Phoenician Origin

Dipylon Oinochoe Graffito (8th Century BCE, ca. 740 BCE)

The Dipylon Oinochoe Inscription is etched into an oinochoe, or wine-pourer, found in a tomb in the Kerameikos cemetery located near the Dipylon gate in Athens. Note the word παίζει, spelled ΠΑZIΕZ with reverse 'Z'-shaped iota and I-shaped zeta and the Phoenician glyphs for alpha 𐤀 and pi 𐤐.

Dipylon Oinochoe; Natalia Elvira Astoreca. Source: CREWS Project.¹

Dipylon Oinochoe Graffito; Wakantanka. Source: Wikimedia Commons.²

ΗΟΣ [ΗΟI?^*] ΝΥΝ ΟΡΧΕΣΤΟΝ ΠΑΝΤΟΝ ΑΤΑΛΟΤΑΤΑ ΠΑΙΖΕΙ
ΤΟ ΤΟΔΕ^† ΚΛΜΙΝ(?)^‡ [ΤΟΤΟ ΔΕΚΑΝ ΜΙΝ?^§]

Who now of all dancers [ὃς (οἳ?) νῦν ὀρχηστῶν πάντων]
most gleefully (frolickingly/carefree-ly) [ἀταλώτατα (most ἀταλός)]^** amuses (plays/performs) [παίζει]^††,
to him [τῷ] this (indecipherable; presumably the jug, meaning the contents of the jug) [τόδε ΚΛΜΙΝ (κάλπιν?)].

* The sigma in ὃς is reverse 'Z'-shaped like the iotas in παίζει, unlike the 'Z'-shaped sigma in ὀρχηστῶν.

† Filos: The exact interpretation of the inscription is unclear because of the heavily truncated second line, which has given rise to numerous readings by scholars.... However, it is clear that the text marks the vessel as a prize in a dancing competition. ... One can note similar constructions...in Homer: e.g. hoppóterós ke phthêisin... tôi mèn egṑ dṓsō tóde phásganon ‘Whoever comes first...to him I shall give this sword’ (Il. 23.805-807).³

‡ Filos: The second line is hardly comprehensible.... One may read a totoḍe here, namely a later Attic toû tóde or (less likely) toútou dḗ ‘of/to him (this) [sc. vessel]’, followed perhaps by kalmin (= kálpin) (vase type) or an (unattested) diminutive (: colloquial-‘affectionate’) neut. sg. kalpídion..., or something of this sort....⁴

§ Binek: There is general consensus about the reading of the oinochoe’s first 35 signs as letters that together form a perfect hexameter: ὃς νῦν ὀρχηστῶν πάντων ἀταλώτατα παίζει (“whoever of all the dancers now frolics most friskily/delicately”). This agreement, however, breaks down in the context of what remains.... A multitude of different readings have emerged since 1880, and all require problematic concessions. For instance, an 1893 reading by Studniczka...interprets what follows the hexameter as τοῦτο δεκᾶν μιν—“let him accept this.” ... Studniczka’s reading of τοῦτο δεκᾶν μιν further requires the acceptance of an otherwise unattested verb, δεκάω, interpreted as a variant of δέχομαι. ... The extreme difficulty of reading signs 43, 44, and 46 [Λ, Μ, and Ν] is acknowledged by Powell, who concludes that, individually, 43 and 44 are “not explicable,” and 46 is “a hopeless botch . . . which is incapable of being read by anyone.” ... Powell and Jeffery propose that this [beyond sign 42] is the point where we should in fact stop reading..... Moreover, Powell has shown that we need not look further than sign 41 for a completeness of meaning; he proposes reading 36–41 as letters constituting the words το͂ (= τοῦ) τόδε, so that the full text becomes “this thing [i.e., the jug] belongs to him, whoever of all the dancers now frolics most delicately.” ... Both Jeffery and Powell postulate that a second individual picked up and continued the incising after the full hexameter.5

** Cullhed: The inscription indicates that the wine jug served as a trophy for the winner of a dance competition. ... What can this artefact reveal about the nature of the dancing that it commemorates? ... [T]he answer hinges primarily on our interpretation of a single word in the inscription, namely ἀταλṓτατα. ... Many scholars have translated the inscription as a claim that the prize belongs to the dancer who performs 'most gracefully' or 'most elegantly'. ... The adjective ἀταλός, on the other hand, is typically applied to young animals or children in the Greek sources. ... In Homer and Hesiod, ἀτάλλω denotes the frolicking of animals and children....⁶

†† Banchich: [The vase] is certainly our first written dactylic hexameter, the epic meter of the Iliad and Odyssey, comprising a combination of five dactyls (a long syllable followed by two short syllables) or spondees (two long syllables) capped by a sixth unit of two syllables.... For preliterate Greeks, these beats helped preserve in song the memory of the memorable. ...[T]he content of the inscription preserves the first known instance of a Greek interest in playfulness. ... “His this” [“Who now of all dancers most friskily frolics, his this. . . .”] begins a second hexameter but after “this” (i.e., the vase) the inscription becomes what looks to be a nonsensical series of practice letters. “Dancers” is an unproblematic rendering of orchēstōn, a form of the Greek orchēstēs. The word paizei...often means “dance,” but here is translated as “frolics” to distinguish it from orchēstōn. Though paizein may mean “to play” in general terms, orchēstōn makes it obvious that the inscription’s paizei denotes dance. ... [A]talos, the basis of the superlative adverb atalota,...regularly signifies the distinctive spiritedness, the playfulness, of children or youths. ... [T]he text...proclaims...that the vessel will be a prize for one of those who now dance. But dance where? ... [T]he vase’s precise function as a bearer of wine points...toward that social gathering of Greek males that revolved around the drinking of wine: the symposium. ... Those who chose to dance...would become competitors in a playful competition.... ... [A]s the contestants took the floor sequentially or as a group, all knew that perceptions of playfulness prompted by their dance...would determine the winner. ... All involved would have expected at least an appearance of spontaneity—and of something they would have recognized and felt to be fun, too. The playful actions of the participants would have drawn attention to themselves and...to the arbiter of playfulness...just, as in such contests today, judges, no matter what their demeanor or deportment, often share the spotlight with contestants or sometimes even steal it from them. Whatever the specifics of this process, a broader spirit of playfulness would have imbued all present.⁷

   Eberle: “Play,” paidia in ancient Greek, is one of those problematic concepts that shakes our confidence in discovering meaning across a long stretch of time. ... In a recent special issue of the American Journal of Play several classicists and historians agreed to take on the thought-provoking task of understanding play in ancient Greece and Rome. One of them, Thomas Banchich, who was trained in classical languages and philosophy, meticulously sought the Greek concept of play by starting a long way from written sources. Banchich looked at the raucous pictures—drinking-party scenes—that ancient ceramicists fired in to the inside bottoms of drinking vessels. Typically, images like these pictured a partier, “overindulged and wobbly-kneed,” as Banchich puts it, throwing up at the feet of an attractive, enabling young woman. ... The drinker would see these ribald scenes...revealed only when he emptied the cup. ... The ancient cups pointed to the expectation that a party of a certain kind, a bacchanal with rules and performances, was expected to end in comical vomiting and stupor. ... Do not mistake the Greek symposia for the serene academic gatherings of today. Symposia were part talent show, part staged competition of poetry reciting, music, and other performances, and part toga-party where, as Banchich concludes, a “gross and edgy playfulness” prevailed among the symposiasts. Much as...Bacchus would possess the drunkard at a bacchanalia, the embodiment of the spirit of play, personified in the form of the goddess Paidia, would wield her influence at a Symposium and rule the evening’s disorderly proceedings.⁸

1. Image: Natalia Elvira Astoreca, Introduction: Natalia Elvira Astoreca, CREWS Project, 24 October 2016, https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/introduction-natalia-elvira-astoreca/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Dipylon Oinochoe, 8th century B.C. (Photo taken by author).

2. Image: Wakantanka, Transcription of the Dipylon Oinochoe Inscription, Wikimedia Commons, 15 April 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transcription_of_the_Dipylon_Oinochoe_Inscription.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Note: Panagiotis Filos, Dipylon Vase Inscription, in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, ed. Georgios K. Giannakis et al. (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2014), https://www.academia.edu/474482/The_Phoenician_Script_of_the_Tel_Zayit_Abecedary_and_Putative_Evidence_for_Israelite_Literacy [pp. 499-501] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 499-500.

4. Ibid., p. 500.

5. Note: Natasha M. Binek, The Dipylon Oinochoe Graffito: Text or Decoration? Hesperia 86 (2017), https://www.academia.edu/43416145/The_Dipylon_Oinochoe_Graffito_Text_or_Decoration [pp. 423–442] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 425-427.

6. Note: Eric Cullhed, The Dipylon Oinochoê and Ancient Greek Dance Aesthetics, Final, Unedited Manuscript in Press at Classical Quarterly, https://www.academia.edu/44534809/The_Dipylon_Oinochoê_and_Ancient_Greek_Dance_Aesthetics (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 2-4.

7. Note: Thomas Banchich, A Gag at the Bottom of a Bowl? Perceptions of Playfulness in Archaic and Classical Greece, American Journal of Play 9:3 (Spring 2017), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1153366.pdf [pp. 323-340] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 324-325.

8. Note: Scott G. Eberle, A Gag at the Bottom of a Bowl: Who’s laughing? And when? And at what? Psychology Today , 09 Apr 2018, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/play-in-mind/201804/the-gag-the-bottom-the-bowl (accessed 22 May 2021).

Pithekoussai Nestor's Cup Graffito (8th Century BCE, ca. 750-700 BCE)

The equal-or-slightly-younger Pithekoussai Nestor's Cup, etched in Euboean^* script, is a kotyle, a drinking cup, found in a grave at the site of the Greek colony of Pithekoussai on the Italian island of Ischia. Note the Phoenician-shaped glyph for mu 𐤌 in ἵμερος, spelled 𐌇Ι𐌌ΕΡΟΣ.

Nestor's Cup; Marcus Cyron. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

Nestor's Cup Graffito; Jasper Gaunt. Source: Gaunt.²

ΝΕΣΤΟΡΟΣ:[...]^†:ΕΥΠΟΤ[ΟΝ]:ΠΟΤΕΡΙΟ[Ν]
ΗΟΣ Δ Α ΤΟΔΕ Π[ΙΕΣΙ]:ΠΟΤΕΡΙ[Ο]:AΥΤΙΚΑ ΚΕΝΟΝ
ΗΙΜΕΡ[ΟΣ:ΗΑΙΡ]ΕΣΕΙ:ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤ[ΕΦΑΝ]Ο:ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΕΣ

Nestor’s [Νέστορος] cup [ποτήριον] I am [εἰμὶ]^‡, good to drink from [εὔποτον]. Whoever [ὃς δ’ ἂν] drinks [πίησι] this [τοῦδε] cup [ποτηρίου] empty [κῆνον], straightaway [αὐτίκα] the desire [ἵμερος] of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite [καλλιστεφάνου^§ Ἀφροδίτης] will seize [αἱρήσει].

* Wikipedia: The Euboean alphabet was used in the cities of Eretria and Chalkis and in related colonies in southern Italy, notably in Cumae and in Pithekoussai. It was through this variant that the Greek alphabet was transmitted to Italy, where it gave rise to the Old Italic alphabets.³

† Wikipedia: The restoration of the second word of the inscription as ΕΡΡΟΙ was proposed by G. Buchner and C. F. Russo [in 1955] in the first publication of the inscription.⁴

   Gaunt: The restoration of the verb has not been agreed upon, although, as Lillian Jeffery, Martin West, Peter Hansen and Alan Johnston among others have seen, much the most likely possibility from an archaeological perspective is εἰμὶ.⁵

‡ Banchich: The Pithekoussai cup’s apparent proclamation of its identity as the great “Cup of Nestor” must, given the contrast between its baseness and the grandeur of the cup of the Iliad be meant to be taken playfully, that is, as a joke. ... A modest pot claims to be the great cup of Nestor.⁶

   Banchich: Consideration of the sizes and shapes of the missing pieces, of the metrical requirements of lines two and three, and of formulaic parallels on later inscriptions, reduced the range of reasonable restorations to three. The following translations...reflect each of these. I. Nestor's [am I], a goblet good to drink from.... II. Of Nestor [there was a certain] globlet, good to drink from.... III. Nestor's [is] a goblet good to drink from....⁷

§ Gaunt: The presence of the very name Nestor adjacent to two epic hexameter lines...together with formal touches like the adjective καλλιστεφάνος for Aphrodite, furnish sufficient evidence to be confident that Nestor's Cup mentioned in the inscription can only refer to or assume knowledge of the one that is famous to us from the Illiad.⁸

1. Image: Marcus Cyron, Nestorbecher auf Ischia, Wikimedia Commons, 24 March 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nestorbecher_auf_Ischia.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Jasper Gaunt, Chapter 6: Nestor's Cup and Its Reception, in Voice and Voices in Antiquity: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, vol. II, ed. Naill W. Slater (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2017), https://www.academia.edu/30006160/Nestors_Cup_and_its_Reception [pp. 92-120] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 95, Fig. 6.2: Inscription from fig. 6.1; After [R.] Arena (1994).

3. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Archaic Greek alphabets, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_Greek_alphabets (accessed 22 May 2021), Euboean.

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Nestor's Cup (Pithekoussai), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor%27s_Cup_(Pithekoussai)#Inscription (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscription.

5. Note: Gaunt, p. 96.

6. Note: Thomas Banchich, A Gag at the Bottom of a Bowl? Perceptions of Playfulness in Archaic and Classical Greece, American Journal of Play 9:3 (Spring 2017), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1153366.pdf [pp. 323-340] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 327-328.

7. Ibid., p. 326.

8. Note: Gaunt, p. 97.

Qumran Psalms Scroll (30-50 CE)

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the caves of Qumran, the Psalms Scroll [11Q5] renders the name of God [YHWH] in Paleo-Hebrew: ‏𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄‎ [‏יהוה‎].^*

Image source: Library of Congress.¹

* Library of Congress: This impressive scroll is a collection of psalms and hymns, comprising parts of forty-one biblical psalms (chiefly form chapters 101-50).... It also presents previously unknown hymns, as well as a prose passage about the psalms. ... The scroll contains twenty-eight incomplete columns of text.... Each of the preserved columns contains fourteen to seventeen lines; it is clear that six to seven lines are lacking at the bottom of each column. The scroll's script is...drawn in the Jewish book-hand style of the Herodian period. The Tetragrammaton (the four-letter divine name), however, is written in the paleo-Hebrew script.²

1. Image: Library of Congress, The Psalms Scroll, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/scr1.html (accessed 22 May 2021), The Psalms Scroll.

2. Note: Library of Congress, Scrolls from the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/scr1.html and https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/intr.html#scr1 (accessed 22 May 2021), Introduction: The Psalms Scroll.

Qumran Leviticus Scroll (2nd century BCE-1st century CE)

The Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls include some dozen or so^* manuscripts written entirely in Paleo-Hebrew, among them the Leviticus Scroll [11QpaleoLev], which is presumed to be a copy tracing back to a Paleo-Hebrew original.^‡

Leviticus Scroll; Shai Halevi. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

* Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library: The most well-known texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls are the ancient religious writings found in eleven caves near the site of Qumran. ... The Qumran Caves Scrolls contain significant religious literature. They consist of two types: “biblical” manuscripts—books found in today’s Hebrew Bible, and “non-biblical” manuscripts—other religious writings circulating during the Second Temple era. ... Scroll dates range from the third century bce (mid–Second Temple period) to the first century of the Common Era, before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 ce. While Hebrew is the most frequently used language in the Scrolls, about 15% were written in Aramaic and several in Greek. ... Among the Scrolls are partial or complete copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible (except the book of Esther). About a dozen copies of some of these holy books were written in ancient paleo-Hebrew (the script of the First Temple era, not the standard script of the time).²

† Wikipedia: The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll, although many centuries more recent than the well-known earlier ancient paleo-Hebrew epigraphic materials... [assuming it] was copied word-for-word from an older paleo-Hebrew manuscript, and that it, too, was copied in the same way from an older manuscript, until one were to go back in time to the original copy of the Torah scroll...conveys in its orthography an early Jewish tradition of writing going back to at least the 14th-century BCE.³

1. Image: Shai Halevi (on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority), 11QpaleoLev - Qumran Cave 11, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:11QpaleoLev_-_Qumran_Cave_11.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Note: Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, Learn About the Scrolls: Introduction, Israel Antiquities Authority, https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/introduction (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paleo-Hebrew_Leviticus_scroll&oldid=962624604 (accessed 15 June 2020).

The Ten Commandments Movie

In the 1956 film the stone tablets received by Moses are portrayed in Paleo-Hebrew (aka Phoenician script).

Moses and Ten Commandments; Allstar/Cinetext/PARAMOUNT. Source: DailyMail.com.¹

1. Image: James Dunn, Hangover cures, plays about Moses and a doctor's report on a drowned slave girl: Long lost papyrus scraps reveal life in Egypt 2,000 years ago, DailyMail.com, 2 March 2016, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3472392/The-original-Ten-Commandments-Ancient-papyrus-reveals-play-Moses-performed-2-000-years-Charlton-Heston-s-classic-movie.html (accessed 22 May 2021), It is evidence that a play about the biblical character will have been performed more than 2,000 years before Charlton Heston played him in 1956 movie The Ten Commandments.

Cippi of Melqart [KAI 47, 1694] (2nd century BCE), Malta

Phoenician and Greek transliteration source: Chatonnet (2012).⁶ Phoenician translation source: Cooke (1903).⁷ Greek translation source: Musée du Louvre.⁸

* ʾdn = lord; lʾdn = to/for the lord; wlʾdn = and to/for the lord.; lʾdnm = to/for his lord; lʾdnn = to/for our lord; lʾdnnm = to/for their lord; lʾdny = to/for his/my lord.

† ἀρχηγέτει = founder. Perseus: Ἀρχηγέτης, ου, ὁ: first leader, author, esp. founder of a city or family....; leader/chief. Suda On Line: Ἀρχηγέτης (alpha,4095): leader (Ἡγεμών).

Notes

CultureMalta: The cippi of Malta are to Phoenician script what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the key to finally decoding the world’s first written script.⁹

Musée du Louvre: The [Greek] text...reveals this to be a monument dedicated by Dionysos and Serapion, men of Tyre. Using this inscription, which contains 18 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, Fr. Jean-Jacques Barthélémy was able to begin the decipherment of the language. He was thus able to read the first word 'DNN' as "to our lord." The notion that Heracles might correspond to Melqart, Lord of Tyre, led to the identification of further letters, while the names of the dedicators - sons of the same father in the Greek text - enabled him to find the latter in the Phoenician text.¹⁰

CultureMalta: The cippi (plural of cippus)...are...dedicated to the god Melqart, the most important Phoenician god. ... The cippi were discovered...in 1694, during the period of the Knights of Malta. ... In 1782, one of the two cippi was presented to King Louis XVI by the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, Fra Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc. Today, it is found in the Louvre Museum in Paris while its twin is at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta.¹¹

Cooke (1903): This inscr. is repeated in the same words on two pedestals, one at Valetta, the other in the Louvre. ... The letters of this inscr. resemble the Tyrian and Sidonian type.¹²

Wikipedia: The...two...cippi...are inscribed in...Ancient Greek and Phoenician. ... Because they present essentially the same text (with some minor differences), the cippi provided the key to the modern understanding of the Phoenician language. In 1758, the French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélémy relied on their inscription, which used 17 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, to decipher the unknown language.¹³

Musée du Louvre: Relations between Malta and the Phoenicians...go back to the 8th century BC, but the inscription here suggests a date in the 2nd century BC, when the Maltese Islands were under Roman occupation.¹⁴

1. Image: R Muscat, Cippus - Louvre, Wikimedia Commons, 15 February 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cippus_-_Louvre.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Maltese History & Heritage, History of the Maltese Language, https://vassallohistory.wordpress.com/history-of-the-maltese-language/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Drawing: Vermondo, Louvre Cippus Phoenician inscription, Wikimedia Commons, 15 February 2014, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_Cippus_Phoenician_inscription.png (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Drawing: Vermondo, Louvre Cippus Greek inscription, Wikimedia Commons, 15 February 2014, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_Cippus_Greek_inscription.png (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Image: Hamelin de Guettelet, Phoenician Cippus in Malta, Wikimedia Commons, 15 February 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phoenician_Cippus_in_Malta.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Transliteration: Françoise Briquel Chatonnet, Les Inscriptions Phénico-Grecqueset le Bilinguisme des Phéniciens, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres [CRAI] 156e année, N. 1 (2012) https://www.academia.edu/4427631/Les_inscriptions_phénico_grecques_et_le_bilinguisme_des_Phéniciens (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 627.

7. Translation: G. A. Cooke, A Text-Book of North-Semitic Inscriptions: Moabite, Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, Nabataean, Palmyrene, Jewish (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), https://books.google.com/books?id=KwsIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 102.

8. Translation: Musée du Louvre, Cippus from Malta, https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/cippus-malta https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010165603 (accessed ...).

9. Note: CultureMalta, Cippus from Malta, https://culturemalta.org/the-cippi-of-malta/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

10. Note: Musée du Louvre.

11. Note: CultureMalta.

12. Note: Cooke.

13. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Cippi of Melqart, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cippi_of_Melqart (accessed 22 May 2021).

14. Note: Musée du Louvre.

Yehawmilk [𐤉𐤇𐤅𐤌𐤋𐤊] Stele [KAI 10, 1869] (5th Century BCE, ca. 450), Byblos

Yehawmilk Stele; RMN / René-Gabriel Ojéda. Source: Musée du Louvre.¹

Yehawmilk Stele; Julius Euting. Source: Euting (1876).²

Transliteration source, Lehmann (2005): In this transliteration, the lexemes which are written close together in scriptio continua are connected by hyphens.... Some extremely narrow or dubious spaces or otherwise doubtful parts of the text have - if necessary, an additional - curled underline. ... Word division in line breaks...happens only...in lines 10/11 (ʾr|ṣ), 11/12 (mz|bḥ), and 13/14 (ts|r).³ Lehmann (2005): Spacing [occurs] only at word boundaries [but not] at every margin of a word. ... There is rather an interplay of cohesion and separation between groups of words. ... The spacing therefore can neither have the same function as the word separation spaces in...modern Western writing, nor is like the use of word dividing points which appear...in most early Phoenician inscriptions. As a consequence, the spacing cannot be determined by lexematic implications only, and it cannot be based on an idea of 'word' - at least not in a modern sense.⁴ Translation source, Lehmann (2005): A tentative translation taking into account the prosodic organization of the text by spaces...not intended to give a literary translation here, but to give an idea of the prosodic organization of the text in English).⁵

Notes

Lehmann (2005): In 1869, a local inhabitant of Jebeil, the site of ancient Gubla/Byblos, found an inscribed stele along with two lion figures while digging holes to plant trees near his house. ... The stele was erected by a certain Yaḥawmilk, king of Byblos, as a dedication to his lady, the Baʿalat-Gubla. ... A missing fragment of the right bottom part was found 70 years later in the same place. For palaeographic reasons, because of the Persian-style scene above, and because of subsequently confirmed stratigraphy the stele is to be dated to the Persian period, i. e. the 5th or 4 century BCE.⁶

1. Image: RMN / René-Gabriel Ojéda,Stèle de Yehawmilk, Musée du Louvre, 2007, https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/yehawmilk-stele https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010120347 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: Julius Euting, Inschriftliche Mittheilungen: III Inschrift von Gebâl, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 30 (Leipzig: 1876), http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/pageview/25694 (accessed 22 May 2021), Widmung des Königs Jehawmelek an die Baʽalat von Gebâl.

3. Transliteration: Reinhard G. Lehmann, Space-Syntax and Metre in the Inscription of Yaḥawmilk, King of Byblos, in Proceedings of Yarmouk Second Annual Colloquium on Epigraphy and Ancient Writings, ed. Omar Al-Ghul assisted by Afaf Zeyad (Jordon: National Press, 2005) https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb01-hebraistik/files/2017/12/Lehmann_Yhwmlk.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 80, 84-85.

4. Ibid., p. 85.

5. Translation: Ibid., p. 96.

6. Note: Ibid., pp. 71-73.

Eshmunazar [𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓] II Sarcophagus [KAI 14, 1855] (6th-5th Century BCE, ca. 500), Sidon

Eshmunazar II Sarcophagus; Eric Chan. Source: Wikimedia Commons.1	Eshmunazar II Sarcophagus Inscription; PROEL. Source: PROEL.2

Partial transliteration and translation source (lines 1-12a, 20b-22): Wikander (2015).^3,4 (For a complete transliteration and translation see Jean-Claude Haelewyck [2012], pp. 79-81.)

Notes

Haelewyck (2012): The sarcophagus was constructed in Egypt in black basalt and transported to Sidon to contain the body of Eshmunazar II (465-451), king of Sidon and son of king Tabnit. ... Originally the sarcophagus contained a hieroglyphic text that was replaced by the Phoenician inscription.⁵

Elayi (2006): Eshmunazor I...was succeeded by his son Tabnit who married his sister Amoashtart. Since Tabnit died before the birth of his son Eshmunazor II, the queen mother (HMLKT) Amoashtart assumed the interregnum until the birth, then the co-regency with her young son during his childhood. After that, Eshmunazor II reigned alone. At the end of his reign, he was succeeded by Bodashtart, who was the son of a brother (or a sister) of Tabnit and Amoashtart. ... We do not know exactly the length of the reigns of Eshmunazor I, Tabnit (it was short since he died before the birth of his son), Eshmunazor II (14 years, plus the Amoashtart interregnum, at least before his birth) and Bodashtart (more than 7 years, possibly 10/12 years). The sarcophagi were taken back from Egypt to Sidon by Tabnit (or Eshmunazor I) for him and his successors rather than the reverse (by Eshmunazor II for him and his ancestors) because the writing had changed from the inscription of Tabnit to that of Eshmunazor II. The transportation of the sarcophagi necessarily took place before 525 when their manufacture was stopped, probably between about 569 and 525, period for the manufacture of these types of sarcophagi. ... From the present available documentation, we can propose the following approximate chronology for the so-called dynasty of Eshmunazor: Eshmunazor I (2nd quarter of the 6th cent.), Tabnit (2nd or 3rd quarter of the 6th cent.), Amoashtart and Eshmunazor II (3rd quarter of the 6th cent.), Bodashtart (4th quarter of the 6th cent.)....⁶

1. Image: Eric Chan, Eshmunazar II sarcophagus, Wikimedia Commons, 31 August 2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eshmunazar_II_sarcophagus.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: Promotora Española de Lingüística (PROEL), Alfabeto Fenicio, http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=alfabetos/fenicio (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscripción de Eshmunazar.

3. Transliteration: Ola Wikander, Don’t Push this Button: Phoenician Sarcophagi, Atomic Priesthoods and Nuclear Waste, in Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok 2015. (Lund University), ed. Henrik Rahm (Lund, SE: Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/15231939/Dont_Push_this_Button_Phoenician_Sarcophagi_Atomic_Priesthoods_and_Nuclear_Waste_Vetenskapssocieteten_i_Lund_Årsbok_2015_ (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 121, n. 3.

4. Translation: Wikander, p. 109.

5. Note: Jean-Claude Haelewyck, The Phoenician Inscription of Eshmunazar: An Attempt at Vocalization, Université catholique de Louvain BABELAO 1 (2012), https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/incal/ciol/babelao-1-2012.html (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 79.

6. Note: Josette Elayi, An Updated Chronology of the Reigns of Phoenician Kings during the Persian Period (539-333 BCE), Transeuphratène: Recherches pluridisciplinaires sur une province de l'Empire achéménide 32 (Peeters, 2006), http://digitorient.com/blog/2006/10/14/an-updated-chronology-of-the-reigns-of-phoenician-kings-during-the-persian-period-539-333-bce-trans-32-2006-j-elayi/ (accessed 22 May 2021), 1. Kings of Sidon.

Tabnit [𐤕𐤁𐤍𐤕] Sarcophagus [KAI 13, 1887] (6th-5th Century BCE, ca. 500), Sidon

Tabnit Sarcophagus; Ken Grubb. Source: Grubb (2012).¹

Tabnit Sarcophagus Inscription; oncenawhile. Source: Wikimedia Commons.2	Tabnit Sarcophagus Inscription; PROEL. Source: PROEL.3

Transliteration source: Haelewyck (2011).⁴ Translation source: Dixon (2013).⁵

Notes

Wikipedia: The Tabnit sarcophagus is the sarcophagus of the Phoenician King of Sidon Tabnit I (ruled c. 549–539 BCE), the father of King Eshmunazar II. The sarcophagus is decorated with two separate and unrelated inscriptions – one in Egyptian hieroglyphics and one in Phoenician script. ... During the excavation, the workmen opened the Tabnit sarcophagus and found "a human body floating in perfect preservation in a peculiar fluid". Whilst Hamdi Bey was at lunch, the workmen overturned the sarcophagus and poured the fluid out, such that the "secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand".⁶

Dixon (2013): Tabnit’s “mummy” was discovered in 1887 as part of the intact burial of this king, and is currently on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.⁷ Dixon (2013): Although largely reduced to his skeletal frame, Tabnit’s body still retains traces of skin, hair, and internal organs. ... Perhaps most remarkable are the remains of the internal organs, which, although blackened and shrunken with the drying process, seem surprisingly complete. ... It is impossible to tell what, if anything, was removed from the body cavity of these remains. ... While the methods used by Phoenicians to preserve their dead are not well understood, this material offers strong evidence that at the very least, some Persian period kings were prepared for burial in such a way as to attempt preservation of their soft tissues.⁸ Dixon (2013): Additional textual evidence for the practice of mummification in the Phoenician homeland is the white marble sarcophagus fragment from Byblos, dated to the 6th century BCE, and discussed in Chapter III [image on p. 170]. The first line, as interpreted by Cross, reads: ...]n ʾnk lhdy wkn hn ʾnk škb bʾrn zn ʾsp bmr wbbdl[ḥ... [I (PN and titulary) lie in this sarcophagus], I alone, and here, behold I lie prepared for burial in myrrh and bdellium....⁹

Dixon (2013): [The] black basalt sarcophagus, thought to have been produced in Egypt (and procured as plunder), and still bearing a hieroglyphic inscription labeling its intended use by an Egyptian general named Pen-Ptah, was...re-carved for an early 5^th century king of Sidon, ...preserving the hieroglyphic text above them.¹⁰ Dixon (2013): The lid features an Egyptian-style face-mask and chest decoration, as well as a hieroglyphic inscription mentioning the Egyptian general Pen-Ptah. The Phoenician inscription added to the bottom of the lid identifies Tabnit first as a priest of ‘Ashtart, and secondly as king of the Sidonians.¹¹

Nitschke (2007): The anthropoid-style coffin is a type that originated in Egypt, emerging originally in the third millennium out of mummification practices. The earliest anthropoid sarcophagi depicted the mummified body on the lid. By the later New Kingdom period (ca. fourteenth century), the paradigm shifted whereby the deceased were represented as they appeared in life. ... Three of these Egyptian sarcophagi manufactured during the twenty-sixth dynasty were apparently acquired by the Sidonians, perhaps as a result of Phoenician participation in Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt in 525 B.C. They were reused to bury the Sidonian King Tibnit and his son, the the later King Eshmunazar (II).¹² (Nitschke (2007): The third sarcophagus brought from Egypt was used to house an as yet unidentified queen.¹³)

1. Image: Ken Grubb, Sarcophagus of Sidonian King Tabnit, Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Turkey Central, 26 August 2012, https://www.turkeycentral.com/gallery/image/7210-sarcophagus-of-sidonian-king-tabnit-istanbul-archaeology-museum/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: oncenawhile, Tabnit phoenician, Wikimedia Commons, 4 August 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabnit_phoenician.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Drawing: Promotora Española de Lingüística (PROEL), Alfabeto Fenicio, http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=alfabetos/fenicio (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscripción de Tabnit (siglo V a. C.).

4. Transliteration: Jean-Claude Haelewyck, L’inscription phénicienne de Tabnit (KAI 13): Essai de vocalisation, Res Antiquae 8 (2011), https://www.academia.edu/38831771/The_Phoenician_Inscription_of_Eshmunazar_An_Attempt_at_Vocalization (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 4-10.

5. Translation: Helen M. Dixon, Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2013), https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99972/helendix_1.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 180.

6. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Tabnit sarcophagus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabnit_sarcophagus (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Dixon, pp. 181-182.

8. Ibid., pp. 550-553.

9. Ibid., pp. 547-548.

10. Ibid., p. 180.

11. Ibid., p. 561.

12. Note: Jessica Lynn Nager Nitschke, Perceptions of Culture: Interpreting Greco-Near Eastern Hybridity in the Phoenician Homeland (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2007), https://www.academia.edu/1561148/Perceptions_of_Culture_Interpreting_Greco_Near_Eastern_Hybridity_in_the_Phoenician_Homeland (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 71-72.

13. Ibid., p. 72, n. 184.

Bodashtart Inscriptions [KAI 15-16, 1858] (6th Century BCE), Sidon

Bodashtart Inscriptions. Source: Bordreuil, Gubel (1990).^1-8

Notes

Wikipedia: The Bodashtart inscriptions are a well-known group of between 22–24 Phoenician inscriptions from the 6th century BC referring to King Bodashtart.⁹

1. Image: P. Bordreuil and E. Gubel, Bulletin d'antiquités archéologiques du Levant inédites ou méconnues VI Syria LXVII (1990), https://www.persee.fr/doc/syria_0039-7946_1990_num_67_2_7170 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 494, Fig. 11: Inscription de Bodachtart (AO 3552). (Photo Chuzeville).

2. Ibid., p. 494, Fig. 12: Inscription de Bodachtart (AO 3553).

3. Ibid., p. 495, Fig. 13: Inscription de Bodachtart (AO 4078).

4. Ibid., p. 496, Fig. 14: Inscription de Bodachtart (AO 4077).

5. Ibid., p. 497, Fig. 15: Inscription de Bodachtart (Musée de l'Université américaine de Beyrouth) (photo d'aprés N. Jidéjian) Sidon through the Ages (Beyrouth 1969, nᵒ 183).

6. Ibid., p. 498, Fig. 16: Inscription de Bodachtart, Musée d'Instanboul.

7. Ibid., p. 498, Fig. 17: Inscription de Bodachtart, Musée d'Instanboul.

8. Ibid., p. 502, Fig. 18: Inscription de Bodachtart II CIS I, 4 (AO 4838).

9. Wikipedia, s.v. Bodashtart inscriptions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodashtart_inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021).

Son of Shipitbaal [𐤁𐤍𐤔𐤐𐤈𐤁𐤏𐤋] aka Shipitbaal III [KAI 9] (6th Century BCE, ca. 500), Byblos

Son of Shipitbaal, Fragments A (right) and B (left); Onceinawhile. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

Son of Shipitbaal, Fragments A (top), B (left), and C (right); Maurice Dunand. Source: Wallenfels (1983).² (Drawing of Fragment B: Christopher A. Rollston [2019], p. 41.)

Translation source, Dixon (2013): The inscription, found in 1929 on the grounds of the Crusader castle at Byblos, originally existed in three pieces labeled A, B, and C [Dunand 1939]. Fragment C was eventually joined with fragment B [Milik in Dunand 1954] such that the content of the surviving characters may be reconstructed as [above].³

Notes

Dixon (2013): Also from Byblos comes the royal inscription made by the son of a Shipitbaal, identified as Shipitbaal III by most scholars.⁴

Sader (2019): The inscription of the son of Shipitbaal (KAI 9) is very fragmentary. It is a funerary inscription that reveals the name of a king of Byblos called Shipitbaal and referred to as Shipitbaal III. The name of his successor is lost in the break.⁵

Elayi (2006): A major difficulty in establishing the chronology of the Byblian kings is that none of their inscriptions (monumental or monetary) are dated by their years of reign. The last known king before the Persian period was Milkyasap mentioned in the Annals of Esarhaddon. The first king known to us, having reigned at the beginning of the Persian period, was Shipitbaal III (ŠPṬBʿL), since there were two others: Shipitbaal I (around 900) and Shipitbaal II (around 740). Shipitbaal III is mentioned in a royal inscription of his son.... The...inscription is lacunary and we cannot say for certain whether he actually reigned; it has been dated around 500, basing on palaeographical grounds, which remains approximate. ... We...use the mention of Shipitbaal III as a king of Byblos with caution....⁶

1. Image: Onceinawhile, National Museum of Beirut – fragments of stela of Shipitba'al III, Wikimedia Commons, 27 November 2019, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Museum_of_Beirut_–_fragments_of_stela_of_Shipitba%27al_III.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Ronald Wallenfels, Redating the Byblian Inscriptions, Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society [JANES] 15 (1983), https://www.academia.edu/1368813/Redating_the_Byblian_Inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 92, Plate IX: KAI 9 (A)-(C) (M. Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos I-Atlas, pl. XXXIII.2 [1143a-c]).

3. Translation: Helen M. Dixon, Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2013), https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99972/helendix_1.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 173-174.

4. Note: Dixon, p. 173.

5. Note: Hélène Sader, The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019), https://books.google.com/books?id=dEm9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 84.

6. Note: Josette Elayi, An Updated Chronology of the Reigns of Phoenician Kings during the Persian Period (539-333 BCE), Transeuphratène: Recherches pluridisciplinaires sur une province de l'Empire achéménide 32 (Peeters, 2006), http://digitorient.com/blog/2006/10/14/an-updated-chronology-of-the-reigns-of-phoenician-kings-during-the-persian-period-539-333-bce-trans-32-2006-j-elayi/ (accessed 22 May 2021), 3. Kings of Byblos.

Pyrgi Tablets [KAI 277, 1964] (6th Century BCE, ca. 500), Italy

Pyrgi Tablets; Sailko. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

Pyrgi Tablets. Source: Agostini, Zavaroni (2000).²

Transliteration and translation source: Zamora (2015-2016).³

Notes

Agostini, Zavaroni (2000): In 1964, the archaeologists excavating the ancient Etruscan city of Pyrgi brought to light three golden plates. Two of the plates were written in Etruscan, while the third one had a Phoenician inscription on it. ... Scholars' hopes that the promising text of the Etruscan plate might have been an Etruscan kind of Rosetta stone were dashed to the ground. They realized very soon that the two texts were—at best—a paraphrasis of each other but they contained no literal translation which might have offered a key to Etruscan hermeneutics.⁴

Schmitz (2007): One of the impediments facing a convincing interpretation of the Phoenician text is word division. Centered dots between letters puncuate the Phoenician text at (probably) four places, but the meaning of this punctuation is uncertain. Otherwise, word division is not indicated. (Phoenician is commonly written without word division; Punic generally spaces words.) Determining the word division of the Pyrgi text is not very difficult except in one or two places. In my judgment, the most difficult portion of the text with respect to word division is the first part of line 5. The transliterated letters of the text are these: šmšbmtnʾbbt. The Phoenician word šmš sun readily distinguishes itself as part of a month name zbh# šmš...also found in a Phoenician inscription from Larnaca. ... The next segment of line 5 is difficult. Garbini initially read bmtnʾbbt.... In the following year Garbini proposed the alternative reading bmtn ʾbbt. ... The word mtn is unusual as a free form in Phoenician and Punic. The anticipated spelling is mtt in Phoenician and mtnt in Punic.⁵

1. Image: Sailko, Lamine d'oro in lingua etrusca e fenicia con dedica di un luogo sacro a pyrgi, Wikimedia Commons, 6 September 2017, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamine_d%27oro_in_lingua_etrusca_e_fenicia_con_dedica_di_un_luogo_sacro_a_pyrgi.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Paolo Agostini and Adolfo Zavaroni, The Bilingual Phoenician-Estruscan Text of the Golden Plates of Pyrgi, Filologija (Zagreb University) 34 (2000), https://www.academia.edu/31100161/THE_BILINGUAL_PHOENICIAN_ETRUSCAN_TEXT_OF_THE_GOLDEN_PLATES_OF_PYRGI (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 3, Plates A, B, C.

3. Transliteration and translation: José Á. Zamora, Pyrgi Revisited: An Analysis of the Structure and Formulae of the Phoenician Text of Pyrgi, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 32-33 (2015-2016), https://www.academia.edu/21464613/Pyrgi_Revisited_An_Analysis_of_the_Structure_and_Formulae_of_the_Phoenician_Text_of_Pyrgi (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 71, 77.

4. Note: Paolo Agostini and Adolfo Zavaroni, p. 9.

5. Note: Philip C. Schmitz, Adonis in the Phoenician Text from Pyrgi? A New Reading of KAI 277.5, Etruscan News 8 (Summer 2007), https://www.academia.edu/1132492/_Adonis_in_the_Phoenician_Text_from_Pyrgi_A_New_Reading_of_KAI_277_5_Etruscan_News_8_2007_Etruscan_News_is_a_print_and_online_journal_sponsored_by_Columbia_University (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 9.

Malta Stele [KAI 61A, 1820] (8th-7th Century BCE), Malta

Malta Stele; Mikestravelguide. Source: Mikestravelguide.com.1	Malta Stele; Nicholas C. Vella. Source: Amadasi Guzzo, Zamora López (2012).2

Transliteration and translation source, Amadasi Guzzo, Zamora López (2012-2013): Inscription...presenting the term nṣb and the expression mlk bʿl: Stela from Malta..., 7^th c. BCE. 1-6: nṣb mlk bʿl ʾš šm PN lbʿl ḥmn ʾdn kšmʿ ql dbry Stela of a mlk of a person that X set up for Baʿl Hamon, the Lord. Indeed he heard the voice of his words.³

Notes

Dixon (2013): Two controversial votive stelae dating to the early 7th century come from a field near Rabat Mdina in Malta, where they were discovered in 1820. [John] Gibson wrote in 1982 of their convoluted history: ... The first stele [KAI 61A], of which a photograph and several sketches were taken last century, was thought to have been lost, but it has recently been found intact in the National Museum in Valletta.... The second stele [KAI 61B], apparently in a much worse state of preservation, was jealously guarded by the local family into whose possession it came, and eventually disappeared; it was never photographed and is known now only from a single...drawing of the artifact. The stelae are undecorated aside from their inscriptions, which read: A) Stele [nṣb] of mlk bˁl which Nahum erected for Baal Hamon, lord, because he heard the voice of his words; B) Stele [nṣb] of mlk ʾmr which [Ar]sh erec[ted] for Baal [Hammon], lord, [because he] heard the voice of his w[ords].⁴

Amadasi Guzzo, Zamora López (2012-2013): mlk is almost certainly a noun...with the meaning “sacrificial offering”......the use of which – as far as is known – has become specific for the offerings carried out in a tophet. It is also probable that this term underlies the biblical Molok, (con)fused perhaps with the divine name Mlk (Milk), formed from the same consonants – but related to the root mlk, “to be king”. ... Although the expression denoting the offering is not completely clear, its general interpretation is as follows: a person – the offerer – has placed a stela that commemorates a mlk, “sacrifice” consisting either of a bʿl (as we shall see, a disputed term) or of a lamb (ʾmr). ... The exact meaning of the name of the offering seems to be more uncertain. In the same place as the expression mlk bʿl, one finds mlk ʾdm, which seems to have had a similar meaning. ... The semantic field of bʿl is wide, ranging from “lord” and “citizen” to a more generic meaning: e. g. bʿl zbḥ, which occurs in several inscriptions, is not “the lord of sacrifice”, but simply “he who sacrifices” (the one who offers the sacrifice, not the one who performs it, who instead is called zbḥ, a participle). Therefore, the noun bʿl could have a meaning such as “person”. The most usual meaning of ʾdm is “individual, human being”. We may therefore conclude that what was offered was either a lamb or a human being. ... After the formula of offering to the god(s), the texts sometimes – as already mentioned – have an expression of thanksgiving because the deity had listened to the donor’s prayer: k šmʿ ql dbry, “indeed [the god] has heard the voice of his words”, in inscriptions up to the 5th century.⁵

Dixon (2013): The...terms mlk bʿl [on the first stele] and mlk ʾmr [on the second stele] have been the subject of a long-standing and sprited scholarly debate.... Many scholars have framed the debate by asserting the term mlk in these contexts necessarily refers to some kind of sacrifice, others...reject the identification of mlk with sacrificial vocabulary.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 700 BC.⁷

1. Image: Mikestravelguide.com, Things to do in Malta – Visit the National Museum of Archaeology, 12 October 2019, http://mikestravelguide.com/things-to-do-in-malta-visit-the-national-museum-of-archaeology/ (accessed 22 May 2021), A stele of limestone with Phoenician inscription.

2. Image: Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo and José Ángel Zamora López, The Epigraphy of the Tophet, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici [SEL] 29-30 (2012-2013), https://www.academia.edu/7783597/Epigraphy_of_the_tophet (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 188, Fig. 4: Inscription from the oldest period presenting the term nṣb and the expressionmlk bʿl: Stela from Malta CIS I 123a, 7^th c. BCE (original photo and drawing from VELLA 2013: fig. 2-3).

3. Transliteration and translation: Amadasi Guzzo and Zamora López, p. 188.

4. Note: Helen M. Dixon, Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2013), https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99972/helendix_1.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 122.

5. Note: Amadasi Guzzo and Zamora López, pp. 169-175.

6. Note: Dixon, p. 123.

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 22 May 2021), p. 111.

Seville Astarte [𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕] Statuette aka Diosa Astarté Sevilla [KAI 294, 1963] (8th Century BCE, ca. 750), Spain

Seville Astarte Statuette; Junta de Andalucía. Source: Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla.1	Seville Astarte Statuette Inscription; Frank Moore Cross. Source: Cross (2003).2 Seville Astarte Statuette Detail. Source: Knott (2014).3

Transliteration and translation source: Cross (1971).⁴

Notes

Cross (1971): A bronze statuette...portrays a naked goddess with a modified Ḥatḥor hair style. She is seated, her feet resting on a pedestal which is inscribed with five lines of old Phoenician writing. The writing surface...unhappily is marred by bronze disease, that is, by corrosion which swells and flakes. The figurine with its inscription was published by J. M. Sola-Sola in 1966 in an excellent paper which dated the inscription (and the statuette) in the first half of the eighth century BCE...and went far in deciphering the difficult text.⁵

Knott (2014): Phoenician merchants left behind alphabetic inscriptions across the Mediterranean, as far west as Spain.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 750 BC.⁷

1. Image: Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla, Diosa Astarté, n.d., http://www.museosdeandalucia.es/web/museoarqueologicodesevilla/obras-singulares/-/asset_publisher/GRnu6ntjtLfp/content/diosa-astarte (accessed 15 June 2021).

2. Drawing: Frank Moore Cross, The Old Phoenician Inscription from Spain Dedicated to Hurrian Astarte [1971], 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/BP000041.xml (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 274, Figure 40.1. A drawing of the inscription.

3. Image: Elizabeth Knott, Alphabet Origins: From Kipling to Sinai, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22 December 2014 https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/assyria-to-iberia/blog/posts/alphabet (accessed 22 May 2021), Bronze statuette of the goddess Astarte from Spain and detail of the Phoenician inscription on the footstool. El Carambolo (?), Camas, Seville. Phoenician, 8th–7th century B.C. Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla, Seville (11.136).

4. Transliteration and translation: Cross, p. 273.

5. Note: Ibid.

6. Note: Knott.

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 22 May 2021), p. 110.

Baal Lebanon [𐤁𐤏𐤋𐤋𐤁𐤍𐤍] Inscription aka Limassol Bowl aka Limassol Paterae [KAI 31, 1881] (8th Century BCE, ca. 775), Cyprus

Baal Lebanon Inscription. Source: Zamora López (2015).^1,2

Baal Lebanon Inscription; Edward Clodd. Source: Edward Clodd (1900).³

Transliteration and translation source, Steele (2013): Although usually classed as a single inscription, the fragments come from two different bowls and so should be treated as separate texts even though they are clearly closely related in origin, content and palaeography.⁴

Notes

Zerbe (1911): One of the most interesting of all inscriptions is the so-called Baal Lebanon, found at Limassol, Cyprus, but supposed by some to belong originally to a temple of Baal not far from Sidon. The inscription, or rather inscriptions (for there are eight fragments of thin bronze) formed parts of bowls or paternae, used for ceremonial purposes. Six of the these fragments pieced together form...the translation below; the remaining pieces...may have belonged to another bowl.⁵

Zamora López (2015): The Phoenicio-Punic corpus, made up of a relatively large number of texts (over 10,000) mostly consists of formulaic documents and therefore repetitive – and frequently laconic – texts. However, as we shall see, inscriptions do provide relevant testimonies regarding metals. Indeed, texts mention silver, ksp, as well as gold, ḥrṣ, lead, ʿprt, or iron, brzl. Relevantly to this contribution, Phoenician inscriptions also allude to bronze. The Phoenician word for bronze was nḥšt. In fact, it could also be translated as “copper”, as both terms seem to be interchangeable in the Phoenician language.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 775 BC.⁷

1. Image: José Ángel Zamora López, Bronze and Metallurgy in Phoenician Sources, in Phoenician Bronzes in Mediterranean, ed. Javier Jiménez Ávila (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/21587549/Bronze_and_Metallurgy_in_Phoenician_Sources (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 32, Fig 2: Exploded view of the fragments of Limassol paterae and position in which they appeared.

2. Ibid., p. 35, Fig 3: Reassembling of fragments A to F of Limassol paterae and reconstruction of the object.

3. Drawing: Edward Clodd, Inscription on Sacred Bowls (Baal Lebanon), in The Story of the Alphabet (London: George Newnes, 1900), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46388/46388-h/46388-h.htm#Page_146 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 146, Fig 52.

4. Note: Philippa M. Steele, A Linguistic History of Ancient Cyprus: The Non-Greek Languages, and their Relations with Greek, ca. 1600-300 BC (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), https://books.google.com/books?id=514UAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 231.

5. Note: Alvin Sylvester Zerbe, The Antiquity of Hebrew Writing and Literature: Or, Problems in Pentateuchal Criticism (Cleveland: Central Publishing House, 1911), https://books.google.com/books?id=nSQtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA96 (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Note: Zamora López,, pp. 30-31.

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 22 May 2021), p. 110.

Kition Bowl [KAI 30, ????] (9th Century BCE, ca. 800), Cyprus

Kition Bowl. Source: CREWS Project.1	Kition Bowl Inscription; Christopher A. Rollston. Source: Rollston (2008).2

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
[𐤊]𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤔 𐤏𐤓𐤆 [𐤊]𐤋𐤁 𐤅𐤉𐤐𐤂 [𐤋𐤐𐤍 𐤏𐤔]𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤅𐤏[𐤓𐤆] 𐤅𐤉𐤕 𐤏𐤓[𐤆 𐤅]𐤉𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤔 𐤅𐤐[𐤂 𐤊𐤋𐤁] 𐤏𐤓[𐤆 𐤀𐤉]𐤕 𐤁[𐤋] 𐤌𐤋𐤔 𐤏𐤃𐤃 [?𐤏] 𐤌𐤋𐤔 [𐤐𐤂] ........ 𐤁𐤍𐤃[𐤉 𐤉]𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤔 [𐤏𐤓𐤆] [[? 𐤍][[𐤑 𐤔]] 𐤀 𐤄𐤃[𐤓] 𐤌[𐤋𐤔]		Incantation. Poke the dog so that it slumps [before As]tarte, and p[oke(?)... When it comes, poke it and let it come (again). Incantation. And the [dog(?) is slum]ped... Poke the decrepit one! Incantation. Recite... Incantation. Poke the sl[umped one(?)]! (Seven or eight short vertical strokes) When ⟨it⟩ rises let it come. Incantation. Po[ke... ]...[ ]...[ Incanta[tion...

Transliteration and translation source, Coote (1975): The inscription is incomplete on the left. On the right there is no margin, the second and third lines beginning at different points well to the left of the beginning of the first line, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth at different points to the right of it. [André] Dupont-Sommer correctly recognized a reš [at the far right of the first line] and before that a long-tailed letter. Because the letters in this inscription are otherwise regularly spaced, the gap that separates these two letters from the mem in line 1 indicates that they are the end of a line that stretched off into the broken area on the right. The same seems to be indicated by an ʿayin before the gap at the beginning of line 4. The inscription thus originally comprised six continuous lines with occasional caesurae circling the entire outer surface of the bowl.³

Notes

Ioannou (2015): At Kition another inscription has been found, dating back to the 9th century BC, from which the temple of Astarte was identified. Reading this inscription is difficult, but the name of the goddess can be recognized. Although different interpretations have been suggested, researchers agree that the inscription is of votive character to the goddess Astarte and that the devotee was from Tamassos. ... Tamassos holds a key position in terms of Phoenician and Cypriote relations, due to its copper deposits in the greater area, one of the main reasons for the presence of the Phoenicians in the 9th century BC on the island.⁴

Azevedo (1994): 800 BC.⁵

1. Image: CREWS Project, A bowl of red slip ware from the Temple of Astarte at Kition, Cyprus, early 8th C BC, Twitter, 8 December 2018, https://twitter.com/crewsproject/status/1071459037856837632?lang=en (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: 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, 2008), https://www.academia.edu/474482/The_Phoenician_Script_of_the_Tel_Zayit_Abecedary_and_Putative_Evidence_for_Israelite_Literacy (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 87, Fig. 12: Kition Bowl (Drawing by Christopher Rollston).

3. Transliteration and translation: Robert B. Coote, The Kition Bowl, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 220 (December 1975), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/1356234?journalCode=basor (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Note: Christina Ioannou, Cypriotes and Phoenicians, Kyprios Character: History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus, 25 August 2015, http://kyprioscharacter.eie.gr/en/scientific-texts/details/cyprus-and-others/cypriotes-and-phoenicians (accessed 22 May 2021), The Phoenicians and Cyprus prior to the 8th century.

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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Nora Stone [KAI 46, 1773] (10th-9th Century BCE, ca. 925-825), Sardinia

Nora Stone; Olaf Tausch. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

Transliteration and translation source: Wikipedia.²

Notes

COJS: Discovered in 1773 in Nora, a city on the southern coast of Sardinia...the inscription begins “at Tarshish,” a common place-name derived from a Semitic root meaning “to smelt.” Tarshish may have been a Phoenician mining town in Sardinia. ... [Frank Moore] Cross dates the Nora Stone inscription to 825 BCE. He believes the Phoenicians sent an army to Sardinia that year to quell a local revolt and protect their mining interests in the area.³

Pilkington (2012): Interpretation of the Nora Stone divides into two positions. The division is based on different translations of the first line of extant text: בתרשש.... A first group of scholars sees the text as a religious document that deals with the foundation of a temple in Sardinia. ... A second group of scholars has argued that the text is a military document that records a Phoenician conquest in the area or some other form of military activity. ... Phoenician colonization in the eighth century has been interpreted as a relatively peaceful process.... However, the evidence from southwest Sardinia suggests an important disruption in sociopolitical organization. ... The pattern of destruction and abandonment...in southwestern Sardinia provides and indirect indication that Phoenician colonists and those chiefdoms in the immediate area of Nora Sulcis were unable to coexist.⁴ Pilkington (2012): The text constitutes the longest continuous inscription discovered from the earliest period of Phoenician colonization in Sardinia. Due to its unique nature, interpretation of the Nora Stone conditions any further analysis of Phoenician colonization in Sardinia.⁵

Azevedo (1994): 925-825 BC.⁶

1. Drawing: Olaf Tausch, Stele von Nora 07, Wikimedia Commons, 16 September 2017, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stele_von_Nora_07.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Transliteration and translation: Wikipedia, s.v. Nora Stone, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Stone (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], The Nora Stone, c. 831-785 BCE, http://cojs.org/the_nora_stone-_c-_831-785_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Note: Nathan Pilkington, A Note on Nora and the Nora Stone, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 365 (February 2012), https://www.academia.edu/3103158/A_Note_on_Nora_and_the_Nora_Stone (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 45.

5. Ibid.

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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Bosa Fragment [????] (10th-9th century BCE, ca. 925-825), Sardinia

Bosa Fragment; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).¹

Transliteration source: Parker (2013, 2018).²

Notes

Parker (2013, 2018): The Bosa fragment was discovered in northwestern Sardinia in the area of Bosa. ... No definitive interpretation of the text is possible, as the fragment bears only four letters. ... Because its Phoenician script is comparable to that of both the Honeyman inscription and the Nora stone, the fragment should be dated palaeographically to the first half of the ninth century BCE [900-850]. Transliteration: b/r m ʾ n³

Cross (1987): Three old stelae of monumental size have been found in Sardinia: the Nora Stone, the Bosa Fragment, both of the second half of the ninth century [850-800], and the Nora Fragment of the eleventh century.⁴

Azevedo (1994): 925-825 BC.⁵

1. 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. 7: The Bosa Fragment.

2. Transliteration: Parker, Part I, https://www.academia.edu/36755960/PARKER_LEVANT_COMES_OF_AGE_PARTI_05312018_docx (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 67.

3. Note: Ibid., p. 66.

4. Note: Frank Moore Cross, The Oldest Phoenician Inscription from Sardinia: The Fragmentary Stele from Nora [1987], 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=PA263 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 263.

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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Honeyman Inscription [KAI 30, 1939] (10th Century BCE, ca. 900), Crete

Honeyman Inscription. Source: Ioannou (2015).1	Honeyman Inscription; Heather Dana Davis Parker, West Semitic Research Project. Source: Parker (2016, 2019).2	Honeyman Inscription; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).3

Transliteration and translation source: Parker (2013), pp. 51-53: Transliteration and translation source: Parker (2013, 2018), pp. 52-54: ¹⁵⁶ Others read “w” or “š”. ¹⁵⁷ Others read “h”. ¹⁵⁸ Others read a word divider. ¹⁵⁹ Most read “t”; “l” is also a possibility. ¹⁶⁰ Others read “r” or “h”. ¹⁶¹ No one previously has raised the possibility of an ʾalep for this letter. ¹⁶² Albright and Dupont-Sommer draw a word divider here, but it is not in their transliterations. Masson and Sznycer read a word divider. ¹⁶³ Honeyman, Masson and Sznycer, and Gibson do not read this letter. KAI has nothing in its transliteration but has “b” in its drawing. Dupont-Sommer has nothing certain in his transliteration but has “b” in his drawing. ¹⁶⁴ Others read “m” (Dupont-Sommer and KAI have “m” in their transliterations but “n” in their drawings.) ¹⁶⁵ Honeyman reads “š”. ¹⁶⁶ Others read a word divider at the end of this line. ¹⁶⁷ Honeyman reads “n” here. ¹⁶⁸ There is a deep gouge here, and a significant portion of the surface area is missing. Most of the readings for this area are either reconstructions or, at best, extrapolations from small traces at the edges of the gouge. In this space between the letters “h” and “ʾyt”: Honeyman reads “ m ʾ | ”. Albright, Dupont-Sommer, and KAI read “z ʾ | ”. Masson and Sznycer read “ | z ʾ ”. Masson and Sznycer read “ | z ʾ ”. Müller reads “| z ʾ |”. Gibson reads “ z ʾ ”. ¹⁶⁹ Masson and Sznycer read a word divider here. ¹⁷⁰ Others read ʾalep. ¹⁷¹ Albright draws a word divider here, but it is not in his transliteration. Masson and Sznycer, Müller, and KAI 30. (2002, page 8) also read a word divider here. ¹⁷² In this line after “ ʾlm ”: Honeyman reads“[......]|[..] ʿny|l”. Albright and KAI 30 ([1962], page 7) read “| [......] | [p?] ʿmy | l”. KAI 30 ([2002], 8) reads “|[......] | l--y | l”. Dupont-Sommer reads “| [......] | [w] ʿmy | l”. Masson and Sznycer and Müller read “| [......] | l- -y | l”. Gibson reads “[......] | l[..]y | l”. ¹⁷³ Albright and Müller do not read past line five. Others read only some of the letters in lines six-eight. ¹⁷⁴ In this area Masson and Sznycer and Gibson and KAI (2002) read “| ʾyt |”. They do not read anything else in this line except the “š” at the end. ¹⁷⁵ In line six Honeyman, Dupont-Sommer, and KAI (1962) read only the “š”. ¹⁷⁶ In this line KAI 30 (2002) reads only five letters, while Masson and Sznycer and Gibson read five letters and a. word divider. (See the following notes with regard to the letters they read.) Here they read “ šm ”. ¹⁷⁷ Masson and Sznycer, Gibson, and KAI (2002) read this “y”. ¹⁷⁸ Masson and Sznycer and Gibson read this “ny |”. KAI (2002) reads “ny” but not a word divider after. ¹⁷⁹ Honeyman, Dupont-Sommer, and KAI (1962) read “| lyn” in the latter half of the line. No one offers a transliteration or drawing past line seven.⁴

Notes

Parker (2013), pp. 49-50: Parker (2013, 2018), p. 51: The Honeyman inscription (KAI 30; Gibson III:12) was discovered by A. M. Honeyman in 1939, in the collection of the Cyprus (Archaeological) Museum (#397) in Nicosia, Cyprus. Its original provenance is unknown. ... The text is badly weathered and much of what remains is either difficult or impossible to read. There are at least eight lines of text, though the beginning and right edge of the inscription are missing, as well as possibly a few letters on the left.⁵

Ioannou (2015): The [Honeyman] inscription is cut on a grave stela and is intriguing both in respect of the date it is paleographically attributed to, i.e. 9th century BC, and in terms of its content. The inscribed grave stela refers to a Phoenician buried on the island by his/her relatives. Being in charge of his/her burial, they erected the stela while other elements indicate the high social position of the deceased. The content of the inscription also attests to the importance of the dead person. It is a text of seven lines which informs readers about the kind of disasters awaiting them if they attempt to violate the tomb.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 900 BC.⁷

1. Image: Christina Ioannou, Cypriotes and Phoenicians, Kyprios Character: History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus, 25 August 2015, http://kyprioscharacter.eie.gr/en/scientific-texts/details/cyprus-and-others/cypriotes-and-phoenicians (accessed 22 May 2021), List of Illustrations, Fig. 2: Grave stele, 9th century BC, unknown provenence.

2. Image: Heather Dana Davis Parker, Teaching Epigraphy in the Digital Age, in Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture: Visualisation, Data Mining, Communication, ed. David Hamidović, Claire Clivaz, and Sarah Bowen Savant, Digital Biblical Studies 3 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019), https://www.academia.edu/39505544/Teaching_Epigraphy_in_the_Digital_Age (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 209, Figure 9.18: Adobe Illustrator’s measurement tools being used on an image of the Honeyman inscription (Cyprus Archaeological Museum, No. 397).

3. 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. 5: The Honeyman Inscription.

4. Transliteration and translation: Heather Dana Davis Parker, The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE Through Script Traditions (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, October 2013), https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c8d1/5e89fdaa3340742f8013bba482073df44232.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 51-53.

5. Note: Ibid., pp. 49-50.

6. Note: Christina Ioannou, Cypriotes and Phoenicians, Kyprios Character: History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus, 25 August 2015, http://kyprioscharacter.eie.gr/en/scientific-texts/details/cyprus-and-others/cypriotes-and-phoenicians (accessed 22 May 2021), The Phoenicians and Cyprus prior to the 8th century.

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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Tekke Bowl [????] (10th Century BCE, ca. 900), Crete

Tekke Bowl; Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. Source: Bourogiannis (2018).¹

Tekke Bowl Inscription; Frank Moore Cross. Source: Rollston (2008).²

Transliteration source, Bourogiannis (2020): The eroded signs of the Phoenician inscription from Tekke resulted in different readings, although in essence most of them reproduce a similar syntax.... Two words are securely read: ks meaning vase or cup, and bn, meaning son. Both are presumably followed by two personal names, possibly Šmʿ or Šṣʿ and Lʾmn respectively. Although none of them has secure parallels among Phoenician personal names, the structure 'cup of x son of y' is common in Phoenician and would identify the inscription from Tekke as a declaration of ownership.³ Translation source, Sogas (2019): Tekke Tomb J, a chamber tomb which was started to be used in the tenth century BC, had two burials, probably separated by a generation, so that one of them dated to the early 9th century BC. Between two amphorae, a bronze hemispherical bowl with an inscription of twelve archaic Phoenician letters appeared. With reference to the meaning of the inscription, Sznycer’s provisional reading was ‘the bowl of X, son of Y’ and Cross contributed by proposing its reading as ‘Cup of Sama [], son of L []’.⁴

Cross (1993): ks. šmʿ[] bn lbnn Cup of Samaʿ[] son of Labanān.

Notes

Whitley (2001): Crete, or more precisely Knossos, is the findspot of the earliest Phoenician inscription to be found in Greece: the inscribed bronze bowl from Tekke tomb J, datable to around 900 BC.⁵

Rollston (2008): Although corrosion has damaged the letters, it appears that the inscription consists of fours words. ... Although [M.] Sznycer did not consider the fifth letter of the inscription to be decipherable, [F. M.] Cross read it as an ʿayin and he has stated that it contains the pupil (a feature that is often considered to be reflective of an early script). ... Regarding the Tekke ʿayin...this portion of the bowl is corroded; hence no typological emphasis can be placed on this with any confidence. ... In the final analysis, it may be best to posit a tenth century date for this inscription.⁶

Sogas (2019): Knossos...was a much-frequented port by Phoenicians sailing towards the West. Even though some Phoenicians presumably only used Knossos as a stopping point, some archaeological finds indicate a more permanent character of their stay during the 9th-8th centuries BC. ... Some findings such as a bowl with a Phoenician inscription and other Near Eastern objects suggest exchange of goods and trade by the Phoenician merchants on their way to the west.⁷ Sogas (2019): The inscription of the [Phoenician bowl from Tekke Tomb J] suggests private ownership. According to many scholars, it was, thus, not an object of commerce but the possession of an early Phoenician who resided in Knossos. Sznycer and Coldstream agreed that the bowl dated to 900 BC by focusing on the archaeological context, whereas Cross focused his dating on palaeographical analysis and compared it to other inscriptions from the 11th century BC, such as the stele of Nora, stating that the Phoenicians start commercialising with the west in the 12th century BC. I suggest that the bowl was manufactured and inscribed during the 11th century, agreeing with Cross, and it passed hand to hand until it was buried in the 10th or early 9th century, as Sznycer and Coldstream indicated. The bowl could have been an heirloom when it was placed in the tomb. Hence, the bowl was in use for some generations before being buried. The last owner of the bowl, presumably buried in Tekke Tomb J, could have been a descendant of an early Phoenician, once an owner of the bowl. ... Nonetheless, we cannot just assume that the inscription refers to the family of first owner of the bowl, since it could have also been the donor. If this assumption was true, a Phoenician merchant, for instance, presumably called Sama, could have donated the bowl to a non-Phoenician individual in Knossos, who then donated it to his descendant and got buried with it. Hence, the donor of the bowl would have not necessarily been an inhabitant of Knossos. Likewise, as Coldstream suggests, the bowl could have been traded by Phoenicians on their way to the west. These assumptions are equally plausible.⁸

1. Image: Giorgos Bourogiannis, The Phoenician Presence in the Aegean During the Earlhy Iron Age: Trade, Settlement and Cultural Interaction, Rivista di Studi Fenici 46 (2018), https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Inscribed-bronze-bowl-from-Knossos-Tekke-Herakleion-4346-Heraklion-Archaeological_fig1_341821252 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 63, Fig. 1: Inscribed bronze bowl from Knossos-Tekke; Herakleion 4346, Heraklion Archaeological Museum (© Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports).

2. Drawing: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 87, Fig.11: Tekke Bowl (Drawing by Cross).

3. Transliteration: Giorgos Bourogiannis, Between Scripts and Languages: Inscribed Intricacies from Geometric and Archaic Greek Contexts, 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 22 May 2021), p. 155.

4. Translation: Judith Muñoz Sogas, Was Knossos a Home for Phoenician Traders? in Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th birthday, ed. Rui Morais, Delfim Leão, and Diana Rodríguez Pérez, with Daniela Ferreira (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019), https://www.academia.edu/38703160/Was_Knossos_a_Home_for_Phoenician_Traders (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 412.

5. Note: James Whitley, The Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 reprint 2003), https://books.google.com/books?id=njOKqvpRrh4C&pg=PA120 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 120.

6. Note: Rollston, pp. 86-87.

7. Note: Sogas, p. 408.

8. Ibid., p. 412.

Abda/ʿAbda/ʿAbdaʾ/Abdo [𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤀] Sherd [KAI 8] (10th-9th century BCE, ca. 950-850), Byblos

Abda Sherd; Maurice Dunand. Source: Wallenfels (1983).1	Abda Sherd; Christopher A. Rollston. Source: Rollston (2008).2

Transliteration and translation source: Peckham (2014): ...From the latter part of the [tenth] century, there is a large jar inscribed on the shoulder with the name of the potter who fashioned it....³

Notes

Rollston (2008): Often considered contemporary with the Shipitbaʿl Inscription, that is, late tenth century B.C.E. or early ninth century B.C.E.⁴

Rollston (2008): Paleaeographers have argued for some time that the script of the Shipitbaʿl Inscription and that of the ʿAbda Sherd should be dated to the late tenth or very early ninth century B.C.E.⁵

Rollston (2010): The Shipitba‘al Inscription can be classed as the latest of the great early Byblian royal inscriptions. From this chronological horizon also comes the ʿAbda Sherd. Note that the morphology of bet in these two inscriptions is the same; this feature was ephemeral.⁶

Parker (2013, 2018): ...securely-dated, tenth-century Phoenician inscriptions from Byblos (formal royal inscriptions, cursive ʿAbda sherd).⁷

Finkelstein, Sass (2013): Undifferentiated non-Hebrew, late Iron IIA2 and early Iron II. ... Three inscriptions from Byblos – clay cone B..., the bronze spatula and the Abda sherd... – are unstratified, with an approximate range by letter typology of late Iron IIA and early Iron IIB according to Israeli periodization.⁸

Faigenbaum-Golovin, Rollston, Piasetzky, Sober, Finkelstein (2015): This assimilation of the nun (i.e., in the word bn) is nicely attested in Phoenician, thus, for example, in the Yeḥimilk Inscription, we have byḥmlk (son of Yeḥimilk) for bn yḥmlk (KAI 6); the same in the Šipiṭbaʿl Inscription (KAI 7). Similarly, we have bklby (“son of Kalby”) for bn klby in the ʿAbdo Inscription (KAI 8)⁹

Azevedo (1994): ...Abdo Sherd from the late tenth century B.C.¹⁰

1. Image: Ronald Wallenfels, Redating the Byblian Inscriptions, Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society [JANES] 15 (1983), https://www.academia.edu/1368813/Redating_the_Byblian_Inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 91, Plate VIII: KAI 8 (M. Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos II-Atlas, pl. CXLIV [9608]).

2. Drawing: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 75, Fig. 6: ʿAbda Inscribed Sherd, Phoenician (Drawing by Christopher Rollston).

3. Transliteration and translation: J. Brian Peckham, Phoenicia: Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=XPL2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 74.

4. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, ʿThe Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 72.

5. Ibid., p. 77.

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 22 May 2021), pp. 23-24.

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 22 May 2021), pp. 45-46.

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 22 May 2021), p. 172.

9. Note: Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, Christopher A. Rollston, Eli Piasetzky, Barak Sober, and Israel Finkelstein, The Ophel (Jerusalem) Ostracon in Light of New Multispectral Images, Semitica: Revue Publiee Par L'institut D'etudes Semitiques Du College de Franc 57 (Peeters, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/29974597/The_Ophel_Jerusalem_Ostracon_in_Light_of_New_Multispectral_Images (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 130.

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 22 May 2021), p. 66.

Shipitbaal/Shipitbaʿl/Shipitbaʿal/Sipit-/Shafat-/Safat- [𐤔𐤐𐤈𐤁𐤏𐤋] Inscription [KAI 7, 1936] (10th Century BCE, ca. 900), Byblos

Shipitbaal Inscription; Faqscl. Source: Wikimedia Commons.1	Shipitbaal Inscription; Christopher A. Rollston. Source: Rollston (2008a).2

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

Notes

Demsky (2007): Inscription of Shipitbaal of Byblos on a building block. It reads: Wall built by Shipitbaal, king of Byblos, son of Elibaal, king of Byblos, for Baalat-Gebel, his lady. [May] Baalat-Gebel prolong the days of Shipitbaal and his years over Byblos.⁴

Rollston (2008b): The Shipitbaʿl inscription contains a three-generation genealogy: Shipitbaʿl, king of Byblos; son of Elibaʿl, king of Byblos; son of Yehimilk, king of Byblos. Thus, in terms of royal chronology, the following sequence can be affirmed: Yehimilk, then Elibaʿl, and then Shipitbaʿl.⁵

Rollston (2008b): Benjamin Sass has recently [2005] argued that the Aḥiram Sarcophagus, the Yehimilk Inscription, the Abibaʿl Inscription, the Elibaʿl Inscription, and the Shipitbaʿl Inscription must be dated later than has been the conventional view (since the middle of the twentieth century). ... Sass has stated that he prefers the 850-750 B.C.E. time frame. ... W. F. Albright...[in 1947] suggested that the lowest date he would consider tenable [for the Aḥiram Sarcophagus Inscription] was ca. 975 B.C.E. ... Albright stated that in his judgment there is no need to date any of [the corpus of Early Royal Byblian Inscriptions] after the beginning of the ninth century, and the group as a whole belongs to the tenth century. ... Albright chronologically arranges the succession of [Byblian] kings as follows: (1) Aḥiram: ca. 1000 B.C.E.; (2) Ittobaʿl (son of Aḥiram): ca. 975 B.C.E.; (3) Yehimilk: ca. 950 B.C.E.; (4) Abibaʿl (son of Yehimilk?): ca. 930 B.C.E.; (5) Elibaʿl (son of Yehimilk): ca. 920 B.C.E.; (6) Shipitbaʿl (son of Elibaʿl): ca. 900 B.C.E. Significantly, since Albright’s era, the dates for which he argued have been broadly accepted.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 900 BC.⁷

1. Image: Faqscl, Inscription lapidaire de Shipitbaal - IXeme siècle avant JC - Byblos (Liban) - Musée national du Liban, Wikimedia Commons, 15 September 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inscription_lapidaire_de_Shipitbaal_-_IXeme_siècle_avant_JC_-_Byblos_(Liban)_-_Musée_national_du_Liban.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: 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, 2008a), https://www.academia.edu/474482/The_Phoenician_Script_of_the_Tel_Zayit_Abecedary_and_Putative_Evidence_for_Israelite_Literacy (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 75, Fig. 4: Shipiṭbaʿl inscription.

3. Transliteration and translation: Daniel Walter, An Interpretation of the Old Byblian Inscriptions: Elibaal, Shipitbaal, and the Azarbaal Spatula (n.d.), https://www.academia.edu/8717081/Phoenician_Inscriptions_from_Iron_I-II_Byblos (accessed 22 May 2021), I. Elibaal (KAI 6) and Shipitbaal (KAI 7) Inscriptions.

4. Note: Aaron Demsky, Reading Northwest Semitic Inscriptions, Near Eastern Archaeology 70:2 (2007), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292418769_Reading_Northwest_Semitic_Inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 609, Caption.

5. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008b), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 60.

6. Ibid., pp. 57, 59-60.

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 22 May 2021), p. 108.

Elibaal/Elibaʿl/Elibaʿal [𐤀𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋] Inscription aka Osorkon Bust [KAI 6, 1881] (10th Century BCE, ca. 920), Byblos

Elibaal Inscription; RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, Cristian Jean / Jean Schormans. Source: Knott (2014).1	Elibaal Inscription; Pierre Montet. Source: Montet (1926).2

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

Notes

Rollston (2008): The inscription of Elibaʿl was inscribed on a statue of the Egyptian King Osorkon I.⁴

Azevedo 1994: 920 BC.⁵

1. Image: Elizabeth Knott, Alphabet Origins: From Kipling to Sinai, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22 December 2014, https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/assyria-to-iberia/blog/posts/alphabet (accessed 22 May 2021), Crystalline sandstone bust of the Egyptian king Osorkon I with an alphabetic inscription of Elibaal, king of Byblos. Byblos. 9th century B.C. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Département des Antiquités Orientales (AO 9502). © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, photograph by Cristian Jean / Jean Schormans.

2. Drawing: Pierre Montet, Comment rétablir l'inscription d'Abibaal, roi de Byblos? (Paris: Typographie Firmin Didot et Cie, 1926), https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/rétablir-linscription-dAbibaal-roi-Byblos-Pierre/11831815052/bd (accessed 22 May 2021), Planch VI, Fig. 2: Torse d'une statue d'Osorkon 1^CF provenant de Gebeil. Musée du Louvre.

3. Transliteration and translation: Daniel Walter, An Interpretation of the Old Byblian Inscriptions: Elibaal, Shipitbaal, and the Azarbaal Spatula (n.d.), https://www.academia.edu/8717081/Phoenician_Inscriptions_from_Iron_I-II_Byblos (accessed 22 May 2021), I. Elibaal (KAI 6) and Shipitbaal (KAI 7) Inscriptions.

4. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 60.

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 22 May 2021), p. 108.

Abibaal/Abibaʿl/Abibaʿal [𐤀𐤁𐤁𐤏𐤋] Inscription [KAI 5, 1895] (10th Century BCE, ca. 940-930), Byblos

Abibaal Inscription; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Olaf M. Teßmer. Source: Sass (2017).1	Abibaal Inscription; Pierre Montet. Source: Montet (1926).2

Transliteration and translation source, Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible: The brackets represent deleted letters / words that were restored according to other Phoenician inscriptions with similar wording.³

Notes

Rollston (2010): The Abibaʿal Inscription (on a statue of Sheshonq) was published in 1903 (Clermont-ganneau 1903, 378–83), but the entire text was not deciphered (because scholars had misunderstood the archaic kap as a šin).⁴

Rollston (2008): The inscription of Abibaʿl was inscribed on a statue of the Egyptian King Sheshong I. ... The question of placement for Abibaʿl within the royal sequence cannot be known with certitude. ... The Elibaʿl Inscription is on a statue of Osorkon I. ... Sheshong I reigned before Osorkon I; therefore, it can be reasonably postulated that Abibaʿl reigned before Elibaʿl. ... Regarding the paternity of Abibaʿl...because there is no preserved patronymic in this inscription, it is not possible to answer this question with certitude. ... Albright’s tentative proposal that Abibaʿl and Elibaʿl were brothers (and thus both sons of Yehimilk) is plausible (cf. also Kings Ahaziah and Jehoram, both sons of King Ahab, 2 Kgs 1:17).⁵

Azevedo (1994): 940 BC.⁶

1. Image: Benjamin Sass, The Emergence of Monumental West Semitic Alphabetic Writing, with an Emphasis on Byblos, Semitica: Revue Publiee Par L'institut D'etudes Semitiques Du College de Franc 59 (Peeters, 2017), https://www.academia.edu/34370857/2017_Sass_B_The_emergence_of_monumental_West_Semitic_alphabetic_writing_with_an_emphasis_on_Byblos_Semitica_59_109_141 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 126, Fig. 8: Byblos, Abibaal inscription, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum 3361 (© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin — Vorderasiatisches Museum, photographer: Olaf M. Teßmer).

2. Drawing: Pierre Montet, Comment rétablir l'inscription d'Abibaal, roi de Byblos? (Paris: Typographie Firmin Didot et Cie, 1926), https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/rétablir-linscription-dAbibaal-roi-Byblos-Pierre/11831815052/bd (accessed 22 May 2021), Planch VI, Fig. 1: Fragment d'une statue de Chechanq 1^er trouvé à Byblos.

3. Transliteration and translation: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, Abibaal Inscription (24 December 2018), https://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2020/11/abibaal-inscription.html (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. 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 22 May 2021), p. 24.

5. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 60-62.

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 22 May 2021), p. 108.

Yehimilk [𐤉𐤇𐤌𐤋𐤊] Inscription [KAI 4, 1929] (10th Century BCE, ca. 960-950), Byblos

Yehimilk Inscription. Source: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.1	Yehimilk Inscription; Juan-Pablo Vita, José-Ángel Zamora. Source: Vita, Zamora (2018).2

Transliteration and translation source: Mangum (2010): The fact that Yehimilk doesn’t give us his lineage...but stresses that he is a good and legitimate king of Byblos suggests that he is a usurper.³ (Dixon (2013): Arguments have been made that Yehimilk, whose inscription does not include a genealogy as do the others in this series, might be using the term ṣdq to indicate his right to the throne (where his legitimacy might have been threatened due to succession problems.⁴)

Notes

Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible: The Yehimilk inscription is dated to the middle of the 10th century BCE. It was discovered in 1929 in Byblos, and consists of seven lines of text inscribed in an early Phoenician dialect which was used primarily in the royal inscriptions of Byblos.⁵

Vita, Zamora (2018): [M.] Martin published..palimpsests...which consist of Phoenician texts incised over ancient inscriptions originally written in the Byblos script, which had been erased, but were still noticeable in certain areas. ... Martin...noticed signs in the Byblos script underneath the Phoenician inscription of Yehimilk. These signs are indeed apparently visible at the end of some lines wherever they are not covered by the Phoenician text. Furthermore, the obvious re-elaboration of the surface of the stone block (division lines originally existing between the text lines are only partially preserved) does suggest the existence of a previous inscription.⁶

Azevedo (1994): 960 BC.⁷

1. Image: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible, Yehimilk Inscription, 2 November 2020, https://ancienthebrewinscriptions.blogspot.com/2020/11/test_98.html (accessed 22 May 2021), The Inscription.

2. Drawing: Juan-Pablo Vita and José-Ángel Zamora, The Byblos Script, in Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean, ed. Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério (Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 2018), https://www.academia.edu/37706221/The_Byblos_Script (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 87, Fig. 18: Recent photograph (by J.-Á. Zamora) and drawing (after Martin 1961, fig. 6) of the inscription of Yehimilk.

3. Transliteration and translation: Douglas Mangum, Inscription of the Day: Yehimilk, The Biblia Hebraica Blog (28 March 2010), http://bibliahebraica.blogspot.com/2010/03/inscription-of-day-yehimilk.html (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Translation: Helen M. Dixon, Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2013), https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99972/helendix_1.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 42, n. 37.

5. Note: Connections between Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and the Bible.

6. Note: Pablo Vita and Ángel Zamora, pp. 86-87.

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 22 May 2021), p. 108.

Ahiram [𐤀𐤇𐤓𐤌] Sarcophagus [KAI 1, 1923] (11th Century BCE, ca. 1000), Byblos

Ahiram Sarcophagus; O. Mustafin. Source: Wikimedia Commons.1	Ahiram Sarcophagus Inscription; LebanonUntravelled. Source: LebanonUntravelled.com.2

Ahiram Sarcophagus Inscription. Source: Wikimedia Commons.³

Transliteration and translation source, Lehmann (2008): The Aḥīrōm sarcophagus inscription...can be divided into two parts that are carved in two different places. It starts at the small southern upper rim of the coffin, and continues on its western lid. In spite of suggestions in the past that these might be two separate inscriptions, there is actually one inscription only....⁴ Lehmann (2008): Probably the main enigma of the whole sarcophagus inscription is the reading of the last words on its lid, lpp𐤟šrl. ... Dussaud in the 1924 editio princeps...had to confess his inability to translate these words. ... This last phrase whʾ.ymḥsprh.lpp.šrl is to be rendered And as for him, one should cancel his registration concerning the libation tube of the šarla/i-sacrifice. ... [This interpretation of] lpp.šrl...is based on a technical interpretation of pp as mouth of the libation tube, and on the explanation of the last word šrl as a Hittite-Luwian loanword denoting a special kind of libation sacrifice...a special and hitherto unknown šarla/i-ritual, which seems to derive from Anatolian practice.⁵

Notes

Wikipedia: The inscription is considered to be the earliest known example of the fully developed Phoenician alphabet.⁶

Rollston (2008): The Aḥiram sarcophagus refers to Ittobaʿl as the son of Aḥiram. Thus, in terms of royal chronology, it can be affirmed that Aḥiram was succeeded by his son Ittobaʿl.⁷

Boyes (2020): The reading ʾIttobaʿal is traditional but Lehmann (2015) has recently argued that the damaged name of Aḥiram’s son should rather be reconstructed as Pilsibaʿal vel sim.⁸

Lehmann (2015): When the Aḥīrōm sarcophagus inscription from Byblos was first published in 1924, the reconstruction of the name of Aḥīrōm’s son...was a subject of debate. After different proposals, the name Ittōbaʿal had prevailed until recent editions.... A new epigraphic evaluation however shows that this established reading is almost impossible. By the help of modern palaeographic and calligraphic methods, a new reconstruction is offered and it will be shown that the name of Aḥīrōm’s son must have been Pulsibaʿl or Pilsibaʿl.⁹

Azevedo (1994): 1000 BC.¹⁰

1. Image: O. Mustafin, Ahiram Sarcophagus 1, Wikimedia Commons, 28 November 2010, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ahiram_Sarcophagus_1.JPG (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: LebanonUntravelled.com, King Ahiram Sarcophagus and the Alphabet, http://lebanonuntravelled.com/king-ahiram-sarcophagus-and-the-alphabet/ (accessed 22 May 2021), museum-6.jpg.

3. Drawing: Wikimedia Commons, Sarcophag of Ahiram inscription, 1 June 2008, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcophag_of_Ahiram_inscription.png (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Transliteration and translation: Reinhard G. Lehmann, Calligraphy and Craftsmanship in the Aḥīrōm Inscription: Considerations on Skilled Linear Flat Writing in Early First Millennium Byblos, Maarav 15.2 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/4306363/Calligraphy_and_Craftsmanship_in_the_Ahirom_inscription._Considerations_on_skilled_linear_flat_writing_in_early_first_millennium_Byblos (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 121.

5. Ibid., pp. 124-126.

6. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Ahiram sarcophagus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahiram_sarcophagus (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15.1 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 60.

8. Note: Philip J. Boyes, Variation in alphabetic cuneiform: Rethinking the ‘Phoenician’ inscription from Sarepta, 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 22 May 2021), p. 41, n. 12.

9. Note: Reinhard G. Lehmann, Wer warAḥīrōms Sohn (KAI 1:1)? Eine kalligraphisch-prosopographische Annäherung an eine epigraphisch offene Frage, in Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik: Fünftes Treffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Semitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 15.–17. Februar 2012 an der Universität Basel (Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/10086901/Wer_war_Aḥīrōms_Sohn_KAI_1_1_Eine_kalligraphisch_prosopographische_Annäherung_an_eine_epigraphisch_offene_Frage" (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 163, Summary.

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 22 May 2021), p. 108.

Arad Ostraca Including Eliyashiv Ostraca [1965] (6th Century BCE, ca. 600-586)

Arad Ostraca; AP Photo/Dan Balilty. Source: Pileggi, AP (2016).¹

Arad Ostracon 1967-631; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.2	Arad Ostracon 1967-669; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.3	Arad Ostracon 1967-713; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Avraham Hay. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.4	Arad Ostracon 1972-121; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.5

Notes

Pardee (1979): The excavations at Tel Arad in the Judaean Negev...unearthed more than two hundred texts, in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Arabic.⁶

Jewish Virtual Library: Over 100 ostraca inscribed in biblical Hebrew (in paleo-Hebrew script) were found in the citadel of Arad. ... The letters are from all periods of the citadel's existence, but most date to the last decades of the kingdom of Judah.⁷

Tel Aviv University: Most of the ostraca unearthed at Arad are dated to a short time span during the last stage of the fortress's history, on the eve of the kingdom's destruction in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar.⁸

Wikipedia: Among the most significant artifacts unearthed at Tel Arad are 91 ostraca, known as the Arad ostraca, written in Palaeo-Hebrew script, referring to the citadel as the House of Yahweh. ... The Eliyashiv Ostraca, all found in the same room, are addressed to a person named Eliyashiv, ordering him to deliver a specific quantity of wine, flour, etc.⁹

Pileggi, AP (2016): With the help of sophisticated imaging tools and complex software, Tel Aviv University researchers [analyzing the handwriting of 16 of the ink inscriptions on ceramic shards] determined the series of 2,600-year-old inscriptions were written by at least six different authors.10

1. Image: Tamar Pileggi and AP, New look at ancient shards suggests Bible even older than thought, The Times of Israel, 12 April 2016, https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-look-at-ancient-shards-suggests-bible-even-older-than-thought/#gs.g26ely (accessed 22 May 2021), Letters inscribed on pottery, known as ostraca, which were unearthed in an excavation of a fort in Arad, Israel, and dated to about 600 BCE shortly before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem, are seen in Israel Museum in Jerusalem Tuesday, April 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty).

2. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Letter (ostracon); IAA: 1967-631, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/368104 (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Hebrew letter; IAA: 1967-669, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/369574 (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Avraham Hay, Letter (ostracon); IAA: 1967-713, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/368106 (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Letter (ostracon); IAA:1972-121, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/369839 (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Note: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 48.

7. Note: Jewish Virtual Library, Archaeology in Israel: Ancient Arad, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ancient-arad (accessed 22 May 2021), Ostraca (inscribed potsherds).

8. Note: Tel Aviv University, Multispectral imaging reveals ancient Hebrew inscription undetected for over 50 years, Phys.org, 14 June 2017, https://phys.org/news/2017-06-multispectral-imaging-reveals-ancient-hebrew.html (accessed 22 May 2021).

9. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Tel Arad, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tel_Arad&oldid=992721093#Arad_ostraca (accessed 6 December 2020), Arad ostraca.

10. Note: Pileggi and AP.

Royal Steward Inscription aka Shebna Inscription aka Silwan Tomb Inscription [KAI 191, 1870] (7th Century BCE)

Royal Steward Inscription; Trustees of the British Museum. Source: The British Museum.¹

Royal Steward Inscription; Avigad (1953). Source: Smoak, Mandel (2019).

Transliteration and translation source, Smoak, Mandel (2016).³

Notes

Paterson (2016): Archeologists have been able to survey approximately 50...ancient tombs in Silwan [across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, directly across from the old City of David]. ... In 1870, a French archeologist name Charles Clermont-Ganneau was examining these ancient tombs and surveyed a partially destroyed tomb high up on the cliff. He discovered an inscription that he was unable to decipher so he cut it out of the rock and sent it to the British Museum in London (where it remains to this day). Part of the inscription is lost to us. What could be recovered reads: This is [the grave of] [... ...]yahu, who is over the house. There is no silver or gold here, only ... [his bones] ... and the bones of his maidservant with him. Cursed be the man who opens this. Unfortunately, the name is partially destroyed. ⁴

Avigad (1953): In the course of his investigations at the village of Silwân (Siloam)...Clermont-Ganneau observed a rock-cut structure with a dressed façade.... Above the door of this rock-façade...he noticed a rectangular sunk panel...with an engraved inscription consisting of three lines of Phoenician (ancient Hebrew) characters. To the right of the door...another sunk panel was visible bearing an inscription of one line only. Both inscriptions were badly damaged and appeared to Clermont-Ganneau to have been deliberately defaced with hammer.⁵

Paterson (2016): In an 1953...a prominent epigraphist...Nahman Avigad convincingly demonstrated that the name on the inscription originally read “Shebnayahu”.... The name fits perfectly into the missing area of the inscription, better than any alternative names with theophoric endings that he tried.⁶ (Paterson (2016): Names ending “iahu” or “yahu” are called “theophoric” names. These are names that embed the name of a god, in this case, the name of God. In Hebrew the name of God contained the 4 consonants, YHWH. ... The shortened form of the name is Yah or Jah.⁷)

Wikipedia: The inscription is broken at the point where the tomb's owner would have been named, but biblical scholars have suggested a connection to Shebna, on the basis of a verse in the Bible mentioning a royal steward who was admonished for building a conspicuous tomb.⁸

(15) Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna [𐤔𐤁𐤍𐤀 / שֶׁבְנָ֖א], who is over the household, and say to him: (16) What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? (Isaiah 22:15-16 ESV)

Jackson (n.d.): A more complete form of the name is found in Nehemiah 9:4 — Shebaniah, the last syllable being yahu.⁹

Hays (2010): Shebna is likely a short form of a known Yahwistic moniker, She-baniah/Shebanyahu. ... From [Nahman] Avigad’s first publication of the inscription, he promulgated the idea that it was the tomb of Shebna.... From paleographical and orthographical standpoints, a late-eighth-century date is plausible, and the phrase »who is over thehouse« suggests that the tomb’s inhabitant indeed had the same position as Shebna.¹⁰

Paterson (2016): Is there any evidence that Shebna ever used the theophoric name Shebnayahu? Two clay bullae or clay seals have been discovered that contain the name Shebnayahu. One of these official seals was discovered in Lachish, the second most important city in the kingdom of Judah. Several lines of evidence from the excavation lead to the conclusion that the clay seal is contemporaneous with the inscription in Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the inscription over the entrance to Shebna’s tomb. So the timing is right. The second seal with the name Shebnayahu was discovered in an antiquities market in 2007. This bullae was clearly impressed by the same seal. When combined it is possible to read the entire impression. It reads, Shebnayahu servant of the king. So we have a royal official named Shebnayahu who was contemporaneous with Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah.¹¹

1. Image: The Trustees of the British Museum, The Shebna Inscription, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1871-1107-1 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: Jeremy Smoak and Alice Mandel, Texts in the City: Monumental Inscriptions inJerusalem’s Urban Landscape, in Size Matters - Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations, Histoire 146, ed. Federico Buccellati, Sebastian Hageneuer, Sylva van der Heyden, and Felix Levenson (Bielefeld, DE: transcript Verlag, 2019), https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1871-1107-1 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 326, Figure 2: Drawing of the Royal Steward Inscription (Avigad 1953: pl. 9; courtesy of the Israel Exploration Society).

3. Transcription and translation: Jeremy Smoak and Alice Mandel, Reconsidering the Function of Tomb Inscriptions in Iron Age Judah: Khirbet Beit Lei as a Test Case, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions [JANER] (Brill) 16 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/27922983/Reconsidering_the_Function_of_Tomb_Inscriptions_in_Ancient_Judah_Khirbet_Beit_Lei_as_a_Test_Case_Journal_of_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Religions_16_2016_192_245 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 209.

4. Note: Keith Paterson, Has The Tomb of Shebna Been Discovered? Bible Reading Archeology website, 26 December 2016, https://biblereadingarcheology.com/2016/12/26/has-the-tomb-of-shebna-been-discovered/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Note: Nahman Avigad, The Epitaph of a Royal Steward from Siloam Village, Israel Exploration Journal 3:3 (1953), https://www.jstor.org/stable/27924525 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 137.

6. Note: Paterson.

7. Ibid.

8. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Shebna inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebna_inscription (accessed 22 May 2021).

9. Note: Wayne Jackson, The Saga of Shebna, Christian Courier, n.d., https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/269-saga-of-shebna-the (accessed 22 May 2021).

10. Note: Christopher B. Hays, Re-Excavating Shebna's Tomb: A New Reading of Isa 22, 15-19 in its Ancient Near Eastern Context, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft [ZAW] 122:4 (2010),https://www.academia.edu/491696/Re-Excavating_Shebnas_Tomb_A_New_Reading_of_Isa_22_15-19_in_its_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Context (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 559, 561-562.

11. Note: Paterson.

Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon aka Yavne-Yam Ostracon [KAI 200, 1960] (7th Century BCE, ca. 630)

Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Mesad Hashavyahu Ostracon; GU-theolog. Source: Wikimedia Commons.2

Transliteration and translation source lines 1-10: Hanson (2007)³; lines 11-14: Dobbs-Allsopp (1994).⁴

Notes

COJS: Archaeologists excavating the [the small Iron Age fortress known today as Mezad Hashavyahu] in 1960 unearthed seven inscribed items, including six ostraca written in Hebrew. ... Written on one of these pieces is the appeal of a farm worker whose garment was confiscated by a supervisor as collateral on the grounds that the worker failed to meet his daily quota of grain and owed the rest. The worker claims that he did meet the quota and appeals to the local governor to expedite the return of his garment.⁵

Rogoff (2013): The shard was found at what seems to have been an outpost of the port town of Yavneh-Yam, during the reign of the biblical king Josiah. Scholars are divided, however, as to who controlled the garrison: the king in Jerusalem or the pharaoh reasserting Egyptian power along the coastal plain. The original name of the fort is unknown, but the excavators dubbed it “Metzad Hashavyahu” (“Fort Hashavyahu”), based on the personal name appearing on several ostraca unearthed there.⁶

Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): The ostracon lacks the address and greeting formulas customary for letters. ... The opening of the petition begins with a formulaic plea. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): [Rather than] a letter, or a judicial contract, or some other as-yet-unidentified formal judicial complaint...the ostracon represents...what [R.] Westbrook has called a plea of gzl. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): In BH gzl is the technical term for abuse of authority involving the taking of property. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): Westbrook proposes that the Mesad Hashavyahu ostracon represents...an extra judicial petition addressed to the king or his subordinates in cases of abuse of power involving the wrongful taking of property. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): It is likely that the ostracon was meant only to summarize the contents of the petition, perhaps as part of the procedure for gaining admittance to a hearing before the šr. As suggested by 2 Sam 14:4, the actual petition itself would have been made in person. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): The evidence...in favor of classifying the ostracon as a plea of gzl relates chiefly to the appearance of the verb lqḥ, to take, in [line 9 of] the ostracon.... This verb occurs in texts that focus specifically on abuse of power involving the wrongful taking of property. ... The use of the verb lqḥ in the Mesad Hashavyahu ostracon would seem to signify that Hoshayahu ben Shabay is not accused of theft, but rather abuse of power involving the wrongful taking of property. ...If it were a question of theft, one would expect the use of the verb gnb instead. Dobbs-Allsopp (1994): The restoration of a form of gzl would...make the genre designation [of the ostracon as a plea of gzl] very explicit. ... One might suggest restoring [šm whʾ gzl ʾt] at the beginning of line 12. This restoration contains only one more letter than that of the commonly accepted proposal of [F. M.] Cross ([šm hšb nʾ ʾt]).⁷

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, A reaper's plea; IAA: 1960-67, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/378534 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: GU-theolog, Mesad Hashavyahu ScriptBW, Wikimedia Commons, 3 February 2010, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesad_Hashavyahu_ScriptBW.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Transliteration and translation: K. C. Hanson, The Yavneh-Yam Ostracon, K. C. Hanson's Collection of West Semitic Documents, last modified: 17 April 2007, https://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/yavneh.html (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Transliteration and translation: F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, The Genre of the Meṣad Hashavyahu Ostracon, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 295 (August 1994), https://www.academia.edu/3736806/The_Genre_of_the_Meṣad_Hashavyahu_Ostracon (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 53.

5. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon, c. 630 BCE, http://cojs.org/mezad_hashavyahu_ostracon-_c-_630_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Note: Mike Rogoff, Ancient Email: Letter on Pottery Fragment Dates Back 2,600 Years, Haaretz, 18 July 2013, https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-voice-from-2-600-years-ago-the-reaper-s-plaint-1.5297067 (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Dobbs-Allsopp, p. 52.
        Ibid.
        Ibid., p. 50.
        Ibid., pp. 49-51.
        Ibid., p. 52.
        Ibid., pp. 50-51.
        Ibid., p. 52.

Royal Seal Impressions (9th-7th Century BCE)

Seals of Hezekiah [𐤇𐤆𐤒𐤉𐤄𐤅] (8th-7th Century BCE)

There are nine known Hezekiah seal impressions, attesting at least four distinct seals—eight of the seal impressions unprovenanced from the antiquities market and one provenanced from the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem. Three of the nine display a winged sun-disk, and attest at least two different seals, and the other six display a two-winged scarab (dung beetle), and attest at least two other seals.

Provenanced Seal of Hezekiah Impression with Two-Winged Sun Disk Flanked by Ankh Symbols; Ouria Tadmor, Eilat Mazar. Source: Mazar (2018).1	Seal of Hezekiah Inscription with Two-Winged Sun Disk Flanked by Ankh Symbols; Dalit Weinblatt, Eilat Mazar. Source: Mazar (2018).2

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
𐤋𐤄𐤆[𐤒]𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤟𐤀[𐤄] 𐤋𐤇𐤆[𐤒]𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤟𐤀[𐤇] 𐤆𐤟𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤟𐤉𐤄𐤃[𐤄]	lhz[q]yhw•ʾ[h]- lḥz[q]yhw•ʾ[ḥ]- z•mlk•yhd[h]	Belonging to Hezekiah [lḥzqyhw] (son of) Ahaz [ʾḥz] King [mlk] of Judah [yhdh]

Transliteration and translation source: Mazar (2015).³

Seal of Hezekiah Impression with Two-Winged Scarab; Shlomo Moussaieff Collection/London. Source: Cross (1999).4	Seal of Hezekiah Inscription with Two-Winged Scarab; Robert Deutsch. Source: Deutsch (2002).5

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
[𐤋𐤇]𐤆𐤒𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤟𐤀𐤇𐤆𐤟𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤉𐤄𐤃𐤄	[lḥ]zqyhw|ʾḥz|mlk yhdh	Belonging to Hezekiah [lḥzqyhw] (son of) Ahaz [ʾḥz] king [mlk] of Judah [yhdh]

Translation source, Deutsch (2002): The first one that I was able to inspect (bulla 2) came into my hands in 1997. Enough of the inscription had survived in this bulla that its inscription could be read.... That same year I mentioned this more complete bulla of Hezekiah's seal in my book, Messages From the Past; in 1999 Professor Frank M. Cross of Harvard University published it in BAR.⁶

Ngo (2021): Bullae bearing the seal impressions of Hezekiah have been published in Biblical Archaeology Review. In the March/April 1999 issue, epigrapher Frank Moore Cross wrote about a bulla depicting a two-winged scarab. The bulla belonged to the private collection of antiquities collector Shlomo Moussaieff. In the July/August 2002 issue, epigrapher Robert Deutsch discussed a bulla stamped with the image of a two-winged sun disk flanked by ankh symbols—similar to the one uncovered in the Ophel excavations [in 2009 and published in 2015]. Both bullae published by Cross and Deutsch bear a Hebrew inscription reading “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah.”⁷

Mazar (2015): The [Ophel] seal impression of Hezekiah...was discovered in Area A (2009).... ... In the initial reconstruction of the distinct letters, we read the names חזקיהו (Hezekiah) and מלכיהו (Malchiah) as part of the full name of the owner of the seal that imprinted the bulla. We set aside the seal impression for further research, together with the rest of the epigraphic finds. In mid-2015, while almost concluding the preparation of volume one of the Ophel excavations (the present volume) for publication, we decided to include in it the research on Hezekiah’s seal impression after Reut Ben-Aryeh, who updated the lists that had been initially drawn up in 2011 (to be published in the second volume of the Ophel excavations) spotted the error that had been made back then in the initial reading of the seal impression — a small mistake, but of great import: the last letter in the lower row is not ו, but ד, and the space between the letters ך and י is intentional, and not merely incidental. The letters that were mistakenly read as מלכיה “Malchiah” were simply part of the title מלך יהודה (king of Judah), and we possessed the seal impression of King Hezekiah of Judah!⁸

Clines (2015): Before their announcement no fewer than eight bullae of a Hezekiah seal with exactly the same inscription were known.... Six of those bullae display a two-winged scarab, and two have the same winged sun-disk that is to be seen on this recent find. ... Many reports of this latest discovery do not even acknowledge the existance of other Hezekiah bullae.⁹

Clines (2015): How Many Hezekiah Seals are Now Attested? According to the epigrapher Robert Deutsch, the eight Hezekiah bullae previously known derived from three different seals. The already known seal impression with the winged sun-disk is...some 33.9% larger than the seal impression on Mazar's new bulla. It follows that the new Hezekiah bulla bears the stamp of yet another Hezekiah seal, attesting a fourth seal. ... The court of an eighth-century Judean king, though no doubt in size, would have needed many official seals for carrying out its business. ... The discovery of this Hezekiah bulla...authenticates the other eight (unprovenanced) Hezekiah bullae. All of them have the same four-word inscription as the recently found bulla, whose authenticity no one is disputing.¹⁰

1. Image: Eilat Mazar, Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature? Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 44:2 (March/April/May/June 2018), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/44/2/7 (accessed 12 June 2021).

2. Drawing: Ibid.

3. Transliteration and translation: Eilat Mazar, A Seal Impression of King Hezekiah from the Ophel Excavations, in The Ophel Excavations to the South of the Temple Mount 2009-2013: Final Reports Volume I (Israel: Old City Press, 2015), https://www.academia.edu/19533204/The_Ophel_Excavations_2009_2013_Vol_1_Part_III_Ch_13_A_Seal_Impression_of_King_Hezekiah_from_the_Ophel_Excvations [pp. 629-640] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 632.

4. Note: Frank Moore Cross, King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 25:2 (March/April 1999), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/25/2/3 (accessed 12 June 2021).

5. Drawing: Robert Deutsch, Lasting Impressions: New Bullae Reveal Egyptian-Style Emblems on Judah’s Royal Seals, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 28:4 (July/August 2002), https://www.academia.edu/371104/Lasting_Impressions_New_bullae_reveal_Egyptian_style_emblems_on_Judah_s_royal_seals [pp. 42-51, 60] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 44.

6. Translation: Ibid., p. 45.

7. Note: Robin Ngo, King Hezekiah in the Bible: Royal Seal of Hezekiah Comes to Light, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 03 March 2021, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/king-hezekiah-in-the-bible-royal-seal-of-hezekiah-comes-to-light/ (accessed 12 June 2021).

8. Note: Mazar (2015), p. 632.

9. Note: David J. A. Clines, Revising the Hebrew Dictionary (DCH). 5. Seals of Hezekiah: A New Addition, in (13 December 2015), https://www.academia.edu/19766280/Revising_the_Hebrew_Dictionary_DCH_5_Seals_of_Hezekiah_A_New_Addition (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 2.

10. Note: Ibid., pp. 5-6.

Seal of Isaiah [𐤉𐤔𐤏𐤉𐤄𐤅] NBY (8th-7th Century BCE)

Seal of Isaiah NBY Impression; Eilat Mazar. Source: Mazar (2018).¹

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
𐤋𐤉𐤔𐤏𐤉𐤄[𐤅] 𐤍𐤁𐤉[𐤀]	לישעיה[ו] נבי[א]	[belonging] to Isaiah prophet

Transliteration and translation source, Mazar (2018).²

Katz (2018): In 2015, archaeologists announced that they had discovered the bulla (a clay impression of a seal) of king Hezekiah, who ruled Judea in the late 8th and early 7th centuries B.C., at a site in Jerusalem. Just 10 feet away, the excavation team unearthed another bulla bearing the name “Isaiah.”³

Ngo (2018): ...The prophet Isaiah served as counsel to the Judahite king Hezekiah (r. 727–698 B.C.E.).....⁴

Ngo (2018): Bearing a Hebrew inscription that reads “[Belonging] to Isaiah nvy,” the bulla is damaged and missing its upper left section. In her reconstruction of the last portion of the inscription, Mazar proposes that the impression reads, “[belonging] to Isaiah the prophet.⁵

Mazar (2018): The lower register reads “nvy” (Hebrew: נבי), centered. The damaged left end of this register may have been left empty, as on the right, with no additional letters, but it also may have had an additional letter, such as an aleph (’ ; Hebrew: א), which would render the word nvy’ (Hebrew: נביא), “prophet” in Hebrew. ... Without an aleph at the end, the word nvy is most likely just a personal name. Although it does not appear in the Bible, it does appear on seals and a seal impression on a jar handle, all from unprovenanced, private collections. It also appears as bn nvy (“son of nvy”), most likely a name, on two bullae from the end of the First Temple period (early seventh century B.C.E.) stamped with the same seal, both found together in a juglet from Lachish.⁶

Katz (2018): There are, however, problems with Mazar’s interpretation of the seal. Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic languages at George Washington University, tells Kristin Romey of National Geographic that a major issue lies in the fact that the word “nvy” is missing a definite article, meaning that the seal would read, “Belonging to Isaiah prophet.” In most biblical passages, Rollston says, individuals are referred to as “the prophet,” not simply “prophet.” ... Without the “aleph,” the word “nvy” could simply be a personal name that has been seen on other seals. The word might also be the name of a location. ...With part of the seal broken off, it is impossible to put forth a definitive analysis.⁷

1. Image: Eilat Mazar, Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature? Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 44:2 (March/April/May/June 2018), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/44/2/7 (accessed 12 June 2021).

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid.

3. Note: Brigit Katz, Is This the Seal of the Prophet Isaiah? Smithsonian Magazine, 26 February 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/seal-prophet-isaiah-180968255/ (accessed 12 June 2021).

4. Note: Robin Ngo, On View: Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 12 June 2018, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/seals-of-isaiah-and-king-hezekiah-discovered-exhibit/ (accessed 12 June 2021).

5. Note: Ibid.

6. Note: Mazar.

7. Note: Katz.

Seal of Ahaz [𐤀𐤇𐤆] (8th Century BCE)

Seal of Ahaz Impression; Shlomo Moussaieff Collection/London. Source: Deutsch (1998).1	Seal of Ahaz Inscription; Robert Deutsch. Source: Deutsch (2002).2

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
𐤋𐤀𐤄𐤆𐤟𐤉 𐤋𐤀𐤇𐤆𐤟𐤉 𐤄𐤅𐤕𐤌𐤟𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤟 𐤉𐤄𐤃𐤄	lʾhz*y lʾḥz*y hwtm*mlk* yhdh	Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam, King of Judah

Transliteration and translation source, Deutsch (1998): The seal contains not only the name of the king, but the name of his father, King Yehotam. In addition, Ahaz is specifically identified as "king of Judah." The Hebrew inscription, which is set on three lines, reads as follows: "l'hz*y/hwtm*mlk*/yhdh", which translates, "Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam, King of Judah."³

Cross (1999): Not long ago, a clay impression of the seal of a Hebrew king came to light for the first time: The seal of ’Ahaz, king of Judah from about 734 to 715 B.C.E., had been pressed into a small bit of clay (called a bulla) that once sealed a papyrus roll. On the back we can still see the impression of the strings that tied the roll and of the fabric of the papyrus. The seal, inscribed in Old Hebrew letters, reads simply: לאחז•י/הותם•מלך•/יהדה (lʾḥz y/hwtm mlk/yhdh) “Belonging to ’Ahaz (son of) Yehotam, King of Judah.”⁴

Deutsch (1998): On the left edge of the front of the bulla is a fingerprint that may well be that of King Ahaz himself! Around the edge of the seal impression is a groove about a millimeter thick. This indicates that the seal with which it was impressed was set in a metal bezel, either in a signet ring or in a pendant.⁵

1. Image: Robert Deutsch, First Impression: What We Learn from King Ahaz’s Seal, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 24:3 (May/June 1998), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/24/3/5 (accessed 12 June 2021).

2. Drawing: Robert Deutsch, Lasting Impressions: New Bullae Reveal Egyptian-Style Emblems on Judah’s Royal Seals, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 28:4 (July/August 2002), https://www.academia.edu/371104/Lasting_Impressions_New_bullae_reveal_Egyptian_style_emblems_on_Judah_s_royal_seals [pp. 42-51, 60] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 46.

3. Transliteration and translation: Deutsch (1998), https://www.academia.edu/371116/First_Impression_What_We_Learn_from_King_Ahaz_s_Seal, p. 55.

4. Note: Frank Moore Cross, King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 25:2 (March/April 1999), https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/25/2/3 (accessed 12 June 2021).

5. Note: Deutsch (1998), p. 55.

Seals of Shema, Servant of Jeroboam [𐤉𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤌] (8th Century BCE)

Replica of Megiddo Seal of Shema, Servant of Jeroboam; Clara Amit. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority.1	Impression from Similar Seal of Shema, Servant of Jeroboam; Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University. Source: Borschel-Dan (2020).2

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
𐤋𐤔𐤌𐤏 𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤉𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤌	lšmʿ ʿbd yrbʿm	(belonging) to Shema, servant of Jeroboam

Transliteration and translation source, Ussishkin (1994).³

COJS: This seal, made of jasper, was found in the Megiddo excavations of 1904; it was discovered accidentally in the excavation dump, not in a stratified level. Although the seal itself was lost en route to the Istanbul Museum, an impression cast in bronze had been made prior to its shipment.⁴

Ussishkin (1994): The seal of Shema is an unpierced scarboid of Jasper.... This beautiful seal was sent by [Gottlieb] Schumacher to the Ottoman capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul), where it was kept in the collection of the sultan. It was later mislaid or lost, and its present whereabouts are unknown. ...Since its discovery scholars have generally agreed that Jeroboam should be identified with Jeroboam II (784-748 BCE) rather than Jeroboam I (928-907 BCE). S. Yeivin (1960) and G. W. Ahlström (1993), dissenting...advocated the identification of Jeroboam with Jeroboam I...based on stylistic, paleographic, and stratigraphic criteria. Regarding the roaring lion carved on the seal, and other seals depicting similiar lions, see studies by Andre/ Lemaire (1990) and Nahman Avigad (1992), who date all of them relatively late, thus supporting the attribution of Shema's seal to the eighth century BCE.⁵

Van der Veen (2011): ...Both its paleography and iconographic detail leave little doubt that the seal belongs to the mid 8th century and must therefore be attributed to a minister at the court of Jeroboam II (793/2-753 BC) rather than Jeroboam I (931/0-910/0 BC). Similar seals with lion decoration have indeed been found elsewhere in stratified deposits dating to no earlier than the second half of the 8th century BC.⁶

Borschel-Dan (2020): The inscribed clay [seal impression], known as a bulla, was purchased without provenance from a Bedouin antiquities merchant in the 1980s and is now thought to be from Jeroboam II’s 8th century BCE reign. ... The oval bulla is almost identical to a rare — and now lost — much larger jasper stone seal that was found in 1904 by an archaeological excavation at Tel Megiddo led by Gottlieb Schumacher. Both the remarkable lost seal and the newly authenticated seal impression are adorned by a roaring lion that stands with his tail raised, over which is a paleo-Hebrew inscription, “l’Shema eved Yerov’am” (Belonging to Shema the servant/minister of Jeroboam).⁷

1. Image: Israel Antiquities Authority, Stamp Seal Inscribed, Hebrew, Zoomorphic, Lion; IAA Number: 1947-5396, 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=3&q=lion&CurrentPageKey=62_1 (accessed 12 June 2021), (Belonging) to Shema servant of Yarobam. Replica, the original was lost in 1904.

2. Image: Amanda Borschel-Dan, 2,700 years ago, tiny clay piece sealed deal for Bible’s King Jeroboam II, The Times of Israel, 10 December 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/2700-years-ago-tiny-clay-piece-sealed-deal-for-bibles-king-jeroboam-ii/ (accessed 12 June 2021), 2,700-year-old clay sealing from a stamp from the Israelite King Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE. (Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University).

3. Transliteration and translation: David Ussishkin, Gate 1567 at Megiddo and the Seal of Shema, Servant of Jeroboam, in Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King, ed. Michael D. Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum, and Lawrence E. Stager (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), https://www.academia.edu/3167575/Gate_1567_at_Megiddo_and_the_Seal_of_Shema_Servant_of_Jeroboam [pp. 410-428] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 419

4. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Seal of Shema, c. 788 BCE, http://cojs.org/seal_of_shema-_c-_788_bce/ (accessed 12 June 2021).

5. Note: Ussishkin, . 419-420.

6. Note: Pieter Gert van der Veen, Early Iron Age Epigraphy and Chronological Revision: A Summary Article, in James & Van der Veen (eds): Solomon and Shishak (2015): BICANE Colloquium (Cambridge 2011), https://www.academia.edu/13446074/Early_Iron_Age_Epigraphy_and_Chronological_Revision_a_summary_article_in_P_James_and_P_van_der_Veen_eds_Solomon_and_Shishak_BAR_International_Series_2732_Archaeopress_Oxford_2015 [pp. ???] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 191

7. Note: Borschel-Dan.

Seal of Jezebel(?) [𐤀𐤉𐤆𐤁𐤋] (9th-8th Century BCE)

Seal of YZBL; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: Korpel (2008).1	Seal of YZBL Impression; Marjo C.A. Korpel. Source: Korpel (2008).2

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
[𐤋𐤀]𐤉𐤆𐤁𐤋	[lʾ]yzbl	Belonging to Jezebel

Transliteration and translation source: Korpel (2008).³

Korpel (2008): One...thing that may at first seem peculiar: The four letters of the inscription appear to be scattered in the interstices of the symbols that almost fill the space.⁴

Korpel (2008): The seal...comes from a private collection. ... In the early 1960s, it was donated to the Israel Department of Antiquities and gratefully accepted. ... In 1964, it was published in the Israel Exploration Journal by...Nahman Avigad. ... Avigad...concluded that there was “no basis for identifying the owner of our seal with this famous lady [Queen Jezebel]...." ... The spelling of the name on the seal is different from the spelling of the name in the Bible. On the seal...it is spelled YZBL; in the Bible, it is spelled ‘YZBL.... ... [But] in a seal like this...we would expect an L, or lamed, preceding the name, as, for example, in the l’melekh [LMLK] handles. The lamed means “to” and is often translated “(belonging) to.” ... There is one damaged part of this seal— at the very top. It is just large enough for the two missing letters: lamed and aleph. In my view, the broken-off part of the seal originally contained these two letters. In short, the name Jezebel appears exactly as it should: L’YZBL, or “Belonging to Jezebel.”⁵

Mazar (2008): Marjo Korpel’s identification of the name on the seal published by Nahman Avigad in 1964 as that of Queen Jezebel is, in my view, very doubtful. Jezebel lived during the first half of the ninth century B.C.E. We don’t have a single example of an inscribed seal found in a reliable archaeological context dating to that century. All the inscribed seals from reliable contexts are dated to the eighth century B.C.E. and later. Seals and seal impressions from ninth-century B.C.E. contexts are always uninscribed. Such are about 20 seals and seal impressions from the tenth and ninth centuries at Tel Rehov, about 150 seal impressions and a few actual seals from the excavations directed by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron in the City of David (Jerusalem) dated to the late ninth century B.C.E., as well as sporadic seals found at Jezreel and other sites that can be dated securely to the ninth century B.C.E.⁶

Byrne (2008): The root zbl is common in West Semitic names from the second millennium onward. This weakens the statistical probability that the two names ‘yzbl and yzbl need refer to the same person. I might also note that either name (‘yzbl or yzbl) may be female or male, a fact not without statistical weight against the biblical identification. ... Is it possible that the fractured cavity originally bore additional letters? Yes.... Might there instead have appeared different letters or rather additional iconography? Yes.... ... The cavity...is limited only by the imagination [and] is a warning to proceed with caution....⁷

1. Image: Marjo C.A. Korpel, Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal: Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 01 May 2008, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/fit-for-a-queen-jezebels-royal-seal/ (accessed 17 June 2021), Belonging to a queen? Elaborately decorated with symbols and letters, this stone seal undoubtedly belonged to a member of the upper class. The seal was part of a private collection that was donated to the Israel Department of Antiquities in the early 1960s. Its unusually large size (it is 1.25 inches long), and common Egypto-Phoenician symbols of royalty and divinity strongly suggest that it belonged to a king or queen.

2. Image: Ibid., The seal bears four letters (YZBL) interspersed around the images. Although scholars have long recognized the similarity of the inscription to the name Jezebel, they have usually refrained from making a connection to the infamous Queen Jezebel, Phoenician wife of the Israelite king Ahab. With the reconstruction of two additional letters (L’) in the damaged area at the top, however, author Marjo Korpel argues that the inscription originally read L’YZBL, or “(belonging) to Jezebel” and was in fact the personal seal of the Biblical queen.

3. Transliteration and translation: Ibid.

4. Note: Ibid.

5. Note: Ibid.

6. Note: Amihai Mazar, Too Late for Jezebel: Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 01 May 2008, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/too-late-for-jezebel/ (accessed 17 June 2021).

7. Note: Ryan Byrne, Where Is Jezebel? Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 01 May 2008, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/where-is-jezebel/ (accessed 17 June 2021).

Notes

Ben-Shlomo (2006): Publications do not always clearly distinguish between bullae, or hanging clay sealings, and other types of clay sealings, and sometimes bulla is used as a general term for sealings. Bullae were used to seal papyri or small parcels that were tied with a string. They usually have a small rounded button-shape. Clay sealings is a more general term describing a greater array of forms that could secure a vessel, box, parcel or other container.¹

Korpel (2008): Thousands and thousands of seals and seal impressions (bullae) from the ancient Near East have been found, including Hebrew exemplars in Israel. Documents would be tied up with string and a blob of clay placed over the string; a seal would then be impressed into the clay to identify the sender and assure the security of the document. Or a seal would be impressed into the handle of a jar to identify the owner....²

Borschel-Dan (2020): There are indications that some of these seal impressions didn’t actually seal anything at all, he said, citing the work of archaeologist Nachman Avigad who called these “fiscal bulla.” These tokens, he said, may have been created as a reference of an official agreement or transaction. Interestingly, said Goren, often those seal impressions that show signs of having been upon papyrus or cloth were later fired. It is his theory that a transaction was witnessed through the creation of the wet seal impression, which was later removed from the paper or cloth it ceremonially bound and fired at a high temperature of circa 750 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which the new bulla was fired. “We believe they were fired or baked after removal from the document, and therefore preserved,” he said. Goren said that 1950s excavations at Tel Lachish found an Iron Age building in which a small, stoppered juglet filled with such bullae was discovered. “Why would anybody keep the bullae,” he asked, answering, “because they were still used as references even after the document was opened.” “Therefore, we believe the sealings were acting as the signatures of today,” said Goren.³

1. Note: David Ben-Shlomo, New Evidence of Seals and Sealings from Philistia, Tel Aviv 33:2 (2006), https://www.academia.edu/23721775/NEW_EVIDENCE_OF_SEALS_AND_SEALINGS_FROM_PHILISTIA [pp. 134-162] (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 135.

2. Note: Marjo C.A. Korpel, Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal: Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 01 May 2008, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/fit-for-a-queen-jezebels-royal-seal/ (accessed 17 June 2021).

3. Note: Amanda Borschel-Dan, 2,700 years ago, tiny clay piece sealed deal for Bible’s King Jeroboam II, The Times of Israel, 10 December 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/2700-years-ago-tiny-clay-piece-sealed-deal-for-bibles-king-jeroboam-ii/ (accessed 12 June 2021).

Siloam Inscription [KAI 189, 1880] (8th Century BCE, ca. 700)

Siloam Inscription. Source: Watch Jerusalem.¹

Siloam Inscription; J. Renz, W. Rollig. Source: The Biblia Hebraica Blog.²

Transliteration and translation source: Hanson (2013).³

Notes

Wikipedia: The Siloam inscription or Shiloah inscription...or Silwan inscription...found in the Siloam tunnel which brings water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, located in the...East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shiloah or Silwan...records the construction of the [Siloam] tunnel, which has been dated to the 8th century BCE on the basis of the writing style. ... It is among the oldest extant records of its kind written in Hebrew using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.⁴

Watch Jerusalem: Constructed roughly 2,700 years ago...Hezekiah’s Tunnel is one of Jerusalem’s most incredible landmarks. Even by today’s standards, the construction of this 1,750-foot-long subterranean passageway is an extraordinary feat of engineering. Hezekiah’s Tunnel connects the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. The Gihon Spring is situated on the eastern side of the City of David. This natural spring is Jerusalem’s only fresh water source and is absolutely essential to life in the city. ... Around 710 b.c., when King Hezekiah learned of Sennacherib’s intent to conquer Jerusalem, he decided to reroute the water from the Gihon inside the walls of Jerusalem. This would prevent Assyria’s army from using the critical resource.⁵

COJS: The Bible mentions a tunnel that [King Hezekiah] had dug under the City of David in Jerusalem to supply water to the upper part of the city. The Siloam Inscription that was found in the tunnel is arguably the most precious of all ancient Hebrew inscriptions. It seems to have been privately commissioned by the tunnel’s chief engineer, in whose voice it describes the completion of the digging. Initially, two crews of workmen dug simultaneously from opposite ends of the projected tunnel. The inscription records that as the two teams of tunnelers came within about five feet of each other they realized that they had gone slightly off course and would not meet. The workmen relied on the sound of their pickaxes and their voices to correct the trajectory to join the two parts of the tunnel.⁶

(2) And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, (3) he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. (4) A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? (2 Chronicles 32:2-4 ESV)

(30) This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. (2 Chronicles 32:30 ESV)

(20) The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? (2 Kings 20:20 ESV)

Wikipedia: The inscription contains 6 lines, of which the first is damaged. ... Only the word zada on the third line is of doubtful translation—perhaps a crack or a weak part. The passage reads: ... the tunnel ... and this is the story of the tunnel while ... / the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to (cut?) ... the voice of a man ... / called to his counterpart, (for) there was ZADA in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the / tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, ax against ax and flowed / water from the source to the pool for 1,200 cubits. and (100?) / cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters ...⁷

Hirsch, Berger: The only obscure point that remains is the meaning of the word "zedah" in line 3. This word does not occur in the vocabulary of the Bible. It has been compared with the Arabic "zada" (= "to aim correctly," "to enter a hole"); and in any case it seems to refer not to a peculiarity of the rock, but to the work accomplished by the men.⁸

Azevedo (1994): 8th BC.⁹

1. Image: Watch Jerusalem, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, 14 June 2018, https://watchjerusalem.co.il/59-hezekiahs-tunnel (accessed 22 May 2021), Siloam Inscription [Public Domain].

2. Drawing: The Biblia Hebraica Blog, Inscription of the Day: Siloam Tunnel, 20 March 2010, http://bibliahebraica.blogspot.com/2010/03/inscription-of-day-siloam-tunnel.html (accessed 22 May 2021), The line drawing above is from J. Renz and W. Rollig, Handbuch der altehebraischen Epigraphik, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995.

3. Transliteration and translation: K. C. Hanson, Siloam Inscription, K. C. Hanson's Collection of West Semitic Documents, last modified: 18 April 2013, https://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/siloam.html (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Siloam inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siloam_inscription (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Note: Watch Jerusalem.

6. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Hezekiah’s (or Siloam) Tunnel Inscription, 701 BCE, http://cojs.org/hezekiah-s_-or_siloam-_tunnel_inscription-_701_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Wikipedia, Translation.

8. Note: Emil G. Hirsch and Philippe Berger, Siloam Inscription, JewishEncyclopedia.com, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13662-siloam-inscription (accessed 22 May 2021), The Work Described.

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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Khirbet el-Qom Graffiti [1968] (8th Century BCE)

Khirbet el-Qom Graffiti; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Khirbet el-Qom Graffiti; Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger. Source: Wagner (2007).2

Transliteration and translation source, Hadley (1987): Alternatively, if we consider lyhwh and lʾšrth a compound linguistic stereotype...line [3] would read (and) by his asherah, for from his enemies he has saved him.³

Transliteration and translation source: Shea (1990): As can be seen from a comparison, I agree with all [Judith] Hadley's indentification for the letters in this inscription except for the first letter of the second word in the first line. ... The letter obviously is misshapen. It is not circular like the ʿayin in the third line, it is triangular. By form it looks most like a dalet, but the reading of dšr makes no sense. The head of the ʾaleph is triangular and there is the suggestion of a tail extending down from it to meet the long incision that extends across the inscription here.⁴

Notes

Malamud (2016): Because it is so difficult to read, many scholars read the inscription differently. ... While over fifteen translations exist, [Judith] Hadley’s translation is the only I have found that is used by other scholars.⁵

Nabulsi (2015): Khirbet el-Qom was excavated by W. Dever in 1967–71 as a salvage operation. Dever had acquired a large amount of Iron II pottery as well as bronze and stone objects from a Jerusalem antiquities dealer. ... These items made Dever aware of large scale looting in the area. After identifying the point of origin of these items, work began to document what remained of the site. ... Dever states that during this time he observed nearly a hundred robbed tombs, and thousands of pieces of pottery were seen in the village or later at antiquities dealerships.⁶

Wiggins (2009): The attention of William Dever was drawn to [the Khirbet el-Qom] burial site...by a badly striated inscription purchased from an antiquities dealer that had been traced to the location. Indeed, the exact spot of the excised inscription was discovered where it had been removed from a pillar near a tomb.⁷

Malamud (2016): The hand of Khirbet el-Qom is almost as controversial as the accompanying inscription, but it may be linked to Asherah. It is generally believed to be an amulet and to have an apotropaic function, to ward off evil forces.⁸

Thomas (2016): Reading this inscription is problematic due to naturally-occurring cracks that pre-date the inscription. In addition to these cracks, portions of the stone feature very heavy markings that are difficult to distinguish from the cracks in the stone. [William G.] Dever, who did the initial studies of the inscription, has posited that the inscription and markings on the stone may be graffiti done with a sharp stick rather than an official inscription. At some point, someone traced over the inscription, leaving “ghost images” on the stone. ... The most obvious letters read ʿryhwh?šrktbh / ?rk?ryhw?ywh / w???ryhl?šrt???šʾlh / l??yhw / lšrth / wl??rth [? is used where the inscription is uncertain]. There are no clear dividers between words in the inscription, and there are various opinions on where the dividers should be, resulting in various interpretations of the text.⁹

Zammit (2012): Several of the letters, especially those in line 3, look as if an unskilled hand attempted to overwrite them to make the text more legible, thereby leaving most of the letters with the so-called ‘ghost images’. ... Scholars agree on the name Uriyahu (‘Yahweh is my light’) in line 1. ... Scholars differ in reading the second word as either hʿšr — «the rich» (or wealthy or prosperous) or «the honourable», or hśr — «the governor». ... Line 3 is the most problematic to read, owing to the several faintly inscribed ‘ghost images’ of letters... Not only do the duplicate writings make line 3 difficult to decipher, but it is also open to many interpretations.¹⁰

Nabulsi (2015): I prefer [M.] O’Connor’s choice of the English word “prosperous” here over “rich” for the translation. Using the English “rich” focuses upon material wealth, whereas the choice of “prosperous” can imply bounty in all areas of life for which Uriah is thankful. This is appropriate for an epitaph in a way that the English “rich” is not. Additionally being rich in material goods is not something that would be declared on a tomb — it would seem an invitation to robbers.¹¹

Malamud (2016): Asherah is a mysterious word mentioned 40 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, primarily found in the Book of Kings and Chronicles. ... There is no explanation of why God hates (the) Asherah(s). While nearly universally condemning Asherah, the Hebrew Bible avoids describing anything about Asherah, besides connecting the term to wood or trees and suggesting that it was forbidden. ... Most scholars thought Asherah was a variation of Astarte, the Hellenized name for Ishtar; a Babylonian goddess (of Sumerian origin) that presided over love, war, and fertility. However, this interpretation was challenged when a local of Ras Shamrah, Syria in 1929 stumbled on the ruins of the powerful North Canaanite city-state, Ugarit. In many of the tablets uncovered at this revolutionary site, particularly the Ba’al cycle, Athirat is portrayed as the queen and consort of the chief deity El, Mother of the Gods and Lady of the Sea/or Day. ... Scholars realized that Asherah is the Hebraization of the Ugaritic Athirat.¹²

Wiggins (2009): The Khirbet el-Qom inscription is extremely problematic; those who’ve examined it closely do not all agree that asherah occurs in it at all. Wiggins (2009): Dever originally translated the inscription with no reference to Asherah and with an admission of its poor state of preservation. It was only after Kuntillet Ajrud was discovered...that scholars began reading Asherah back into this extremely difficult epigraphic puzzle. Wiggins (2009): If asherah appears here it is grammatically unwieldy: blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his asherah he has saved him, and that’s only if the word really is asherah. ...Only after Asherah appears in a grammatically awkward way from Kuntillet Ajrud does she get back-read into Khirbet el-Qom, in an even more awkward syntactic construction.¹³

Malamud (2016): Because it is so difficult to read, many scholars read the inscription differently. For instance, Dever's first interpretation of the inscription does not include Asherah at all. Seven years after the find, Lemaire’s reexamination and translation is the first to find Asherah in the inscription.¹⁴

Thomas (2016): Based on paleographic evidence, the inscription dates to about 750 BCE.¹⁵

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Burial inscription; IAA: 1972-169, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375273 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: Andreas Wagner, Hand (AT), Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft , March 2007, https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/das-bibellexikon/lexikon/sachwort/anzeigen/details/hand-at/ch/b74aee47ae3af8253125a564b020396d/ (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 5, Abb. 4 Darstellung einer Hand in Chirbet el-Qōm (8. Jh. v. Chr.) [Aus: O. Keel / Chr. Uehlinger, Götter, Göttinnen und Gottessymbole (QD 134), Freiburg, 5. Aufl. 2001, Abb. 236].

3. Transliteration and translation: Judith M. Hadley, The Khirbet El-Qom Inscription, Vetus Testamentum XXXVII:1 (1987), https://brill.com/view/journals/vt/37/1-4/article-p50_6.xml?language=en (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 50.

4. Transliteration and translation: William H. Shea, The Khirbet El-Qom Inscription Again, Vetus Testamentum LX:1 (1990), https://brill.com/view/journals/vt/40/1/article-p110_8.xml?language=en (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 110.

5. Note: David Malamud, Asherah as an Israelite Goddess: Debunking the Cult Object Myth (research paper, University of Maryland, 9 May 2016), https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/19143/Malamud_Research%20Paper.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 17.

6. Note: Rachel Virginia King Nabulsi, Burial Practices, Funerary Texts, and the Treatment of Death in Iron Age Israel and Aram (PhD diss., University of Georgia, 2015), https://docplayer.net/50405008-Burial-practices-funerary-texts-and-the-treatment-of-death-in-iron-age-israel-and-aram-rachel-virginia-king-nabulsi.html (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 173-174.

7. Note: Steve A. Wiggins' website, Who’s Your Daddy? 9 October 2009, https://steveawiggins.com/2009/10/09/whos-your-daddy/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

8. Note: Malamud, p. 11.

9. Note: Taylor Thomas, Ashes in Bethel: Bearings of Second Millennium BCE Ugaritic Mythology upon First Millennium BCE Israelite Religion (honors thesis project, University of Tennessee, 2016), https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/2019 (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 36-37.

10. Note: Abigail R. Zammit, The Epigraphic Evidence for the History of Religion in the Kingdom of Judah, (master's thesis, University of Oxford, May 2012), https://www.academia.edu/2325149/_The_Epigraphic_Evidence_for_the_History_of_Religion_in_the_Kingdom_of_Judah_unpublished_M_St_dissertation_University_of_Oxford_2012_ (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 11-13.

11. Note: Nabulsi, p. 183.

12. Note: Malamud, p. 2.

13. Note: Wiggins.
        Ibid.
        Ibid.

14. Note: Malamud, p. 17.

15. Note: Thomas, p. 37.

Kuntillet ʿAjrud [1975] (8th Century BCE)

Pithos A

Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos A; Ze’ev Meshel. Source: Meshel (1978).A1	Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos A; Haaretz. Source: Hasson (2018).A2

Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos A; Ze’ev Meshel, Avraham Hai. Source: BAS Staff (2019).A3	Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos A; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).A4

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
𐤀𐤌𐤓𐤟𐤀[...]𐤄[...]𐤊𐤟𐤀𐤌𐤓𐤟𐤋𐤉𐤄𐤋[...]𐤅𐤋𐤉𐤅𐤏𐤔𐤄𐤟𐤅[...] [...]𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤕𐤟𐤀𐤕𐤊𐤌𐤟 𐤋𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄𐤟𐤔𐤌𐤓𐤍𐤟𐤅𐤋𐤀𐤔𐤓𐤕𐤄𐤟	ʾmr. ʾ... h...k. ʾmr. lyhl wlyw ʿšh. w... brkt. ʾtkm. lyhwh. šmrn. wl ʾšrth	X says [ʾmr. ʾ...h...k.]: say [ʾmr] to Yehal[lelʾel] [lyhl] and to Yoʿasah [wlywʿśh] and [to Z] [w...]: I bless [brkt] you [ʾtkm] by Yahweh [lyhwh] of Samaria [šmrn] and his asherah [wlʾšrth]

Transliteration and translation source: Malamud (2016): [Judith] Hadley’s widely used interpretation and translation of Pithos A.^A5 Meshel (1979): The first portion of the inscription seems to be a statement in the form X said to Y and Z but only the word 'mr said and the name yw'sh Yo'asah are legible. The words following can be read in several ways. It is clearly a blessing which begins May you be blessed by Yahweh [lyhwh]. Then come the two final words smrn and wl'srth.^A6

Grammatical analysis: Ryan Chin [2015], pp. 23-24.

Meshel (1979): [Pithos A] contains two drawings, one on either side. One of the drawings includes three figures: a seated woman playing the lyre; the god Bes in the center with his genitals (or tail) exposed between his legs; and another unidentified deity on the left similarly exposed. Bes stands in his characteristic stance, arms akimbo with his customary feathered headdress. Originally an Egyptian demi-god, in the course of time Bes was adopted by most other countries in the ancient Near East and figures depicting him have been found frequently in Syria, Phoenicia, and the Mediterranean islands. ... On the other side of this same large pithos is a drawing of a "tree-of-life," sprouting lily flowers, and flanked on either side by ibexes. Below the tree of life is a majestic lion in motion. This pithos also contains a drawing of a cow, head turned back, suckling its calf. These motifs are well known in the Syro-Phoenician world, and we found many close comparisons to the Ajrud drawings. It is easy to see that the artistic execution at Ajrud is not refined; we may be quite sure that the drawings were by local artists who, although isolated in the desert, were influenced by the Syro-Phoenician cultural environment.^A7

Pithos B

Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos B; BAS Library. Source: Shanks (2012).B1	Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos B; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).B2

Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos B; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).B3	Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos B; Haaretz. Source: Hasson (2018).B4	Kuntillet ʿAjrud Pithos B; Heather Dana Davis Parker. Source: Parker (2013 Pt. II).B5

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
[...]𐤉[...]𐤋𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄𐤟𐤄𐤕𐤌𐤍𐤟𐤅𐤋𐤀𐤔𐤓𐤕𐤄𐤟 𐤊𐤋[𐤀]𐤔[𐤓]𐤟𐤉𐤔𐤀𐤋𐤟𐤌𐤀𐤔𐤟𐤇𐤍𐤍𐤄𐤀[𐤁𐤅𐤀𐤌]𐤐𐤕𐤄𐤟𐤅𐤍𐤕𐤍𐤋[𐤄]𐤉𐤄𐤅 𐤊𐤋[𐤁𐤁]𐤄	lyhwh • htmn • wlʾšrth kl ʾšr • yšʾl • mʾš • ḥnn hʾb wʾm pth • wntn lh yhw klbbh	… by YHWH [lyhwh] of Teman [htmn] (and) by Asheratah [wlʾšrth]. Everything that he could ask from someone, the Father and Mother graciously gave him. He requested, so YHW[H] gave him [wntn lh yhw] what he desired [klbbh].

Transliteration and translation source: mostlydeadlanguages / Slightly Alive Translations.^B6

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
𐤀𐤌𐤓 𐤀𐤌𐤓𐤉𐤅𐤟𐤀 𐤌𐤓𐤋𐤟𐤀𐤃𐤍𐤉[𐤟] 𐤄𐤔𐤋𐤌𐤟[𐤀]𐤕𐤟 𐤁𐤓[𐤊]𐤕𐤊𐤟𐤋𐤉 𐤄𐤅𐤄[𐤟𐤕]𐤌𐤍[𐤟] 𐤅𐤋[𐤀𐤔𐤓𐤕𐤄𐤟]𐤉𐤁 𐤓[𐤊]𐤟𐤅𐤉𐤔𐤌𐤓𐤊[𐤟] 𐤅𐤉𐤄[𐤉𐤟]𐤏𐤌𐤟𐤀𐤃[𐤍] 𐤉[...𐤊]	ʾmr ʾmryw ʾ- mr l. ʾdny hšlm. ʾt brktk. ly- hwh.tmn wl ʾšrth. yb- rk. wyšmrk wyhy ʿm. ʾd[n]- y...k	Amaryau says: [ʾmr ʾmryw] say to [ʾmrl] my lord [ʾdny]: Is it well [hšlm] with you [ʾt]? I bless you [brktk] by Yahweh [lyhwh] of Teman [tmn] and by his asherah [wlʾšrth]. May he bless you [ybrk] and keep you [wyšmrk] and be [wyhy] with [ʿm] my lord [ʾdny]...

Transliteration and translation source: Malamud (2016): [Judith] Hadley’s reconstruction and interpretation.^B7

Grammatical analysis: Ryan Chin [2015], pp. 23-24.

Transcription	Transliteration
𐤈𐤉𐤊𐤋𐤌𐤍𐤎𐤐[𐤏]𐤑𐤒𐤓𐤔𐤕 𐤐𐤏𐤑𐤒𐤓𐤔𐤕 𐤊𐤋𐤌𐤍𐤎𐤐𐤏𐤑𐤒𐤓𐤔𐤕	ṭ y k l m n s p [ ] ṣ q r š t p ʿ ṣ q r š t k l m n s p ʿ ṣ q r š t

Transliteration source: Parker (2013, 2018).^B8

Meshel (1979): [Pithos B] contains a number of drawings, most of them poorly executed. These include the figure of a man drawing a bow, a cow (this time without a calf) and a striking scene of five figures standing in a row with arms upraised in a gesture of prayer. This pithos also contains a number of inscriptions and four Hebrew abecedaries. In these abecedaries the letter pe precedes the ayin, rather than the reverse, as is usually the case in the later Hebrew alphabet. This reversal of letters is also found in four acrostic paragraphs in the Bible (Lamentations 1-3 and Proverbs 31). Recently a Hebrew alphabet from the 11th century B.C. was discovered at Izbet Sartah in which the same letter reversal occurred. Apparently, the alphabetic order preserved in the 8th century Kuntillet Ajrud inscription is not an error, but a continuation of a much earlier alphabetic tradition. Another inscription on this pithos contains a blessing: 'mryw 'mrl.'dny h ... brktk.lyhwh ... / wl'srth.ybrk.wysmrk wyhy 'm.'dnu ... Amaryau said to my lord. ... may you be blessed by Yahweh and by his Asherah. Yahweh bless you and keep you and be with you ... ^B9

Stone Basin

Kuntillet ʿAjrud Stone Basin; Haaretz. Source: Hasson (2018)^C1

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
𐤋𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤉 𐤅𐤁𐤍𐤏𐤃𐤍𐤄 𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤄𐤀𐤋𐤉𐤄𐤅	lʿbdy- w bn ʿdnh brk hʾ lyhw	(Belonging) to ‘Obadyau [lʿbdyw], son [bn] of ‘Adnah [ʿdnh], may he be blessed [brk hʾ] by Yahwe(h) [lyhw]

Transliteration and translation source: Meshel (1979).^C2

Meshel (1979): A similar inscription [to the blessing on Pithos B] was incised on the rim of an enormous stone bowl found in the bench-room. ... Given the fact that the bowl weighs over 400 pounds, it is safe to say that the donor, one "Obadyau," was not only wealthy but also believed in the sanctity of the site. ... The donor's name "Obadyau", like most of the other private names, has the ending "yau" (common in the northern kingdom and known from the Samaria Ostracae and other finds) and not "yahu" (the common form in Judah). Does this show that the people who wrote the inscriptions came from the northern kingdom of Israel? This is another problem yet to be solved.^C3

Notes

Meshel (1979): At Kuntillet Ajrud, a remote desert way-station in the wilderness of northern Sinai, we found evidence of the multiplicity of religious practices which provoked the prophets' fury. In three short seasons of excavation in 1975 and 1976 we uncovered a remarkable (and completely unexpected) collection of ancient Hebrew and Phoenician inscriptions painted on plaster walls and large storage jars, and incised on stone vessels. ... Kuntillet Ajrud was not merely a resting place for desert travelers but was principally a religious center. The inscriptions contain the names of El and Yahweh, words for God used in the Hebrew Bible. ... But the religious inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud also contain the names of pagan gods and goddesses, like Baal and Asherah.^N1

Thomas, R. (n.d.): Over the years the inscriptions found at Kuntillet ʿAjrud (KA) and Khirbet el-Qom (KQom) that mention an asherah in association with the god YHWH have attracted a staggering amount of discussion, and when considered as a whole what is most striking about this scholarly discourse is the degree to which it has been marked by persistent and wide divergence over the meaning of consonantal ʾšrth = אשרתה. While the prospect that the term may constitute evidence that a female deity was worshiped alongside YHWH in ancient Israel-Judah has been generally acknowledged, the question of whether it refers directly to a goddess has been hotly disputed, with not a few arguing that an object of some kind rather than a deity is in view.^N2

Thomas, T. (2016): Kuntillet ʿAjrud contains several inscriptions relating to deities including mentions of Yahweh, Ba’al, El, and Asherah. ... The two main inscriptions mentioning the word asherah (on Pithoi A and B) are most likely to be official inscriptions, rather than graffiti, possibly playing a similar role as inscriptions in Egyptian tradition wherein the text and iconography were responsible for ritually activating divine power. Because inscriptions at the site refer to Yahweh of Samaria, and because Israel controlled trade in the region during the early eighth century, the site has often been linked to the Northern Kingdom, and specifically the monarch Jeroboam II. However, there are also inscriptions from the site that mention Yahweh of Teman. In the biblical texts, Teman appears in the context of both Edom and Dedan, and the first part of Jer 3:3 reads, God came from Teman.^N3

Meshel (1979): The most spectacular of the finds were two large pithoi (singular: pithos) or storage jars. Each of these storage jars is over three feet high and weighs (empty) almost thirty pounds. Although both pithoi were found in fragments, they proved to be almost completely restorable. On the outside of each of these pithoi were several crude, folk-art drawings in red and black ink as well as a number of religious inscriptions.^N4

Finkelstein, Piasetzky (2008): The date of the Kuntillet ʿAjrud pottery has been debated. [Etan] Ayalon...dated the site to the end of 9th and beginning of the 8th century BCE. [Lily] Singer-Avitz...concluded that the abandonment of the site may have happened concurrently with the dramatic events in Judah during Sennacherib’s 701 BCE campaign, or perhaps a short while later and that the foundation of the site may have been linked to the Assyrian construction effort along the southern trade-routes, for instance at Tell Abu Salima, Ruqeish and Blakhiyah. Accordingly, Singer-Avitz proposed associating the northern pottery forms found at Kuntillet ʿAjrud with Israelite refugees who came to Judah after the fall of the North in 722/720 BCE. The two conflicting dates for Kuntillet ʿAjrud put the site in utterly different historical backgrounds: the first, during the high days of the Northern Kingdom, ca. 800 BCE, and the second under Assyrian auspices, ca. 700 BCE.^N5

A1. Image: Ze’ev Meshel, Kuntillet ʿAjrud: An Israelite Religious Center in Northern Sinai, Expedition Magazine (Penn Museum) 20.4 (1978), https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/kuntillet-ajrud/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Sherd showing a horse harnessed to a chariot.

A2. Drawing: Nir Hasson, A Strange Drawing Found in Sinai Could Undermine Our Entire Idea of Judaism, Haaretz, 04 April 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-strange-drawing-could-undermine-our-entire-idea-of-judaism-1.5973328 (accessed 22 May 2021), Depiction of god and his wife? Found at Kuntillet Ajrud.

A3. Image: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, Puzzling Finds from Kuntillet ʿAjrud, Bible History Daily (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]), 28 January 2019, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/puzzling-finds-from-kuntillet-ajrud-a-drawing-of-god-labeled-yahweh-and-his-asherah-or-the-egyptian-god-bes/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Yahweh and his Asherah is written across the top of this eighth-century B.C. drawing on a ceramic pithos, or storage jar, from Kuntillet ʿAjrud in the eastern Sinai. Photo courtesy Dr. Ze’ev Meshel and Avraham Hai/Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology.

A4. 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. 54: Kuntillet ʿAjrud 3.1 - (Sample) Letter.

A5. Transliteration and translation: David Malamud, Asherah as an Israelite Goddess: Debunking the Cult Object Myth (research paper, University of Maryland, 9 May 2016), https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/19143/Malamud_Research%20Paper.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 17.

A6. Note: Ze'ev Meshel, Did Yahweh Have a Consort? Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 5:2 (March/April 1979), https://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-kadesh-barnea-did-yahweh-have-a-consort-kuntillet-ajrud-zeev-meshel-1979ad.htm (accessed 22 May 2021).

A7. Ibid.

B1. Image: Hershel Shanks, The Persisting Uncertainties of Kuntillet ʿAjrud, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 38:6 (November/December 2012), https://images.app.goo.gl/BE6Zj9XCfPzXRUcB7 (accessed 22 May 2021).

B2. Drawing: Parker (Part II), Fig. 56: Kuntillet ʿAjrud 3.9 - Votive Text.

B3. Ibid., Fig. 55: Kuntillet ʿAjrud 3.6 - (Sample) Letter.

B4. Image: Hasson, Kuntillet Ajrud.

B5. Drawing: Parker (Part II), Fig. 57: Kuntillet ʿAjrud 3.12, 3.13, and 3.14 - Abecedarie.

B6. mostlydeadlanguages / Slightly Alive Translations, Of YHWH and Asheratah (Kuntillet ʿAjrud excerpts), 27 July 2017, https://mostlydeadlanguages.tumblr.com/post/163501071803/of-yhwh-and-asheratah-kuntillet-ajrud-excerpts (accessed 22 May 2021).

B7. Transliteration and translation: Malamud, p. 17.

B8. Transliteration and translation: 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 22 May 2021), pp. 203-204.

B9. Note: Meshel (1979).

C1. Image and drawing: Hasson, Ancient Hebrew writing on the rim of a bowl found at Kuntillet Ajrud, dating to about 3,000 years ago.

C2. Transliteration and translation: Meshel (1979).

C3. Note: Ibid.

N1. Note: Meshel (1979).

N2. Note: Ryan Thomas, A New Analysis of YHWH’s Asherah, Religion and Literature of Ancient Palestine web site, n.d., https://www.religionofancientpalestine.com/?page_id=230#_ednref4 (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 42-43.

N3. Note: Taylor Thomas, Ashes in Bethel: Bearings of Second Millennium BCE Ugaritic Mythology upon First Millennium BCE Israelite Religion (honors thesis project, University of Tennessee, 2016), https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/2019 (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 42-43.

N4. Note: Meshel (1979).

N5. Note: Israel Finkelstein, Eli Piasetzky, The Date of Kuntillet ʿAjrud: The ¹⁴C Perspective, Tel Aviv 35:2 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/1070651/The_Date_of_Kuntillet_Ajrud_The_14C_Perspective (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 175-176.

Tell Qasile Ostraca [1945, 1946] (8th Century BCE)

Ostracon 1

Tell Qasile Ostracon 1; B. Maisler. Source: Maisler (1951).¹

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
𐤋𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤋[𐤐] 𐤔𐤌𐤍 𐤅𐤌𐤀𐤄 𐤇𐤉𐤄𐤅	lmlk ʾl[p] šmn wmʾh̊ [ ] ḥ̊yhw {or [ʾ]ḥ̊yhw]}	for the king [lmlk] thousand [ʾlp] oil [šmn] hundred [wmʾh] ʾAḥîyāhû [ʾḥyhw]

Transliteration source: Davies (1991).²

Lyavdansky (2016): [An] ostrac[on] from Tell Qasile (near Tel Aviv) [with] the phrase lmlk, a quantity of olive oil and a personal name³

Bala’a (2020): One of these ostraca, likely from an Israelite official in charge of the royal exports from Tell Qasile, describes 1,100 measures of oil for the king.⁴

Peckham (2014): There is also a Hebrew ostracon from [Tell Qasile near Joppa] in which a man of Judah named ʾAḥîyāhû is credited with a shipment of 1100 measures of oil to the royal stores.⁵

Ostracon 2

Tell Qasile Ostracon 2; AKG-Images, Erich Lessing. Source: Bala'a (2020).⁶

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation*
𐤆𐤄𐤁. 𐤀𐤐𐤓. 𐤋𐤁𐤉𐤕.𐤇𐤓𐤍. 𐤔 𐤖𐤖𐤖	z̊hb. ʾpr. lbyt.ḥrn. [ ] š 30	Ophir [ʾpr] gold [zhb] to Bet [lbyt] Horon [ḥrn]– 30 shekels [š]

Transliteration source: Davies (1991).⁷ Translation source: Bala’a (2020).⁸

Peckham (2014): ...Gold from Ophir in the Sudan is among the exotic imports that biblical texts ascribe to Hiram of Tyre and Solomon.⁹

Malena (2015): Ophir...is attested outside of the Solomon narrative [in 1 Kgs 9:26-28; 1 Kgs 10:11-12; and 1 Kgs 10:22]. Gold from Ophir, apparently known for its rare quality, appears in Isaiah 13:12 as well as on an eighth-century ostracon discovered at Tell Qasile. What we do not know is where exactly Ophir was.... The context set by 1 Kings 9:26-28 leads us to believe that it was reached by the Red Sea [which] could lead to destinations in eastern Africa, Arabia, or even India.... The Tell Qasile find and the association with “Tarshish ships” (1 Kings 10:11-12), suggest Ophir was reached through the Mediterranean, a more logical scenario for a Phoenician fleet.¹⁰

(26) King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. (27) And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. (28) And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. (1 Kings 9:26-28 ESV)

(11) Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. (1 Kings 10:11 ESV)

(22) For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.^* (1 Kings 10:22 ESV)

(12) I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12 ESV)

* Malena (2015): The problematic phrase קפים ותכיים [in 1 Kings 10:22] is traditionally translated “apes and peacocks” and...suggests that exotic animals were imported to Jerusalem from as far away as the Indian subcontinent. Like the animals, these non-Semitic words would have become known to Hebrew speakers only during the exile or Persian periods.... As a consequence, 1 Kings 10:22 would have to be considered a late supplement to the account of Solomon’s commerce. [Edward] Lipiński’s alternative translation “knives and razors,” however, results in a more logical and era-appropriate report. Tarshish ships and Phoenician maritime activities point to Mediterranean exchange, in which metals played a large part.¹¹

Notes

Maisler (1951): Two Hebrew ostraca had been found incidentally on the surface of the southwestern part of the tell before excavations were made: one, in October 1945...and the other, in May 1946.... ... The pottery types and texture of these ostraca as well as the paleographical characters seems to allow the attribution of both to the last period of Israelite occupation in Tell Qasîle (viz., Stratum VII—eighth century B.C.).¹²

Peckham (2014): A Philistine inscription from [the end of the eighth century] found at Tell Qasile near Joppa is a receipt for thirty shekels of gold from Ophir for the Temple of Horon...: the alphabet is Phoenician; the orthography and the script are Philistine....¹³

The LMLK Research Website: In the 1997 book, "Corpus of West Semitic Seals", editor Benjamin Sass questioned the authenticity of [Ostracon 1] & another inscribed ostracon [Ostracon 2]...because of an obviously forged seal^† found with it, & a similar seal bought in Jerusalem that is now at the Israel Museum (#68.35.193). It may be that this LMLK ostracon was genuine, & prompted someone to forge the other artifacts the following year; or the LMLK ostracon may have been forged in 1945 to draw attention to the site. Benjamin Maisler excavated the site from 1948-1950 & did not recover any epigraphic material.¹⁴

† Avigad, Sass (1997): [A] chance find...[seal no. 1206's] field [the space on the surface of a seal that does not contain the design] is highly polished, hardly the condition expected of a buried limestone object more than two and a half millennia old. It can only be guessed who made the seal and put it in the party's path, and why. In this light one of the two famous Hebrew inscriptions from Tel Qasile, or both, likewise chance finds made before the excavation [of Tel Qasile], may have to be reexamined.¹⁵

1. Image: B. Maisler [Benjamin Mazar], Two Hebrew Ostraca from Tell Qasîle, Journal of Near Eastern Studies [JNES] (University of Chicago) 10:4 (October 1951), https://images.app.goo.gl/YgDnYkS4U6eCmMZcA (accessed 12 June 2021).

2. Transliteration: G. I. Davies, Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, Volume 1 (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991), https://books.google.com/books?id=9Lwz2SA2yBUC&pg=PA86 (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 86.

3. Note: Alexey Lyavdansky, Economic administration in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (ca. 931 – 587 BCE): epigraphic sources and their interpretations, Comptabilités: Revue d'histoire des comptabilités 8 (2016), https://journals.openedition.org/comptabilites/pdf/2024 (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 11.

4. Note: Marianna Bala’a, Proof of the Mystical ‘Gold of Ophir’ Discovered: A Hebrew ostracon provides proof of the enigmatic region of Ophir, Watch Jerusalem, 14 December 2020, https://watchjerusalem.co.il/1104-proof-of-the-mystical-gold-of-ophir-discovered (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Note: J. Brian Peckham, Phoenicia: Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=XPL2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 (accessed 12 June 2021), p. 198.

6. Image: Bala’a, Ostracon with inscription: "Gold from Ophir to bet Horon - 30 shekels.""

7. Transliteration: Davies.

8. Translation: Bala’a.

9. Note: Peckham.

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 12 June 2021), pp. 151-152.

11. Note: Ibid., p. 150.

12. Note: Maisler, p. 265.

13. Note: Peckham.

14. Note: The LMLK Research Website, LMLK Ostraca, http://www.lmlk.com/research/lmlk_ostrac.htm (accessed 12 June 2021).

15. Note: Naham Avigad and Benjamin Sass, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals, by Naham Avigad revised and completed by Benjamin Sass (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; The Israel Exploration Society; The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1997), https://www.academia.edu/4786835/1997_Avigad_N_revised_and_completed_by_Sass_B_Corpus_of_West_Semitic_stamp_seals_Jerusalem (accessed 12 June 2021), pp. 457-458.

Samaria Ostraca 1-63 [1910] (9th-8th Century BCE, ca. 850–750)

Samaria Ostraca 1-17; Ron E. Tappy. Source: Tappy (2016).1	Samaria Ostraca 18-27; Ron E. Tappy. Source: Tappy (2016).2	Samaria Ostraca 28-42; Ron E. Tappy. Source: Tappy (2016).3	Samaria Ostraca 43-58; Ron E. Tappy. Source: Tappy (2016).4	Samaria Ostraca 59-63; Ron E. Tappy. Source: Tappy (2016).5

Notes

COJS: In 1910, George A. Reisner of the Harvard University excavation at Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, uncovered a royal archive of ostraca. These documents, written on potsherds, recorded the palace’s receipt of wine or oil from outlying villages and estates. Wine and oil commodities were traditional forms of payment for taxes to the king.⁶

Wikipedia: The Samaria Ostraca are 102 ostraca found in 1910 in excavations in Sebastia, Nablus (ancient Samaria).... Of the 102, only 63 are legible. ... The primary inscriptions are known as KAI 183-188. These ostraca were found in the treasury of the palace of Ahab, king of Israel (Samaria) and probably date about his period, 850–750 BC.⁷

1. Drawing: Ron E. Tappy, The Archaeology of the Ostraca House at Israelite Samaria: Epigraphic Discoveries in Complicated Contexts, The annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 70 (Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/38395677/R_Tappy_book_Samaria_Ostraca_pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 195, Plate I 1910 Ostraca: Nos. 1-17.

2. Ibid., p. 196, Plate II 1910 Ostraca: Nos. 18-27.

3. Ibid., p. 197, Plate III 1910 Ostraca: Nos. 28-42.

4. Ibid., p. 198, Plate IV 1910 Ostraca: Nos. 43-58.

5. Ibid., p. 199, Plate V 1910 Ostraca: Nos. 59-63.

6. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Samaria Ostraca, 8th century BCE, http://cojs.org/samaria_ostraca-_8th_century_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Samaria Ostraca, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaria_Ostraca (accessed 22 May 2021).

Royal Moabite Inscription [????] (8th Century BCE)

Royal Moabite Inscription; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.¹

Royal Moabite Inscription; BAS Library. Source: BAS Library.²

Notes

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Iron Age II, mid-8th century BCE; Extended loan from Michael and Judy Steinhardt, New York.³

Routledge (2013): A recently published lapidary inscription of unknown provenance (apparently now in the private collection of Michael and Judy Steinhardt)...has been interpreted as Moabite. In the editio princeps of this new inscription, Shmuel Aḥituv read lines 3b–4a as wbʾsry . bnyʿmn [. bnty. l]mkrt . šʿr .ʾdr (“with Ammonite prisoners I built, for the reservoir, a great gate”). This reading has clear parallels to lines 25b–26a of the [Mesha Inscription], which reads wʾnk . krty . hmkrtt. lqrḥh . bʾsry . yšrʾl ("and I cut/dug the hmkrtt for Qrḥh with Israelite prisoners").⁴

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Royal Moabite inscription, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/372522 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: BAS Library, Update: Finds or Fakes? Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 31:4 (July/August 2005), https://images.app.goo.gl/jhPat8zpdrJxTQLi7 (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Note: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

4. Note: Bruce Routledge, On Water Management in the Mesha Inscription and in Moab, Journal of Near Eastern Studies [JNES] (University of Chicago) 72:1 (April 2013), https://www.academia.edu/4997620/On_Water_Management_in_the_Mesha_Inscription_and_in_Moab (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 53.

Ataruz Alter Pedestal Inscription [2010] (9th-8th Century BCE)

Ataruz Alter Pedestal Inscription; Adam Bean. Source: Eames, Reinsch (2019).¹

Ataruz Alter Pedestal Inscription; Adam Bean. Source: Eames, Reinsch (2019).²

Translation source: Eames, Reinsch (2019).

Notes

Eames, Reinsch (2019): The inscribed incense altar was discovered during the 2010 excavations at Khirbet Ataruz (biblical Ataroth), in Jordan. ... The 50 x 18.5 centimeter stone altar contains seven lines of text in two separate inscriptions: Three short horizontal lines make up Inscription A, and four longer vertical lines make up Inscription B. The inscriptions date to the late ninth–early eighth centuries B.C.E. ... This suggested identification of the term “Hebrews” would thus make the Ataruz Altar the earliest known inscription to mention the term (not including the 14th century use of the term Habiru in the Amarna Letters—see here for more detail). The translation is tentative, however. ... Alternatively, though, the original Moabite letters ‘brn could perhaps refer to the biblical location Abarim (spelled exactly the same way as “Hebrews,” in Hebrew), or something else entirely. ... The Mesha Stele dates to the mid-late ninth century B.C.E. Though a Moabite item, this stele was written in the Old Hebrew script. ... The Ataruz Inscriptions are written in a fledgling version of what eventually became a distinctive Moabite national script known from later finds.³

Rollston (2013): Based on the morphology, stance, and ductus of the script, I date the writing comfortably to the 9th century BCE. It would be most difficult to date the script of this pedestal to the 8th century.⁴

1. Image: Christopher Eames and Warren Reinsch, Moabite Altar Inscription: Earliest Reference to >Hebrews? Watch Jerusalem, 18 September 2019, https://watchjerusalem.co.il/734-moabite-altar-inscription-earliest-reference-to-hebrews (accessed 22 May 2021), Moabite stone altar inscription [Adam Bean].

2. Drawing: Ibid., Sketch of the Ataruz Altar Inscription rotated on its side [Courtesy of Adam Bean/Council for British Research in the Levant].

3. Translation: Ibid.

3. Note: Ibid.

4. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Ninth Century ‘Moabite Pedestal Inscription’ from King Mesha’s Ataruz: Preliminary Synopsis of an Excavated Epigraphic Text and its Biblical Connections, Rollston Epigraphy, 17 December 2013, http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=631 (accessed 22 May 2021).

Mesha Stele aka Mesha Inscription aka Moabite Stone [KAI 181, 1868] (9th Century BCE, ca. 840)

Mesha Stele; RMN / Franck Raux. Source: Musée du Louvre.1	Mesha Stele; Mark Lidzbarski (1898). Source: Wikimedia Commons.2

Notes

COJS: F. A. Klein...in 1868, spotted the stele in the possession of Bedouin living near Dibon. Before the stele was finally purchased, a drawn-out process that took several years to complete, the Bedouin became suspicious. Not understanding the stele’s historical value, they assumed that there must be a treasure inside it, so they cracked it open it by heating the stele and then pouring cold water over it. What remains of the original block are two large pieces and eighteen smaller fragments. Fortunately, a squeeze had been made of the inscription before it was broken, enabling a substantial restoration, with large hunks of plaster filling the gaps so that it stands as one piece. Today it is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.³

Pardee (1979): By far the most famous document from the area is the 34-line inscription discovered in Dhiban (ancient Dibon) in 1868. After the original discovery, the stela on which the text was inscribed was smashed by suspicious villagers (apparently thinking that a stone so eagerly sought after must contain riches), but a previous squeeze copy and the remaining fragments have permitted a fairly complete restoration of the text.⁴

Wikipedia: The stone was discovered intact by Frederick Augustus Klein, an Anglican missionary, at the site of ancient Dibon (now Dhiban, Jordan), in August 1868. Klein was led to it by Emir Sattam Al-Fayez, son of the Bani Sakhr King Fendi Al-Fayez, although neither of them could read the text. ... News of the finding set off a race between France, Britain, and Germany to acquire the piece. A "squeeze" (a papier-mâché impression) had been obtained by a local Arab on behalf of Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, an archaeologist based in the French consulate in Jerusalem. The next year, the stele was smashed into several fragments by the Bani Hamida tribe, seen as an act of defiance against the Ottoman authorities who had pressured the Bedouins to hand over the stele so that it could be given to Germany. ...In November 1869 the stele was broken by the local Bedouin tribe (the Bani Hamida) after the Ottoman government became involved in the ownership dispute.[18] The previous year the Bani Hamida had been defeated by an expedition to Balqa led by Reşid Pasha, the Wali of Damascus. Knowing that a demand to give up the stone to the German Consulate had been ordered by the Ottomans, and finding that the ruler of Salt was about to put pressure upon them, they heated the stele in a bonfire, threw cold water upon it and broke it to pieces with boulders.⁵

Parker (2013, 2018): Initially the Prussian, French, and British governments made inquiries into purchasing the stele from the Bani Ḥamidi. In 1869, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, a French translator and guide for the French consul of Jerusalem, commissioned an Arab, Yaqub Karavaca, to make a squeeze of the stele. While Karavaca and his party were producing the squeeze, fighting broke out in the Bani Ḥamidi camp, and the group had to flee. One of Karavaca’s horsemen, Sheikh Jamil, had to rip the squeeze from the stele before it was dry, stuffing the pieces into his robe pocket as he fled. Clermont- Ganneau received the squeeze crumpled and in multiple parts. Shortly afterward, the Bani Ḥamidi broke the stele apart. The French, led by Clermont-Ganneau, and the British, led by Capt. Charles Warren of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), gathered as many fragments as they could find, and in 1873 and 1874, Clermont-Ganneau and the PEF gave these fragments to the Louvre museum. Clermont-Ganneau, with the aid of his squeeze, reassembled the recovered fragments and reconstructed as much of the missing sections of the stele as possible. ⁶

COJS: Important features of the stele include an early reference to Yahweh as God of the Israelites and, according to Bible scholar André Lemaire who recently reexamined the Mesha Stele, it appears to mention the “House of David,” the same designation given to the kingdom of Israel in the Tel Dan Stele.⁷

Azevedo (1994): 850 BC.⁸

1. Image: RMN / Franck Raux,Stèle de Mesha, Musée du Louvre, n.d., https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/funerary-stele-1 https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010120339 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Mark Lidzbarski (1898), Mesha Stele drawing, Wikimedia Commons, 8 February 2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesha_Stele_drawing.png (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Moabite Stone, c. 840 BCE, http://cojs.org/moabite_stone-_c-_840_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Circumstances of Discovery and Acquisition.

4. Note: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 66.

5. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Mesha Stele, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele (accessed 22 May 2021).

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 22 May 2021), p. 145.

7. Note: COJS, Relevance to Ancient Israel.

8. 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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

El-Kerak Inscription [KAI 306, 1958] (9th century BCE, ca. 840)

El-Kerak Inscription. Source: Wikimedia Commons.¹

Transliteration and translation source: Mnamon.

Notes

USC Dornsife: The inscription pictured here is in a language called Moabite. Moabite is a language very much like ancient Hebrew and it was spoken by the people who lived in the country of Moab.³

Wikipedia: The inscription contains 3 incomplete lines, comprising 8 complete words and fragments of 5 more, all written in the "Moabite language" known from only one other artifact - the Mesha Stele.⁴

1. Image: Jordan Archaeological Museum, J 6807 El-Kerak Inscription, Jordan Archaeological Museum, Wikimedia Commons, 21 May 2020, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J_6807_El-Kerak_Inscription,_Jordan_Archaeological_Museum.png (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Transliteration and translation: Mnamon: Ancient writing systems in the Mediterranean, Moabite - 9th-6th century BC: Examples of writing, http://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Esempi&id=44&lang=en (accessed 22 May 2021), Moabite inscription from El-Kerak (first or second half of the 9th century BC).

3. Note: USC Dornsife, The El-Kerak Inscription, West Semitic Research Project [WSRP], https://dornsife.usc.edu/wsrp/el-kerak-inscription/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Background.

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. El-Kerak Inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El-Kerak_Inscription#Inscription (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscription.

Heshbon Ostracon A1/Heshbon Ostracon IV [1973] (6th Century BCE)

Heshbon Ostracon A1; USC Dornsife. Source: USC Dornsife.	Heshbon Ostracon A1; Matthieu Richelle, Michael Weigl. Source: Richelle, Weigl (2009).2

Transliteration and translation source: Richelle (2018).

Notes

USC Dornsife: The eleven-line inscription is an economic text listing amounts of grain, cattle, flour, and wine, which Prof. Cross of Harvard University calls a tax receipt.⁴

1. Image: USC Dornsife, Heshbon Ostraca, West Semitic Research Project [WSRP], https://dornsife.usc.edu/wsrp/heshbon-ostraca/ (accessed 22 May 2021), Heshbon Ostraca #4.

2. Drawing: Matthieu Richelle and Michael Weigl, Hisban Ostracon A1: New Collation and New Readings, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 53 (2009), https://www.academia.edu/415263/_Hisban_Ostracon_A1_New_Collation_and_New_Readings_Annual_of_the_Department_of_Antiquities_of_Jordan_53_2009_127_38 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 9, Fig. 9: Drawing of ostracon A1.

3. Transliteration and translation: Matthieu Richelle, Revisiting the Ammonite Ostraca, Maarav 22.1-2 (2018), https://www.academia.edu/37069159/_Revisiting_the_Ammonite_Ostraca_MAARAV_22_2018_45_77 [pp. 45-77, 130-133] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 53.

4. Note: USC Dornsife.

Tell el-Mazar Ostracon 3 [1986] (6th Century BCE)

Tell el-Mazar Ostracon 3 Recto; Matthieu Richelle. Source: Richelle (2018).1	Tell el-Mazar Ostracon 3 Verso; Matthieu Richelle. Source: Richelle (2018).2

Transliteration and translation source: Richelle (2018).³

1. Image: Matthieu Richelle, Revisiting the Ammonite Ostraca, Maarav 22.1-2 (2018), https://www.academia.edu/37069159/_Revisiting_the_Ammonite_Ostraca_MAARAV_22_2018_45_77 [pp. 45-77, 130-133] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 131, Plate III: Tell el-Mazar Ostracon 3 Recto.

2. Ibid., p. 132, Plate IV: Tell el-Mazar Ostracon 3 Verso.

3. Ibid., p. 57.

Jalul Ostracon 1 [2008] (6th Century BCE)

Jalul Ostracon 1; Matthieu Richelle. Source: Richelle (2018).¹

Transcription and translation: Richelle (2018): This ostracon has been remarkably well published in a recent article by R. E. Gane, and I only suggest two corrections.²

Transcription and translation: Gane (2008).³

Notes

Gane (2008): At the right margin of lines 1-3 and 5 (with a possible trace remaining in line 4) and somewhat separate from each line of text is a single character, apparently representing a number. That these are numerals is reinforced by the fact that the shape of the characters at the beginnings of lines 1, 3, and 5 (resembling our symbol "2") is similar to that of the hieratic numeral "20" in Ḥisbān/Hesban Ostracon A1.⁴

Gane (2008): Following identification [on Line 2] of the person and the numeral 1 (a single slash), there is a symbol that looks like the letter lamed with a dot under it. The same lamed-shaped symbol with dot also appears at the ends of lines 4 and 5, where persons are identified by name and father, but not in lines 1 and 3, which lack one or the other of these elements. In lines 2, 4, and 5 the "lamed" symbols follow slashes, each of which indicates "1," so it does not appear that the "lamed" is a larger number unit, which we would expect to precede the smaller units. In Arad Ostracon 41:1, 7, Aharoni and Naveh have interpreted a somewhat similar lamed-shaped symbol, following a dot that apparently represents a word divider, as "seʾah," a measure of grain. I would suggest that the symbol in Jalul Ostracon 1 also refers to a unit of measure, possibly "seʾah," but the dot under it must be part of the sign rather than a word divider. Perhaps the dot is to indicate that the "lamed" is an abbreviation.⁵

1. Image: Matthieu Richelle, Revisiting the Ammonite Ostraca, Maarav 22.1-2 (2018), https://www.academia.edu/37069159/_Revisiting_the_Ammonite_Ostraca_MAARAV_22_2018_45_77 [pp. 45-77, 130-133] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 133, Plate V: Jalul Ostracon 1.

2. Transcription and translation: Ibid., p. 61.

3. Transliteration and translation: Roy E. Gane, Jalul Ostracon 1, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 351 (August 2008), https://www.madabaplains.org/jalul/editor/files/BASOR%20Jalul%20Otracon%201.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 73.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 74.

5. Ibid., p. 78.

Tell Siran Bronze Bottle [1972] (7th century BCE, ca. 600)

Tell Siran Bronze Bottle; Juergen Liepe. Source: Rawashdeh (2018).1 Tell Siran Bronze Bottle; The Jordan Museum. Source: The Jordan Museum.2	Tell Siran Bronze Bottle; Beter Devries. Source: Mohammed (n.d.).3

Transliteration and translation source: Mnamon.⁴

Translation source: The Jordan Museum.⁵

Notes

Pardee (1979): The Ammonite inscription which has to date yielded the most politico-historical information was written on a very unmonumental medium: a small bronze bottle, only 10 cm. in length. On the outside of this bottle, inscribed with a sharp instrument, is an eight-line text written by a certain Amminadab, king of the Ammonites, whose father (Hiṣṣalel) and grandfather (an- other Amminadab) were both kings of the Ammonites.⁶

The Jordan Museum: Three generations of Ammonite kings, who ruled the northern mountainous area of Jordan, are mentioned in the text that is inscribed on this bottle: Amminadab, his father Hasall, and his grandfather Amminadab.⁷

Mohammed (n.d.): The Ammonite inscription of Tell Siran from Jordan has been misunderstood. ... The common and generally accepted understanding is really a bit weird. First: The supposed...king of the Ammonite, who is supposed to be the son of another king of the Ammonite, and the grandson of a third king of the Ammonite, has not [found] it strange to (publish) his (great!) deeds on a small bronze bottle. Second: The supposed king also has not [found] it strange to proudly declare deeds that barely fit to be attributed to an ordinary small merchant rather than a king. Mohammed (n.d.): There are no kings in the inscription. The word mlk which has been understood to mean king is actually to be vocalized as mallaka which means transformed ownership or sold. This means the the text is a selling and purchasing contract. Mohammed (n.d.): The language of the text is close to North Arabian languages, and it has to be read in the light of Arabic rather than Hebrew.⁸

The Jordan Museum: Probably Iron Age II C (600 BC).⁹

1. Image: Saeb Rawashdeh, Scholar presents differences between Arabian, Arabia and Arabic, The Jordan Times 30 April 2018, http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/scholar-presents-differences-between-arabian-arabia-and-arabic’ (accessed 22 May 2021), Tall Siran Ammonite inscription (Photo by Juergen Liepe).

2. Image: The Jordan Museum, Tel Siran bronze bottle bearing an inscription Ammonia revealing 3 Ammonites kings names, Twitter, 25 October 2016, https://twitter.com/thejordanmuseum/status/790864513360859136 (accessed 22 May 2021).

3. Drawing: Zakaria Mohammed, The three false kings of the bottle: how we misunderstood the Ammonite Inscription of Tell Siran, n.d., https://twitter.com/thejordanmuseum/status/790864513360859136 (accessed 22 May 2021), Drawing by Beter Devries.

4. Transliteration and translation: Mnamon: Ancient writing systems in the Mediterranean, Ammonite - 9th-6th century BC: Examples of writing, http://mnamon2.sns.it/index.php?page=Esempi&id=43&lang=en (accessed 22 May 2021), Bronze bottle from Tel Siran (7th century BC).

5. Transliteration and translation: The Jordan Museum (2016).

6. Note: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 67.

7. Note: The Jordan Museum, Tall Siran Bottle, Universes in Universe, 2015, https://universes.art/en/art-destinations/jordan/amman/museums/jordan-museum/bronze-iron-ages/tall-siran-bottle (accessed 22 May 2021).

8. Note: Mohammed.
        Ibid.
        Ibid.

9. Note: The Jordan Museum.

Amman Theater Inscription [1961] (7th century BCE, ca. 600)

Amman Theater Inscription; William J. Fulco. Source: Fulco (1979).¹ (Images of the inscription: Nathaniel E. Greene and Heather Dana Davis Parker, pp. 220, 221, Figs. 6, 7.)

Transliteration and translation source: Fulco (1979).²

Notes

MacDonald (1999): The Theatre Inscription...bears two lines of writing including the words bnʿmn[nʾ (Ammonites). Scholars are fairly unanimous in dating it to ca. 600 B.C.³

1. Image: William J. Fulco, The Amman Theater Inscription, Journal of Near East Studies 38:1 (January 1979), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/372692?journalCode=jnes (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 37, Fig. 1: The Amman Theater Inscription, National Museum, Amman (author's drawing).

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid., p. 37.

3. Note: Burton MacDonald, Chapter Two: Ammonite Territory and Sites, in Ancient Ammon, ed. Burton MacDonald and Randall W. Younker (Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2019), https://books.google.com/books?id=5Sm7BOubDYcC&pg=PA40 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 40.

Amman Statue Inscription aka Statue of Yerah Azar [????] (8th century BCE, ca. ????)

Amman Statue; Department of Antiquities of Jordan. Source: Burnett, Gharib (2019).1	Amman Statue Inscription; Fawzi Zayadine. Source: Zayadine (1974).2 Amman Statue Detail; Fawzi Zayadine. Source: Zayadine (1974).3

Transliteration and translation source: Tyson (2019).⁴

Notes

Rollston (2010): The Amman Statue Inscription was discovered several decades ago in the Jordanian city of Amman. Along the front base of this statue is an inscription that has been lightly incised into plaster. Since the time of its discovery, some of the plaster has flaked off. At the time of its discovery, there was debate about the readings, but most have concurred with /Yrhʿzr/, a personal name meaning the moon god has assisted, followed by a patronymic. Some have argued that the script is Aramaic, but some have suggested it is Ammonite.⁵

MacDonald (1999): The Statue Inscription is one of several statues found in ʿAmman. It has an inscription consisting of two lines on its pedestal which [F.] Zayadine reads as Yerahʿazar, son of Sanib.⁶

1. Image: Joel S. Burnett and Romel Gharib, The Amman Theatre Statue and the Ammonite Royal Ancestor Cult, The Ancient Near East Today (ASOR) VII:12 (December 2019), http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2019/12/Amman-Theatre-Statue-and-Ammonite-Royal-Ancestor-Cult (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscribed Statue of Yrḥ‘zr from Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal‘a). Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

2. Drawing: F. Zayadine, Note sur l'inscription de la statue d'Amman J. 1656, Syria LI (1974), https://www.persee.fr/doc/syria_0039-7946_1974_num_51_1_6434 [pp. 129-136] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 133, Fig. 3: Fac-simile de l'auteur.

3. Image: Ibid., p. 130, Plate IV: Inscription de la statue d'Ammon.

4. Transliteration and translation: Craig W. Tyson, The Religion of the Ammonites: A Specimen of Levantine Religion from the Iron Age II (ca. 1000–500 BCE), Religions (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute [MDPI]) 10:3 (2019), https://www.academia.edu/38486305/The_Religion_of_the_Ammonites_A_Specimen_of_Levantine_Religion_from_the_Iron_Age_II_ca_1000_500_BCE_ (accessed 22 May 2021), article 153, p. 8.

5. 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_Writing%20in%20Anc%20Isr%202.pdf [pp. 29-76] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 60.

6. Note: Burton MacDonald, Chapter Two: Ammonite Territory and Sites, in Ancient Ammon, ed. Burton MacDonald and Randall W. Younker (Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2019), https://books.google.com/books?id=5Sm7BOubDYcC&pg=PA40 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 40.

Amman Citadel Inscription [KAI 307, 1961] (9th century BCE, ca. 800)

Amman Citadel Inscription; Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research. Source: Burlingame (2016).1	Amman Citadel Inscription; Siegfried Horn/BASOR. Source: Reinsch (2019).2

Transliteration and translation source: Burlingame (2016).³

Notes

Pardee (1979): The most important of the Ammonite monumental inscriptions is the so-called Amman Citadel inscription.... [But] the text as preserved consists of only a fragment of the original, and it has yielded little of more than linguistic interest.⁴

Wikipedia: The Amman Citadel Inscription is the oldest known inscription in the so-called Ammonite language. ... It was the third longest Semitic stone inscription ever found...after the Mesha Stele and the Siloam inscription. ... The left and right sides of the inscription are missing parts, and the bottom line does not seem to include the end of the inscription. ... Due to the fragmented nature of the inscription, the translation remains uncertain.⁵

Burlingame (2016): The limestone slab bearing the inscription was apparently redressed for use in a secondary building context in antiquity, and this process resulted in the loss of the beginning and end of each line of the text. Several scholars have agreed that the first preserved line likely constituted the first line of the original inscription, but estimates regarding the amount of text lost along the edges of the inscription range broadly. Beyond this significant loss, the text has also suffered surface damage, with a number of lines rendered nearly illegible as a result. In spite of the fragmentary state of the Amman Citadel Inscription, its discovery occasioned celebration, as it constituted both the oldest and the longest Ammonite inscription extant—a distinction it continues to hold.⁶

Burlingame (2016): The importance of the fifth line of this inscription for the interpretation of the whole has not escaped the attention of those who have studied the text. Walter Aufrecht identified this line as “the most difficult (and, one might add, most significant) of the inscription.” ... As what is arguably the best-preserved line of the text, one would expect to find in line 5 clarity rather than further confusion. ... [Kent] Jackson, Klaas Smelik, and [Ulrich] Hübner have deemed it untranslatable. In fact, Hübner wonders whether the line ever made any sense, suggesting that errors on the part of those responsible for the inscription—perhaps particularly in this line—may have prompted the discard of the monument.⁷

Azevedo (1994): 8th BC.⁸

1. Image: Andrew Burlingame, Line Five of the Amman Citadel Inscription: History of Interpretation and a New Proposal, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 376 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/29136225/Line_Five_of_the_Amman_Citadel_Inscription_History_of_Interpretation_and_a_New_Proposal (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 64, Fig. 1: The Amman Citadel Inscription. (Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research. Courtesy of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan).

2. Drawing: Warren Reinsch, Amman Citadel Inscription Supports Biblical History: Evidence of an early Ammonite civilization and an Ammonite god mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Watch Jerusalem, 6 August 2019 https://watchjerusalem.co.il/696-amman-citadel-inscription-supports-biblical-history (accessed 22 May 2021), Hand copy of the Amman Citadel Inscription [Siegfried Horn/Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research].

3. Transliteration and translation: Burlingame, pp. 67-68.

4. Note: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 67.

5. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Amman Citadel Inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amman_Citadel_Inscription (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Note: Burlingame, p .66.

7. Ibid., p. 68.

8. 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 22 May 2021), p. 109.

Tell el-Kheleifeh Ostracon No. 6043 [1941] (6th Century BCE)

Kheleifeh Ostracon 6043; Nelson Glueck. Source: Glueck (1941).¹ (Additional image and drawing of ostracon: Christopher A. Rollston, p. 968, Figure 14.4: Kheleifeh Ostracon 6043. Photo and drawing: Glueck 1941:4-5).)

Transliteration and translation source: .

Notes

Pardee (1979): The poorest of the groups being discussed here is the Edomite. The only homogenous group of texts is from Tell el-Kheleifeh (near Eilat). This site yielded texts in Minaean, Judaean Hebrew, Edomite, Phoenician, and Aramaic. Edomite inscriptions in both cursive and lapidary script were discovered. The most important of the former (no. 6043) is a ten-line list of personal names, some Edomite (most easily identified are those with the divine element qws, representing the main Edomite deity.²

Beit-Arieh (1988): The largest Edomite inscription yet found is on an ostracon from Tell el-Kheleifeh. It is a fragmentary list of names. First identified as Edomite script by Professor Joseph Naveh of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, it is basically a west Semitic script that reflects the influence of contemporaneous Aramaic script.³

Rollston (2014): Several decades ago [1966], [J.] Naveh concluded that there was a distinct Edomite script. He concluded this, based on converging lines of evidence. Namely, the script of Kheleifeh Ostracon 6043 was similar to but different from the Aramaic, Old Hebrew, and Phoenician scripts. Moreover, some of the distinctive features were similar to the meager corpus of Moabite. ... [W. F.] Albright had previously discussed the typological features of the script of Ostracon 6043 in some detail, but it was Naveh who came to the conclusion that the script was a distinctive national script that could be termed Edomite.⁴

1. Image: Nelson Glueck, Ostraca from Elath, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 82 (April 1941), https://images.app.goo.gl/BHyytvot5KKUf69c7 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Note: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 68.

3. Note: Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, New Light on the Edomites, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 14:2 (March/April 1988), http://cojs.org/new-light-on-the-edomites/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

4. Note: Christopher A. Rollston, The Iron Age Edomite Script and Language, chap. 14 in New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan by Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, and Erez Ben-Yosef (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press of UCLA, 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=h2mRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA968 (accessed 22 May 2021), vol. 2, p. 968.

Horvat Uza Inscription [1982-3] (7th-6th Century BCE)

Horvat Uza Inscription; Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Neta Dror. Source: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.1	Horvat Uza Inscription; Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, Bruce Cresson. Source: Beit-Arieh, Cresson (1985).2

Translation source: Na’aman (2012).³

Notes

Beit-Arieh, Cresson (1985): The ostracon...is inscribed with six lines of text in a large, widely spaced script. Almost all the words are separated from one another by a dot. Most of the inscription can be read, although a few letters in lines 1, 4 and 6 are either too blurred or too faint to be legible, partly because of surface flaking.⁴

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Inscription: (Thus) said Lumalak: Say to BLBL! Are you well? I bless you by Qaus. And now give the food (grain) that Ahiom […]. And may U[z]iel lift [it] upon (the altar?) … [lest] the food become leavened (?)⁵

1. Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Neta Dror, Inscribed potsherd (ostracon); IAA: 1987-656, https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/375958 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Drawing: Itzhaq Beit-Arieh and Bruce Cresson, An Edomite Ostracon from Horvat 'Uza, Tel Aviv 12:1 (1985), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/tav.1985.1985.1.96?journalCode=ytav20 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 96, Fig. 1: Facsimile of the ostracon.

3. Translation: Nadav Na’aman, A New Look at the Epigraphic Finds from Ḥorvat ʿUza, Tel Aviv 39:2 (2012), https://www.academia.edu/11658704/A_New_Look_at_the_Epigraphic_Finds_from_Horvat_Uza_Tel_Aviv_39_2012_212-229 [pp. 212-229] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 215.

4. Note: Beit-Arieh and Cresson, p. 96.

5. Note: The Israel Museum.

Umm al-Biyara Ostracon [1966] (7th Century BCE)

Umm al-Biyara Ostracon; Omar Al-Ghul. Source: al-Ghul (2011).1	Umm al-Biyara Ostracon Inked; Omar Al-Ghul. Source: al-Ghul (2011).2

Transliteration and translation source: al-Ghul (2011).

Notes

al-Ghul (2011): Despite the brevity of the inscription and the poor state of preservation, the Umm al-Biyara ostracon remains one of the very few representatives of the ‘Edomite corpus’. For this reason alone the effort exerted to shed more light on it is justified. It should be noted that this study has been carried out on the basis of examination of a photograph and drawing of the ostracon: the original ostracon can no longer be located. ... The Umm al-Biyara ostracon was preliminarily published by J. T. Milik (1966), who read the inscription from the original with the help of infra-red images.⁴

1. Image: Omar Al-Ghul, The Ostracon, in The Umm al-Biyarah. Excavations by Crystal-M. Bennett in Petra 1960-1965, ed. Piotr Bienkowski, (Oxford: Oxbow Books and The Council for the British Research in the Levant, 2011), https://www.academia.edu/10002638/The_Umm_Al_Biyarah_Ostracon (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 85, Figure 6.1: The Umm al-Biyara ostracon.

2. Ibid., p. 86, Figure 6.4: The Umm al-Biyara ostracon inked, with characters partly reconstructed.

3. Transliteration and translation: Al-Ghul, pp. 87-88.

4. Note: Ibid., p. 85.

Tel Aroer Ostracon [????] (7th Century BCE)

Tel Aroer Ostracon; Yifat Thareani. Source: Thareani (2011).¹

Transliteration and translation source: .

Notes

Thareani (2011): This ostracon...is a body sherd with a few letters written in ink on four lines. The letters, most of which are faded, do not comprise a comprehensive text. Nevertheless, the visible characters are of special interest: Whereas the alef and he have Hebrew forms, the open dalet, resh and ʿayin are of typical Aramaic shape. This phenomenon is well attested in ostracon No. 6043 from Tell el-Kheleifeh (which is a name list in which some of the names include the theophoric element Qaus) and in other Edomite inscriptions. Thus the inscribed sherd from ʿAroer is presumably yet another Edomite ostracon. As its letter forms seem to be less developed than those of the above-mentioned ostracon from Tell el-Kheleifeh (which is probably from the 6th century BCE), the ʿAroer sherd can be dated to the 7th century BCE.²

1. Image: Yifat Thareani, Tel ‘Aroer: The Iron Age II Caravan Town and the Hellenistic-Early Roman Settlement; The Avraham Biran (1975-1982) and Rudolph Cohen (1975-1976) Excavations, Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology VIII (Jerusalem: 2011), https://www.academia.edu/1184871/Tel_Aroer_An_Iron_Age_II_Caravan_Town_and_a_Hellenistic_and_Early_Roman_Settlement_in_the_Negev_Avraham_Biran_1975_1982_and_Rudolph_Cohen_1975_1976_Excavations_Annual_of_the_Nelson_Glueck_School_of_Biblical_Archaeology_No_VIII_Jerusalem (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 227, Fig. 3.122: Edomite ostracon – No. F/8565.

2. Note: Ibid., p. 227.

Qawsanal/Qausanal/Qosanal Seal Impression (Tell el-Kheleifeh) [????] (7th Century BCE)

Tell el-Kheleifeh Seal Impression; Bruce Zuckerman. Source: Zuckerman (2004).1	Tell el-Kheleifeh Seal Impression; Bruce Zuckerman. Source: Zuckerman (2004).2

Transliteration and translation source: Pardee (1979).³

Notes

COJS: Seventh century Edomite seal, Belonging to Qaws‘anal, servant of the king, Archaeologist Nelson Glueck found 22 such seals at Tell el-Kheleifeh near the northern shore of the Gulf of Eilat, in the territory of ancient Edom.⁴

Pardee (1979): Lapidary script is found on a jar and on a seal whose imprint reads lqws'nl 'bd hmlk, (Belonging) to Qaws'anal, servant of the king. This seal probably belonged to a high official of an Edomite king who controlled the area of Eilat some time after Judah lost control of it in about 730 B.C.⁵

1. Image: Bruce Zuckerman, Shading the Difference: A Perspective on Epigraphic Perspectives of the Kheleifeh Jar Stamp Impressions, Maarav 11.2 (2004), http://www.maarav.com/current11_2.shtml (accessed 22 May 2021), Fig. 1: Seal Impression on Kheleifeh Jar Handle 528.

2. Drawing: Ibid., Fig. 14: Drawing of the Kheleifeh Seal Impression.

3. Transliteration and translation: Dennis Pardee, Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria. II: Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite, and Eclomite Inscriptions, in Andrews University Seminary Studies 17:1 (Spring 1979), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1446&context=auss [pp. 47-69] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 68-69.

4. Note: Center for Online Judaic Studies [COJS], Edomite Seal, 7th century BCE, http://cojs.org/edomite_seal-_7th_century_bce/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Note: Pardee.

Tel Aroer Seal [????] (7th Century BCE)

Tel Aroer Seal; Yifat Thareani. Source: Thareani (2011).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Thareani (2011).²

Notes

MacDonald (2000): [A.] Biran and [R.] Cohen have unearthed both a seal and an ostracon at Tel Aroer that contain personal names with the theophoric element Qos, the Edomite diety.³

Thareani (2011): An Edomite seal bearing a private name. ... A single line borders the two registers and serves as a field divider. The upper register presents a crude couchant griffin. Above it is a circle with a tilted ankh in front. The bottom register contains an equally crude inscription. ... This private seal bears an Edomite inscription (belonging to Qosa). The name contains a theoforic element, the name of the Edomite god qaus.⁴

1. Image: Yifat Thareani, Tel ‘Aroer: The Iron Age II Caravan Town and the Hellenistic-Early Roman Settlement; The Avraham Biran (1975-1982) and Rudolph Cohen (1975-1976) Excavations, Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology VIII (Jerusalem: 2011), https://www.academia.edu/1184871/Tel_Aroer_An_Iron_Age_II_Caravan_Town_and_a_Hellenistic_and_Early_Roman_Settlement_in_the_Negev_Avraham_Biran_1975_1982_and_Rudolph_Cohen_1975_1976_Excavations_Annual_of_the_Nelson_Glueck_School_of_Biblical_Archaeology_No_VIII_Jerusalem (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 466, Plate III: Edomite seal אסוקל – No. F/361/1.

2. Transliteration and translation: Ibid., p. 227.

3. Note: Burton MacDonald, East of the Jordan: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures, ASOR Books 6 (Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2000) http://www.bu.edu/asor/pubs/books-monographs/macdonald.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 187.

4. Note: Thareani, p. 227.

Busayra Seal aka Busayra Bulla [1972] (8th-7th Century BCE)

Busayra Seal Impression; Piotr Bienkowski. Source: Van der Veen, Bron (2014).1	Busayra Seal Inscription; Piotr Bienkowski. Source: Van der Veen, Bron (2014).2

Transliteration source: Van der Veen, Bron (2014).³ Translation source: Rollston (2014).⁴

Notes

Rollston (2014): Various fragmentary inscriptions were found at Busayra, with several different languages attested (e.g., Egyptian, Nabataean, and Edomite). Among the most important is an Edomite seal from the eighth century BCE inscribed with the personal name Mlklbʿ ʿbd hmlk (Mlklbʿ the servant of the king).⁵

Van der Veen, Bron (2014): A bulla...divided into four registers, with a depiction of three buildings or altars in the first register and an inscription in the lower three registers.... ... The palaeography suggests a seventh-century BCE date for the bulla. The inverted “dalet”, bent “kap” and broad-headed “mem” identify the script as Edomite. ... The name of the seal owner, “mlklbʿ”, is unattested and its etymology is unclear. Suggestions have been made, however, concerning its correct reading. A[ndré] Lemaire suggests that the scribe mistakenly transposed “lamed” of Baʿal to precede its initial “bet” [i.e., “mlkbʿl”]. Although a name such as Melek-Baʿal would make perfect sense within the West Semitic onomasticon, it is difficult to conceive of such a serious mistake, especially on a seal of a royal minister. ... As the owner of the seal is called an “ʿbd hmlk” (“official/minister of the king”), he was a high-ranking individual.⁶

1. Image: Pieter Gert van der Veen and François Bron, Arabian and Arabizing Epigraphic Finds From the Iron Age Southern Levant, in Unearthing the Wilderness: Studies on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age (Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Supplement 45), ed. Juan Manuel Tebes (Leuven, Paris, Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2014), https://www.academia.edu/7933687/P_van_der_Veen_and_F_Bron_Arabian_and_Arabizing_Epigraphic_Finds_from_the_Iron_Age_Southern_Levant [pp. 201-226] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 212, Fig. 5: The bulla from Buseirah (photo and line drawing courtesy of P. Bienkowski)

2. Transliteration: Ibid.

3. Note: Ibid., p. 210.

4. Transliteration and translation: Christopher A. Rollston, The Iron Age Edomite Script and Language, in New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan, Volume 2, by Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, Erez Ben-Yosef (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archeaology Press, University of Californiam 2014), https://books.google.com/books?id=h2mRDwAAQBAJ&pg=965 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 965.

5. Note: Rollston.

6. Note: Van der Veen and Bron., pp. 210-212.

Ashkelon Seren Ostracon [????] (7th Century BCE)

Ashkelon Seren Ostracon; Zev Radovan. Source: Davis, Maeir, Hitchcock (2015).¹

Transliteration and translation source: Maeir, Davis, Hitchcock (2016): An inscription from late seventh-century BCE Ashkelon...transcribed by Frank Cross...and translated.²

Notes

Davis, Maeir, Hitchcock (2015): [A.] Zukerman (2011) has recently discussed the significance of the term trn with regard to Philistine culture and its connection with Greek tyrannos (tyrant, ruler,lord, governor), which originates from Luwian tarwanis, a common title of Neo-Hittite rulers, and rendered biblically as seren, the title of the rulers of the Philistine pentapolis cities.³

Maeir, Davis, Hitchcock (2016): The biblical term for the Philistine leader—seren, plural seranim—has...been associated with the later Greek title tyrannos (tyrant, ruler, lord, governor). ... [Alexander] Zukerman suggests that trn was a term that originated in the Aegean, and it was in continuous use from the twelfth century BCE onward. ... Frederico Giusfredi has...pointed out, the title tarwanis appears in Luwian inscriptions from the tenth to eighth centuries BCE. ... As Giusfredi notes, the most likely scenario is that the Luwian term tarwanis was borrowed both by the Greeks and the peoples of the southern Levant. .⁴

1. Image: Brent Davis, Aren M . Maeir, and Louise A. Hitchcock, Disentangling Entangled Objects: Iron Age Inscriptions from Philistia as a Reflection of Cultural Processes, Israel Exploration Journal 65:2 (2015), https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ashkelon-seren-inscription-photograph-by-Zev-Radovan-courtesy-of-the-Leon-Levy_fig4_292844098 [pp. 140–165] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 155, Fig. 7: Ashkelon seren inscription (photo-graph by Zev Radovan, courtesy of the LeonLevy Expedition to Ashkelon).

2. Transliteration and translation: Aren M . Maeir, Brent Davis, and Louise A. Hitchcock, Philistine Names and Terms Once Again: A Recent Perspective, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage [JEMAHS] (The Pennsylvania State University) 4:4 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/30113886/Maeir_A_M_et_al_2016_final_proofs_Philistine_Names_and_Terms_Once_Again_A_Recent_Perspective_Journal_of_Eastern_Mediterranean_Archaeology_and_Heritage_4_4_321_40 [pp. 321-340] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 334.

3. Note: Davis, Maeir, Hitchcock., https://www.academia.edu/19561468/Davis_B_Maeir_A_M_and_Hitchcock_L_A_2015_Disentangling_Entangled_Objects_Iron_Age_Inscriptions_from_Philistia_as_a_Reflection_of_Cultural_Processes_IEJ_65_2_140_65 (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 155.

4. Note: Maeir, Davis, Hitchcock., p. 334.

Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription aka Ekron Inscription [KAI 286, 1996] (7th Century BCE)

Ekron Inscription; Oren Rozen. Source: Wikimedia Commons.1	Ekron Inscription; Ada Yardeni. Source: Berlant (???).2

Transliteration and translation source: Gitin, Dothan, Naveh (1997).³

Notes

Gitin, Dothan, Naveh (1997): The Ekron inscription was found in...1996...at Tel Miqne–Ekron. The tel...was identified as Ekron in 1957 by Joseph Naveh, based on his survey for the Israel Department of Antiquities. Ekron is known from the Bible as one of the five Philistine capital cities [Ekron, Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gath].⁴

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The inscription is unique because it contains the name of a biblical city [Ekron] and five of its rulers, two of whom are mentioned as kings in texts other than the Bible.⁵

Wikipedia: It is written in a Canaanite dialect similar to Phoenician and Old Byblian, such that its discoverers referred to it as something of an enigma.⁶

Smoak (2017): Since its discovery, the vast majority of studies [of the so-called Ekron inscription]...have focused upon the identity of the goddess mentioned in line three, questions about the inscription’s importance for re-constructing Philistine history, and comparisons of the inscription’s blessing to contemporaneous blessing formulae.⁷

Gitin, Dothan, Naveh (1997): The inscription is complete and is composed of five lines. ... This is a dedication of Ikausu son of Padi, both of whom are known from the Assyrian records as kings of Ekron. ... The names of the forefathers of Ikausu — Ysd, Ada, and Yaʿir — appear here for the first time; these Semitic names, as well as Padi, occur in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts. ... The name Ikausu has been generally associated with the name of biblical אָכִיש, Achish, the Philistine king(s) of Gath in the times of Saul and of Solomon. Our inscription now confirms that...the West-Semitic transcription of the name...Ikausu was indeed אכיש.⁸

Fantalkin (2017): According to the inscription, Achish the son of Padi, built the temple at Ekron. The identification of Achish in the inscription with Ikausu of the Assyrian documents is today accepted by all scholars. Padi the son of Yasid, who is mentioned as well in the inscription, is also referred to in Assyrian documents of 701 and 699 BCE, and his son Achish/Ikausu is referred to in Assyrian documents of 673 and 667 BCE. We can thus date the reign of Achish/Ikausu at Ekron to somewhere in the range of the first half of the 7th century BCE.⁹

Demsky (1998): Both Achish and Padi are known from Assyrian records as kings of Ekron. [The name] Achish, or as the Assyrians pronounced his name, Ikausu, is...especially interesting because it is the name of a Philistine ruler of Gath mentioned in the Bible. When David fled from the wrath of King Saul, he joined the company of Achish of Gath (1 Samuel 21-11, 27-2). This Achish is of course not the same as the one referred to in the inscription: The Biblical Achish of Gath ruled in about 1000 B.C.E.; the Achish referred to in the Ekron inscription and in the Assyrian records is his seventh-century B.C.E. namesake. The continuity in names over more than three centuries may indicate that Ekron was the heir of neighboring Gath’s territory and culture.¹⁰

Demsky (1998): Although he is identified in the Assyrian sources as king, in the Ekron inscription Achish bears the title sar, which can be translated ruler or mayor. The official publication of the inscription suggests that the use of sar may indicate that this title expresses the vassal’s loyalty to his Assyrian overlord—or more probably that the word means king in a Philistine-Canaanite dialect.¹¹

Berlant (2009): [Regarding the translation for Pt[g]yh his lady,] Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh went on to state that the questionable letter (indicated by the bracket in line 3 above) in the name of this goddess is undoubtedly an ancient form of the Hebrew letter gimmel [and] concluded that Ptgyh was surely a previously unknown Philistine and Indo-European deity. ... After inspecting the questionable letter closely, however, [A.] Demsky concluded that it is no more than a wedge shaped chip in the porous stone.¹²

1. Image: Oren Rozen, JRSLM 300116 Ekron inscription, Wikimedia Commons, 30 January 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JRSLM_300116_Ekron_inscription.jpg (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Stephen R. Berlant, The Mysterious Ekron Goddess Revisited, Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society [JANES] 31:1 (2009), https://www.academia.edu/24115851/The_Mysterious_Ekron_Goddess_Revisited (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 17, Fig. 2: Drawing of Ekron inscription by Ada Yardeni.

3. Transliteration and translation: Seymour Gitin, Trude Dothan, and Joseph Naveh, A Royal Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron, Israel Exploration Journal 47:1-2 (1997), https://www.academia.edu/13426850/A_Royal_Dedicatory_Inscription_from_Ekron (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 9.

4. Note: Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh, p. 1.

5. Note: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ekron–A Philistine City, 23 November 1999, https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/ekron%20-%20a%20philistine%20city.aspx (accessed 22 May 2021).

6. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekron_Royal_Dedicatory_Inscription (accessed 22 May 2021).

7. Note: Jeremy Smoak, Inscribing Temple Space: The Ekron Dedication as Monumental Text, Journal of Near Eastern Studies [JNES] (University of Chicago) 76:2 (October 2017), https://www.academia.edu/34767043/_Inscribing_Temple_Space_The_Ekron_Dedication_as_Monumental_Text_Journal_of_Near_Eastern_Studies_76_2_2017_319_336 [pp. 319-336] (accessed 22 May 2021), pp. 321-322.

8. Note: Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh, pp. 8-11.

9. Note: Alexander Fantalkin, Toward the Identification of the Goddess of Ekron, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions [JANER] (Brill) 17 (2017), https://www.academia.edu/35481091/Toward_the_Identification_of_the_Goddess_of_Ekron [pp. 97-115] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 97.

10. Note: Aaron Demsky, Discovering a Goddess, Biblical Archaeology Review [BAR] (Biblical Archaeology Society [BAS]) 24:5 (September/October 1998), http://cojs.org/discovering-a-goddess-aaron-demsky/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

11. Note: Ibid.

12. Note: Berlant, pp. 15-16.

Ekron Store-Jar Inscription [1997] (7th Century BCE, 604 BCE)

Ekron Store-Jar Inscription; Seymour Gitin and Mordechai Cogan. Source: Gitin, Cogan (1999).1	Ekron Store-Jar Inscription; Ada Yardeni. Source: Schmitz (2008).2

Transliteration and translation source: Schmitz (2008).³

Notes

Schmitz (2008): The personal name pdy Padî is a royal name at Ekron. It occurs in the first line of the royal dedicatory inscription from Ekron, and Padî is mentioned by name as king of Ekron in the annals of Sennacherib. ... The weight of evidence favors identifying pdy in the Ekron store-jar inscription as the same king.⁴

Gitin, Cogan (1999): The text of the inscription reads...for Baʿal and for Padi. While Baʿal-Zebub is cited as the god of Ekron in the Bible (2 Kings 1:2-3), the inscription is the first evidence of this or any other male diety to be found in the excavations at Ekron. The excavactions have, however, produced inscriptions with the names of goddesses: Asherat, which appears in two inscriptions, Qudšu, Anat, and, most importantly, Ptgyh, the goddess to whom the pillared sanctuary is dedicated. Baʿal, the storm and fertility god, was the consort of Asherah, as well as a descendent of El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon.⁵

Gitin, Cogan (1999): What is most striking is that this is the first instance in a West-Semitic inscription in which a god and a king are joined in a single dedication.⁶

Schmitz (2008): Expressions associating deity and royalty like this dedicatory formula are rare, but not unique to the Ekron store-jar inscription.⁷

Gitin, Cogan (1999): The two-word inscription...was found on two body sherds from the 640 B.C.E. Babylonian destruction debris. ... It was not possible to restore the jar on which the inscription was incised.⁸

1. Image: Seymour Gitin and Mordechai Cogan, A New Type of Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron, Israel Exploration Journal 49:3-4 (1999), https://www.academia.edu/36753293/A_New_Type_of_Dedicatory_Inscription_from_Ekron [pp. 97-115] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 194, Fig. 1: New type of dedicatory inscription from Ekron.

2. Image: Philip Schmitz, Deity and Royalty in Dedicatory Formulae: The Ekron Store-Jar Inscription Viewed in the Light of Judges 7:18, 20 and the Inscribed Gold Medallion from the Douïmès Necropolis at Carthage (KAI 73), Maarav 15:2 (2008), https://www.academia.edu/1132476/_Deity_and_Royalty_in_Dedicatory_Formulae_The_Ekron_Store_Jar_Inscription_Viewed_in_the_Light_of_Judg_7_18_20_and_the_Inscribed_Gold_Medallion_from_the_Douïmès_Necropolis_at_Carthage_KAI_73_Maarav_15_2_2008_165_73_appeared_in_2009_ (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 3, Fig. 1: Tel Miqne Ostracon M75/96.

3. Transliteration and translation: Philip Schmitz, p. 2.

4. Note: Philip Schmitz, p. 2.

5. Note: Seymour Gitin and Mordechai Cogan, pp. 196-197.

6. Ibid., p. 197.

7. Note: Philip Schmitz, p. 2.

8. Note: Seymour Gitin and Mordechai Cogan, p. 193.

Tell Jemmeh Ostraca [1985] (8th-7th Century BCE)

Tell Jemmeh Ostraca; Haggai Misgav. Source: Maeir, Davis, Hitchcock (2016).¹

Notes

Davis, Maeir, Hitchcock (2015): Tell Jemmeh during the Iron Age I–II was associated with the Philistine culture and in the later Iron Age was under Assyrian control. The dating of these two ostraca (late eighth to early seventh century and early- to mid-seventh century BCE respectively) indicates that both are products of the Assyrian period. Each sherd contains a series of names; in most cases, each name consists of two words separated by a dot.²

Fantalkin (2016): Naveh published two ostraca found in the course of the renewed excavations at Tell Jemmeh (1985). Each consists of a list of names. Both are written in Hebrew, although they possess a few peculiar (Philistine?) features. ... One ostracon contains only names; the other, not as well preserved, includes quantities of products given to each of the individuals mentioned in it.³

1. Images and drawings: Aren M . Maeir, Brent Davis, and Louise A. Hitchcock, Philistine Names and Terms Once Again: A Recent Perspective, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage [JEMAHS] (The Pennsylvania State University) 4:4 (2016), https://www.academia.edu/30113886/Maeir_A_M_et_al_2016_final_proofs_Philistine_Names_and_Terms_Once_Again_A_Recent_Perspective_Journal_of_Eastern_Mediterranean_Archaeology_and_Heritage_4_4_321_40 [pp. 321-340] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 333, Fig. 11: Two ostraca with lists of names from Iron Age II Tell Jemmeh (Misgav 2014: fig. 30.1:a-b). (Courtesy of D. Ben-Shlomo.)

2. Note: Brent Davis, Aren M . Maeir, and Louise A. Hitchcock, Disentangling Entangled Objects: Iron Age Inscriptions from Philistia as a Reflection of Cultural Processes, Israel Exploration Journal 65:2 (2015), https://www.academia.edu/19561468/Davis_B_Maeir_A_M_and_Hitchcock_L_A_2015_Disentangling_Entangled_Objects_Iron_Age_Inscriptions_from_Philistia_as_a_Reflection_of_Cultural_Processes_IEJ_65_2_140_65 [pp. 140–165] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 153.

3. Note: Alexander Fantalkin, Was there a “Greek Renaissance” in 7th Century BCE Philistia? in Alphabets, Texts and Artifacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies Presented to Benjamin Sass, ed. Israel Finkelstein, Christian Robin, and Thomas Romer (Paris: Van Dieren, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/30928910/Was_there_a_Greek_Renaissance_in_7th_Century_BCE_Philistia [pp. 83–99] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 84.

Deir 'Alla Inscription [KAI 312, 1967] (9th-8th Century BCE, ca. 880–770 or 840-760)

Deir 'Alla Inscription; Jona Lendering. Source: Livius.org.¹

Notes

Demsky (2007): In 1967, at Deir Alla, Jordan, archaeologists found an inscription containing a previously unknown prophecy by Balaam written in a previously unattested dialect with Aramaic and South Canaanite characteristics and employing an idiosyncratic script. The inscription is datable to ca. 840–760 BCE; it was painted on plaster in red and black ink.²

Wikipedia: Not generally accepted as Aramaic³

Wikipedia: Though containing some features of Aramaic, such as the word bar (son of [Beor]) rather than the Canaanite ben, it also has many elements of Canaanite languages, leading some to believe it was written in a dialect of Canaanite rather than an early form of Aramaic. The inscription has been dated to 880–770 BCE. It was painted in ink on fragments of a plastered wall; red and black inks were used, red apparently to emphasize certain parts of the text. In all, 119 pieces of ink-inscribed plaster were recovered. ... The text is difficult to read and to interpret.⁴

Millard (1982): The first line of the text, as restored by A[ndré] Caquot and A[ndré] Lemaire on the basis of Hoftijzer's edition, reads, The record (spr) of Balaam, son of Beor, the man who saw the gods. Now the gods came to him by night... Writing the text on the vertical plastered face of the wall, the scribe omitted to him before the gods and had to insert it above the line. (Similar omissions were rectified in two other places.) ... This inscription from Deir Alia probably represents a column of a scroll. It has the upper and left-hand margins ruled (the right was provided by the corner of the plastered face) and headings written in red ink in Egyptian style. It is the nearest we can come to the appearance of a book in Palestine about the time of the prophet Isaiah.⁵

1. Image: Jona Lendering, Deir 'Alla Inscription, Livius.org, https://www.livius.org/pictures/jordan/deir-alla/deir-alla-inscription/ (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Note: Aaron Demsky, Reading Northwest Semitic Inscriptions, Near Eastern Archaeology 70:2 (2007), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292418769_Reading_Northwest_Semitic_Inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 609 (caption).

3. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaanäische_und_Aramäische_Inschriften#F._Aramaic_inscriptions (accessed 22 May 2021), F. Aramaic inscriptions.

4. Note: Wikipedia, s.v. Deir Alla Inscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Alla_Inscription (accessed 22 May 2021).

5. Note: Alan R. Millard, In Praise of Ancient Scribes, The Biblical Archaeologist 45:2 (Summer 1982), https://www.academia.edu/32127515/In_Praise_of_Ancient_Scribes (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 40.

Nimrud Ostracon [1957] (??th Century BCE)

Nimrod Ostracon Obverse; J. B. Segal. Source: Segal (1957).1		Nimrod Ostracon Reverse; J. B. Segal. Source: Segal (1957).2
Column 2	Column 1	Column 3
Nimrod Ostracon Obverse; Shmuel Aḥituv. Source: Tyson (2011).3		Nimrod Ostracon Reverse; Shmuel Aḥituv. Source: Tyson (2011).4

Transliteration and translation source: Jackson (1983).⁵

Notes

Jewish Virtual Library: An interesting ostracon from Nimrūd presents a list of exiles with typical Israelite names. Excavations at Nimrūd have also produced inscribed objects (bronzes, ivories, and ostraca) in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician.⁶

Segal (1957): The ostracon...carries a text, written in black ink, on each side. The text on the concave side (text II) is complete; a small portion appears to be missing only at the top right corner of the text on the convex side (text I), but the missing section may have contained no more than one group of letters. ... Both texts consist of a short register of proper names. ... On the convex side each group of letters is normally followed by a point—on the concave side this point has become a vertical stroke. Where the names of more than one individual appear on a single line (in I. lines 1-4) they are separated by a bold vertical line of ink.⁷

Albright (1958): ...A sherd with eleven lines of Aramaic script, written on both sides.⁸

Jackson (1983): In 1957 an ostracon discovered at Nineveh was published by J. B. Segal.... Shortly thereafter W. F. Albright..identified it as the product of exiles from (North) Israel in the early years of the Israelite diaspora. The text is written on both sides of the ostracon in three columns, two on one side and one on the other.... According to [Joseph] Naveh, the writing is the product of two hands. The text itself consists almost entirely of names. Because of the provenience of the sherd and the script preserved on it, which is of the Aramaic family, the ostracon has received little attention from scholars dealing in Canaanite epigraphs, in spite of the fact that Canaanite bn is used exclusively, rather than Aramaic br. Recently, however, Joseph Naveh published a reexamination of it in which he identified the language of the inscription as Ammonite, based on the personal names listed. ... Of the twenty names preserved, seven are found in other Ammonite inscriptions: ʾlyšʿ, bydʾl, ḥnnʾl, m]kʾl (cf. mkmʾl, AS 35), mnḥm, ndbʾl, and šbʾl. ... Perhaps the most telling datum for identifying the names on the list as Ammonite is the use of the theophoric element ʾl. ... Eleven of the twenty names on the Nimrud ostracon contain ʾl.⁹

1. Image: J. B. Segal, An Aramaic Ostracon from Nimrud, Iraq 19:2 (Autumn 1957), https://images.app.goo.gl/pwJiw9Hv1DC3Ef3j9 (accessed 22 May 2021).

2. Image: Ibid., https://images.app.goo.gl/BSSCGfogZJktVLKW7.

3. Drawing: Craig William Tyson, Israel’s Kin Across the Jordan: A Social History of the Ammonites in the Iron Age II (1000–500 BCE) (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2011), https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86256/1/ctyson_1.pdf (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 126, Figure 3.8: Drawing of the Nimrud Ostracon Obverse (left), Reverse (right) from Aḥituv 2008: 385.

4. Drawing: Ibid.

5. Transliteration and translation: Kent P. Jackson, The Nimrud Ostracon, in The Ammonite Language of the Iron Age, Harvard Semitic Monographs 27 (Brill, 1983), https://brill.com/view/book/9789004387096/BP000007.xml [pp. 63-64] (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 64.

6. Note: Jewish Virtual Library, Writing, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/writing (accessed 22 May 2021), Inscriptions.

7. Note: Segal, p. 139.

8. Note: W. F. Albright, An Ostracon from Calah and the North-Israelite Diaspora, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 149 (February 1958), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/1355742?journalCode=basor (accessed 22 May 2021), p. 33.

9. Note: Jackson, pp. 63-64.

Arslan Tash Amulets [AT1 and AT2, 1933] (7th Century BCE)

AT1

Arslan Tash AT1 Recto; West Semitic Research Project. Source: Fuad (n.d.).1	Arslan Tash AT1 Verso; West Semitic Research Project. Source: Fuad (n.d.).2

Arslan Tash AT1 Recto; Dennis Pardee. Source: Pardee (1998).3	Arslan Tash AT1 Verso; Dennis Pardee. Source: Pardee (1998).4

Transcription	Transliteration	Translation
𐤋𐤇𐤔⸢𐤕⸣ ⸢𐤋⸣𐤏 𐤕 𐤀𐤟𐤀𐤋 𐤕 𐤎𐤎𐤌𐤟 𐤁𐤍 𐤐𐤃 𐤓𐤑 𐤔𐤀 𐤀𐤋𐤅 𐤅𐤋𐤟𐤇𐤍 𐤒 𐤕𐤟𐤀 𐤌𐤓𐤟𐤁𐤕𐤀𐤁 𐤀𐤟 𐤁𐤋 𐤕𐤁 𐤀𐤍 𐤓𐤟𐤃𐤇𐤑𐤓𐤟 𐤀𐤃𐤓𐤊 𐤁𐤋𐤟𐤕𐤃 𐤓𐤊𐤍 𐤟𐤊[[𐤓]] 𐤓𐤕𐤟𐤋𐤍 𐤀𐤋𐤕 𐤏𐤋𐤌 𐤀𐤔𐤓𐤟𐤊𐤓𐤕 𐤋𐤍𐤟𐤅𐤊𐤋 𐤁𐤍𐤀𐤋𐤌𐤟 𐤅𐤓𐤁𐤟𐤃 𐤓 𐤊𐤋𐤟𐤒𐤃𐤔𐤍 𐤁𐤀𐤋𐤕𐤟𐤔 𐤌𐤌𐤟 𐤅𐤀𐤓𐤑𐤟⸢𐤏𐤃⸣ 𐤏𐤋𐤌𐤟 𐤁𐤀𐤋𐤕𐤟𐤁𐤏𐤋 ...]⸢𐤍⸣𐤀𐤓𐤑𐤟𐤁𐤀⸢𐤋𐤕⸣[... [𐤀]𐤔𐤕𐤇𐤅𐤓𐤍𐤀𐤔𐤟[[𐤃]]𐤕𐤌𐤟𐤐𐤉 𐤓𐤟𐤃𐤔𐤁𐤏𐤟𐤑𐤓𐤕𐤉𐤟𐤅𐤔 𐤌𐤍⸢𐤅⸣𐤟𐤀𐤔𐤕𐤟𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤒[𐤃]𐤔 𐤋𐤏𐤐𐤕𐤀𐤟𐤁𐤇𐤃𐤓𐤟𐤇𐤔𐤊 𐤏𐤁𐤓 𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤟𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤟𐤋𐤋𐤆 ...]𐤁𐤟𐤁𐤕𐤉𐤟𐤇𐤑⸢𐤕⸣𐤟𐤇𐤋𐤊 𐤌⸢𐤍𐤏⸣𐤕𐤟𐤋 𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤉𐤟𐤅𐤀 𐤅𐤓𐤟𐤋 𐤌𐤆𐤆𐤕𐤟𐤉𐤑𐤀𐤟𐤔𐤌𐤔 𐤇𐤋𐤁𐤟𐤅𐤋𐤃[𐤓] 𐤏𐤐	A lḥš⸢t⸣[|]⸢l⸣ʿ<p>tʾ|ʾlt ssm|bn pdr{š} šʾ ʾlw wl|ḥnqt|ʾ- mr|bt ʾbʾ bl tbʾn B wḥṣr|ʾdrk bl|tdrkn|k[[r]]- rt|ln|ʾlt ʿlm ʾšr|krt ln|wkl bn ʾlm wrb|dr kl|qdšn bʾlt|šmm|wʾrṣ⸢|ʿd⸣ ʿlm|bʾlt|bʿl C ...]⸢n⸣ ʾrṣ|bʾ⸢lt⸣[... D [ʾ]št ḥwrn|ʾš|[[d]]tm|py wšbʿ|ṣrty|wš- mn⸢w⸣|ʾšt|bʿl q[d]š E lʿptʾ|bḥdr|ḥšk ʿbr pʿm|pʿm|ll z F ...]⸢b⸣bty|ḥṣ⸢t⸣|hlk G m⸢nʿ⸣t|l- py- ptḥ- y|wʾ- wr|l- mzzt|yṣʾ|šmš ⸢k⸣ss ḥlp|wld[r] ʿp	A Incanta⸢tion for⸣ the F<l>iers; [lḥš⸢t⸣ ⸢l⸣ʿ<p>tʾ] the oath of Ssm, son of Pdr: [ʾlt ssm bn pdr{š}] Take to him, and say to the Stranglers, [šʾ ʾlw wl ḥnqt ʾmr] The house (in which) I come, you (f.pl.) will not come, [bt ʾbʾ bl tbʾn] B and the courtyard (in which) I enter, you (f.pl.) will not enter. [wḥṣr ʾdrk bl tdrkn] Aššur has made an eternal pact with us. [krrt ln ʾlt ʿlm ʾšr] He and all the divine beings have made it with us, [krt ln wkl bn ʾlm] and the leader(s) of the council of all our holy ones, [wrb dr kl qdšn] by the oath of heaven and earth ⸢for⸣ever, [bʾlt šmm wʾrṣ⸢ ʿd⸣ ʿlm] by the oath of Baal, [bʾlt bʿl] C ...] the Earth, [...⸢n⸣ ʾrṣ] by the oath of [...] [bʾ⸢lt⸣...] D [the w]ife of Ḥawrān [ʾšt ḥwrn] whose utterance is perfect, and her seven rival-wives, [ʾš dtm py wšbʿ ṣrty] and the eighth, the wife of the h[ol]y master. [wšmn⸢w⸣ ʾšt bʿl qdš] E To the Fliers in the dark chamber, [lʿptʾ bḥdr ḥšk] pass by immediately this night! [ʿbr pʿm pʿm ll z] F ...] in his house, hit the road! [...⸢b⸣bty ḥṣ⸢t⸣ hlk] G I have de⸢nied access⸣ to the opening of his doorway, [m⸢nʿ⸣t lpyptḥy] and will bring light to the doorpost. [wʾwr lmzzt] The Sun is rising, ⸢like⸣ the moth [yṣʾ šmš ⸢k⸣ss] vanish, and forever fly away! [ḥlp wldr ʿp]

Transcription and translation of AT1, Häberl (n.d.): Section A surrounds the figures on the front of the amulet. ... Section B surrounds the striding warrior figure on the back of the amulet. ... Section C of the text is inscribed upon the bottom of the amulet. ... Section D [is] found inscribed upon the surrounding edges of the amulet. ... Section E [is] engraved upon the sphinx. ... Section F is engraved upon the wolf-like creature. ... Section G [is] inscribed upon and beside the striding warrior figure.⁵