Kish tablet

Israeli Archaelogists Uncover Oldest Written Document in Jerusalem

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• published: 07 Aug 2010
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Israeli archaeologists say they have found the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem. They found the document on a tiny clay fragment dating back to the 14th century BC. On Monday, Israeli archaeologists excavated the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem on a tiny clay fragment dating back to the 14th century B.C. [Dr. Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem]: (female, English) "It's the oldest ever found document, written document, in Jerusalem. It shows a very highly skilled scribe by a scribe that most probably sat in the court of the king of Jerusalem at the time and because it was written in Jerusalem, based on the fact that it was written on the soil from Jerusalem, that we know after examination, we know this court was here in Jerusalem meaning that Jerusalem at the time was a very significant, important capital, a royal city." The fragment appears to have been part of a tablet which contained a diplomatic message exchanged between kings in Jerusalem and Egypt. It is written in cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian, the language of that era. [Dr. Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem]: (female, English) "In spite of the fact that we have a very small fragment from the tablet, still we can see five lines here and on the other side of the tablet there are four lines, nine altogether. But unfortunately what we can read is very fragmentary. We can read only 'they' or 'you' or 'after wards' but nothing that we can understand what is the context of the letter but the very existence of such a letter in Jerusalem, that's what counts." The Hebrew University said the most ancient known written record previously excavated in the city was a tablet dating back to the 8th century B.C. that was found near Jerusalem's Old city. The recent find predates it by about 600 years.