Khirbet Qeiyafa

The ruins of Khirbet Qeiyafa was during antiquity in the border area between the ancient kingdom of Judea and the land of the Philistines. In this region, in the valley of Elah, is said to have fought against Goliath according to biblical tradition, David. The identification with the biblical place Scha'arajim is controversial.

Excavations

Since June 2008, the ancient fortress near Beit Shemesh by Yosef Garfinkel from the Archaeological Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is being investigated in an archaeological research project.

During the excavations in the vicinity was, inter alia, an ostracon, a labeled piece of clay, uncovered, bearing a barely legible inscription in a Northwest Semitic language, possibly Hebrew. With the help of radiocarbon dating the age of the potsherd was determined to around 1000 BC, which would correspond approximately to the time of the biblical King David. It shows five lines of text that are with black lines separated. Roots of the words "judge ", " slave" and "king" have been deciphered. Many of the letters are written with ink but very faded or not completely preserved. Additional uncertainties heard that even the writing direction is unclear, as most characters do not have a stable orientation. Gershon Galil of the " Department of Bible Studies" at the University of Haifa in 2010 suggested the following before reading:

The reading, however, is uncertain, especially the supplements must be regarded as highly speculative. Other reading, translation and interpretation proposals submitted by Émile Puech and Ada Yardeni. In line 4 you guess the name of a king of Gath.