Toto

Oldest written document ever found in J'lem [sic]

Paleojudaica notes: However small the fragment, the archaeologists involved see the quality of the writing as an indication that Jerusalem was not just some backwater city.

PhilosopherJay

Hi Toto,

This seems to be the type of crazy, hyped, jumping to unwarranted conclusions that characterize so much of Biblical archaeology. The finding of a tiny writing fragment in Jerusalem does not prove that it was even written in Jerusalem. It could very well be an odd case of a traveler just dying in Jerualem while carrying some writings. The fact that no other writing has been found from this time period in Jerusalem and the next oldest writing is from 800 C.E., six hundred years later, would suggest exactly the opposite of the hyposthesis put forward. If we consider that there are many towns where thousands of these fragments have been found, it seems finding one fragment in a six hundred year period in this area would not qualify it as a major area. Again, the more logical conclusion is the opposite, that it was a backwater village of little significance.

One might compare this finding of one small fragment to the findings at Ugarit, modern day Ras Shamra in Syria. A palace library and two private libraries of tablets were found in 1928. In 1958, another library was discovered. In 1973, 120 more tablets and in 1994, 300 further tablets., apparently all from the 14th and 13th century B.C.E. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit).

Note: (from http://theophyle.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/ane-ugarit-1/) "The archives of Ras Shamra have yielded several thousand tablets, including 1,400 texts in the Ugaritic language and scripta; while many are fragmentary, others have been preserved in excellent condition. Larger archives have been found, such as the 12,000–15,000 tablets recently discovered at Ebla,

The population of Ugarit has been estimated at around 5-10,000 people (http://www.jstor.org/pss/1356929). If 1,400 tablets were found there, how major could the city of Jerusalem have been where one fragment has so far been found?

Warmly,

Philosopher Jay

jgreen44

Assuming a population of 5,000, that's a ratio of roughly 3 tablets per person. And considering that one tablet fragment indicates a single tablet once existed...the population of Jerusalem, circa 1400 BC, was one third of one person.

meow

Eventually this too will pop up in a National Geographic "documentary," with robed actors representing some of the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem, a hack archaeologist or two oozing charisma and sporting appropriate clothing, and a narrative spoken with mysterious and passionate undertones.

KeepTalking

You should probably recheck your math (hint: your calculation would be correct if 14,000 tablets were found, as opposed to 1,400).

Also, you should take into account that the time period over which the tablets were produced was two centuries. I am thinking you have a population pool quite a bit larger than 5,000 people who produced the tablets.

Minimalist

There are cuneiform tablets in the Amarna library which were sent to Akhenaten's court which come from Abdi-Heba, the "king" (actually a vassal of Egypt) of "Jerusalem." The assumption of archaeologists is that kings did not write their own letters but employed scribes to handle this mundane task.

The suggestion that "Jerusalem" in the MBA continued to grow and prosper until it became the capitol of David's Empire is simply ludicrous. Archaeology has shown that Jerusalem declined to little more than a miniscule village by the 10th century and did not recover until the late 8th century.

This is little more than an attempt by fundamentalists to prop up their fairy tales. They would have more luck trying to do CPR on a mummy.

michaelJ

Don't the 14th century letters show that Jerusalem was a vassal of Egypt at the time. As this isn't in the Bible I don't see how it helps the Fundamentalists to bring them up.

semiopen

Maybe it's an old fortune cookie fortune and says "Beware of a guy nmed DVD in 400 years or so"

PhilosopherJay

Hi meow,

I hope they do not forget the Jewish cantor praying music
To really sell it, I suggest they use Cantor Yossef Gottesman's version of "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie "Titanic"

Warmly,

Philosopher Jay

Toto

Rollston’s Reflections on the Fragmentary Cuneiform Tablet from the Ophel: A Critique of the Proposed Historical Context contains some informed criticism of this find.