Ostracon from the days of David

by koot van wyk Seoul South Korea 3rd November 2008

An ostracon was found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the 2nd season of excacations led by Yossi Garfunkel and Saar Ganor of the Hebrew University. The ostracon is written in proto-Canaanite and is divided with four lines or five registers.

The ostracon will be published by Haggai Misgav.

Todd Bolen mentioned the find on 21st of August 2008. A few days later an excellent video was produced on it by National Geographic News.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081031-inscription-video-ap.html?source=rss

From this presentation, the following could be seen by this researcher:


van wyk notes:

1. We will have to wait for a better photo to make reliable conclusions.

2. What the above reconstruction implies is that the `ayin is in a shape that predates the Moabite Stone 853 BCE.

3. The `ayin is in the shape of the eye. In fact, all earlier inscriptions of the Iron I period (1200-1000 BCE) that were found, had the `ayin similar to the one on this Israelite inscription: a circle with a dot in it to represent the "eye".

4. Pictiographically the development of the letter was from an eye to what it is in later Hebrew script.

5. On the Mesha Stone it is no longer an "eye" shape `ayin.

Proto Sinaitic scripts are given at this page.
Source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/imaging/negev/Origins.html