gezer calendar

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In a BAR article, epigraphy scholar Christopher Rollston asks a seemingly straightforward question: What is the oldest Hebrew inscription?

By: Robin Ngo

Alan Millard examines the Proto-Canaanite script of the earliest alphabetic text ever found in Jerusalem. What can it tell us about literacy during the time of David and Solomon?

By: Robin Ngo

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa have uncovered a second city gate from the 10th century B.C.E., the time of King David’s reign. No other site from this period has more than one gate. What do Qeiyafa’s two city gates tell us about the Kingdom of Judah in David’s time?

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In the May/June 2012 BAR, epigrapher Christopher A. Rollston considered four contenders as candidates for the oldest Hebrew inscription. Rollston’s thoughtful discussion was met by dissenting responses from distinguished archaeological and Biblical scholars, including Yosef Garfinkel and Aaron Demsky.

By: Hershel Shanks

In 1969, barely two years after the 1967 Six-Day War, a team of Israeli archaeologists made an exploratory excavation at the base of one of the numerous sites in the Sinai Peninsula proposed as Biblical Mt. Sinai. It was not long before a member of the team exposed a piece of rock with a single Hebrew letter on it. This naturally led to more intensive excavation in this area, as a result of which additional, larger pieces of inscribed stones were recovered. They were taken to Israel for further study.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In the May/June 2012 BAR, epigrapher Christopher A. Rollston’s “What’s the Oldest Hebrew Inscription?” rejected four contenders as candidates for the oldest Hebrew inscription: the Qeiyafa Ostracon, the Gezer Calendar, the Tel Zayit Abecedary and the Izbet Sartah Abecedary.

By: Yosef Garfinkel

Yosef Garfinkel responds to Christopher Rollston's "What's the Oldest Hebrew Inscription?"

By: Reviewed by Alan Millard

Did ancient Israelites write? Is there evidence apart from the Hebrew Bible? If so, what did they write? And who could write? Inscriptions on stone, notes and scribbles on pots and potsherds, names on seals and other writings are often so interesting you don’t ask how they were written or who the writers were. Chris Rollston does that in this readable new book.

By: Christopher A. Rollston

Back to Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal   I read with great disappointment the polemical and condescending statements of Hershel Shanks about my research in general. […]

By: Hershel Shanks

After the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz got wind that BAR would be publishing the foregoing article, it published its own story in October 2007 about the Jezebel seal and Professor Korpel's attribution to Queen Jezebel. Korpel's article, the newspaper wrote, is "scheduled to appear in the highly-respected Biblical Archaeology Review."