History
The calendar was discovered in 1908 by R.A.S. Macalister of the Palestine Exploration Fund while excavating the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. The calendar inscribed on a limestone plaque describes monthly or bi-monthly periods and attributes to each a duty such as harvest, planting, or tending specific crops. It reads:
- Two months gathering (September, October)
- Two months planting (November, December)
- Two months late sowing (January, February)
- One month cutting flax (March)
- One month reaping barley (April)
- One month reaping and measuring grain (May)
- Two months pruning (June, July)
- One month summer fruit (August)
Scholars have speculated that the calendar could be a schoolboy's memory exercise, the text of a popular folk song or a children's song. Another possibility is something designed for the collection of taxes from farmers.
"Abijah" is probably the name of the scribe. The name means "Yah (abbreviated form of YHWH, the Hebrew name of the God of Israel) is my father". This name appears in the Bible for several individuals, including a king of Judah (1 Kings 14:31).
The Gezer calendar was taken to Istanbul, where it is displayed at the Museum of the Ancient Orient, a Turkish archaeology museum, along with the Siloam inscription and other archaeological artefacts unearthed before World War I.
Read more about this topic: Gezer Calendar
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