A tiny clay fragment, dating from the 14th century BC that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archive, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.
The clay fragment was uncovered recently during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10th century BC tower dating from the period of King Solomon in the Ophel area, located between the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David to its south.
Details of the discovery appear in the current issue of the Israel Exploration Journal. Excavations in the Ophel have been conducted by Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. The fragment that has been found is 2 x 2.8 centimeters (0.8 x 1.10 inches) in size and one centimeter thick. Dated to the 14th century BC, it appears to have been part of a tablet and contains cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian (the lingua franca of that era).
The words the symbols form are not significant in themselves, but what is significant is that the script is of a very high level, testifying to the fact that it was written by a highly skilled scribe that in all likelihood prepared tablets for the royal household of the time, said Prof. Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Horowitz deciphered the script along with his former graduate student Dr. Takayoshi Oshima, now of the Leipzig University in Germany.
Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, Horowitz said, and there is a great likelihood, because of its fine script and the fact it was discovered adjacent to the acropolis area of the ancient city, that the fragment was part of such a “royal missive.” Horowitz has interpreted the symbols on the fragment to include the words “you,” “you were,” “later,” “to do” and “them.”
The most ancient known written record previously found in Jerusalem was the tablet found in the Shiloah water tunnel in the City of David area during the eighth century BC reign of King Hezekiah. That tablet, celebrating the completion of the tunnel, is in a museum in Istanbul. This latest find predates the Hezekiah tablet by about 600 years.
Mazar says this new discovery, providing solid evidence of the importance of Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age, acts as a counterpoint to some who have used the lack of substantial archeological findings from that period until now to argue that Jerusalem was not a major center during that period. It also lends weight to the importance that accrued to the city in later times, leading up to its conquest by King David in the 10th century BC, she said.
(Excerpts of an article by Edgar Asher, Isranet, July 11, 2010)
Tags: archeology, History
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