There was a flurry of news coverage of the Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription yesterday, even though only a few words of that inscription have been translated (or, at least, announced). Here are a few highlights.
CBS News has a 45-second video showing a man opening and handling the inscribed potsherd (ostracon). A few letters are visible.
You can watch a 5-minute interview with the excavator, Yosi Garfinkel (in Hebrew) (via Yitzhak Sapir).
A few photos were released, but they appear to be deliberately impossible to read, as the excavators naturally want to translate the inscription before someone on the internet does. It also has been suggested that high-tech photos may be necessary before the excavators are able to read the inscription in its entirety. Here are a few photos: ostracon 1, ostracon 2, aerial view of the site and the gatehouse.
There is some debate on the ANE-2 list about whether this is a (Proto-)Canaanite inscription or a Hebrew inscription.
A member of the excavation team has posted some of his thoughts on Jim West’s blog.
The most ridiculous headline belongs to a British rag: ‘Proof’ David slew Goliath found as Israeli archaeologists unearth ‘oldest ever Hebrew text’
And if you prefer your inscriptions on a coffee mug, Eisenbrauns just announced the 2008 Gezer Calendar mug.
There are a couple of other stories that I don’t have time to comment on now, but you can read about Eilat Mazar’s discovery of the tsinnor (water shaft) that David used to conquer Jerusalem and about an inscribed stone seal found in Jerusalem. Don’t believe everything you read.
