The Bible: Right After All?

[Patrick Waterson]

One of our key primary sources for the Biblical period may be about to get a reliability upgrade, at least in one important area.


http://tinyurl.com/paskwrq

A clay fragment unearthed in Jerusalem may be the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered in the city - and could prove that accounts of the reigns of King David and Solomon are historical fact.

Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar unearthed a fragment of a ceramic jar, with the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.

A new translation of the text suggests it may actually be in Hebrew - and could "prove" events in the Bible are true.

"I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other," Mazar has said. "The Bible is the most important historical source."

Mazar claims the inscription is in a "proto-Canaanite" script, and written by one of the non-Israeli residents of Jerusalem, perhaps Jebusites, who were part of the population in the time of Kings David and Solomon. Mazar says the meaning is unknown.

Another biblical expert, Douglas Petrovitch of the University of Toronto, claims the inscription is in fact in Hebrew.

"The letters of the inscription match those of contemporary inscriptions, many of which form words that clearly are part of the Hebrew language. Hebrew speakers were controlling Jerusalem in the 10th century, which biblical chronology points to as the time of David and Solomon," biblical expert Douglas Petrovich said in an interview with FoxNews.com.

Petrovitch claims that the discovery proves that Hebrew was being used as a written language in the 10th Century - and that the Bible could be a historical account written as events happened, rather than having been written hundreds of years later.

The inscription was engraved near the edge of the jar before it was fired, and only a fragment of it has been found, along with fragments of six large jars of the same type.

The fragments were used to stabilize the earth fill under the second floor of the building they were discovered in, which dates to the Early Iron IIA period (10th century BCE).

An analysis of the jars' clay composition indicates that they are all of a similar make, and probably originate in the central hill country near Jerusalem.
   
According to Prof. Ahituv, the inscription is not complete and probably wound around the jar's shoulder, while the remaining portion is just the end of the inscription and one letter from the beginning.


And while we are at it ...


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ruined-palace-of-bible-s-king-david-solves-3000-year-riddle-155746848.html#Jy4kvLi

Archaeologists in Israel have solved a 3,000 year-old mystery – uncovering the palace of King David, the ruler most famous for defeating the Philistine champion Goliath as a young man.

Heralded in the Bible as an ancestor of Jesus Christ, David was famously depicted by Italian sculptor Michelangelo.

Now archaeologists believe that they have unearthed the remains of his palace in southern Israel, alongside a large royal tax office. The discovery points to a vast, luxurious residence with evidence of metal-working as well as pottery and alabaster craftsmanship within the palace bounds.

It had been previously thought that David ruled from Jerusalem, but the excavation of the site – known as Khirbet Qeifaya – suggests a centre of influence closer to the Mediterranean, collecting taxes from across Israel.

The palace is believed to have been destroyed in battle at around 980BC. David's rule was largely spent in bloody conflict with the Philistines, who occupied a number of cities including Gaza.

The dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa, in a region known as the Judean Shephelah took place over the past seven years. It was jointly carried out by the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority, and sheds new light on an important chapter in biblical history.

Remnants of a 1000 square metre palace have been discovered, as well as a storeroom measuring 15m by 6m, containing jars that would have been used for storing taxes – received in the form of agricultural produce.

The remains have been dated to match the rule of King David, and can be identified as belonging to the biblical city of Shaarayim. The name means 'two gates'; a distinctive feature at a time when most cities only had one. David was the second King of the United Kingdom of Israel, and is commonly held to have lived from 1040 to 970BC.

Professor Yossi Garfinkel, from the Hebrew University, and Sa'ar Ganor from the Antiquities Authority, described it as 'the best example to date of a fortified city from the time of King David'.

The buildings discovered at Khirbet Qeifaya are the largest ever found from this period, and the palace's dominant situation with views stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to Jerusalem reinforces its importance – lines of sight would have been essential for communicating with fire signals.

Earlier finds had suggested that David ruled from a palace in the City of David area of Jerusalem, but the discovery of a palace and evidence of organised tax collection in the Judean Shephelah are 'unequivocal evidence of a kingdom...which knew to establish administrative centres at strategic points', according to Garfinkel and Ganor.

As a result of the size and importance of the discoveries, the Israeli government has cancelled a proposed construction project nearby, choosing instead to promote the area as a site of historical importance and designating it as a national park.

[aligern]

It is very hard to trust people when an archaeological find can turn out to prove the right of some modern group to lands that a claimed  ancestor occupied. It does not mean that they are wrong, only that a palace does not mean a kingdom and an inscription that cannot be decided as to Canaanite or Hebrew is hardly proof of king David , even if it turned out to mention a David.
Roy

[Patrick Waterson]

There is admittedly a certain amount of headline-grabbing in the stories.  However if the inscription is indeed Hebrew (and being in Hebrew characters it should be) then Hebrews were around with sufficient influence to get pots inscribed and that points to a Hebrew kingdom or at least Hebrew dominance of the area.

'Proto-Canaanite' is something of an excuse epigraphically, being a cover-designation for 1) proto-Sinatic, a script discovered at Serabit-el-Khadim which addresses 'ta baalat' (the Lady, i.e. the goddess Hathor, who modelled for the 'golden calf'), see also Wadi el-Hol inscriptions, which include the words 'El' and 'rabbi', also seemingly dating from Egypt's Middle Kingdom; 2) Early Phoenician script, essentially indistinguishable from Hebrew; 3) a hypothetical link-script between the two.  In essence, when a scholar says something is 'proto-Canaanite' he is saying it is Hebrew but he does not like to say so.

For proto-Sinaitic, see http://www.omniglot.com/writing/protosinaitc.htm.  Of interest is:

"People speaking a Semitic language and living in Egypt and Sinai adapted the Egyptian hieroglyphic or hieratic scripts to write their language using the acrophonic principle. This invovled choosing about 30 glyphs, translating their Egyptian names into the Semitic language, and using the initial sounds of those names to represent the sounds of their language."

Now who could they have been ... ?