Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a rare 3,100-year-old inscription from the time of the biblical Judges at an excavation in Khirbet el Rai, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.
The rare inscription bears the name ‘Jerubbaal” and was found in a storage pit, dug into the ground, and lined with stones. “The most exciting discovery is an inscription, which is from 1,100 BC, the time of the Judges,” said archaeologist Yossy Garfinkel, who is the Yigal Yadin Professor for Archaeology of Eretz Israel at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“We know very little about this period from the archaeological point of view and we [didn’t] have any meaningful inscription from this period,” Garfinkel told CBN News at the excavation. Then they discovered part of a jar handle with the name Yerubaal – Jerubbaal in English – on it.
“This is the first time we have an inscription from the time of the Judges with a meaning. And in this case, same name appearing both on the inscription and on the biblical tradition,” Garfinkel said. Only a handful of inscriptions from the period of the Judges have every been found anywhere and they all bear a number of unrelated letters, he said.
Garfinkel, who is leading the excavation along with archaeologist Sa’ar Ganor from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said they have found around 100,000 pottery sherds at this site. “But why [is this] so important? Because it was ink. And we have here five [Hebrew] letters We have yod, and resh, and ayin, and bet and lamed. And when you read it, you get the name Yerubaal,” he said. READ MORE
