Archeologist finds 3,000-year old Hebrew text

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he says is the earliest-known Hebrew text, found on a shard of pottery that dates to the time of King David from the Old Testament, about 3,000 years ago.

Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says the inscribed pottery shard -- known as an ostracon -- was found during excavations of a fortress from the 10th century BC.

Carbon dating of the ostracon, along with pottery analysis, dates the inscription to time of King David, about a millennium earlier than the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the university said.

CNN



Thought I'd share this with you all. I wonder how much of it will be in agreement with copies of the Old Testament. Time will tell.

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[edit on 31/10/08 by Jbird]

Looking at the link, the item found is a piece of pottery, so I really doubt it has any scriptural writings on it. They mention that the words judge, slave and king are on it, but that doesn't narrow it down too much. It seems strange that they weren't able to translate it right away; I don't really understand why it would take trained experts long at all to read it, unless it's so old that the language differs from what they are used to. I guess we'll see what it says, but I'm expecting something pretty mundane, to be honest. It's still a pretty cool find, since it's so old.