Editing Tel Lachish (section)

==Select inscriptions==

===Inscriptions in Proto-Canaanite===
As many as 12 purported [[Proto-Canaanite]] inscriptions had been discovered at Lachish by 2022.<ref name= DV>Daniel Vainstub, Madeleine Mumcuoglu, Michael G. Hasel, Katherine M. Hesler, Miriam Lavi, Rivka Rabinovich, Yuval Goren and Yosef Garfinkel (2022). "A Canaanite's Wish to Eradicate Lice on an Inscribed Ivory Comb from Lachish". ''Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology'' 2: 76–119. ISSN: 2788-8819; https://doi.org/10.52486/01.00002.4; https://jjar.huji.ac.il</ref> Six were discovered in the Starkey-Tufnell excavations, two during the renewed excavations by Ussishkin, and four in more recent excavations. At least three of the purported inscriptions are likely to have been merely figural pottery designs or pseudo-inscriptions<ref>Sass, Benjamin (1988). "The Genesis of the Alphabet and Its Development in the Second Millennium B.C." ''Ägypten und Altes Testament'' 13. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz</ref><ref>[[Emile Puech|Puech, Emile]] (1986). "The Canaanite Inscription of Lachish and their Religious Background". ''Tel Aviv'' 13:13-25. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1986.1986.1.13</ref> Among the well-known legitimate inscriptions are the Lachish Ewer, Lachish Bowl, the Cypriot Bowl Fragment, and the Ivory Lice Comb.

The few known inscriptions from the Late Bronze Age, the 13th and part of the 12th century BCE, show a certain "[[Linear writing|linearisation]]" when compared to the earlier, [[Proto-Sinaitic script]], but the undergone process is not yet understood.<ref name= C12jar/>

====Ivory lice comb (18th c. BCE)====
{{Main|Canaanite ivory comb}}
In 2016, an inscribed elephant ivory lice comb dating to about 1700 BCE was found at Lachish during the Garfinkel excavations. The find is purported to bear the oldest sentence found written in the early [[Canaanite script]].<ref name= DV/> In the ''editio princeps'', the authors suggest to read 15 letters, constituent of a wish to eradicate lice. They offer the following translation: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hai[r and the] beard."<ref name= DV/>

====Cypriot bowl fragment (15th c. BCE)====
In 2018, an inked rim fragment of a Cypriot White Slip II milk bowl was discovered, dating to the mid fifteenth century BCE.<ref name=hoflmayer>Felix Höflmayer, Haggai Misgav, Lyndelle Webster, and Katharina Streit, 2021. Early Alphabetic Writing in the Ancient Near East: The 'Missing Link' from Tel Lachish. ''Antiquity 95:705-719.</ref> The inscription consists of nine letters. The authors of the ''editio princeps'' offer to read two words on the inscription, ''ʿbd'' meaning "servant, slave" and ''npt'' meaning "honey, nectar."<ref name=hoflmayer/> The inscription is, however, too fragmentary to suggest much else but represents one of the earliest examples of alphabetic writing from the Levant.

====Lachish ewer (13th c. BCE)====
{{Main|Lachish ewer}}

Inscribed ewer, found in the Fosse Temple III at Level VII, which dates it back to the 13th century BCE.<ref name= C12jar/>

====Lachish bowl (13th c. BCE)====
The Lachish bowl was discovered in Tomb 527 at Lachish Level VII, dated to the 13th century BCE.<ref name= C12jar/>

====Lachish bowl fragment (12th c. BCE)====
The Lachish bowl fragment was discovered in a Level VII context and dated to the 12th century BCE.<ref name= C12jar/>

====Lachish jar sherd (12th c. BCE)====
The "Lachish jar sherd", found in 2014 in a stratigraphic context (Level VI) which allows dating it to around 1130 BCE, contains a fragmentary early alphabetic inscription.<ref name= C12jar/> The remaining nine letters, nine of them in three lines, are perfectly discernable, but they cannot be convincingly combined into words and the words into a  text.<ref name= C12jar/> The undecipherable inscription still is of great [[palaeographic]] interest, given the scarcity of Late Bronze Age West Semitic inscriptions found in controlled excavations, as it adds to our knowledge about the evolution of alphabetic script.<ref name= C12jar/>

===Inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew===
{{Main|Lachish letters}}

The first archaeological expedition, the Starkey-Starkey-Tufnell (1932–1939) uncovered the Lachish letters, which were "written to the commander of the garrison at Lachish shortly before it fell to the Babylonians in either 589 or 586 B.C."<ref name="PEF_Tufnell" /> The Hebrew letters were written on pieces of pottery, so-called [[ostracon|ostraca]]. Eighteen letters were found in 1935 and three more in 1938, all written in [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet|Paleo-Hebrew script]]. They were from the latest occupational level immediately before the [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|Babylonian siege of 587 BCE]]. At the time, they formed the only known [[Text corpus|corpus]] of documents in classical [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] that had come down to us outside of the Hebrew Bible.<ref>{{cite journal |first=W. F. |last=Albright |title=The Oldest Hebrew Letters: The Lachish Ostraca |doi=10.2307/1354816 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=70 |number=70 |pages=11–1 |year=1938|jstor=1354816 |s2cid=163271014}}</ref><ref>W. F. Albright, "A Reëxamination of the Lachish Letters," ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', no. 73, pp. 16–21, 1939</ref>

====LMLK seals====
{{Main|LMLK seal}}

Another major contribution to [[Biblical archaeology]] from excavations at Lachish are the [[LMLK seal]]s, which were stamped on the handles of a particular form of ancient storage jar, meaning "of the king". More of these artifacts were found at this site (over 400; Ussishkin, 2004, pp.&nbsp;2151–2159) than any other place in [[Israel]] ([[Jerusalem]] remains in second place with more than 300). Most of them were collected from the surface during [[James Leslie Starkey|Starkey]]'s excavations, but others were found in Level 1 ([[Persian Empire|Persia]]n and [[Hellenistic Greece|Greek]] era), Level 2 (period preceding [[Babylonia]]n conquest by [[Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon|Nebuchadnezzar]]), and Level 3 (period preceding [[Assyria]]n conquest by [[Sennacherib]]). It is thanks to the work of [[David Ussishkin]]'s team that eight of these stamped jars were restored, thereby demonstrating lack of relevance between the jar volumes (which deviated as much as 5 [[gallon]]s or 12 [[litre]]s), and also proving their relation to the reign of Biblical king [[Hezekiah]].<ref name="Ussishkin_Royal_1976">{{cite journal |first=David |last=Ussishkin |title=Royal Judean Storage Jars and Private Seal Impressions |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=223 |issue=223 |pages=1–13 |year=1976|doi=10.2307/1356716 |jstor=1356716 |s2cid=163180781}} (Chapter 29, Section B in the Lachish final excavation report)</ref> Ussishkin observed that "The renewed excavations confirmed Tufnell's suggestion that Level III had been destroyed in 701 BCE. All the royal storage jars, stamped and unstamped alike, date to the reign of Hezekiah, to shortly before the Assyrian conquest."<ref>{{cite journal |first=David |last=Ussishkin |title=The Destruction of Lachish by Sennacherib and the Dating of the Royal Judean Storage Jars |doi=10.1179/033443577788497777 |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=4 |issue=1–2 |pages=28–60 |year=1977}}</ref>