots, could come from one of several Semitic languages. This interpretation of the Qeiyafa Ostracon raises a new set of questions. Could the Qeiyafa Ostracon be from a non-Judahite site? Or could another language have been the lingua franca of the period? More simply, could the text have been imported from elsewhere, or written by a foreigner? The Qeiyafa Ostracon is a significant puzzle piece in the development of Hebrew writing, but there are still too many unanswered questions for the Qeiyafa Ostracon to be considered the oldest Hebrew inscription.⁶

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Qeiyafa hesitates between the two periods [late Iron I and early Iron IIA]. (The unstratified Beth-shemesh ostracon appears to us to date by letter typology close to the Qeiyafa ostracon.)⁸

1. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Khirbet Qeiyafa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbet_Qeiyafa#Khirbet_Qeiyafa_ostracon (accessed ...), Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon.

2. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 1, Summary; p. 5.

3. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Khirbet Qeiyafa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbet_Qeiyafa#Khirbet_Qeiyafa_ostracon (accessed ...), Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon.

4. Note: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Earliest known Hebrew text unearthed at 3,000 year old Judean fortress, 30 October 2008, https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/History/Pages/Earliest_Hebrew_text_unearthed_3000-year-old_Judean_fortress_30-Oct-2008.aspx (accessed ...).

5. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, pp. 7-8, 12.

6. Note: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 03 July 2020, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/the-oldest-hebrew-script-and-language/ (accessed ...).

7. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 159.

8. Note: Ibid., p. 174.

Qeiyafa Jar aka Ishbaal/Ishba'al/ʾIšbaʿal/Eshbaal Inscription [2012] (11th–10th Century BCE, ca. 1020–980)

Eshbaal Inscription; Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Source: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project.1	Eshbaal Reconstructed Jar; Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Source: Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project.2

Transliteration and translation source, Garfinkel, Golub, Misgav, Ganor (2015): The inscription includes a personal name: [ ] | ʾšbʿl | ˹bn˺ | bdʿ (ʾIšbaʿal son of Bedaʿ). The name Bedaʿ is unique, while ʾIšbaʿal is known from the Bible but has never yet appeared on an ancient inscription.³

Notes

The inscription is assumed to be right-to-left (looking head-on)—but, given the shape of the vessel, could it be left-to-right looking top-down?

Wikipedia: Archaeologists pieced together the inscription from pottery shards found at a 2012 excavation in the Valley of Elah in central Israel.⁴

LeBaAaLaT: When archaeologists were finally able to piece the artifact together, they could decipher the ancient Canaanite script. It read: “Eshba’al Ben [son of] Beda’.” This is the first time that archaeologists have found this name in an ancient inscription. Actually, another Eshbaal is mentioned in the Bible—he was one of the sons of King Saul. (1 Chron. 8:33; 9:39)⁵

Blumenthal (2016): Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) researchers succeeded in reassembling 3,000-year-old clay jar shards with an ancient inscription from the time of King David. Decoding the inscription posed a new challenge to researchers - discovering who [was] the mysterious Eshba'al ben Beda' was. ...This is the first time that the name Eshba'al has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country. Eshba'al Ben Shaul, who ruled over Israel at the same time as David, is known from the Bible.⁶

Chandler (2015): The storage jar shows the name ʾIšbaʿal incised along the top. This name appears in the Bible in 1 Chronicles 8:33. (Eshbaal in English translations.) Eshbaal was Saul’s son who is known as “Ish-bosheth” in 2 Samuel chapters 2 through 4. After Saul’s death, Eshbaal reigned as a rival of David from across the Jordan River and was eventually assassinated by his own servants. The name in this new inscription refers to a different individual (son of Bedaʿ) but demonstrates the use of this particular name in Canaan during this period.⁷

Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav, and Saar Ganor: Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 b.c.e. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries b.c.e. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh, Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi, and Jerusalem).⁸

1. Image and drawing: Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav, and Saar Ganor, The Eshbaal Inscription: More about the Inscription Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/eshbaal2.asp (accessed ...).

2. Image: Ibid., The Eshbaal Inscription, http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/eshbaal.asp (accessed ...).

3. Transliteration and translation: Idem., The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 373 (May 2015), http://www.luisjovel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Garfinkel_et_al_2015_Isbaal_inscription_BASOR_373.pdf [pp. 217-233] (accessed ...), p. 223.

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Ish-bosheth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ish-bosheth#Archaeology (accessed ...), Archaeology.

5. Note: LeBaAaLaT, The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa, https://earlysemitic.weebly.com/the-702iscaronba703al-inscription-from-khirbet-qeiyafa.html (accessed ...), A Bible Name on an Ancient Jar.

6. Image: Itay Blumenthal, Inscription from King David's time found near Beit Shemesh, Ynetnews, 16 June 2016, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4669056,00.html (accessed ...).

7. Image: Luke Chandler, New Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription Published. What Does it Say?, Bible, Archaeology, and Travel with Luke Chandler, 3 June 2015, https://lukechandler.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/2nd-kh-qeiyafa-inscription-published-what-does-it-say/ (accessed ...).

8. Note: Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav, and Saar Ganor, The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 373 (May 2015), http://www.luisjovel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Garfinkel_et_al_2015_Isbaal_inscription_BASOR_373.pdf [pp. 217-233] (accessed ...), p. 217, Abstract.

Tell es-Safi Inscription aka Ṣafi Sherd 821141 aka Gath Ostracon [2005] (10th-9th Century BCE)

Gath Ostracon, Aren Maeir; Yoni Reif. Source: Klass (2005).1	Gath Ostracon; Aren Maeir. Source: Maeir (2006).2	Gath Inscription; Aren Maeir. Source: Sass (2017).3

Transliteration source, Colless (2014): It is supposed to say ’LWT WLT (the dividing line, as on the Q[ubur ]W[alayda] Bowl, could signify “son of”), and a resemblance to GLYT [𐤂𐤋𐤉𐤕] (Goliath) is pointed out.⁴

Notes

Wikipedia: The Tell es-Safi inscription was found in 2005 at the archaeological site at Tell es-Safi, identified with the biblical city of Gath. It was under the destruction layer at the beginning of Iron Age IIA (1000–925 BCE).⁵

Wikipedia: Scratched on a sherd typical of the Iron Age IIA, two non-Semitic names written in Semitic "Proto-Canaanite" letters were found.⁶

Wikipedia: Archaeologists [excavating Tell es-Safi, the biblical Gath and traditional home of Goliath] have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. A potsherd discovered at the site, and reliably dated to the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names "alwt" and "wlt". While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath ("glyt"), they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of late-tenth/early-ninth-century BC Philistine culture.⁷

Maeir (2006): BOTH names that appear on the sherd (AWLT and WLT...) are etymologically very close to Goliath. All are quite similar to Indo-European, names such as Lydian Wylattes/Aylattes, which in the past have been etymologically compared to Goliath (way before this find). ... The inscription demonstrates that ca. the 10th/9th cent. BCE, names very similar to Goliath were in use at Philistine Gath. This does provide some cultural background for the David/Goliath story.⁸

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): An inscription אלוח | ול[ incised on a stone bowl from Tell es-Safi/Gath. The inscription was interpreted as two personal Philistine names of Anatolian or Aegean origin, although the writing is proto-Canaanite. The inscription is dated by the excavators to the tenth century BCE.⁹

Malena (2015): The script is linear alphabetic, but the inscription is probably not Semitic. Instead, the excavators argue that it should be interpreted to be Philistine, which would make this find the earliest alphabetic Philistine inscription. The preserved writing consists of a line of seven letters with a word divider between the fourth and fifth letter; there is a possible additional sign to the left of the inscription. The main line reads ʾlwt|wlt[...]. The excavators suggest the best interpretation is that these words are names, citing parallels in Greek and Anatolian sources: Alyattes and Oletas or Ouliatos/Oalaolos. It is notable that, if Philistine, the Semitic script is used here by relative newcomers to the region.¹⁰

Colless (2014): The line of writing probably runs from right to left, and this suggests it is the international alphabet, not the neo-syllabary; but the Aleph has the wrong stance (it is upright, not reclining) though it has the characteristic extension of its crossbar. The two instances of L seem to be the same, and they are reversed versions of those on the QW bowl above, and also of the Lamed in the Izbet Sartah abagadary. It is hard to determine whether the two Y-shaped characters represent Waw or Yod. The first Taw might be meant to be TU or TA, and the second one TI, or else the stance has no particular significance.¹¹

Millard (2011): ...Personal names scratched on a stone and on potsherds that can be placed approximately in the Tenth Century...sherds from Tell eṣ-Ṣafī (probably Gath)....¹²

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., Tell eṣ-Ṣafi sherd 821141] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.¹³

1. Image: Oren Klass, Goliath found? The Jerusalem Post, 10 November 2005 https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-news/goliath-found (accessed ...), prof meir (photo credit: Yoni Reif).

2. Image: Aren Maeir, Comment on the news item in BAR on the Goliath Inscription The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project Official (and Unofficial) Weblog, 16 February 2006 https://gath.wordpress.com/2006/02/16/comment-on-the-news-item-in-bar-on-the-goliath-inscription/ (accessed ...), The Goliath Inscription.

3. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, The Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon in its Setting, in Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Shephelah Papers Presented at a Colloquium of the Swiss Society for Ancient Near Eastern Studies Held at the University of Bern, September 6, 2014, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 282, ed. Silvia Schroer and Stefan Münger (Fribourg, CH: Academic Press, 2017), https://www.academia.edu/33003336/2017_Sass_B_The_Khirbet_Qeiyafa_ostracon_in_its_setting_In_S_Schroer_and_S_Münger_eds_Khirbet_Qeiyafa_in_the_Shephelah_Papers_presented_at_a_conference_of_the_SGOA_SSPOA_at_the_University_of_Bern_September_6_2014_Orbis_Biblicus_et_Orientalis_282_Fribourg_and_Göttingen_87_111 [pp. 87–111] (accessed ...), p. 92, Fig. 4: Tell eṣ-Ṣafi sherd (Maeir et al. 2008: 49).

4. Note: Brian E. Colless, The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelite, The Ancient Near East Today (ASOR) II:2 (February 2014), http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/02/the-lost-link-the-alphabet-in-the-hands-of-the-early-israelites/ (accessed ...).

5. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Tell es-Safi Inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_es-Safi_inscription (accessed ...).

6. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Gath (city), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gath_(city)#Goliath_Shard (accessed ...), Goliath Shard.

7. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Goliath, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath#Goliath's_name (accessed ...), Goliath's name.

8. Note: Maeir

9. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

10. Note: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 225.

11. Note: Colless.

12. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

13. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 159-160.

Rehov 1939 Sherd aka Tell el-Ṣaren Sherd [1939] (12th-11th Century BCE)

Rehov 1939 Sherd; Benjamin Sass. Source: Finkelstein, Sass (2013).¹

Transliteration source, Lemaire (2015): [A] fragmentary inscribed sherd...found in 1939 on the surface of Tell eṣ-Ṣarem (= Tel Rehov)...was incised before firing but the inscription with apparently remains of seven letters is still enigmatic since only three letters seem clear enough for identification (Š, ʿ, M) but which are not on the same line.²

Notes

Lemaire (2015): The vertical M and the ʿ with a dot inside it could be dated to the twelfth to eleventh centuries BCE or around 1000 BCE.³

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., the sherd found in 1939 on the surface of Tel Rehov] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.⁴

1. Drawing: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 209, Fig. 13: Sass 1988 (n. 17): fig. 178.

2. Transliteration: André Lemaire, Levantine Literacy ca. 1000-750 BCE, in Contextualizing Israel's Sacred Writings: Ancient Literacy, Orality, and Literary Production, ed. Brian B. Schmidt (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015) , https://books.google.com/books?id=Dj4pCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 [p. 22] (accessed ...), p. 22.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 160-161.

Rehov 1-3 [???] (10th Century BCE)

Parker (2013, 2018): Several inscribed fragments have also been recovered in southern Canaan from tenth-century contexts. These include...Tel Rehov (1-5).....¹

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Tel Rehov inscriptions 1– were found in Stratum VI [10th century] of the early Iron IIA [ca. 940-880]. One of them – Rehov 2 – was incised twice, after firing, on a complete storage jar, so that it can securely be associated with this layer.²

1. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 123, n. 540.

2. Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 161.

Rehov 1 (10th Century BCE)

Rehov 1; Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar. Source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).¹

Transliteration source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).²

Notes

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): This sherd bears two letters written in ink. ... Two signs are written in black ink that may be read as ע and י. The ע is a circle without a dot, as it has lost this pictographic feature. The י is somewhat unclear and it seems that the writer had difficulty when forming it. In our view, the zigzag and its cross-line are visible.³

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Early Iron IIA [ca. 940-880]. ... Not securely datable by palaeography, the letters of [the Rehov 1 and 3] inscriptions nevertheless look post Proto-Canaanite and thus could hardly belong to the Iron I.⁴

1. Image and drawing: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 189, Fig. 1: Reg. No. 104028, Locus 7512, Area C, Building CY, local Stratum C-2, general Stratum VI.

2. Transliteration: Ibid., p. 40.

3. Transliteration: Ibid.

4. Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 161.

Rehov 2 (10th Century BCE)

Rehov 2 Detail; Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar. Source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).1	Rehov 2 Inscription; Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar. Source: Sass (2017).2

Transliteration source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).³

Notes

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): This is a double inscription, incised...on both faces of the jar.... One side can be read מתא| (the most reasonable interpretation of the short vertical line that follows the name מתא is the numeral one), while the opposite face bears the same inscription, although only the upper left part of the ת, the א and the short vertical line are preserved. The inscription can be interpreted as a personal name followed by the numeric one.⁴

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Early Iron IIA [ca. 940-880]. ... Paleographically, Rehov 2 is transitional from Proto-Canaanite to post Proto-Canaanite.⁵

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): In early Iron IIA the linear alphabet, hitherto confined to Philistia, spread farther afield for the first time. ... Only a single inscription found beyond Philistia in a secure early Iron IIA context is known at present: Rehov jar 2. Outside Philistia, this is the only early Iron IIA [ca. 940-880] inscription from a primary archaeological context.... In Finkelstein and Sass 2013, we have taken the letter-shapes to be transitional—a mix of Proto-Canaanite and post Proto-Canaanite or cursive forms—the mem belonging to the former, the taw and alep to the latter. In retrospect all may be late Proto-Canaanite—the taw and alep are among the non-indicative letters in this regard. Indeed we now classify the inscription on Rehov jar 2 as just Proto-Canaanite; it has no cursive component.⁶

1. Image and drawing: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 190, Fig. 2: Reg. No. 7489/10, Locus 7491, Building CT, local Stratum C-2b, general Stratum VIB.

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass, The Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon in its Setting, in Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Shephelah Papers Presented at a Colloquium of the Swiss Society for Ancient Near Eastern Studies Held at the University of Bern, September 6, 2014, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 282, ed. Silvia Schroer and Stefan Münger (Fribourg, CH: Academic Press, 2017), https://www.academia.edu/33003336/2017_Sass_B_The_Khirbet_Qeiyafa_ostracon_in_its_setting_In_S_Schroer_and_S_Münger_eds_Khirbet_Qeiyafa_in_the_Shephelah_Papers_presented_at_a_conference_of_the_SGOA_SSPOA_at_the_University_of_Bern_September_6_2014_Orbis_Biblicus_et_Orientalis_282_Fribourg_and_Göttingen_87_111 [pp. 87–111] (accessed ...), p. 90, Fig. 2: Tel Reḥov Inscription 2 (Aḥituv and Mazar 2014: 190; courtesy of A. Mazar, Tel Reḥov Excavations, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

3. Transliteration: Aḥituv and Mazar, p. 40.

4. Note: Ibid.

5. Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 161.

6. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 26.

Rehov 3 (10th Century BCE)

Rehov 3; Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar. Source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).¹

Notes

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Early Iron IIA [ca. 940-880]. ... Not securely datable by palaeography, the letters of [the Rehov 1 and 3] inscriptions nevertheless look post Proto-Canaanite and thus could hardly belong to the Iron I.²

1. Drawing: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 191, Fig. 3: Reg. No. 75109/99, Locus 7505, Area C, Building CY, local Stratum C-2, general Stratum VI.

2. Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 161.

Khirbet Raddana Handle [????] (13th-11th Century BCE)

Khirbet Raddana Handle. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.¹

Transliteration source, Cross (1975): The signs read vertically: ʾḥl[ ].²

Notes

Millard (2011): Assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.³

Cross (1975): Late thirteenth century BCE.⁴

Azevedo (1994): Raddana handle 1300 BC.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions [e.g., the site of Khirbet Raddana] are still wholly Proto-Canaanite.⁶

1. Drawing: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, Inscribed Jar Handle from Khirbet Raddana, 19 August 2017, http://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2017/08/inscribed-jar-handle-from-khirbet.html (accessed ...), The jar handle from Khirbet Raddana.

2. Transliteration: Frank Moore Cross, Early Alphabetic Scripts [1975], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000054.xml (accessed ...), p. 331.

3. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

4. Note: Cross.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 104.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 160.

Ophel Pithos aka Jerusalem Pithos [2012] (11th-10th Century BCE)

Ophel Pithos; Ouria Tadmor and Ada Yardeni. Source: Ngo (2020).¹

Transliteration source, Mazar, Ben-Shlomo, Aḥituv (2013): Seven letters appear on the two joined pieces; one of these letters is partially broken and is indecipherable. ... The letters appear to belong to the eleventh–tenth centuries BCE. ... The letters are not of the Phoenician-Hebrew script, but are similar to the Proto-Canaanite/Early-Canaanite one. The inscription is written from left to right (as evident from the stance of the letters), like the Qubur al-Walaydah and the ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah ostraca. Although a comprehensive meaning of the inscription still eludes us, the letters (from left to right) are: m, q (less likely r), p, ḥ, n, a broken letter which might be l (or perhaps is two broken letters) and another n. ... The letters are proportionally spaced...only between the last two letters (the reconstructed l and the n) is the space doubled... Since in the Proto- Canaanite and the Phoenician-Hebrew writing system there were no spaces between words, it is possible that the inscription began at what is here described as the last letter of the inscription, which might have run around the pithos shoulder. ... The letters might be referring to the name of the owner of the pithos, its addressee, or its contents, but unfortunately, they do not yield any intelligible combination. Perhaps they represent a non-Semitic combination or combinations. ... The new inscription from the Ophel remains, for the time being, enigmatic.²

Transliteration and translation source, Malena (2015): The script is eleventh-tenth century Early Alphabetic, and the text is written dextrograde [left to right]. It consists of seven letters. E. Mazar, D. Ben-Shlomo and S. Aḥituv suggest that the inscription originally circled the entire rim and that the letter at the far right of what has been preserved may be the beginning of the inscription. Aḥituv provides the initial epigraphic assessment. He reads m q p ḥ n l? n (the sixth letter is at a break in the sherds). Since this series of letters does not result in an intelligible phrase, he suggests the inscription may be non-Semitic. He also suggests that the inscription might designate an owner, destination, or contents of the pithos. A possession formula has been put forward by Rollston, which seems to be the best solution so far. He reads, m q l ḥ n r š, with a partial translation pot belonging to Ner.³

Notes

Colless (2014): It appears to have two forms of Nun...or possibly two different instances of Mem; its Het is unusual, lacking a central crossbar...; the Mem (first letter on the left)...; the letter following could be R (facing in the wrong direction) or Q (which should have the stem piercing the oval...), and the next one P (a reversal of the Phoenician P) or L (inverted and reversed).⁴

Rollston (2013): The inscription is engraved in a proto-Canaanite / early Canaanite script of the eleventh-to-tenth centuries BCE, which pre-dates the Israelite rule and the prevalence of Hebrew script. ... Because the inscription is not in Hebrew, it is likely to have been written by one of the non-Israeli residents of Jerusalem, perhaps Jebusites, who were part of the city population in the time of Kings David and Solomon. ... In terms of the palaeographic date for this inscription, I would be most comfortable with the 11th century BCE, rather than the 10th century BCE. ... Reading this inscription as dextrograde accounts so nicely for the direction of both the lamed and the nun. ... The reason for my preference for the 11th century is the fact that the script is Early Alphabetic, not Phoenician.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. ... The shape of the pithos – a forerunner of the Kuntillet ʿAjrud pithoi – has late Iron IIA parallels. On the otherhand the mixed Proto-Canaanite and ‘post Proto-Canaanite’ letter shapes, as well as the left-to-right direction of the script, fit an early Iron IIA dating.⁶

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): Early Iron IIA? Late Iron IIA/1? Late Iron IIA/2? ... In 2013 we classified the ductus of six inscriptions—the Kefar Veradim bowl, Rehov jar 2, Ophel pithos sherd, Sarepta sherd, Byblos cone A and the arrowheads as a group—as mixed Proto-Canaanite and post Proto-Canaanite (i.e. the earliest cursive). ... Yet we began to doubt this scheme already in the same article, when we added in the last moment the inscription incised before firing on an Ophel pithos. ... We now realize that the script of Rehov jar 2, the Kefar Veradim bowl, Ophel pithos sherd and Sarepta sherd is to all appearances just Proto-Canaanite; the several letter-shapes in the four inscriptions that we regarded as earliest post Proto-Canaanite are merely long-lived, surviving from one phase to the next (e.g. the alep and taw of Rehov 2), but not in the least cursive. Among the inscriptions we addressed in 2013, only unstratified Byblos cone A and five of the unprovenanced arrowheads bear a mixed script. ... For now the limits of the evidence impose a broad time-range on the Ophel pithos sherd: • Early Iron IIA: No exact ceramic parallels. Numerous palaeographic parallels. • Late Iron IIA/1: Potential ceramic and palaeographic parallels (above). • Late Iron IIA/2: Abundant ceramic parallels. Palaeo-graphically unparallelled.⁷

1. Image: Robin Ngo, Precursor to Paleo-Hebrew Script Discovered in Jerusalem, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 13 September 2020, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/precursor-to-the-paleo-hebrew-script-discovered-in-jerusalem/ (accessed ...), ...a lettered inscription featuring the earliest alphabet ever found in Jerusalem. The inscription precedes the development of the Paleo-Hebrew script used by the Israelites in the First Temple period.... Sherd: Ouria Tadmor, courtesy of Eilat Mazar. Drawing: Ada Yardeni, courtesy of Eilat Mazar.

2. Transliteration and translation: Eilat Mazar, David Ben-Shlomo, and Shmuel Aḥituv, An Inscribed Pithos from the Ophel, Jerusalem, Israel Exploration Journal [IEJ] 63:1 (2013), http://www.foundationstone.org/resources/Ophel-inscription.pdf (accessed ...), pp. 45,47.

3. Transliteration and translation: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 233.

7. Note: Brian E. Colless, The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelite, The Ancient Near East Today (ASOR) II:2 (February 2014), http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/02/the-lost-link-the-alphabet-in-the-hands-of-the-early-israelites/ (accessed ...).

5. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Decipherment of the New ‘Incised Jerusalem Pithos’, Rollston Epigraphy, 11 July 2013, http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=561 (accessed ...).

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 162.

7. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), pp. 27, 26, 28.

Kefar Veradim Bowl [2006?] (12th-9th Century BCE)

Kefar Veradim Bowl; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Kefar Veradim Bowl; Christopher Rollston. Source: Rollston (2008a).2

Translation source: The Israel Museum.³

Notes

Rollston (2008a): The Kefar Veradim Bowl is a stunning artifact, made of fluted bronze. The inscription consists of just four words, all well preserved, with two word dividers also present. The inscribed bowl was found in a burial cave at Kefar Veradim (Israel). According to the standard chronology, the associated archaeological materials (bowls, craters, including some black-on-red ware, etc.) can be dated to the tenth century, or early ninth century. ... As a palaeographer, I would state that the inscription can indeed be dated to the early tenth century.⁴

Rollston (2008b): The script of this inscription is stunning, reflecting the consummate work of a fine engraver. ... Its script reflects the same basic script morphology as the ʿAzarbaʿl Inscription. ... There can be no question about the fact that this inscription is written in the Phoenician script. In fact, it is a superb Phoenician script, and of fundamental importance is the fact that it was discovered in Israel. That is, the Phoenician script is attested in Israel, and this fact cannot be contested.⁵

Rollston (2010): The excavator has stated that, according to the standard chronology, the associated archaeological materials (bowls, craters, including some black-on-red ware, etc.) can be dated to the tenth century, or early-ninth century. [Yardenna] Alexandre contemplated the possibility that this bowl might have been an heirloom piece, but does not come down definitively on the subject [i.e., the bowl is older (e.g., early 10th c.) than the archaeological context in which it was found (10th-early 9th c.)]. From my perspective...the script of this inscription reflects the work of a trained, consummate scribe. Its script reflects the same basic script morphology as that of the Azarba‘al Inscription. ... I consider this inscribed bowl to hail from the same basic chronological horizon as the Azarba‘al Inscription. Based on the script, therefore, I am comfortable with an early-tenth century date for this inscription.⁶

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): This inscription poses a chronological problem, since it appears to be even earlier than the Gezer Calendar, although the ceramic assemblage found nearby is more consistent with an Iron IIA date.... Yardenna Alexandre dated the grave and the inscription to the tenth century BCE. ... the date suggested by Alexandre for this bowl in the second half of the tenth century BCE appears to be correct.⁷

Millard (2011): There are equally few documents assigned to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: ...and a name incised on a bronze bowl found at Kefar Veradim.⁸

Parker (2013, 2018): Note also an inscribed bowl from Kefar Veradim. This bowl was found in a tenth-century tomb context; however, it may be best identified as an heirloom object, as it inscribed in eleventh-century Phoenician script.⁹

The Israel Museum: Iron Age II, 9th century BCE.¹⁰

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. ... Typologically, the [Kefar Veradim] bowl has a broad range – Late Bronze II to the Persian period. Palaeographically, the mixed script – Proto-Canaanite and post Proto-Canaanite – is not developed enough for the late Iron IIA, when all Proto-Canaanite features seem to be definitely gone (but see now the Ophel pithos sherd). Dating the bowl a long time before the burial is not very likely. We prefer to assign the bowl as well as its inscription to the early Iron IIA, assuming that it was a few decades old when deposited in the tomb.¹¹

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): Early Iron IIA? Late Iron IIA/1? In Finkelstein and Sass 2013...since at the time we did not think that Proto-Canaanite lasted as long, we perceived the [Kefar Veradim] bowl as an early Iron IIA heirloom in its late Iron IIA/1 funerary context, yet believed that the script displayed a few advanced traits. As with Rehov jar 2 we now regard the script as just Proto-Canaanite rather than transitional.¹²

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Cup of Pesah ben Shema, inscription on a drinking bowl (cup); IAA: 1999-842, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375137 (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008a), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed ...), p. 84, Fig. 10: Kefar Veradim Bowl (Drawing by Christopher Rollston).

3. Translation: The Israel Museum.

4. Note: Rollston (2008a), pp. 84-85.

5. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Phoenician Script of the Tel Zayit Abecedary and Putative Evidence for Israelite Literacy, in Literate Culture and Tenth-Century Canaan: The Tel Zayit Abecedary in Context, ed. Ron Tappy and P. Kyle McCarter (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008b), https://www.academia.edu/474482/The_Phoenician_Script_of_the_Tel_Zayit_Abecedary_and_Putative_Evidence_for_Israelite_Literacy (accessed ...), pp. 78-79.

6. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age, Archaeology and Biblical Studies 11 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature [SBL], 2010), http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Rollston_Literacy%20In%20Ancient%201.pdf [pp. 1-28] (accessed ...), p. 27.

7. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), pp. 54-55.

8. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 2.

9. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 124, n. 540.

10. Note: The Israel Museum.

11. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 161-162.

12. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 27.

Sarepta/Sarephath/Zarephath Sherd [????] (13th or 9th century BCE)

Sarepta Sherd; Émile Puech. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹ (Image of the sherd: Frank Moore Cross [2003], p. 332, Figure 53.2.)

Transliteration (RTL) source, Cross (1975): A...Proto-Canaanite inscription has been found at Zarephath (Sarepta) [in Phoenicia].... It is a dipinto reminiscent of the Lachish Ewer and the Hazor Sherd. Its script stands close to that of the Beth-shemesh Ostracon, and its date should not be far from 1200 BCE, the date assigned to the Beth-shemesh Ostracon. Three letters are complete and a fourth is broken: ]dʾḥ⸢k?⸣[. The writing is probably from right to left. The form and stance of the ʾalep are particularly interesting, recalling the archaic Greek stance. The rotation of the stance is characteristic of the Proto-Canaanite period when vertical and horizontal writing were both in use.² Cross (1975): The Sarepta ʾalep has its best parallels in form with the Lachish Ewer ʾalep, the Raddana Handle, the ʾAbbaʾ Seal [Revadim], and above all with the ʾalep of the ʿIzbet Ṣarṭah Inscription, which exhibits little or no breaking through of the cross-bar.³

Transliteration (LTR) source, Peckham (2014): [A Red Slip jug], of which only a fragment is preserved, was inscribed with an extraordinary series of cursive Phoenician letters. They were painted and written...from left to right like Greek rather than from right to left like Phoenician. The first letter is only partially preserved on the left margin of the sherd, but it is clearly a back-to-front (reversed) yod.... The next letter is ḥet.... The third letter is ʾalep, rotated to the left 90 degrees.... The last letter on the right is a cursive ʿayin.... What is extraordinary about this sherd, then, is that a potter in ninth-century Sarepta decorated a fine Sidonian jug with the Greek vowels (iota, eta, alpha, omicron).⁴

Notes

The Sarepta Sherd is dated by F. M. Cross to the 13th century based on its paleography, and dated by B. Peckham to the 9th century based on its material (Red Slip pottery). Both see parallels to Greek within its script.

Peckham (2014): Sarepta, on the coast between Tyre and Sidon, was the southernmost Sidonian partner in domestic and foreign trade in the ninth century. ... Two inscriptions in the late Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet, both from about the end of the thirteenth century, have been found in the ruins of the town. ... The town prospered in the tenth and ninth centuries, when there were new streets and a significant use of ashlar masonry, regular contacts with Cyprus, and a flourishing pottery industry. The pottery industry, which seems to have supplied the whole Sidonian market, was marked by new technology and by new forms, such as Red Slip burnished bowls and Red Slip jugs with lines of black and red paint.⁵

Pritchard (1971): Ancient Sarepta had a long and varied history that can be sketched from more than fifty references to it in documents written over a span of more than three millennia. Its name appears in the Ugaritic texts of the fourteenth century B.C.; it is mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus of the thirteenth century along with Byblos, Beirut, Sidon and Tyre as one of the principal cities of the coast. ... It has long been observed that the principal Phoenician cities on the coast of Lebanon and Syria enjoyed the advantage of two harbors. This is true of Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, and Sarepta.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 13th-12th BC.⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. Some of the inscriptions are still wholly Proto-Canaanite. ... The Sarepta sherd, without a context, bears an inscription painted before firing. The script is transitional from Proto-Canaanite to ‘post Proto-Canaanite’ – note the rotated alep vs. the developed ḥet – hence possibly early Iron IIA.⁸

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): Early Iron IIA? Late Iron IIA/1? ...In Finkelstein and Sass 2013...we attributed the sherd to the [tenth century], but considered the script to be mixed, a classification which we now abandon: the A-oriented alep is clearly Proto-Canaanite, same as one of the four in the Qeiyafa ostracon, and less expected in the mixed script. The Sarepta ḥet, that in 2013 we dubbed “developed”, seems not so on second thoughts— it lacks the acute angles of the cursive that can be observed in stratified Rehov jar 7 and the Rosh Zayit sherd, and in unstratified Byblos cone A. The dalet is non-indicative.⁹

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies IX (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 29, Figure 11: Sarepta sherd (PUECH 1986, p. 173, no. 3).

2.) Transliteration: Frank Moore Cross, Early Alphabetic Scripts [1975], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000054.xml (accessed ...), p. 330, Old Canaanite (Sixteenth-Twelfth Centuries BCE).

3. Ibid., p. 330, n. 5.

4. Transliteration: J. Brian Peckham, Phoenicia: Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean (n.p.: Eisenbrauns, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=XPL2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 (accessed ...), pp. 100-101.

5. Note: Ibid., pp. 100-101.

6. Note: James B. Pritchard, The Phoenicians in their Homeland, Expedition Magazine (Penn Museum) 14.1 (1971), https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-phoenicians-in-their-homeland/ (accessed ...).

7. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 105.

8. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 162.

9. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), pp. 28.

Megiddo Jug Sherd [2014] (10th-8th Century BCE)

Megiddo Jug Sherd; Michael Cordonsky. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).1	Megiddo Jug Sherd; Yulia Gottlieb. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).2

Transliteration source, Sass, Finkelstein (2016): The sherd was broken in four...bearing the letters [- -]hb in cursive script but oriented left to right. ... The letters preceding the he were written towards the jug’s neck above—there is room for two more letters, whereas the space beyond the bet indicates that this letter was the last in the line. The text could thus read [- -]hb—one word, less likely two. ... One possible restoration is...a personal name...nʾhb, “Beloved”.... This Hebrew name occurs three times at Elephantine, two of them syncopated—nhb, and the feminine nʾhbt is documented four times, three of them spelled nhbt. nʾhbt is found besides on a late Iron Age bulla from Jerusalem and an unprovenanced Hebrew seal acquired in the 19th.... On the Megiddo sherd this hypothetical restoration of a personal name is obviously unverifiable.³

Notes

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): On 25 June 2014 a sherd of a red-slipped, hand-burnished jug decorated with five horizontal black bands on its shoulder, and with remnants of a painted alphabetic inscription was found...in an Iron IIA [ca. 940-780/770] context. ... The two Megiddo letters belong to the earliest cursive or “post Proto-Canaanite” phase of the West Semitic alphabet, at the same time still flipped left to right, a last relic of the waning Proto-Canaanite tradition. ... It should be borne in mind that while the entire Megiddo line could have been oriented left to right, this is not to be concluded automatically: see Byblos cone A, its inscription running right to left, yet with two adjacent letters flipped left to right. ... Judging by the inclination of the bet, the Megiddo writing may be Hebrew, supported further by the provenance of the sherd in Israelite Megiddo. If so, it would be the earliest text in the Hebrew script-variant from the territory of Israel or Judah. The other late Iron IIA/1 Hebrew examples known up till now come from Rehov [Rehov 5 and 7; Tel Amal Jar; possibly also Rehov 8 and 9] and Ṣafi [Ṣafi Jar 747028/1; Tel Batash Bowl Sherd] only, just beyond the opposite boundaries—with the Aramaeans and Philistines—of the Hebrew kingdoms.⁴

1. Image: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 20, Figure 1 - The inscribed sherd. a. Photograph – whole (Tel Aviv University, photographer Michael Cordonsky).

2. Drawing: Ibid., p. 21, c. Restorated drawing with profile of jug after 10/Q/94/VS1 (Yulia Gottlieb).

3. Transliteration: Ibid., pp. 19, 20, 24.

4. Transliteration: Ibid., pp. 19, 24-25.

Byblos Cone A [????] (11th Century BCE)

Byblos Cone A; Maurice Dunand. Source: Sass (2005).1	Byblos Cone A; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).2

Transliteration and translation source, Cross (1975): No. 7765 (Byblos A) from the early eleventh century BCE reads: lʿbdḥmn, Belonging to ʿAbd-Ḥamōn.³

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Early 11th BC.⁴

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Late Iron I [ca. mid 1000s-940] to early Iron IIA [ca. 940–880]. ... Byblos cone A with an inscription incised before(?) firing, has no archaeological context. The script, the most archaic-looking among all Byblos inscriptions, with its mirror-image ḥet and mem, is transitional from Proto-Canaanite to ‘post Proto-Canaanite.’⁵

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): Mixed Proto-Canaanite and cursive [post Proto-Canaanite]: late Iron IIA/1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... In unstratified Byblos cone A, the text is oriented right to left, as are five of the seven letters preserved. Only the remaining two, the adjoining ḥet and mem, are in reverse. ... The Megiddo jug sherd may provide Byblos cone A with an absolute dating.⁶

1. Image: Benjamin Sass, The Alphabet at the Turn of the Millennium ca. 1150-850 BCE: The West Semitic Alphabet: The Antiquity of the Arabian, Greek and Phrygian Alphabets, Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 4 (Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology, 2005), https://www.academia.edu/4786876/2005_Sass_B_The_alphabet_at_the_turn_of_the_millennium_The_West_Semitic_alphabet_ca_1150_850_BCE_the_antiquity_of_the_Arabian_Greek_and_Phrygian_alphabets_Tel_Aviv_University_Institute_of_Archaeology_Occasional_Publications_4_Tel_Aviv (accessed ...), p. 44, Fig. 14: Byblos cone A (Byblos II, pl. 144).

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies IX (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 31, Figure 16: Byblos cone A (Sass 1988, fig. 200).

3. Transliteration and translation: Frank Moore Cross, Early Alphabetic Scripts [1975], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336 (accessed ...), p. 336, Fig. 53.6.

4. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 106.

5. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 157, 162.

6. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 30.

Nos. 2-4, 10-11 El Khadr 1-3 [1954], 4-5 [1980] (12th-11th Century BCE) [Proto-Canaanite]

El Khadr 1 Arrowhead; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.¹

El Khadr 2 Arrowhead; J. T. Milik and Frank Moore Cross. Source: Lam (2010).²

El Khadr 1-5 Arrowheads. Source: Nigro (2015).³

Transliteration and translation source, Cross (1996): ʾEl-Ḫaḍr I-III;⁴ ʾEl-Ḫaḍr IV;⁵ ʾEl-Ḫaḍr V.⁶

Notes

Milik, Cross (1954): The first inscribed javelin-head was bought from an antiquity dealer on November 1, 1953. Some weeks afterwards more javelin-heads appeared on the market. It was ascertained that they belonged to the same lot, and the provenience was located beyond any reasonable doubt. ... The whole hoard contained about 26 javelin and arrow-heads, and was found by a fellâḥ of el-Khaḍr, a village 5 km. west of Bethelehem. As there is no evidence for the occupation of the site earlier than the Roman period, the cache may have been lost or buried with its owner, during or after a battle.⁷

Bible Review (1992): The inscribed [El-Khadr] arrowheads first turned up on the antiquities market in the early 1950s; upon investigation it was learned that they had been uncovered while ploughing a field in El-Khadr, a village near Bethlehem. Three of the original hoard were inscribed with the phrase “Arrowhead of ‘Abd-labi’t.” ... Some 25 years after the first El-Khadr finds, Frank Moore Cross, while in the home of a Jerusalem lawyer, happened to notice an arrowhead in a cabinet that seemed very similar to the El-Khadr pieces. Cross quickly noted that it, too, bore the name ‘Abd-labi’t. The lawyer informed Cross of another such arrowhead in the hands of a private collector; the count of inscribed arrowheads was thus raised to five. ⁸

Cross (1993): In the summer of 1979 I was in the home of a private collector in Jerusalem examining a hoard of coins, when by chance I noticed an arrowhead in a glass cabinet and asked if I might examine it, for even from a distance I could see that it was identical in type to the arrowheads from ʾEl-Ḫaḍr. It proved to be inscribed, the fourth such piece. The collector had knowledge of yet a fifth inscribed arrowhead in another private collection to which I was given access. ... There can be no doubt about their authenticity. ... We now have twenty-six arrowheads belonging to the ʾEl-Ḫaḍr hoard, including five inscribed arrowheads.⁹

Cross (1993): [In ʾEl-Ḫaḍr IV] the bet of ʿbdl⟨b⟩ʾt was omitted by an error of the scribe. In ʾEl-Ḫaḍr II the ʾalep of ʿbdlb⟨ʾ⟩t was omitted.... ... The omission...must be attributed to scribal carelessness. ... [In ʾEl-Ḫaḍr V] apparently the ḥṣ (ḥiṣṣ), arrowhead, was not inscribed on this arrowhead, in contrast with the other inscribed pieces (ʾEl-Ḫaḍr I-IV) and later eleventh-century BDE arrowheads (Zakar-ba[ʿl], Gerbaʿl, Rapaʾ, and Ruweiseh). ... The real surprise, however, is the [patronymic] on the reverse.... In this addition the arrowhead parallels the arrowheads from Phoenicia: rpʾlbn yḥš; grbʿl|ṣdny; ʾdʾ|bn ʿky; and most strikingly zkrbʿ[l]|bn bn ʿn[t].¹⁰

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): El-Khadr arrowheads 1, 2 and 3: early Iron IIA? Late Iron IIA/1? These unprovenanced arrowheads, datable only by palaeography, seem to comprise exclusively Proto-Canaanite letter-shapes. ... The inscribed arrowheads...which Cross thought began ca 1100 BCE with the el-Khadr arrowheads and ended with the Zakarbaal arrowhead ca 950....¹¹

Azevedo (1994): El Khadr n. I-V 12th-11th BC.¹²

Röllig (1995): 1. El Hadr I. Jerusalem, Rockefeller Museum. IDAM 54,1. Cross/Milik, 1954 - Albright, 1954 - Dussaud, 1954. KAI Nr. 21. ḥṣ ʿbdlbʾt; 2. El Hadr II. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Semitic Museum n° 982.1.1. Lit. see n° 1. ḥṣ ʿbdlbt; 3. El Hadr III. Amman, Archaeological Museum. Nr. J 5137. Lit. see n° 1.; 4. El Hadr IV. Jerusalem, private collection. Cross, 1980. ḥṣ ʿbdlʾt; 5. El Hadr V. Jerusalem, private collection. Cross, 1980. ʿbdlbʾt|bnʿnt.¹³

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Arrow of Abdlabit, inscription on an arrowhead; IAA: p-526288, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375296 (accessed ...).

2. Image: Joseph Lam, The Invention and Development of the Alphabet, in Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond, ed. Christopher Woods (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2010), https://www.academia.edu/341273/The_Invention_and_Development_of_the_Alphabet [pp. 189-201] (accessed ...), p. 197, 91: Arrowhead inscribed in proto-Canaanite. (Published: Milik and Cross 1954; Milik and Cross 2003, no. 49, pp. 303–08.)

3. Images and drawings: Lorenzo Nigro, Bethlehem in the Bronze and Iron Ages in the light of recent discoveries by the Palestinian MOTA-DACH, Vicino Oriente XIX (2015), https://www.academia.edu/22280922/Bethlehem_in_the_Bronze_and_Iron_Ages_in_the_light_of_recent_discoveries_by_the_Palestinian_MOTA_DACH (accessed ...), p. 22, Fig. 16: Inscribed arrowheads from el-Khadr...(Milik - Cross 1954, 6-8, fig. 1; Cross 1980, 4-7, figs. 3-8; Naveh 1982, 37-39, fig. 32).

4. Transliteration and translation: Frank Moore Cross, The Arrow of Suwar, Retainer of ʿAbday [1996], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 (accessed ...), p. 200.

5. Ibid., p. 217.

6. Ibid., p. 218.

7 Note: J. T. Milik and Frank M. Cross, Jr., Inscribed Javelin-Heads from the Period of the Judges: A Recent Discovery in Palestine, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 134 (April 1954), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1355623?seq=1 (accessed ...), p. 27.

8. Note: Bible Review, Inscribed Arrowheads: The Missing Link in the Evolution of the Alphabet (Sidebar to: Frank Moore Cross—An Interview; Part III: How the Alphabet Democratized Civilization), (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 8:6 (December 1992), https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/8/6/23.

9. Note: Cross, p. 217.

10. Ibid., pp. 217-218.

11. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), pp. 28, 33.

12. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), pp. 105-106.

13. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 354.

No. 1 Ruweiseh/Ruweise [1921] (11th Century BCE) [Transitional]

Ruweiseh Arrowhead; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹

Transliteration source: Röllig (1995): 10. Ruweiseh. Louvre, AO 18849. Guiges/Roncevalle, 1921 - Dussaud, 1927. KAI Nr. 20. ḥṣ ʾdʾ|bn ʿky.²

Ruweiseh Arrowhead; Frank Cross. Source: Cross (1996).³

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1996): 1. Ruweiseh (Louvre), ḥṣ ʾbʾ (sic!) | bn ʿky, Arrow of ʾAbaʾ son of ʿAkkay (P.-E. Guigues and S. Ronzevalle, MUSJ 11 [1926]: 323-358).⁴

Notes

Cross (1996): The arrowhead found at Ruweiseh, which has long been read ḥṣ ʾdʾ | bn ʿky [Arrowhead No. 1] on reexamination must be read ḥṣ ʾbʾ | bn ʿky. ... The bet [is] an archaic form, unknown when the piece was published, with a short down-stroke from the head, not quite touching the triangular head and hence ignored. This archaic form is now well known; see for example, the bet of ʾEl-Ḫaḍr Arrowhead No. III (Arrowhead No. 4), and that of the arrowhead of Yataʾ son of Zimmaʾ (Arrowhead No. 9).⁵

Azevedo (1994): Ruweise arrow-head 11th BC.⁶

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 31, Figure 18: Ruweiseh arrowhead (Sass 1988, fig. 208).

2. Transliteration and translation: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 354.

3. Drawing: Frank Moore Cross, The Arrow of Suwar, Retainer of ʿAbday, Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (Israel Exploration Society) 25 (1996), https://images.app.goo.gl/8Jp2MPbYHALYsnMh8 [p. 9] (accessed ...). (See also https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198, Figure 29.4: A drawing of the Ruweiseh arrowhead, of ʾAbaʾ / son of ʿAkkay.)

4. Transliteration and translation: Frank Moore Cross, The Arrow of Suwar, Retainer of ʿAbday [1996], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 (accessed ...), p. 200.

5. Note: Ibid., p. 198.

6. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 107.

No. 5 Zakarbaal/Beqaʿ Valley [1956] (11th-10th Century BCE) [Transitional]

Arrow of Zakarbaal, Reverse; Dan Diffendale. Source: flickr.¹

Arrow of Zakarbaal. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.²

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1996): 5. Beirut Museum, ḥṣ zkrb[ʿl] | bn bn ʿn[t], Arrow of Zakar-baʿl son of Bin-ʿAnat.³ (Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible: the son of the son of Anat.⁴)

Notes

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): The inscribed arrowheads...which Cross thought began ca 1100 BCE with the el-Khadr arrowheads and ended with the Zakarbaal arrowhead ca 950....⁵

Azevedo (1994): Beqaʿ arrow-head 11th BC.⁶

Röllig (1995): 11. Beirut, National Museum. Nr.? Milik, 1956 - Yeivin, 1958. KAI Nr. 22. ḥṣ zkrb[ʿl]/bn bnʿn[t].⁷

1. Image: Dan Diffendale, Bronze arrowhead with Phoenician inscription, 1, flickr, 29 October 2019, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dandiffendale/50192159312/in/photostream/ (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, The theophoric Name baal, on Bronze Arrowheads, 16 February 2019, http://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2019/02/ (accessed ...).

3. Transliteration and translation: Frank Moore Cross, The Arrow of Suwar, Retainer of ʿAbday [1996], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 (accessed ...), p. 200.

4. Translation: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.

5. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 33.

6. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 107.

7. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 354.

No. 6 Gerbaʿal [1961] (11th Century BCE) [Transitional]

Arrow of Gerbaal; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹

Transliteration and translation sources: Cross (1993): ḥṣ grbʿl|ṣdny.² Cross (1992): On one of the eleventh-century arrowheads, No. 6, we have the gentilic, ṣdny, the Sidonian.³

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Gerbaʿal arrow-head 11th BC.⁴

Röllig (1995): 7. Beirut, National Museum. Nr. 5137. Milik, 1961. ḥṣ grbʿl/ṣdny.⁵ Röllig (1995): ...Indications of provenance in the inscriptions themselves, given as nisbatun, namely sīdōnīyu "Man from Sidon" (n° 7). ...A designation of origin in the form of a nisbatun: ṣdny (n° 7).⁶

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 31, Figure 19: Gerbaal arrowhead (Sass 1988, fig. 202).

2. Transliteration: Frank Moore Cross, Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts [1980], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 (accessed ...), p. 218.

3. Translation: Frank Moore Cross, An Inscribed Arrowhead of the Eleventh Century BCE in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem [1992], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA204 (accessed ...), p. 204.

4. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 106.

7. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 354.

8. Ibid., pp. 348-349.

No. 17 Pères blancs [1991] (??th Century BCE) [Transitional]

Pères blancs Arrowhead; Jean-Michel de Tarragon. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Röllig (1995): 22. Jerusalem, Peres Blancs. de Tarragon, 1991. ḥṣ ʾdn šʿ|r.² Elayi (2005): ...The arrowhead of 'Adonišuʿa, who was RB, «commander» (No. XVII).³

Notes

Röllig (1995): The name ʾdnšʿ Adonišuʿa my Lord is salvation (n° 22) has a single Phoenician counterpart in a stamp-seal, dated in the middle of the 8th century B.C.⁴

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 31, Figure 20: Pères blancs arrowhead (Tarragon 1991, p. 245).

2. Transliteration and translation: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 355.

3. Transliteration and translation: Josette Elayi, Four New Inscribed Phoenician Arrowheads, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 22 (2005), http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/SEL/sites/default/files/05elayi_5240f751.pdf [pp. 35-45] (accessed ...), p. 36.

4. Röllig, p. 350.

No. 8 Rapa [1962] (12th-11th Century BCE) [Transitional]

Arrow of Rapa, Reverse; Dan Diffendale. Source: flickr.¹

Arrow of Rapa; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).²

Transliteration source, Cross (1993): rpʾ/bn yḥš.³ Röllig (1995): yḥš (n° 6) is a hapax legomenon in Phoenician. ...The exact meaning is not clear to me.⁸

Arrow of Rapa; Reinhard G. Lehmann. Source: Lehmann (2020).⁴

Transliteration and translation source, Lehmann (2020): The so-called ‘Rapa’-palimpsest arrowhead, in possession of the Beirut National Museum, was published in 1962 by Martin. Its lower text looks typologically much older than the upper text – at least according to the ‘Albright–Cross–Harvard scale’. A new examination shows clearly that the established reading must be abandoned. Instead, the upper and later, but according to the established scale seemingly older text reads ḤṢ WLʾ || BN YḤŠ, which means that the arrowhead should be renamed from ‘Rapa’ to ‘Wala’.⁵

Notes

Azevedo (1994): Rapa arrow head 12th-11th BC.⁶

Röllig (1995): 6. Beirut, National Museum. Nr.? Martin, 1962. ḥṣ rpʾ/bn yḥš.⁷

1. Image: Dan Diffendale, Bronze arrowhead with Phoenician inscription, 2, flickr, 29 October 2019, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dandiffendale/50192159312/in/photostream/ (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 31, Figure 17: Rapa arrowhead (Sass 1988, fig. 198).

3. Transliteration: Frank Moore Cross, Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts [1980], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 (accessed ...), p. 218.

4. Drawing: Reinhard G. Lehmann, Much ado about an implement! – the Phoenicianising of Early Alphabetic, in Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets, ed. Philip J. Boyes, Philippa M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020) https://www.academia.edu/41166286/Understanding_Relations_Between_Scripts_II_Early_Alphabets (accessed ...), p. 88, Figure 5.2. Facsimile-drawing of the so-called Rapa arrowhead, front (a) and back (b). Sub-text in black, upper text in grey. Drawing by Reinhard Lehmann.

5. Transliteration and translation: Ibid., p. 80, n. 26.

6. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 106.

7. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 354.

8. Ibid., pp. 350-351.

Azarbaal aka Ezerbaal [1961] (11th Century BCE) [Post Proto-Canaanite]

Arrow of Ezerbaal. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.¹

Arrow of Azarbaal; Reinhard G. Lehmann. Source: Lehmann (2020).²

Transliteration and translation source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.³

Notes

Sass, Finkelstein (2016): The [Azarbaal arrowhead] is the only one among the nine projectiles [Rapa, Ruweiseh, Gerbaal, Pères blancs, Zakarbaal, Azarbaal, El-Khadr 1-3]...that displays cursive-like script. ... The other eight arrowheads bear Proto-Canaanite or mixed-letter shapes. ... The inscribed arrowheads...which Cross thought began ca 1100 BCE with the el-Khadr arrowheads and ended with the Zakarbaal arrowhead ca 950, document the transition from pre-cursive Proto-Canaanite to the cursive.⁴

Röllig (1995): 13. Beirut, National Museum. Nr. 677. Milik, 1961. ḥṣ ʿzrbʿl/bn ʾdnbʿl.⁵

1. Image: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, The theophoric Name baal, on Bronze Arrowheads, 16 February 2019, http://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2019/02/ (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Reinhard G. Lehmann, Much ado about an implement! – the Phoenicianising of Early Alphabetic, in Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets, ed. Philip J. Boyes, Philippa M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020) https://www.academia.edu/41166286/Understanding_Relations_Between_Scripts_II_Early_Alphabets (accessed ...), p. 82, Figure 5.3. Facsimile-drawing of the Azarbaʿal arrowhead (TSSI 3,1). Drawing by Reinhard Lehmann.

3. Transliteration and translation: Ibid.

4. Note: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 33.

5. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 355.

No. 12,29 King of Amurru [1982] (11th Century BCE)

King of Amurru Arrowhead; BAS Library. Source: McCarter (1996).¹

King of Amurru Arrowhead; BAS Library. Source: McCarter (1996).²

Transliteration and translation source, Singer (2011): An intriguing object dated to the Early Iron Age is the arrowhead of Zakarbaʿal king of Amurru (ḥṣ zkrbʿl mlk ʾmr; Starcky 1982).³

Notes

Singer (2011): The next information we have on Amurru is already after the fall of the kingdom. According to Ramses III’s inscriptions..., the Sea Peoples set up their camp in Amurru, in preparation for a further onslaught on Egypt. ... The ensuing clash in Ramses III’s eighth year (1175 B.C.e.) provides a terminus ante quem [latest possible date] for the fall of Amurru, but it is not possible to tell how much earlier this event actually occurred. Neither do we know whether there was a permanent settlement of the Sea Peoples in Amurru as in other parts of the Levantine coast ... On the evidence of its script [Jean] Starcky dated the object (of unknown origin) to the eleventh century. The name of the king recurs on another arrowhead from the Beqaʿ Valley, and in the Wen-Amon tale as the name of the ruler of Byblos. Assuming that the object is authentic (cf. the doubts raised by Mazza 1987), the name proves that the rulers of the Amurru region again took up Semitic names after a century and a half of Hittite-Hurrian names. ... After the fall of the Hittite Empire the rulers of the region resumed Semitic names, as shown by the arrowhead of Zkrbʿl | king of Amurru.⁴

Azevedo (1994): King of Amurru arrow-head 11th BC.⁵

Röllig (1995): 12. Beirut, National Museum. Nr.? Starcky. 1982 - Mazza, 1987 - Le maire , 1989, 542. ḥṣ zkrbʿl|mlk / ʾmr.⁶ Röllig (1995): The word for arrow (hs)...followed by a name...accompanied by...a title: mlk ʾmr King of Amurr (n° 12).⁷

1. Image: P. Kyle McCarter Jr., Pieces of the Puzzle, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 22:2 (March/April 1996), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/22/2/3 (accessed ...).

2. Ibid.

3. Transliteration and translation: Itamar Singer, A Concise History of Amurru, in The Calm Before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the End of the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant, by Itamar Singer (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature [SBL], 2011) http://docshare04.docshare.tips/files/17362/173620410.pdf (accessed ...), pp. 230, 234.

4. Ibid.

5. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 107.

6. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 355.

7. Ibid., p. 349.

Ada aka ʾdʿ [] (11th Century BCE)

Arrow of Ada; Trustees of the British Museum. Source: The British Museum.¹

Arrow of Ada, Obverse; CREWS Project. Source: CREWS Project.²

Transliteration and translation source: CREWS Project.³

Notes

Azevedo (1994): ʾdʿ arrow-head 11th BC.⁴

Röllig (1995): 19. London, British Museum WA 13 67 53. Mitchell, 1985. ḥṣ ʾdʿ|bn bʿlʾ.⁵

1. Images: The Trustees of the British Museum, Museum number 136753, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1976-0131-1 (accessed ...).

2. Image: Philip Boyes, CREWS Display: A Phoenician Arrowhead, CREWS Project, 6 April 2018, https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/crews-display-a-phoenician-arrowhead/ (accessed ...), The arrowhead being installed in our display, with hands for scale.

3. Transliteration and translation: Ibid.

4. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 107.

5. Note: Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic Considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-head, in Actes du IIIe Congrès International des Études Phéniciennes et Puniques, Tunis, 11-16 novembre 1991, Vol. II, ed. M'hamed Hassine Fantar and Mansour Ghaki (Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine, 1995), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1302/1/Roellig_Onomastic_and_Palaeographic_Considerations_1995.pdf [pp. 348-355] (accessed ...), p. 355.

No. 22 Banayaʾ

Arrow of Banaya; Israel Museum. Source: Cross (1993).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1993).²

Notes

Elayi (2005): ...The [arrowhead] of Banayaʾ, who was RB ʾLP, «chief of thousand» (No. XXIV).³

Cross (1993): Arrowhead No. 22 is one of the smallest of the series of inscribed arrowheads, measuring 6.2 cm. in length, and 1.35 cm. in breadth at its widest poing.⁴

1 Image: Frank Moore Cross, Newly Discovered Inscribed Arrowheads of the Eleventh Century BCE [1993], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000032.xml [pp. 207-208] (accessed ...), p. 208, Figure 31.1. Photographs of the arrowhead of Banayaʾ / commander of a thousand. Photographs courtesy of the Israel Museum.

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid., https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA210 (accessed ...), p. 210.

3. Note: Josette Elayi, Four New Inscribed Phoenician Arrowheads, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 22 (2005), http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/SEL/sites/default/files/05elayi_5240f751.pdf [pp. 35-45] (accessed ...), p. 36.

4. Note: Cross.

No. 24 Bible Lands aka Semida

Arrow of Semida, Obverse; Bible Lands Museum. Source: Cross (1992).¹

Arrow of Semida, Reverse; Bible Lands Museum. Source: Cross (1992).²

Arrow of Semida; Frank Moore Cross. Source: Cross (1992).³

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1992).⁴

Notes

Cross (1992): The arrowhead of the Bible Lands Museum is...the largest of the extant inscribed arrowheads: 12.8 cm. in length with its broken tip; reconstructed, it would have been 13.4 cm long. ... The title of the owner adds further evidence, we believe, in support of the view that such inscribed points were possessions of members of the military elite. This evidence in turn increases the likelihood of the hypothesis that they were designed for use in archery contests.⁵

Iwry (1961): ...The function of these inscribed arrow-heads. What were they used for? What was the purpose of inscribing a standardized legend on bronze arrow-heads? Were they used as ordinary weapons in warfare, in hunting, or, shall we say, perhaps in archery contests with the inscribed name providing identification of the respective owner? Then why are all these different names proceeded by the word חץ? What does it signify?⁶

Cross (1993): The question of function of inscribed arrowheads has not been settled. ... The ʾEl-Ḫaḍr arrowheads...belonged to a homogeneous group of twenty-eight arrowheads, all found together. This is roughly the number of arrowheads in a quiver. If the arrowheads were inscribed to permit identification of the archer who made kills in battle, we would expect all to be inscribed. Samuel Iwry has suggested that the arrowheads with inscriptions were used in belomancy. ... The frequency of names with military connections suggests rather a function narrowly associated with archers and the military elite. I would suggest in agreement with T. C. Mitchell that these arrowheads—many more elegant than ordinary battle arrowheads—were used in archery contests.⁷

Elayi (2005): None of the interpretations of [the arrowheads'] function that have been sometimes proposed (ceremonial weapons, votive objects, foundation deposits, divinatory role, cynegetic role in order to give every warrior or hunter the enemies or animals shot by his bow) can be accepted because, due the lack of context, we have not true informations. ... The ancient break of the extremity of arrowhead No. 3 published in this article [Pl. III: Arrow of X, son of Danaʿ]...proves that it was used and therefore was a true weapon and not only a votive object.⁸

1 Image: Frank Moore Cross, An Inscribed Arrowhead of the Eleventh Century BCE in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (Israel Exploration Society) 23 (1992), https://images.app.goo.gl/F6L91zuxtopD3dmp8 [p. 21] (accessed ...). (See also https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205, Figure 30.1: Photographs of the arrowhead of Šĕmîdaʿ. Photographs courtesy of the Bible Lands Museum.)

2 Image: Ibid., https://images.app.goo.gl/xaNH63Lbne7B1Pky8.

3 Drawing: Ibid., https://images.app.goo.gl/nLsNnD2J4exJqeM19. (See also https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205, Figure 30.2: Drawing of the arrowhead of Šĕmîdaʿ [by F.M.C.].)

4 Transliteration and translation: Cross (1982), An Inscribed Arrowhead of the Eleventh Century BCE in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem [1992], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004369887/BP000031.xml [pp. 203-204] (accessed ...), p. 203.

5 Note: Ibid., p. 203, and https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA206 (accessed ...), p. 206.

6 Note: Samuel Iwry, New Evidence for Belomancy in Ancient Palestine and Phoenicia, Journal of the American Oriental Society 81:1 (January-March 1961), https://www.jstor.org/stable/594897?seq=1 [p. 27] (accessed ...), p. 27.

7. Note: Frank Moore Cross, Newly Discovered Inscribed Arrowheads of the Eleventh Century BCE [1993], in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA212 (accessed ...), p. 212.

8. Note: Josette Elayi, Four New Inscribed Phoenician Arrowheads, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 22 (2005), http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/SEL/sites/default/files/05elayi_5240f751.pdf [pp. 35-45] (accessed ...), pp. 37, 39, 41-42.

Suwar

Arrow of Suwar; Frank Moore Cross. Source: Cross (1996).^?

Arrow of Suwar; Frank Moore Cross . Source: Cross (1996).^?

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1996).^?

? Image: Frank Moore Cross, The Arrow of Suwar, Retainer of ʿAbday, Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (Israel Exploration Society) 25 (1996), https://images.app.goo.gl/8Jp2MPbYHALYsnMh8 [p. 9] (accessed ...). (See also https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA196, Figure 29.1: Photographs of the arrowhead of Suwar / retainer of ʿAbday.)

? Drawing: Ibid. (See also https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA196, Figure 29.2: Drawing of the arrowhead of Suwar / retainer of ʿAbday.)

? Transliteration and translation: Ibid., https://www.jstor.org/stable/23629686?seq=1 [p. 9] (accessed ...), p. 9.

No. 32 Kittian

Arrow of Kittian, Reverse; Robert Deutsch and Michael Heltzer. Source: Deutsch, Heltzer (1997).¹

Transliteration and translation source, Deutsch, Heltzer (1997): In a previous issue of IEJ, Professor F.M. Cross Jr. challenged our proposed reading ḥṣ kty || mšl ʿbdy Arrow of Kittian ruler of ʿAbday, which we published in 1994. Instead of the personal name ʿbdy (ʿAbday), cross argued that the inscription on a mid-eleventh-century arrowhead refers to ʿbdn (ʿAbdon), which he identified as Khirbet ʿAbdeh...in Northern Israel. ... From the contextual point of view, mšl ʿbdn (the rule of + a typonym) would be preferable to mšl ʿbdy (the ruler of PN). ... One of the horizontal bars of the yod was invisible in the original photograph. ... We now accept [Professor K.] McCarter's reading and translation of the inscription as: ḥṣ kty || mšq ʿbdy Arrow of the Kittian, cupbearer of ʿAbday.²

1. Image and drawing: Robert Deutsch and Michael Heltzer, ‘Abday on Eleventh-Century BCE Arrowheads, Israel Exploration Journal [IEJ] 47:1/2 (1997), https://www.academia.edu/371118/_Abday_on_Eleventh_Century_BCE_Arrowheads (accessed ...), p. 112, Fig. 1: Arrow of the Kittian inscription: new photograph and drawing.

2. Transliteration and translation source: Ibid., p. 111.

Yishba

British Museum:

Museum of Archaeology and Biblical History:

EdgarLOwen.com and Colless:

nkbaal

Connections....

Four More

Josette Elayi: Plates I-IV.

?. Transliterations and translations: Josette Elayi, Four New Inscribed Phoenician Arrowheads, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 22 (2005), http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/SEL/sites/default/files/05elayi_5240f751.pdf [pp. 35-45] (accessed ...), pp. 37, 39, 41-42.

Connections....

Ṣafi Jar 747028/1 [????] (9th Century BCE)

Ṣafi Jar 747028/1; Aren Maeir and Esther Eshel. Source: Maeir, Eshel (2014).1	Ṣafi Jar 747028/1; Aren Maeir and Esther Eshel. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).2	Ṣafi Jar 747028/1; Aren Maeir. Source: Maeir (2012).3

Transliteration and translation source: Maeir, Eshel (2014).⁴

Notes

Maeir, Eshel (2014): Incised (pre-firing) לאב on mid-body, immediately adjacent to the bottom of one of the handles. ... The three letters are quite similar to the letter forms seen in Hebrew inscriptions of the 9^th/early 8^th century BCE inscriptions, such as the Kuntillet ʿAjrud inscriptions....⁵

Maeir, Eshel (2014): Interestingly, the occurrence of names with the element ʾb (אב) is quite common in texts that seem to originate from, or in some cases relate to, Iron Age IIA (10^th-9^th century BCE). Thus, in the biblical text, names that date or are related to this period often have ʾb based names, such as, inter alia, Ahab (אחאב), Joab (יואב), Absalom (אבשלום) and Abijah (אביה).⁶

1. Image: Aren M. Maeir and Esther Eshel, Four Short Alphabetic Inscriptions from Late Iron Age IIa Telles˙-S˙afi/Gath and their Implications for the Development of Literacy in Iron Age Philistia and Environs, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2014), https://www.academia.edu/8355478/Maeir_A_M_and_Eshel_E_2014_Four_short_alphabetic_inscriptions_from_Iron_Age_IIA_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_and_their_contribution_for_understanding_the_process_of_the_development_of_literacy_in_Iron_Age_Philistia_In_H_Eshel_memorial_volume_2014 [pp. 69-210](accessed ...), p. 208, Fig. 6: Inscription No. 2: Line drawing and photograph of the vessel and enlarged drawing andphotograph of the inscription.

2. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 35, Figure 29 - Ṣafi jar 747028/1 (MAEIR and ESHEL 2014, Fig. 6).

3. Image: Aren M. Maeir, Chapter 1: The Tell Es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project 1996-2010: Introduction, Overview and Synopsis of Results, ??? 69 (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 2012), https://www.academia.edu/1596600/Maeir_A_M_2012_Chapter_1_The_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_Archaeological_Project_1996_2010_Introduction_Overview_and_Synopsis_of_Results_Pp_1_88_in_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_I_Report_on_the_1996_2005_Seasons_ed_A_M_Maeir_Ägypten_und_Altes_Testament_69_Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz [pp. 1-88] (accessed ...), p. 32, Figure 1.18: Close-up view of an incised (pre-firing) alphabetic inscription (lʾb) on the upper body of a Stratum A3 (mid-9th century BCE) storage jar.

4. Note: Maeir and Eshel, pp. 81, 82.

5. Note: Ibid., pp. 81-82.

6. Note: Ibid., p. 83.

Ṣafi Jar 450313/1 [????] (9th Century BCE)

Ṣafi Jar 450313/1; Aren Maeir and Esther Eshel. Source: Maeir, Eshel (2014).¹

Transliteration source: Maeir (2012).²

Transliteration and translation source: Maeir, Eshel (2014): The name רפא, Rāphu/Rāphā is mentioned in 1 Chron. 8:2 as one of Benjamin’s descendants, and is attested on several finds including the Samaria Ostracon no. 24, on a Hebrew seal dated to the 8^th-7^th centuries BCE, on a Hebrew Bulla, on a Moabite seal and on an unidentified seal.³

Notes

Maeir, Eshel (2014): The first letter...might be read as a ד [𐤃], or as a ר [𐤓] with an unusually short leg. The second letter...is best read as a פ [𐤐], but might also be read as a ג [𐤂]. The third letter is also not clear, and might be read as an א [𐤀], or an a ל [𐤋].⁴

Maeir, Eshel (2014): We tentatively prefer the...reading of רפא...but one should not rule out the other possible readings.⁵

Maeir, Eshel (2014): If we read the first letter as an ע [𐤏], which is less probable since the letter is not rounded but flattened and the lower stroke is quite horizontal, it would be עפא [𐤏𐤐𐤀] – to be compared with personal names such as עופי/עפי(הו) which, although uncommon, does appear once in the biblical text (עופי/עיפי [Ephai]; Jer. 40:8) and somewhat rarely in the Iron Age onomastic corpus.⁶

1. Image and drawing: Aren M. Maeir and Esther Eshel, Four Short Alphabetic Inscriptions from Late Iron Age IIa Telles˙-S˙afi/Gath and their Implications for the Development of Literacy in Iron Age Philistia and Environs, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2014), https://www.academia.edu/8355478/Maeir_A_M_and_Eshel_E_2014_Four_short_alphabetic_inscriptions_from_Iron_Age_IIA_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_and_their_contribution_for_understanding_the_process_of_the_development_of_literacy_in_Iron_Age_Philistia_In_H_Eshel_memorial_volume_2014 [pp. 69-210](accessed ...), p. 208, Fig. 5: Inscription No. 1: Line drawing and photograph of the vessel and enlarged drawing andphotograph of the inscription.

2. Transliteration: Aren M. Maeir, Chapter 1: The Tell Es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project 1996-2010: Introduction, Overview and Synopsis of Results, ??? 69 (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 2012), https://www.academia.edu/1596600/Maeir_A_M_2012_Chapter_1_The_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_Archaeological_Project_1996_2010_Introduction_Overview_and_Synopsis_of_Results_Pp_1_88_in_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_I_Report_on_the_1996_2005_Seasons_ed_A_M_Maeir_Ägypten_und_Altes_Testament_69_Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz [pp. 1-88] (accessed ...), p. 31.

3. Transliteration and translation: Maeir and Eshel, pp. 77-78.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 77.

5. Note: Ibid., p. 81.

6. Note: Ibid.

Ṣafi Jar 1491025 [????] (9th Century BCE)

Ṣafi Jar 1491025; Aren Maeir and Esther Eshel. Source: Maeir, Eshel (2014).¹

Transliteration source: Maeir, Eshel (2014).²

Notes

Maeir, Eshel (2014): A red ink inscription, אבתם (ʾbṫm), on the upper mid-body of a jar, with an elongated vertical red ink decoration (possibly schematic lotus flower) to the right of the inscription. The reading of three of the four letters in this inscription is clear (א, ב, מ), while the third letter that we posit is ת is less easily legible. We suppose this to be a ת which was accidentally “smudged” after the writing and cannot suggest any other letter or known sign that would seem to provide a better reading. ... The letter might also be read as an א....⁴

1. Image and drawing: Aren M. Maeir and Esther Eshel, Four Short Alphabetic Inscriptions from Late Iron Age IIa Telles˙-S˙afi/Gath and their Implications for the Development of Literacy in Iron Age Philistia and Environs, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2014), https://www.academia.edu/8355478/Maeir_A_M_and_Eshel_E_2014_Four_short_alphabetic_inscriptions_from_Iron_Age_IIA_Tell_es_Safi_Gath_and_their_contribution_for_understanding_the_process_of_the_development_of_literacy_in_Iron_Age_Philistia_In_H_Eshel_memorial_volume_2014 [pp. 69-210](accessed ...), p. 210, Fig. 8: Inscription No. 4: Line drawing and photograph of the vessel and enlarged drawing and photograph of the inscription.

2. Note: Ibid., p. 86.

3. Note: Ibid.

Rehov 4-11 [???] (10th-9th Century BCE)

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): The...corpus [of eleven inscriptions at Tel Reḥov] is...from Stratum VI (the tenth century BCE) through Stratum IV (the ninth century BCE).¹

Malena (2015): Excavations at Tel Rehov have resulted in the discovery of eleven epigraphic finds (inscriptions and ostraca) from Iron IIA strata (tenth to ninth centuries). This amount from one site is unparalleled for the period. Four of the items were found in stratum VI contexts, dated to the tenth century. Eight of the eleven items were found in Area C. Most were incised on storage jars and seem to be of the possession or dedication type.²

Parker (2013, 2018): Six ninth-century inscriptions [Rehov 6-11] on pottery were found at Tel Rehov during the Hebrew University excavations led by A. Mazar from 1997-2012. The texts were recovered from Stratum IV, which the excavators date to the ninth century, before 840/830 BCE. They may be grouped on the basis of their media into three categories: (1) inscriptions incised in pottery after firing (6, 8); (2) inscriptions incised in pottery before firing (7, 10, 11); and (3) inscriptions in ink on pottery (9). All of the epigraphs are short, the longest having only nine letters. ... Their script...is definitively Hebrew, and it dates palaeographically to the mid-ninth century.³

Parker (2013, 2018): Several inscribed fragments have also been recovered in southern Canaan from tenth-century contexts. These include fragments from: Tel ʿAmal; Arad (81); Tel Rehov (1-5); Ḥorvat Rosh Zayit.⁴

1. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 40.

2. Note: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), pp. 225-226.

3. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 189.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 123, n. 540.

Rehov 4 (10th Century BCE)

Rehov 4; Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar. Source: Aḥituv, Mazar (2013).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Mazar (2003).²

Notes

Mazar (2003): The two first letters are clearly a lamed and a nūn. ... The right edge of [a] fourth letter is discernible on the left side of the sherd, and it could be an ʾalep, waw, kaf, mem, nūn, or ṣadeh. The strange combination of the third sign appears to be two letters incised on top of each other, the upper thus canceling the lower. The are various possibilities for interpreting this combination. One...is to read a yod incised on top of a mem. ... Another possibility is to reconstruct a ḥet on top of a mem. ... Thus, if we ignore the canceled lower letter in the third sign, we may read lnḥ[m?] = belonging to Nachum. If the lower letter is a mem, we may assume that the scribe forgot to write the ḥet, wrote the mem instead, and then corrected himself by writing the ḥet on top of the mem and adding another mem, of which only a tiny fragment remains on the left side of the sherd. The third possibility is that a bet or reš was inscribed on top of a yod or mem.³

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... Rehov sherd 4...was found in a context belonging to either Stratum VI [10th century] or V. ... Our preference [is] for the latter stratum, our late Iron IIA1.⁴

1. Image: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 192, Fig. 4: Reg. No. 23138, Locus 2308, Area B, local Stratum B-6, general Stratum VI.

2. Transliteration and translation: Amihai Mazar, Three 10th-9th Century B.C.E. Inscriptions from Tēl Reḥōv, in Saxa loquentur: Studien zur Archäologie Palästinas/Israels. Festschrift für Volkmar Fritz zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Cornelis G. den Hertog, Ulrich Hübner, and Stefan Münger (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2003), https://www.academia.edu/2632641/Three_10th_9th_Century_B_C_E_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Rehov [pp.171-184] (accessed ...), p. 173.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 166.

Tel Amal Jar [????] (10th-9th Century BCE)

Tel Amal Jar; Shalom Levy and Gershon Edelstein. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹

Transliteration and translation source, Malena (2015): This inscription reads lnmš (or l + nm + [numeric sign]), perhaps belonging to Nimshi.²

Notes

Compare with the Rehov 5 inscription.

Malena (2015): A possession formula on a jar, inscribed prior to firing, was discovered among burial goods at Tel ʿAmal. The assemblage and paleography are consistent with the second half of the tenth century. ... The personal name nmš is attested on the two inscriptions at Tel Rehov [Rehov 5 and 6] just mentioned and in later periods on an inscription, several seals, and in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Jehu’s family, 2 Kings 9). Like the Soreq Valley’s Ḥanan inscriptions, these vessels (along with the later instances of this name) compel us to consider whether they could be related. Nimshi was not an uncommon name, but the inscribed vessels (all “hippo” storage jars) are similar and were part of similar ceramic assemblages (the epigraphy is not necessarily the same).³

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): The letters in the Tel ʿAmal inscription are extremely similar to those in the inscription from Tel Reḥov. ... A storage jar with the inscription נמש [Nemesh/Nimshi] from Tel ʿAmal, was found in a stratum dated to the late tenth or ninth centuries BCE.⁴

Parker (2013, 2018): Several inscribed fragments have also been recovered in southern Canaan from tenth-century contexts. These include fragments from: Tel ʿAmal; Arad (81); Tel Rehov (1-5); Ḥorvat Rosh Zayit.⁵

Millard (2011): ...Personal names scratched on a stone and on potsherds that can be placed approximately in the Tenth Century...from Tel ʿĀmal....⁶

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830].⁷

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 35, Figure 28: Tel Amal jar (Levy and Edelstein 1972, p. 336).

2. Transliteration and translation: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 223.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), pp. 43,57.

5. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 1243, n. 540.

6. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, pp. 1-2.

7. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 164.

Tel Batash (Timnah) Bowl Rim Inscription [???] (10th Century BCE)

Batash Sherd. Source: Kelm, Mazar (1991).1	Batash Sherd; Amihai Mazar and Nava Panitz-Cohen. Source: Finkelstein, Sass (2013).2

Transliteration and translation source, Malena (2015): The inscription, which is broken at the beginning, reads n|ḥnn. A likely reconstruction for the beginning of the inscription is a b, producing the name formula bn + PN, in this case, “Son of Ḥanan.” The name Ḥanan is attested in other inscriptions (see Beth-Shemesh, next) and in biblical texts, notably in the place name Elon-Beth-Ḥanan in 1 Kgs 4:9.³

Notes

Compare with the Beth Shemesh game board inscription.

Malena (2015): The Tel Batash find consists of four letters inscribed prior to firing on a ceramic bowl. The sherd is dated to the tenth century based on its archaeological context and paleography.⁴

Parker (2013, 2018): The ostracon from Tel Batash...comes from a secure tenth-century context[;] like the Tell el-Far‘ah (south) fragment, it comes from the area of Philistia and might be difficult to assign to a particular script tradition in this period.⁵

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): An inscription בן חנן ([the so]n of Hanan), from Tel Batash/Timnah, has been dated by the excavators to the tenth century BCE.⁶

Millard (2011): ...Personal names scratched on a stone and on potsherds that can be placed approximately in the Tenth Century...from Timnah....⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... Has some of the letters strongly inclined, a Hebrew trait (see further on the Beth-shemesh game-board).⁸

1. Image: George L. Kelm and Amihai Mazar, Tel Batash (Timnah) Excavations: Third Preliminary Report, 1984-1989, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 27 (1991), https://images.app.goo.gl/YadEke214RGF7aEg9 (accessed ...).

2. Drawing: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 213, Fig. 27: Mazar and Panitz-Cohen 2001 (n. 69): pl. 3: 6.

3. Transliteration and translation: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 223.

4. Note: Ibid.

5. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 124, n. 540.

6. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

7. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, pp. 1-2.

8. Note: Finkelstein and Sass, pp. 165-166.

Khirbet Rosh Zayit Sherd [????] (10th-9th Century BCE)

Rosh Zayit Sherd; Benjamin Sass. Source: Sass, Finkelstein (2016).¹

Transliteration source: Carr (2011).²

Notes

Aḥituv, Mazar (2016): The inscription on an ostracon from Ḥorvat Rosh Zayit written in red-brown ink [י]ן חמר, can be interpreted as (fermented?) wine. The ceramic assemblage from Ḥorbat Rosh Zayit, dated to the latter part of the Iron Age IIA, is identical to that of Strata V and IV at Tel Reḥov. The ¹⁴C [carbon-14] dates point to the ninth century BCE in a 68% probability range and to the tenth and ninth centuries BCE by a 95% cautious estimate.³

Millard (2011): ...Personal names scratched on a stone and on potsherds that can be placed approximately in the Tenth Century...from Khirbet Rosh Zayit....⁴

Carr (2011): Tenth century.⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... The Rosh Zayit sherd...was unearthed in Stratum II.... This layer is radiocarbon dated to 895–835 B.C.E. at 1 σ.⁶

1. Drawing: Benjamin Sass and Israel Finkelstein, The Swan-Song of Proto-Canaanite in the Ninth Century BCE in light of an Alphabetic Inscription from Megiddo, Semitica Et Classica [SEC] International Journal of Oriental and Mediterranean Studies 9 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38692710/B_Sass_I_Finkelstein_The_Swan_Song_of_Proto_Canaanite_in_the_Ninth_Century_BCE_in_light_of_an_Alphabetic_Inscription_from_Megiddo_Semitica_et_Classica_9_2016_ [pp. 19-42] (accessed ...), p. 35, Figure 31: Rosh Zayit sherd (drawing by Benjamin Sass from Israel Antiquities Authority photograph).

2. Transliteration: David M. Carr, The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: A New Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), https://books.google.com/books?id=pPy3gXJDI7AC&pg=PA375 (accessed ...), p. 375.

3. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

4. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, pp. 1-2.

5. Note: Carr.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 166.

Gezer Calendar [KAI 182, 1908] (10th Century BCE, ca. 925)

Gezer Calendar; oncenawhile. Source: Wikimedia Commons.1	Gezer Calendar; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.2

Transliteration and translation source: Wikipedia.³

Notes

Wikipedia: The Gezer calendar [was] discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer. It is commonly dated to the 10th century BCE, although the excavation was unstratified and its identification during the excavations was not in a secure archaeological context, presenting uncertainty around the dating. ... The Gezer calendar is currently displayed at the Museum of the Ancient Orient, a Turkish archaeology museum.... A replica of the Gezer calendar is on display at the Israel Museum, Israel.⁴

Biblical Archaeology Society (2020): The Gezer Calendar is a small limestone tablet listing seasonal agricultural activities in seven lines of uneven letters. Scholarly opinions on the Gezer Calendar have shifted over the past century of scholarship. In 1943, William Foxwell Albright stated that “the Gezer Calendar is written in perfect classical Hebrew.” More recent scholarship questioned the idea that the Gezer calendar has distinctively Hebrew script or language. Christopher Rollston contends there is no lexeme or linguistic feature in the Gezer Calendar that can be considered distinctively Hebrew and Joseph Naveh says that No specifically Hebrew characters can be distinguished.” Christopher Rollston concludes that the Gezer Calendar is written in Phoenician rather than Hebrew script, though the late tenth or early ninth century B.C.E. includes elements described by Frank Cross as “the first rudimentary innovations that will mark the emergent Hebrew script.⁵

Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS]: Orthographic (spelling) and linguistic analyses have placed the text somewhere between Byblian (Phoenician) and Archaic Hebrew along the spectrum of ancient Canaanite languages. Good arguments can be made in either direction, so the precise identification is uncertain.⁶

Parker (2013, 2018): The Gezer calendar...was first dated palaeographically to the tenth century based on comparison with the tenth-century Phoenician inscriptions from Byblos. The close affinity of its script with the recently discovered Tel Zayit inscriptions confirms this date.⁷

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): The Gezer Calendar is usually dated to the second half of the tenth century BCE.⁸

Millard (2011): The Gezer Calendar is well known, found during the Palestine Exploration Fund’s work at the site in 1908, and generally dated to about 925 BC.⁹

Azevedo (1994): Gezer Calendar 925 BCE.¹⁰

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... The...Gezer Calendar...displays a slightly less developed writing than the Tel Zayit abecedary. C. Rollston labelled the scripts of Tel Zayit and of the Gezer calendar Phoenician, whereas Lemaire classified both as Philistian.¹¹

1. Image: oncenawhile, Gezer calendar close up, Wikimedia Commons, 1 August 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gezer_calendar_close_up.jpg (accessed ...).

2. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, The Gezer Calendar (replica), https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/372807 (accessed ...).

3. Transliteration and translation: Wikipedia, s.v. Gezer calendar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gezer_calendar#Inscription (accessed ...), Inscription.

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Gezer calendar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gezer_calendar (accessed ...).

5. Note: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 03 July 2020, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/the-oldest-hebrew-script-and-language/ (accessed ...).

6. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Gezer Calendar, 10th century BCE, http://cojs.org/gezer_calendar-_10th_century_bce/ (accessed ...).

7. Note: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), p. 123, n. 539.

8. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

9. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, p. 1.

10. Note: Joaquim Azevedo, The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet (1994), Master's Theses, 28, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses (accessed ...), p. 108.

11. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 166-167.

Ein Gev aka ʿEin Gev aka En Gev Jar [1961] (9th-8th Century BCE)

‘Ein Gev Jar Detail; Yolovitch Yael. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority.1	‘Ein Gev Jar Inscription; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).2

Transliteration and translation source: Lipiński (1994).³

Notes

Compare with the Rehov 6 inscription (lšqynmš, Belonging to the cupbearer, Nimshi).

Millard (1962): An eighth century vessel from Ein Gev on the eastern bank of Galilee bears the inscription lšqyʾ, IEJ XI (1961), p. 163.⁴

Parker (2013, 2018): The ‘Ein Gev jar...was found in Stratum III, which the excavators date to the ninth century BCE. ... All letter forms within this inscription closely match Phoenician ninth-century forms. Only ’alep is particularly diagnostic. Its vertical shaft is short, as in the Tel Dan and Nimrud inscriptions....⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA1 [ca. 880-840/830]. ... The En Gev Jar bearing an inscription incised after firing was found in Stratum III of the late Iron IIA.⁶

1. Image: Israel Antiquities Authority, Aramaic inscription: "lsqy"; IAA Number: 1961-655, National Treasures: Selected Artifacts from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for National Treasures, http://www.antiquities.org.il/t/Item_en.aspx?pic_id=2&CurrentPageKey=1&q=en+gev (accessed 19 June 2021).

2. Drawing: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions, Pt. II (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013, Revised 31 May 2018), https://www.academia.edu/36755959/THE_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_THE_NINTH_CENTURY_BCE_THROUGH_SCRIPT_TRADITIONS_Pt_II (accessed 22 May 2021), Fig. 26, The ‘Ein Gev Jar .

3. Transliteration and translation: Edward Lipiński, Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics II (Leuven, BE: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Orientalistiek, 1994), https://books.google.com/books?id=ra0QmH4np4kC&pg=PA87 (accessed 19 June 2021), p. 87.

4. Drawing: A. R. Millard, Recently Discovered Hebrew Inscriptions, Tyndale Bulletin 11 (1962), https://legacy.tyndalehouse.com/tynbul/Library/TynBull_1962_11_02_Millard_HebrewInscription.pdf [pp. 4-10] (accessed 19 June 2021), p. 9, n. 28.

5. Note: Parker, Part I, https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed ...), pp. 279-281.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 166-168.

Beth Shemesh Game Board [????] (10th Century BCE)

Beth Shemesh Game Board; BAS Library. Source: Biblical Archaeology Review (2014).¹

Transliteration and translation source, Malena(2015).²

Notes

Compare with the Tel Batash inscription.

Malena(2015): The letters ḥnn have...been identified on the side of a game board discovered at Beth-Shemesh, located about 7.5 km away from Tel Batash along the Soreq Valley. The find came from a tenth-century archaeological context, and this date is supported through paleographic analysis. It merges nicely with other evidence of the name ḥnn on an earlier ostracon from Beth-Shemesh (ca. 1200 BCE), on the Tel Batash inscription..., and the district information in 1 Kgs 4:9, where Elon-Beth-Ḥanan follows Beth-Shemesh in the description of the second district.³

Aḥituv, Mazar (2013): An inscription חנן (Hanan) on a stone object from Beth Shemesh, has been dated by the excavators to the tenth century BCE.⁴

Millard (2011): ...Personal names scratched on a stone and on potsherds that can be placed approximately in the Tenth Century...part of a gaming board from Beth Shemesh....⁵

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Hebrew, late Iron IIA2 [ca. 840/830–780/770] and early Iron IIB [ca. 780/770–740/730]. ... Uncovered...in an Iron IIB pit. Initially dated to the 11th or 10th century via ‘traditional’ palaeography the inscription, with strongly inclined letters in a manner similar to the...Batash sherd, rather belongs in the late Iron IIA or Iron IIB by the combined typology of the game-board and the letters. ... A Hebrew attribution of both inscriptions seems quite plausible. While the similarity of the two inscriptions could suggest contemporaneity, the archaeological situation may hint at the seniority of the Batash sherd. ⁶

1. Image: Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR], Early Inscriptions from the Time of David and Solomon (Sidebar to: The New Jerusalem Inscription—So What?), (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 40:3 (May/June 2014), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/40/3/6 (accessed ...).

2. Transliteration and translation: Sarah Lynn Malena, Fertile Crossroads: The Growth and Influence of Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant's Iron Age I-II Transition, Examined through Biblical, Epigraphic, and Archaeological Sources (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2015), https://escholarship.org/content/qt7wg1m1rv/qt7wg1m1rv.pdf (accessed ...), p. 223.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Shmuel Aḥituv and Amihai Mazar, The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov and their Contribution to the Study of Script and Writing during Iron Age IIA, in See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, ed. Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin (Vandehoeck & Rupprecht, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/8051985/Ahituv_S_and_Mazar_A_The_Inscriptions_from_Tel_Reḥov_and_their_Contribution_to_Study_of_Script_and_Writing_during_the_Iron_Age_IIA [pp. 39-203] (accessed ...), p. 56.

5. Note: Alan R. Millard, The Ostracon from the Days of David Found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tyndale Bulletin 62:1 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288307959_The_ostracon_from_the_days_of_david_found_at_khirbet_qeiyafa, pp. 1-2.

6. Note: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), pp. 169-170.

Eshtemoa aka Eshtemoaʿ aka Eshtamoa Silver Hoard [1971] (10th-8th Century BCE)

Eshtemoa Silver Hoard; Zeev Yeivin. Source: COJS.1			Eshtemoa Jug Inscriptions; Zeev Yeivin. Source: Finkelstein, Sass (2013).5
Eshtamoa Jug; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.2	Eshtamoa Jug; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Weight: 1.103 kg, which are 500 shekel.3	Eshtamoa Jug; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Weight: 1.090 kg, which are 500 shekel.4

Transliteration and translation source: Yeivin (1987).⁶

Notes

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: It is assumed that [the inscription "five" on each jug] was an abbreviation for the weight of silver it contained - five hundred shekels.⁷

Raz Kletter and Etty Brand (1998): In 1971 during the course of restoring and cleaning the Eshtemoa synagogue complex, a hoard of five Iron Age pottery jugs was found...filled with about 25 kilograms of silver artifacts...in a hole in the bedrock, beneath the floor of a room that belonged to the much later complex of the synagogue. Three of the jugs carry the inscription ḥmš in the ancient Hebrew script. ... In a preliminary notice, the jugs were dated to the ninth-eighth centuries B.C. ... While some of the jugs were found broken and their silver content dispersed, it was impossible to extract the silver out of the whole jugs without damaging them.⁸

Barkay (1992): p. 326, A unique discovery dated to the Iron Age IIa is the silver hoard from Eshtemoa. Five ceramic jugs, dated to the tenth and ninth centuries, were discovered at this site, in the southern Hebron hills. The jugs are inscribed in red ink with the Hebrew word ḥmš (five).⁹

Yeivin (1987): The five jugs in which the silver was found contained nothing but the silver.... Some of the silver objects were melted pieces without any definite form. However, a large amount of the silver hoard consisted of cut-up pieces of silver (“cut silver”)...so that the pieces would fit through the jugs’ relatively small mouths. ... The five jugs in which the silver hoard was stored can be dated possibly to the late tenth century or to the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.... One way the silver hoard is dated is by the pottery in which it was found. Three of the five jugs are similar. Each has a ball-shaped body, a long, thin neck, a double-profiled rim, a ring base and a single, smooth handle. They can be dated to the late tenth century B.C. at the earliest. Inscriptions on the jugs also help to date them. Two of the three jugs mentioned above contain clearly written Hebrew inscriptions on the bodies of the jugs; each reads “ḤMŠ,” meaning five or fifth. The third jug mentioned above bears traces of red that appear to be another inscription of the same word. The red Ḥ is drawn with two stripes, a form that was common in the ninth century B.C. or perhaps a little earlier.... The M (Mem) has a short tail and lies horizontally. Such a Mem appears in two other places, on the Gezer Tablet (end of the tenth century B.C.) and on a jar from Tel Amal (1000–950 B.C.). The third letter, the Š, is a wide letter that is characteristically—but not definitely—thought to belong to the tenth to ninth centuries B.C.¹⁰

Yeivin (1987): The late Professor Yigael Yadin suggested the inscriptions, meaning five or fifth, referred to the weight of the silver in the three jugs.... We tested this hypothesis by weighing the silver but could find no evidence to support the theory. Dr. Avraham Eran, an expert in ancient metrology, ...thinks that the word five refers to five manas, a mana being 100 shekels of 8.19 grams each, according to the Mesopotamian standard. I believe, however, that the more likely explanation is that five or fifth refers to some kind of tax, as was initially suggested to me by Professor Ephraim Stern. A tax known as ma’aser, which means tenth part, is well known from the Bible. It is first mentioned in Genesis 14-20, where it is commonly translated tithe (meaning tenth). ... Just as there was a ma’aser, which taxed the tenth part, there may have been a tax referred to as “fifth” (ḥomesh in Hebrew) for a fifth part.¹¹

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Hebrew, late Iron IIA2 [ca. 840/830–780/770] and early Iron IIB [ca. 780/770–740/730]. Three jugs with the word ḥmš inscribed in ink on each were uncovered in an unstratified situation at Eshtemoa‘ in the southern highlands of Judah. The strongly inclined mem as well as the Judahite find-spot argue for a Hebrew attribution of the script. The general Iron II typological dating of the vessels, the pre-Assyrian silver jewellery found within, and the letter shapes combined, would attribute the Eshtemoa‘ find to our Iron IIA2, or early Iron IIB.¹²

1. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Eshtemoa Silver Hoard, 10th-9th century BCE, http://cojs.org/eshtemoa_silver_hoard-_10th-9th_century_bce/ (accessed ...).

2. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem by Neta Dror, Silver hoard, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375585 (accessed ...).

3. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Silver hoard, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375584 (accessed ...).

4. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Silver hoard, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375581 (accessed ...).

5. Drawings: Israel Finkelstein and Benjamin Sass, The West Semitic Alphabetic Inscriptions, Late Bronze II to Iron IIA: Archeological Context, Distribution and Chronology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2.2 (2013), https://www.academia.edu/5300339/2013_Finkelstein_I_and_Sass_B_The_West_Semitic_alphabetic_inscriptions_Late_Bronze_II_to_Iron_IIA_Archeological_context_distribution_and_chronology_Hebrew_Bible_and_Ancient_Israel_2_2_149_220 [pp. 149-220] (accessed ...), p. 215, Fig 43: Eshtemoa‘ jugs; Yeivin 1990 (n. 102): 45(jugs), 47 (inscriptions).

6. Transliteration and translation: Zeev Yeivin, The Mysterious Silver Hoard from Eshtemoa, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 13:6 (November/December 1987), http://cojs.org/the-mysterious-silver-hoard-from-eshtemoa/ (accessed 21 June 2021).

7. Note: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

8. Note: Raz Kletter and Etty Brand, A New Look at the Iron Age Silver Hoard from Eshtemoa, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins [ZDPV] 114 (1998), https://www.jstor.org/stable/27931588 [p. 139] (accessed 21 June 2021), p. 139.

9. Note: Gabriel Barkay, The Iron Age II-III, in The Archaeology of Ancient Israel, ed. Amnon Ben-Tor (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1992), https://books.google.com/books?id=m1b1VgN-SckC&pg=PA326 (accessed 20 June 2021), p. 326.