Un arqueólogo israelí que participaba de excavaciones en el sur de Jerusalén encontró una pieza de cerámica en la que se encuentra grabada la que sería la inscripción, en idioma hebreo, más antigua descubierta hasta el momento.

El hallazgo se produjo en un antiguo pueblo de la ciudad y podría arrojar luz sobre la cultura y el idioma de la Tierra Santa durante la época bíblica.

Vía: Agencia Judia de Noticias, 30 de octubre de 2008

Yossi Garfinkel, arqueólogo de la Universidad Hebrea a cargo de la nueva excavación en la localidad de Hirbet Queiyafa, comentó que la pieza contiene cinco líneas de caracteres escritos hace tres mil años y, las ruinas del asentamiento fortificado en la que fue encontrada, son indicios de que un poderoso reino israelita existió allí en la época del Rey David.

Sin embargo, otros expertos dudan de la interpretación de Garfinkel y sugieren que es difícil concluir que el texto está escrito en hebreo y no en una lengua similar hablada en su momento en la región.

El arqueólogo de la Universidad explicó que basa su interpretación en un verbo de tres letras que significa “hacer” y que sería una palabra que “sólo existe en hebreo”.

“Eso nos lleva a creer que esto es hebreo, y que esta es la inscripción en hebreo más antigua descubierta hasta el momento”, señaló Garfinkel.

El escrito, que el arqueólogo sostiene corresponde a una carta, es entre 100 y 200 años más antiguo que los textos en hebreo más importantes conocidos hasta el momento. Incluso, los famosos manuscritos del Mar Muerto que fueron escritos cerca de 850 años más tarde.

La pieza hallada permanecerá guardada en la caja fuerte de una universidad mientras un grupo de especialistas intenta traducir el texto, una tarea que llevará meses.

En principio, ya se logró identificar una serie de palabras tales como “juez”, “esclavo” y “rey”.

Fortaleza de Elah, en la zona conocida como Khirbet Qeiyafa, a unos 40 kilómetros al suroeste de Jerusalén.

(2) Hallada una inscripción hebrea de hace 3.000 años

Se trata de unos caracteres escritos en una pieza de cerámica que data de la época en la que se sitúa al mítico Rey David.

Vía: EFE, Jerusalén | El País.com, 30 de octubre de 2008

Un grupo de investigadores israelíes han anunciado hoy el descubrimiento de lo que creen que es la inscripción hebrea más antigua y que figura en un trozo de cerámica u ostracon hallado en una zona fronteriza del bíblico reino de Judea, al suroeste de Jerusalén, hace 3.000 años. En una escritura protocananea, la inscripción se remonta al período de la mítica batalla entre David y Goliat, en el siglo X a.C., según pruebas con Carbono-14 realizadas a otros restos biológicos hallados en el mismo estrato.

Su importancia se desprende de que puede arrojar luz sobre el período de juventud del mítico rey israelita y sobre las estructuras sociales y de gobierno en aquella época. El ostracon fue encontrado en el interior de la fortaleza de Elah, en la zona conocida como Khirbet Qeiyafa, a unos 40 kilómetros al suroeste de Jerusalén. "La cronología y geografía de la fortaleza es un exclusivo punto de encuentro entre la historia, la historiografía y los orígenes más tempranos del [mítico] Reino de David", dice en un comunicado el profesor que lo descubrió, Yossi Garfinkel, de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén. "Se trata -explica el experto- de la más antigua de las ciudades (fortificadas) de Judea descubiertas hasta ahora. Y su misma constrcción tiene implicaciones sin precedentes para comprender ese período".

Una escritura profesional

El ostracon es un fragmento de cerámica sobre el que se escribía en la Antigüedad, en este caso con tinta, y el hallado en Khirbet Qeiyafa tiene una superficie de 15 centímetros de largo por otros 15 de ancho. En su cara superior exhibe cinco líneas de texto desgastadas por el tiempo y que están separadas por líneas de color negro. El texto aún no ha sido descifrado pero, al parecer, incluye entre sus palabras las raíces de términos hoy interpretadas como rey, juez y esclavo. El epigrafista Hagai Misgav, experto en escrituras hebreas antiguas, sostiene que "la inscripción fue claramente escrita como mensaje por un escriba profesional".

El yacimiento arqueológico de Khirbet Qeiyafa se encuentra en los alrededores de la que hoy es la ciudad de Bet Shemesh, en las colinas que conducen a Jerusalén, y también de la antigua ciudad de Gath, en su día capital del reino filisteo al que pertenecía el personaje mítico Goliat. Ello podría complicar las labores de identificación de la escritura para saber si realmente pertenece a la rama protocananea del hebreo o a otra distinta y desconocida.



(3) Israeli diggers find Hebrew text in ancient town

Vía: The Associated Press | The International Herald Tribune. Thursday, October 30, 2008

HIRBET QEIYAFA, Israel: An Israeli archaeologist digging at a hilltop south of Jerusalem believes a ceramic shard found in the ruins of an ancient town bears the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, a find that could provide an important glimpse into the culture and language of the Holy Land at the time of the Bible.

The five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago, and the ruins of the fortified settlement where they were found, are indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed at the time of the Old Testament's King David, says Yossi Garfinkel, the Hebrew University archaeologist in charge of the new dig at Hirbet Qeiyafa.

Other scholars are hesitant to embrace Garfinkel's interpretation of the finds, made public on Thursday. The discoveries are already being wielded in a vigorous and ongoing argument over whether the Bible's account of events and geography is meant to be taken literally.

Hirbet Qeiyafa sits near the modern Israeli city of Beit Shemesh in the Judean foothills, an area that was once the frontier between the hill-dwelling Israelites and their enemies, the coastal Philistines. The site overlooks the Elah Valley, said to be the scene of the slingshot showdown between David and the Philistine giant Goliath, and lies near the ruins of Goliath's hometown in the Philistine metropolis of Gath.

A teenage volunteer found the curved pottery shard, 6 inches by 6 inches (15 centimeters by 15 centimeters), in July near the stairs and stone washtub of an excavated home. It was later discovered to bear five lines of characters known as proto-Canaanite, a precursor of the Hebrew alphabet.

Carbon-14 analysis of burnt olive pits found in the same layer of the site dated them to between 1,000 and 975 B.C., the same time as the Biblical golden age of David's rule in Jerusalem.

Scholars have identified other, smaller Hebrew fragments from the 10th century B.C., but the script, which Garfinkel suggests might be part of a letter, predates the next significant Hebrew inscription by between 100 and 200 years. History's best-known Hebrew texts, the Dead Sea scrolls, were penned on parchment beginning 850 years later.

The shard is now kept in a university safe while philologists translate it, a task expected to take months. But several words have already been tentatively identified, including ones meaning "judge," "slave" and "king."

The Israelites were not the only ones using proto-Canaanite characters, and other scholars suggest it is difficult — perhaps impossible — to conclude the text is Hebrew and not a related tongue spoken in the area at the time. Garfinkel bases his identification on a three-letter verb from the inscription meaning "to do," a word he said existed only in Hebrew.

"That leads us to believe that this is Hebrew, and that this is the oldest Hebrew inscription that has been found," he said.

Other prominent Biblical archaeologists warned against jumping to conclusions.

Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said the inscription was "very important," as it is the longest proto-Canaanite text ever found. But he suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far.

"It's proto-Canaanite," he said. "The differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear."

Some scholars and archeologists argue that the Bible's account of David's time inflates his importance and that of his kingdom, and is essentially myth, perhaps rooted in a shred of fact.

But if Garfinkel's claim is borne out, it would bolster the case for the Bible's accuracy by indicating the Israelites could record events as they happened, transmitting the history that was later written down in the Old Testament several hundred years later.

It also would mean that the settlement — a fortified town with a 30-foot-wide (10-meter-wide) monumental gate, a central fortress and a wall running 770 yards (700 meters) in circumference — was probably inhabited by Israelites.

The finds have not yet established who the residents were, says Aren Maier, a Bar Ilan University archaeologist who is digging at nearby Gath. It will become more clear if, for example, evidence of the local diet is found, he said: Excavations have shown that Philistines ate dogs and pigs, while Israelites did not.

The nature of the ceramic shards found at the site suggest residents might have been neither Israelites nor Philistines but members of a third, forgotten people, he said.

If the inscription is Hebrew, it would indicate a connection to the Israelites and make the text "one of the most important texts, without a doubt, in the corpus of Hebrew inscriptions," Maier said. But it has great importance whatever the language turns out to be, he added.

Saar Ganor, an Israel Antiquities Authority ranger, noticed the unusual scale of the walls while patrolling the area in 2003. Three years later he interested Garfinkel, and after a preliminary dig they began work in earnest this summer. They have excavated only 4 percent of the six-acre settlement so far.

Archaeology has turned up only scant finds from David's time in the early 10th century B.C., leading some scholars to suggest his kingdom may have been little more than a small chiefdom or that he might not have existed at all.

Garfinkel believes building fortifications like those at Hirbet Qeiyafa could not have been a local initiative: The walls would have required moving 200,000 tons of stone, a task too big for the 500 or so people who lived there. Instead, it would have required an organized kingdom like the one the Bible says David ruled.

Modern Zionism has traditionally seen archaeology as a way of strengthening the Jewish claim to Israel and regarded David's kingdom as the glorious ancestor of the new Jewish state. So finding evidence of his rule has importance beyond its interest to scholars.

The dig is partially funded by Foundation Stone, a Jewish educational organization, which hopes to bring volunteers to work there as a way of teaching them a national and historical lesson.

"When I stand here, I understand that I'm on the front lines of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines," said Rabbi Barnea Levi Selavan, the group's director. "I open my Bible and read about David and Goliath, and I understand that I'm in the Biblical context."

While the site could be useful to scholars, archaeologist Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University urged adhering to the strict boundaries of science.

Finkelstein, who has not visited the dig but attended a presentation of the findings, warned against what he said was a "revival in the belief that what's written in the Bible is accurate like a newspaper." That style of archaeology was favored by 19th century European diggers who trolled the Holy Land for physical traces of Biblical stories, their motivation and methods more romantic than scientific.

"This can be seen as part of this phenomenon," Finkelstein said.