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Monday, July 20, 2020

The inscribed Moabite altar and the Bible

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Ataroth and the Inscribed Altar: Who Won the War Between Moab and Israel? (Adam L. Bean and Prof.Christopher A. Rollston, TheTorah.com).
Ataroth is an obscure Transjordanian city, referenced only twice in the Bible. Nevertheless, due to modern archaeological discoveries, it has become a central piece of evidence for reconstructing the history of the Moabite rebellion against Israel and King Mesha’s expansion of the Moabite kingdom described in both 2 Kings and the Mesha Stele.
For the 2018 publication of this inscribed Moabite altar, see here and here.

Moabite is an ancient Iron Age language very closely related to Hebrew. Moabite and Hebrew are essentially dialects of the same language. The other major Moabite inscription is the Mesha Inscription (Mesha Stele, Moabite Stone), on which more here and keep following the links. And for more on ancient Moab, see here.

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