Zayit Stone - Significance

Significance

The inscription was discovered in-situ in what appears to be a secondary usage but a primary context (i.e., as a building stone rather than in a random pile of debris, or merely on the surface). It is one of the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet and represents an important benchmark in the history of writing. Several inferences can be drawn from it:

• The find, in the context of other archeological excavations at Tel Zayit suggest, "a centralized bureaucracy, political leadership and literacy levels that seemed to support the biblical image of the unified kingdom of David and Solomon in the 10th century B.C." It also supports the notion that Tel Zayit was probably an "important border town established by an expanding Israelite kingdom based in Jerusalem."

• Its locus was a stratum caused by a fire dated by the excavators to the 10th century BCE. Until this discovery, little was known about the literacy in the region. The find, at a border post so far from Jerusalem suggests literacy levels far greater than previously believed. The early appearance of literacy at Tel Zayit will likely influence the current discussion of the archaeology and history of Israel and Judah in the tenth century BCE.

• It not only preserves writing – simple graffiti – but an ordered list of letters (although there are 4 pairs of letters swapped from their modern alphabetic order, and possibly 2 other omitted or aborted letters; indications that reflect negatively on the scribe's skill level).

• Its placement in a wall, and the context of its inscriptions ("help/warrior" and "bowl/throne") may indicate a belief that the letters possessed magical/apotropaic power to ward off evil spirits. Though it was probably plastered over in the wall where it was discovered and could not be read, it may have been ceremonially placed there during the wall's construction.

At an SBL presentation in November 2005, Ron Tappy seemed to favour the idea that the stone bowl (the reverse side of the stone block) had originally been used as a mortar for grinding herbs or equivalent usage. At the same event P. Kyle McCarter, the epigrapher attached to the Tel Zeitah excavation, characterised the inscription as an abecedary, and said that the letter forms suggest a South Canaanite development from the Phoenician base alphabet. In questioning after the presentation, McCarter added that the inscription (which he had earlier said was apparently the work of a good scribe) was a practice piece (he had earlier mentioned that it gave him the impression of carelessness). Tappy expressed his opinion that it was unlikely, for physical reasons, that the inscription was carved after the stone was placed in the wall.

The primary significance of the inscription will be for the development of early South Levant alphabets and letter-forms. It is not yet certain how old the inscription is - the destruction level indicates a date for the wall, but it is not known how much earlier than this the inscription is. McCarter has elsewhere suggested that the letter-forms are comparable to those of the Gezer calendar, and date from the early to mid-11th century.