Ophel pithos inscription

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The Ophel pithos inscription is the oldest known written memorial from Jerusalem .

During the Ophel excavations, the Eilat Mazar team uncovered a waste pit that was dated to the beginning of the Iron Age IIA. Among other things, an ostracon of a pitho that was labeled before the fire was found in it. The find was announced in summer 2013. Shmuel Ahituv read seven letters in ancient Hebrew script :

  • m, q, p, ḥ, n, l ? , n .

This sequence of letters does not make sense in any Western Semitic language .

Reinhard G. Lehmann and Anna Elise Zernecke subjected the Pithos inscription to a detailed examination in mid-2013. They did not decide on the direction of writing and identified the following eight letters:

  • m, q, p, ḥ, n, m, ṣ, n., resp.
  • n, ṣ, m, n, ḥ, p, q, m.

The letters stood in front of the fire and were scratched from above - the work of a non-professional scribe. The text remains a mystery to them too.

At the end of 2013, Gershon Galil ( University of Haifa ) presented a reinterpretation of the inscription, which he dated to the middle of the 10th century. He identified the following series of letters:

  • m, y, y, n, ḥ, l, q, m .

This text was understandable for him:

  • Hebrew ם יין חלק מ [...] m yayin ḥalaḳ m [...] "(year) wine, lowest quality, from (growing area)"

The year ending in -m is for Galil the 20th or 30th year of Solomon's reign; yayin "wine" is a Hebrew word in this spelling, and ḥalaḳ is a Ugaritic term for the worst of three wine qualities. In Galil's opinion, this indicates a functioning administration in the time of King Solomon .

Douglas N. Petrovich ( Wilfried Laurier University ) followed Galil relatively closely with his interpretation presented in 2015. He also saw in the spelling of the word yayin with double Yod (y) a clear proof that the language is Hebrew. He reads Yayin ḥalaḳ just like Galil, but translates a little differently: wine imitation (instead of inferior wine). Only the first letter is, according to Petrovich's analysis, not a meme (m) , but (as most epigraphers read in contrast to Galil) a nun (n) . As the last word of a year, this would be the “first” year of a ruler's reign.

There was no research consensus on how to read the letters in 2015.

literature

  • Reinhard G. Lehmann, Anna Elise Zernecke: Comments and observations on the new Ophel pithos inscription. In: writing and language. Papers Read at the 10th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH), Mainz, October 28–30, 2011 (= Small studies on the language of the Old Testament and its environment. Volume 15). Mainz 2013. pp. 437-450. ( online )
  • André Lemaire: Levantine Literacy approx. 1000–750 BCE. In: Brian B. Smith (Ed.): Contextualizing Israel's Sacred Writings. Ancient Literacy, Orality, and Literary Production. SBL Press, Atlanta 2015. ISBN 978-1-62837-118-5 . Pp. 11-46.
  • Douglas N. Petrovich: The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script . In: Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147 (2/2015), pp. 130-145. ( online ) Petrovich was appointed Professor of Biblical History at the Bible Seminary, Katy, Texas in 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eilat Mazar, David Ben-Shlomo, Shmuel Ahituv: An Inscribed Pithos from the Ophel, Jerusalem (abstract) . In: Israel Exploration Journal . tape 63 , 2013, p. 39 , JSTOR : 43855636 .
  2. ↑ Reinhard G. Lehmann, Anna Elise Zernecke: Comments and observations on the new Ophel pithos inscription . In: KUSATU . 2013, p. 447-448 .
  3. ^ Nir Hasson: Inscription on Jar From Time of King Solomon May Refer to Cheap Wine. In: Haaretz. January 1, 2014, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Marissa Newman: Decoded: Jerusalem's oldest Hebrew engraving refers to lousy wine. In: The Times of Israel. December 31, 2013, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  5. ^ Douglas N. Petrovich: The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script . 2015, p. 139 .
  6. ^ Douglas N. Petrovich: The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script . 2015, p. 141 .
  7. ^ Douglas N. Petrovich: The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script . 2015, p. 137-138 .
  8. ^ André Lemaire: Levantine Literacy approx. 1000–750 BCE . Atlanta 2015, p. 19 .
  9. ^ Petrovich Joins TBS Faculty. In: The Bible Seminary. Retrieved September 30, 2018 .