Rare First Temple Document Revealed

January 10, 2017

by: Edgar Asher

A rare and important document written on papyrus and dating to the time of the First Temple (seventh century BC) was exposed in an enforcement operation initiated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery. The document was illicitly plundered from one of the Judean Desert caves by a band of antiquities robbers.

Two lines of ancient Hebrew script were clearly legible, and the proposed reading of the text appears as follows:

מא]מת. המלך. מנערתה. נבלים. יין. ירשלמה]

[me-a]mat. ha-melekh. me-Naʽartah. nevelim. yi’in. Yerushalima.

From the king’s maidservant, from Naʽarat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem

This is a rare shipping document indicating the transfer of goods to storehouses in Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom at this time. The document specifies the status of the sender of the shipment (the king’s maidservant), the name of the settlement from which the shipment was dispatched (Na’arat), the contents of the vessels (wine), their number or amount (jars) and their destination (Jerusalem).

According to Dr. Eitan Klein, deputy director of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery, “The document represents extremely rare evidence of the existence of an organized administration in the Kingdom of Judah. It underscores the centrality of Jerusalem as the economic capital of the kingdom in the second half of the seventh century BC.”

Israel Prize laureate and biblical scholar Prof. (Emeritus) Shmuel Ahituv attests to the scientific importance of the document, “It’s not just that this papyrus is the earliest extra-biblical source to mention Jerusalem in Hebrew writing; it is the fact that to date no other documents written on papyrus dating to the First Temple period have been discovered in Israel, except one from Wadi Murabbaʽat. Also outstanding in the document is the unusual status of a woman in the administration of the Kingdom of Judah in the seventh century BC.”

Source: Excerpt from an article, Ashernet

Photo Credit: Ashernet/IAA