A 3,000-year-old jar was discovered in 2012, broken into pieces. On many of the shards, researchers found letters written in Canaanite script. The mysterious inscription from the time of King David has given us a glimpse into a past world, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday, according to Fox News.
The jar was discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa, in the valley of Elah southwest of Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority Artifacts Treatment Department conducted extensive restoration work, gluing the shards together. That's when they saw it - the inscription "Eshba'al Ben Beda."
Researchers believe Eshba'al Ben Beda was an important person, apparently an owner of a large agricultural estate. The Israel Antiquities Authority said that the produce from the farm would have been packed and transported in the jars bearing Eshba'al Ben Beda's name. "This is clear evidence of social stratification and the creation of an established economic class that occurred at the time of the formation of the Kingdom of Judah," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.
"This is the first time that the name Eshbaʽal has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country. Eshbaʽal Ben Shaul, who ruled over Israel at the same time as David, is known from the Bible," said Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the statement. "Eshbaʽal was murdered by assassins and decapitated and his head was brought to David in Hebron (II Samuel, Chaps. 3-4). It is interesting to note that the name Eshbaʽal appears in the Bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David, in the first half of the tenth century BCE. This name was not used later in the First Temple period.The correlation between the biblical tradition and the archaeological finds indicates this was a common name only during that period. The name Bedaʽ is unique and does not occur in ancient inscriptions or in the biblical tradition."
