



A clay fragment unearthed in Jerusalem may be the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered in the city - and could prove that accounts of the reigns of King David and Solomon are historical fact.



Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar unearthed a fragment of a ceramic jar, with the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.



A new translation of the text suggests it may actually be in Hebrew - and could “prove” events in the Bible are true.



“I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other," Mazar has said. "The Bible is the most important historical source."





[Related: Bible's King David's palace is found after 3,000 years]



Mazar claims the inscription is in a “proto-Canaanite” script, and written by one of the non-Israeli residents of Jerusalem, perhaps Jebusites, who were part of the population in the time of Kings David and Solomon. Mazar says the meaning is unknown.



Another biblical expert, Douglas Petrovitch of the University of Toronto, claims the inscription is in fact in Hebrew.



“The letters of the inscription match those of contemporary inscriptions, many of which form words that clearly are part of the Hebrew language. Hebrew speakers were controlling Jerusalem in the 10th century, which biblical chronology points to as the time of David and Solomon," biblical expert Douglas Petrovich said in an interview with FoxNews.com.



Petrovitch claims that the discovery proves that Hebrew was being used as a written language in the 10th Century - and that the Bible could be a historical account written as events happened, rather than having been written hundreds of years later.



The inscription was engraved near the edge of the jar before it was fired, and only a fragment of it has been found, along with fragments of six large jars of the same type.



The fragments were used to stabilize the earth fill under the second floor of the building they were discovered in, which dates to the Early Iron IIA period (10th century BCE).



An analysis of the jars' clay composition indicates that they are all of a similar make, and probably originate in the central hill country near Jerusalem.



According to Prof. Ahituv, the inscription is not complete and probably wound around the jar's shoulder, while the remaining portion is just the end of the inscription and one letter from the beginning.

















































