An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah

Abstract

Near the conclusion of the 2005 excavation season at Tel Zayit, Israel, the Zeitah Excavations recovered a large stone bearing an incised, two-line inscription. The special importance of the stone derives not only from its archaic alphabetic text (a 22-letter abecedary), but also from its well-defined archaeological context in a structure dating securely to the tenth century B.C.E. The borderland site of Tel Zayit lies in the lowlands district of Judah, and in the early Iron Age IIA period it maintained its principal affiliations with the highland culture to the east, in the direction of Jerusalem. After locating the site in its ancient physical setting, this article presents a detailed description of the archaeological context that yielded the inscribed stone, the comparative evidence for studying the inscription, and a palaeographical analysis of each letter of the abecedary itself. The Tel Zayit Abecedary represents the linear alphabetic script of central and southern Canaan at the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E., a transitional script that developed from the Phoenician tradition of the early Iron Age and anticipated the distinctive features of the mature Hebrew national script. The early appearance of literacy at Tel Zayit will play a pivotal role in the current discussion of the archaeology and history of Judah in the tenth century B.C.E.