Monday, July 06, 2020

What is the oldest Hebrew inscription?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language. Christopher Rollston examines the Qeiyafa Ostracon, Gezer Calendar and other candidates for the oldest known Hebrew inscription. As usual, this BHD essay summarizes a Biblical Archaeology Review essay that is behind the subscription wall. The article itself is from 2012, but I haven't noted it before.

The question of the earliest Hebrew inscription is more complicated than it sounds.

For past posts on Khirbet Qeiyafa and its inscription, see here and links and here and links. For the Eshba'al inscription subsequently discovered there, see here and links. For posts on the Gezer Calendar, see here and links. For the Tel Zayit abecedary, see here and links. And for other very early Hebrew (?) inscriptions, see here (final paragraph) and links.

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