A new inscribed Aramaic potsherd from Tell al-Assara, Jordan

Abstract

Recent fieldwork undertaken by the joint Finnish-Jordanian Tell Yaˁmoun Regional Archaeological Survey (TYRAS) in the northern part of the Jordanian plateau explored the unexcavated site of Tell al-Assara. An initial survey of the site and its surface pottery indicates that it was occupied for much of the 1st millennium BCE. The initial survey also found an inscribed Aramaic potsherd, which we present and analyse here. This analysis of the inscription builds both on digital techniques like photogrammetry and traditional philological approaches. Despite its brevity, the al-Assara inscription is an important new datum in the corpus of Transjordanian Iron Age texts and palaeography. It can be dated to the middle of the 1st millennium BCE and links Tell al-Assara to broader regional practices of writing and administration.