DISCOVERIES IN LACHISH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22444, 4 July 1938, Page 9

DISCOVERIES IN LACHISH

WRITING ON FRAGMENTS OF POTTERY SCRIPT FROM THE TIME OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR LONDON. May 28, The Wellcom e-Marston expedition to Tell ed-Duweir, the site of the ancient city of Lachish in Palestine, the expenses of which are shared by Sir Charles Marston, the trustees of the late Sir Henry Wellcome, and Sir Robert Mond, has lately ceased work for the summer months. Mr Charles Inge, who succeeded the late Mr J. L. Starkey as leader, and Miss Olga Tufnell, who has been associated with the undertaking from the first hare returned to England, bringing news of the last season’s discoveries. Notable among these are three more examples of Phoenician-Hebrew script written in ink on fragments of pottery, and also some scribblings which have been uncovered upon the steps of the Palace of Lachish. Of the three inscribed sherds the first has on it five names of persons, followed by numerals which probably represent quantities of wheat oil. or some other commodity. The second was found in a room which contained also the remains of the pot from which it was- broken and is probably a receipt The legible portion of it is of great interest, for it begins with the words '•ln the ninth year,” and it was in the ninth year of the reign of Zedektah that Nebuchadnezzar. King of Baby; lon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it as recorded in 2 Kings. 25, 1. The house in which the pot and its shard were found ■ showed evident signs of having been burnt and it seems probable that the receipt had been written immediately before N ebucha dn eztar attacked Lachish for the second time, in 588 B.C. The third fragment which is very small, has on it a letter beginning “To my Lord” and written on both sides. This suggests that it was a ■ document of the same type as the 11 Lachish letters found in 1935 and deciphered by Professor Torczyner. who has alsb deciphered the latest finds. The scribblings found on the vertical face of one of the steps of the Jewish Palace, which the expedition is beginning to excavate inside the city, were probably the work of seme schoolboy. They consist of a rectangular drawing, with lines across it much "after the fashion of a Union Jack, a drawing of a lion, and the first five letters of the Phoenician-Hebrew alphabet. These treading from right to left) are in the same order as the corresponding letters of our own alphabet, and are thought to be the earliest concrete evidence of that order. They date from before Nebuchadnezzar's earlier destruction of Lachish In 597 8.C., probably from about SO® ae slightly earlier. From these discoveries it seems clear that the Phoenician-Hebrew script was in general use in the Kingdom of Judah and was being taught in the schools of Lachish before Nebuchadnezzar carried the Jews into .captivity. There Is therefore good reason to believe that the pre-exilic books of the Old Testament must have been written in this script. After the Babylonian captivity the Jews used the Assyrian-Hebrew script, although attempts were made by the Maccabees to revive the Phoenician-Hebrew.