Pittsburgh archeologist discovers ancient alphabet in Israel

A “spectacular find” unearthed this past summer by a Pittsburgh archeologist is the most concrete evidence of written education in Israel in the 10th century B.C.

The discovery — an inscription of a complete alphabet on a tablet dated to the 10th century B.C. — is expected to feed a hot debate between biblical skeptics and proponents, who disagree on the extent to which the Bible represents historical truth.


“This could be one of the more important discoveries in the last decade in Israel because it plays into a continuing controversy,” said William Dever, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona who is now living in Bedford Hills, N.Y., upon hearing a description of the discovery.

The archeological find will be officially announced at a news conference this morning at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty. Seminary professor Ron E. Tappy conducted the archeological dig.

“All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit,” Dr. Tappy said in an interview the New York Times.

Dr. Tappy held his annual dig June 10-16 at Tel Zayit in the lowlands of ancient Judah, according to the seminary’s Web site.

The find is described as “a large stone bearing an incised, two-line inscription” on the Web site of the Society of Biblical Literature, which will host a session on it during its annual conference, starting Nov. 19 in Philadelphia.

Dr. Tappy told the Times the stone weighed 40 pounds, with a bowl-shaped hollow was carved in the other side from the alphabet, suggesting that the stone had been a drinking vessel in cult rituals. The stone, he added, may have been embedded in the wall because of the ancient belief in the alphabet’s magical power to ward off evil.

Christopher Rollston, a professor of Old Testament and Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in Tennessee, said the find is unusual both because of the completeness of the alphabet and the accuracy with which it can be dated, thanks to pottery also unearthed at the site.

Dr. Rollston, who has seen photographs of the tablet, describes it as a complete alphabet, reading from right to left, and likely something used in an educational context.

“My opinion is that this is indicative of the fact that Israelite culture was much more sophisticated than some scholars have affirmed,” he said. “This is a piece of evidence that will figure in a very important way in future discussions.”

In the debate over the Bible as history, many skeptics have argued that it must have been transmitted primarily as an oral history, because the Israelites were largely illiterate.

Proponents of a written biblical history see this find as validating their contentions that the Israelites could have written down biblical stories.

“This is a great discovery because it embarrasses the hell out of the skeptics,” said Dr. Dever, who argued for the proponents in a controversial 2001 book titled “What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?”

He predicted that the skeptics would challenge the authenticity, as well as the date of the finding.

There is already some disagreement among scholars who have viewed photos of the tablet as to what language it is: Phoenician, Hebrew or a mixture of both.

Dr. Rollston believes the tablet can be dated to the mid-10th century B.C., during what is referred to as the United Kingdom. He speculated that the tablet would have come from the era of King David, although he said it could also have come from other kings ruling around the same time.

The Bible tells of the United Kingdom arising between about 1020 to 930 B.C. It was ruled by three kings: Saul, David and Solomon. After the rule of Solomon, it split into the Divided Kingdom: Judea in the south and the northern kingdom of Israel.

Some skeptics dispute the existence of the United Kingdom.

Although inhabitants of ancient Israel spoke Hebrew, they adopted the Phoenician alphabet for writing. At some point, the written alphabet evolved from Phoenician into a distinct Hebrew alphabet, said Dr. Rollston.

Dr. Rollston, who disagrees with the contention that the alphabet is Hebrew, said that the presentation of the findings at the Society of Biblical Literature conference will set off a furious debate among experts — with the language just one of the issues under discussion.

“It will be huge,” he said. “Let the games begin.”