Biblical Discovery: Israeli Archaeologists Find 1st Inscription Related to Book of Judges

Tall Timbers

Imperfect but forgiven
For the first time in history, an inscription dating from the time of the biblical Judges some 3,100 years ago and relating to the Book of Judges has been recovered from excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat.

The rare inscription bears the name “Jerubbaal” in alphabetic script and dates from around 1,100 BCE. It was written in ink on a pottery vessel and found inside a storage pit that was dug into the ground and lined with stones.

The site, which is located at the Shahariya forest, has been excavated every summer since 2015 and the current excavation season is its seventh. The excavations are being conducted on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, under the direction of Prof. Yossef Garfinkel, Sa‘ar Ganor, Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davies.

The inscription was written in ink on a jug – a small personal pottery vessel that holds approximately one liter, and may well have contained a precious liquid such as oil, perfume or medicine. Apparently, much like today, the vessel’s owner wrote his name on it to assert his ownership.

The inscription has been deciphered by epigraphic expert Christopher Rolston of George Washington University, Washington DC. It clearly shows the Hebrew letters yud (broken at the top), resh, bet, ayin, lamed, and remnants of other letters indicate that the original inscription was longer.

Full article here: https://unitedwithisrael.org/in-fir...+of+Judges+Inscription_2C+Over+3000+Years+Old
 
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