Oldest Document Ever Found in Jerusalem

September 7, 2010

14th century BC clay tablet measured in centimeters

The fragment was uncovered during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10^th- century BC tower of King Solomon’s era in the Ophel area, located between the southern wall of the Old City and the City of David to its south. The 2 x 2.8 centimeter (0.8 x 1.1 inch) fragment appears to have been part of a tablet and contains cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian (the lingua francaof that era).

The words that the symbols form are not as significant as is the very high level script written by a highly skilled scribe. Professor Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, said it is likely that the tablets were prepared for the royal household of the time. It is believed to be contemporary with tablets formerly discovered in Egypt in the archives of a 14^th-century BC pharaoh. Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, and there is a great likelihood that the fragment was part of such a “royal missive” that would have been sent from the king of Jerusalem to Egypt, said Mazar.

The most ancient known written record previously found in Jerusalem was the tablet found in the Shiloah water tunnel in the City of David area during the eighth-century BC reign of King Hezekiah.

Source: From a Hebrew University press release

Source: Isranet