By Marney Blom
A fertile plain along Israel’s highway 38 has suddenly caught the attention of the world.
The Elah Valley is believed to be the site where a young shepherd boy named David became a renowned warrior by slaying the Philistine giant, Goliath.
Although it is common to see tourists wandering the area due to its Biblical significance, the focus of the present-day fervour is just above the fertile plain. The Elah Fortress, believed to be located along the ancient border of Philistia and Judea, is Israel’s oldest Judean city uncovered to date. It is also the dig site of Professor Yosef Garfinkel, the Ygal Yadin chair of archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Garfinkel’s work has garnered international attention in recent days as a result of the discovery of an ostracon – a pottery shard with ancient writings inscribed in ink.
“An ostracon is a broken piece of pottery which was then re-used for communication,” said Barnea Levi Selavan, co-director of Foundation Stone, a developmental and educational organization supporting the dig.
“It is written with ink and was written by a trained scribe, as a communication. This is extremely rare. There is only three other inscriptions that might be in the same league and some of them are just scribble.”
As the original ostracon is being kept from the public’s reach for further deciphering of the inscriptions, a colour photograph was made available for viewing.
“This inscription is about 3000 years old. It’s about 1000 years older than the Dead Sea scrolls,” said Garfinkel.
Garfinkel’s find therefore contains the oldest written words found in Israel; proto-Canaanite script believed to be the precursor of Hebrew. Garfinkel believes the inscriptions will serve to provide important clues not only to the evolution of the Hebrew language but also to the development of all alphabetic scripts.
Some argue that the correlation between the dating of the find and the 10th century B.C. Davidic kingdom strengthens the position of archaeologists of maximalist persuasion. These are the experts who believe the Bible can be an accurate archaeological compass.
Levi Selavan said finding a piece of written communication from 3000 years ago meant at least the intelligentsia was writing things down and communicating. “That means society was capable of recording and transmitting facts and events in written words. That supports the general background of the book of Samuel and the book of Chronicles describing a kingdom functioning 3000 years ago in Judea.”
Today, there is not much to be seen of the stream where David may have chosen a simple stone that slew a giant. And one can only imagine the ancient battle lines drawn between Israelite and Philistine armies on either side of the valley. However, with only 4 per cent of the Elah Fortress uncovered to date, future visitors to Israel may have even more cause to retrace the steps of one young Israeli warrior who changed the course of his nation some 3000 years ago.
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