Mnamon
Ancient writing systems in the Mediterranean
A critical guide to electronic resources
News
-
2009-11-12
The site of Khirbet Qeiyafa
On pages 243-248 of the Israel Exploration Journal 58/2 (2008) there is a report by Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor about the excavations carried out during the years 2007-2008, at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa. Last year a piece of pottery was found which contained five separate lines of text, dated between the end of the Iron Age I and the beginning of the Iron Age II, around 11th-10th B.C. According to the preliminary examination made by Haggai Misgav, the expert in charge of the deciphering, the language should be Hebrew: it would therefore be the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered. The inscription is expected to be published soon.
(Daniele Tripaldi)