Editing Tel Lachish (section)

===Digs since 2017===

The Korean Lachish Excavation Team led by Hong Soon-hwa, reported that they had "uncovered a wide range of 10th century BCE items, from houses with earthenware items and cooking stoves, to animal bones, olive seeds, spearheads, fortress walls and other objects" on July 5, 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kukmindaily.co.kr/article/view.asp?page=&gCode=7111&arcid=0011605615&code=71111101  |date=July 11, 2017 |access-date=January 30, 2018 |work=Kukmin Daily |location=Seoul, Korea |title=Israel's Lachish is a planned city from the Rehoboam period}}</ref><ref name="kukmindaily.co.kr">{{cite web |url=http://www.kukmindaily.co.kr/article/view.asp?page=&gCode=7111&arcid=0010808418&code=71111101 |title=Excavated Olive Seeds May Confirm Area as Rehoboam Period Archeological Site |date=July 25, 2016 |access-date=January 30, 2018 |work=Kukmin Daily |location=Seoul, Korea}}</ref>

Since 2017, the Austro-Israeli excavation is exploring the Middle and Late Bronze Age strata at the site. The project is conducted a joint project of [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Hebrew University]] and the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the [[Austrian Academy of Sciences]] and is co-directed by Felix Höflmayer and Katharina Streit. The project is funded by the [[Austrian Science Fund]].<ref>Katharina Streit et al., Between Destruction and Diplomacy in Canaan: The Austrian-Israeli Expedition to Tel Lachish, Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 81, no. 4, December 2018</ref><ref>[https://tracingtransformations.com/] Austrian Science Fund Tel Lachish web site</ref>

In 2018 a pottery sherd, dated to the 15th century BCE, was found with alphabetic text. This fills a gap in the development history of alphabetic writing.<ref>Felix Höflmayer et al., "Early alphabetic writing in the ancient Near East: the ‘missing link’ from Tel Lachish", Antiquity; Cambridge, vol. 95, iss. 381, (Jun 2021)</ref> In 2019 a [[hieratic]] ostracon was found, dated to the time of the Egyptian 18th Dynasty. It is described by the excavators as a name list with allocated provisions in Canaanite.<ref>Wimmer, Stefan Jakob, Webster, Lyndelle, Streit, Katharina and Höflmayer, Felix, "A New Hieratic Ostracon from Lachish", Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, vol. 150, no. 1, pp. 146-156, 2023</ref>