Zayit Stone
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The Zayit Stone is a 38-pound limestone boulder excavated from Tel Zayit (Zeitah) in southwest Israel (the Beth Guvrin Valley about 35 miles from Jerusalem), territory belonging to the kingdom of Judah, with an incised Paleo-Hebrew abecedary (19 letters carved in the first line; 3 in the second line with 2 terminating symbols) and remnants of several other inscriptions (3 words plus 2 pairs of terminating symbols):
Top/bowl side--the relationship between these 2 inscriptions and the terminators are speculative:
|| כס
|| עזר
Bottom side--the relationship between these 3 lines of inscriptions are relatively accurate:
ילכמנספעצwאבגדוהחזט
|| קרש
עזר
(Note: The "w" between the Tet and Yod may be an aborted Mem, a misplaced Shin, or a random scribbling.)
Excavations under the direction of R.E. Tappy have been conducted at Tel Zayit during 1999-2001 and 2005. A volunteer excavator, Dan Rypma, discovered the stone on July 15, 2005. It is an important Biblical archaeology artifact for several reasons:
- It was found in-situ in a stratum dated to the 10th century BCE by a fire dated to approximately 900 BCE. This particular locus may have been a secondary placement of the stone as an ordinary building block for the wall; the inscription might have served an earlier purpose in another context.
- Until this discovery, critics could say inhabitants of this region at this period were illiterate and could not have recorded events mentioned in the Bible.
- It not only preserves writing – simple graffiti – but an abecedary, an educational tool for literate people (although there are 4 pairs of letters swapped from their traditional alphabetic order, and possibly 2 other misplaced letters were aborted; indications that reflect negatively on the scribe's skill level).
- The site is located in a region not central to the government of the Israelite monarchy (Jerusalem), which suggests that if people in this agricultural community could write, certainly people in the government were equally capable.
The side opposite the inscription has a bowl-shaped hollow depression. Its placement in a wall, and the context of its inscriptions ("help/warrior" and "bowl/throne") may indicate a belief that the letters possessed magical/apotropaic power to ward off evil spirits.
[edit] References
- Tappy, Ron E., P. Kyle McCarter, Marilyn J. Lundberg, Bruce Zuckerman (2006). "An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah". BASOR 344 (November): 5-46.
- Wilford, John Noble, A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem; The New York Times, November 9, 2005
