Editing Tel Lachish (section)

===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>