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40-643: The ostraca are written in the paleo-Hebrew alphabet , which very closely resemble those of the Siloam Inscription , but show a slight development of the cursive script. The language is typically seen as a northern Hebrew dialect . Of the 102 ostraca found, only 63 are legible. The primary inscriptions are known as KAI 183–188. They are currently held in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums . They are written on fragments of five different types of vessels—large thick amphorae , with

80-477: A 5th edition was published in 2002. However, the 5th edition only comprised the first volume (showing the texts in modern Hebrew script), expanding the previous edition by 40 texts. An updated version of the third volume (a brief bibliography of all the texts in Volume 1) was proposed. The first edition was intended to represent all the known texts of significant importance, but not to be a complete collection to replace

120-407: A drab or grey surface; large thin amphorae, with a drab or grey surface; jugs of soft brown ware with a reddish slip; basins of the same ware; and bowls of coarse ware with a red or yellow slip, all of these presumably being vessels that were used in receiving and storing the revenue. Sherds with a smooth surface or a slip would naturally be preferred for writing. These ostraca are evidently part of

160-671: A selection of Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions, using the "pertinent source material for the Phoenician, Punic, Moabite, pre-exile-Hebrew and Ancient Aramaic cultures." Röllig and Donner had the support of William F. Albright in Baltimore, James Germain Février in Paris and Giorgio Levi Della Vida in Rome during the compilation of the first edition. The 4th edition was published between 1966 and 1969, and

200-439: A somewhat clumsy method of book-keeping. Either they were a "day-book," notes of daily receipts to be written up in some form of "ledger" afterwards; or they were the sole record kept of the amount of wine and oil received in various years from various places. It is possible they were written and handed in by the payer, not by the receiver. All of them began with a date, such as "In the ninth, tenth, or fifteenth year" presumably of

240-756: Is found in certain texts of the Torah among the Dead Sea Scrolls , dated to the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE: manuscripts 4Q12, 6Q1: Genesis. 4Q22: Exodus. 1Q3, 2Q5, 4Q11, 4Q45, 4Q46, 6Q2, and the Leviticus scroll ( 11QpaleoLev ). In some Qumran documents, the tetragrammaton name of the Israelite deity, YHWH , is written in Paleo-Hebrew while the rest of the text is rendered in the adopted Aramaic square script that became today's normative Jewish Hebrew script. The vast majority of

280-809: Is intended for the representation of, apart from the Phoenician alphabet , text in Palaeo-Hebrew, Archaic Phoenician, Early Aramaic, Late Phoenician cursive, Phoenician papyri, Siloam Hebrew, Hebrew seals, Ammonite , Moabite , and Punic . ʾ b g d h w z ḥ ṭ y k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š t Kanaan%C3%A4ische und Aram%C3%A4ische Inschriften Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften (in English , Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions ), or KAI ,

320-519: Is the standard source for the original text of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions not contained in the Hebrew Bible . It was first published from 1960 to 1964 in three volumes by the German orientalists Herbert Donner and Wolfgang Röllig , and has been updated in numerous subsequent editions. The work attempted to "integrate philology, palaeography and cultural history" in the commented re-editing of

360-537: The 10th century BCE . Like the Phoenician alphabet , it is a slight regional variant and an immediate continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script , which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age . Phoenician , Hebrew , and all of their sister Canaanite languages were largely indistinguishable dialects before that time. The Paleo-Hebrew script is an abjad of 22 consonantal letters, exactly as

400-635: The Bronze Age collapse , out of their immediate predecessor script Proto-Canaanite (Late Proto-Sinaitic ) during the 13th to 12th centuries BCE, and earlier Proto-Sinaitic scripts. The earliest known inscription in the Paleo-Hebrew script is the Zayit Stone discovered on a wall at Tel Zayit , in the Beth Guvrin Valley in the lowlands of ancient Judea in 2005, about 50 km (31 mi) southwest of Jerusalem. The 22 letters were carved on one side of

440-584: The Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum . With respect to Aramaic inscriptions, all stone inscriptions until the Achaemenid Empire were included, whereas Imperial Aramaic inscriptions are only partially represented. Less emphasis was put on Aramaic papyri, ostraca and clay tablets, as such collections either already existed or were being prepared elsewhere. The included papyri and ostraca were chosen in order to provide and objective rounding of

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480-536: The First Temple in 586 BCE. A slightly earlier ( circa 620 BCE) but similar script is found on an ostracon excavated at Mesad Hashavyahu , containing a petition for redress of grievances (an appeal by a field worker to the fortress's governor regarding the confiscation of his cloak, which the writer considers to have been unjust). After the Babylonian capture of Judea, when most of the nobles were taken into exile,

520-653: The Hasmonean coinage , as well as the coins of the First Jewish–Roman War and Bar Kokhba's revolt , bears Paleo-Hebrew legends. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet fell completely out of use among Jews only after 135 CE. The paleo-Hebrew alphabet continued to be used by the Samaritans and over time developed into the Samaritan alphabet . The Samaritans have continued to use the script for writing both Hebrew and Aramaic texts until

560-614: The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) unearthed a 2,600-year-old seal impression, while conducting excavations at the City of David, containing Paleo-Hebrew script, and which is thought to have belonged to a certain "Nathan-Melech," an official in King Josiah 's court. Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew characters were never standardised and are found in numerous variant shapes. A general tendency of more cursive writing can be observed over

600-624: The Moabite language (rather than generic Northwest Semitic ) are visible in the Mesha Stele inscription, commissioned around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab. Similarly, the Tel Dan Stele , dated approximately 810 BCE, is written in Old Aramaic , dating from a period when Dan had already fallen into the orbit of Damascus. The oldest inscriptions identifiable as Biblical Hebrew have long been limited to

640-574: The Samaritan script is an immediate continuation of the Proto-Hebrew script without intermediate non-Israelite evolutionary stages. There is also some continued use of the old Hebrew script in Jewish religious contexts down to the 1st century BCE, notably in the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll found in the Dead Sea Scrolls . The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets developed in the wake of

680-496: The 38 lb (17 kg) stone, which resembles a bowl on the other. The find is attributed to the mid-10th century BCE. The so-called Ophel inscription is of a similar age, but difficult to interpret, and may be classified as either Proto-Canaanite or as Paleo-Hebrew. The Gezer calendar is of uncertain date, but may also still date to the 10th century BCE. The script on the Zayit Stone and Gezer Calendar are an earlier form than

720-399: The 8th century BCE. In 2008, however, a potsherd (ostracon) bearing an inscription was excavated at Khirbet Qeiyafa which has since been interpreted as representing a recognizably Hebrew inscription dated to as early as the 10th century BCE. The argument identifying the text as Hebrew relies on the use of vocabulary. From the 8th century onward, Hebrew epigraphy becomes more common, showing

760-671: The Exodus, whereas the Aramaic square script was brought from Assyria and introduced for writing Torah scrolls in the post-exilic period, while others believed that Paleo-Hebrew merely served as a stopgap in a time when the ostensibly original script (the Assyrian Script ) was lost. According to both opinions, Ezra the Scribe (c. 500 BCE) introduced, or reintroduced the Assyrian script to be used as

800-620: The Hebrew Bible as "tribal subdivisions of Manasseh ", in Joshua 17 :2. and Numbers 26:28–33 : The names of the seventeen places occurring on these Ostraca are: Paleo-Hebrew alphabet The Paleo-Hebrew script ( Hebrew : הכתב העברי הקדום ), also Palaeo-Hebrew , Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew , is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions , including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew , from southern Canaan , also known as

840-478: The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet continued to be used by the people who remained. One example of such writings are the 6th-century BCE jar handles from Gibeon , on which the names of winegrowers are inscribed. Beginning from the 5th century BCE onward, the Aramaic language and script became an official means of communication. Paleo-Hebrew was still used by scribes and others. The Paleo-Hebrew script was retained for some time as an archaizing or conservative mode of writing. It

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880-480: The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, called the Samaritan script . After the fall of the Persian Empire, Jews used both scripts before settling on the Assyrian form. The Paleo-Hebrew script evolved by developing numerous cursive features, the lapidary features of the Phoenician alphabet being ever less pronounced with the passage of time. The aversion of the lapidary script may indicate that the custom of erecting stelae by

920-615: The biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah . It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Bible due to its similarity to the Samaritan script ; the Talmud states that the Samaritans still used this script. The Talmud described it as the "Livonaʾa script" ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : לִיבּוֹנָאָה , romanized:  Lībōnāʾā ), translated by some as " Lebanon script". However, it has also been suggested that

960-441: The classical Paleo-Hebrew of the 8th century and later; this early script is almost identical to the early Phoenician script on the 9th-century Ahiram sarcophagus inscription. By the 8th century, a number of regional characteristics begin to separate the script into a number of national alphabets, including the Israelite (Israel and Judah), Moabite (Moab and Ammon), Edomite, Phoenician and Old Aramaic scripts. Linguistic features of

1000-468: The commandment to copy a Torah scroll directly from another, the script could not conceivably have been modified at any point. A different version of the debate in the Jerusalem Talmud refers to the circular shapes of the letters Ayin in Paleo-Hebrew and Samekh in square script on the stone tablets as miracles according to the respective sages arguing for one script or the other. This third opinion

1040-682: The fourth of the Karatepe inscriptions (KAI 26), and the three new texts (KAI 277-279). In the fifth edition, 40 new texts were added, primarily because they were only discovered or published after the appearance of the original edition or - like the Agrigentum inscription (KAI 302) - were given a new relevance due to a recent interpretation. Two groups of new texts were not included in the fifth edition: new Hebrew inscriptions, which were considered to have been well summarized in J. Renz / W. Röllig, Handbuch der Althebraische Epigraphik (Darmstadt 1995-2002) and

1080-513: The gradual spread of literacy among the people of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah ; the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible , although transmitted via the recension of the Second Temple period, are also dated to the 8th century BCE. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was in common use in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah throughout the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. During the 6th century BCE,

1120-590: The kings and offering votive inscriptions to the deity was not widespread in Israel. Even the engraved inscriptions from the 8th century exhibit elements of the cursive style, such as the shading, which is a natural feature of pen-and-ink writing. Examples of such inscriptions include the Siloam inscription , numerous tomb inscriptions from Jerusalem , the Ketef Hinnom scrolls , a fragmentary Hebrew inscription on an ivory which

1160-474: The name is a corrupted form of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus . Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" is due to a 1954 suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum , who argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician [from Northern Canaan, today's Lebanon] to the script of the Hebrews [from Southern Canaan, today's Israel-Palestine] is hardly suitable". The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets are two slight regional variants of

1200-504: The other Canaanite scripts from the period. By the 5th century BCE, among Judeans the alphabet had been mostly replaced by the Aramaic alphabet as used officially by the Achaemenid Empire . The "Square" variant now known simply as the Hebrew alphabet evolved directly out of this by about the 3rd century BCE, although some letter shapes did not become standard until the 1st century . By contrast,

1240-475: The peasant farmers who paid their taxes in the form of jars of wine. Of the places mentioned on these Ostraca, Shechem is the only one that can be identified with a text occurring in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament ). In Kerm-ha-Tell, and Kerm-Yahu-'ali, the word Kerm must mean " the village, or vineyard," Tell means "mound", maybe referring to modern Tulkarm in Samaria. Six of these place-names occur in

Samaria Ostraca - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-474: The period of c. 800 BCE to 600 BCE. After 500 BCE, it is common to distinguish the script variants by names such as "Samaritan", "Aramaic", etc. There is no difference in "Paleo-Hebrew" vs. "Phoenician" letter shapes. The names are applied depending on the language of the inscription, or if that cannot be determined, of the coastal (Phoenician) vs. highland (Hebrew) association (c.f. the Zayit Stone abecedary). The Unicode block Phoenician (U+10900–U+1091F)

1320-455: The picture, such as if they were published in a remote location. Nabataean and Palmyrene inscriptions were excluded, as were most of the Elephantine papyri . The inscriptions were ordered geographically, and then chronologically within each geography; a division was made between “Punic” and “Neo Punic” that was acknowledged to be subjective. In the second edition, four new texts were added -

1360-504: The present day. A comparison of the earliest Samaritan inscriptions and the medieval and modern Samaritan manuscripts clearly indicates that the Samaritan script is a static script which was used mainly as a book hand . The Talmudic sages did not share a uniform stance on the subject of Paleo-Hebrew. Some stated that Paleo-Hebrew was the original script used by the Israelites at the time of

1400-411: The primary alphabet for the Hebrew language . The arguments given for both opinions are rooted in Jewish scripture and/or tradition. A third opinion in the Talmud states that the script never changed altogether. Rabbi Eleazar from Modiin, the sage who expressed this opinion, based his opinion on a scriptural verse, which makes reference to the shape of the letter vav . He argues further that, given

1440-427: The reign of Ahab . This is followed by the amount and quality of wine or oil received, with the name of the place where it came from and of the giver, such as "in the tenth year wine of Kerm-ha-Tell for a jar of fine oil" where evidently wine was accepted in place of fine oil. "A jar of old wine" and "a jar of fine oil" are the most usual descriptions. Some names are of the villages or districts, and others are names of

1480-464: The same script. The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription ( KAI 191), found in 1870, and then referred to as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to

1520-623: The time of the Babylonian exile , the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was gradually replaced by the use of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet . The letters of Imperial Aramaic were again given shapes characteristic for writing Hebrew during the Second Temple period , developing into the "square shape" of the Hebrew alphabet . The Samaritans , who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use their variant of

1560-613: Was accepted by some early Jewish scholars, and rejected by others, partially because it was permitted to write the Torah in Greek. Use of Proto-Hebrew in modern Israel is negligible, but it is found occasionally in nostalgic or pseudo-archaic examples, e.g. on the ₪1 coin ( 𐤉𐤄𐤃 ‎ "Judea") and in the logo of the Israeli town Nahariyah ( Deuteronomy 33 :24 𐤁𐤓𐤅𐤊 𐤌𐤁𐤍𐤉𐤌 𐤀𐤔𐤓 ‎ "Let Asher be blessed with children"). In 2019,

1600-520: Was taken as war spoils (probably from Samaria ) to Nimrud , the Arad ostraca dating to the 6th-century BCE, the hundreds of 8th to 6th-century Hebrew seals from various sites, and the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll discovered near Tel Qumran . The most developed cursive script is found on the 18 Lachish ostraca , letters sent by an officer to the governor of Lachish just before the destruction of

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