Tel Zayit abecedary
example of Phoenician or Old Hebrew script
The Zayit Stone is a 38-pound (17 kg) limestone boulder dating to the 10th century BCE, discovered on 15 July 2005 at Tel Zayit (Zeitah) in the Guvrin Valley, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Jerusalem. The boulder measures 37.5 by 27 by 15.7 centimetres (14.8 in × 10.6 in × 6.2 in) and was embedded in the stone wall of a building.
It is the earliest known example of the complete Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew alphabet as it had developed after the Bronze Age collapse out of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet.
The flat side of the boulder is inscribed with a complete abecedary, although in a different order to the traditional version. The first line contains eighteen letters (aleph through tsadi), while the second contains the remaining four letters (qoph through tav) followed by two enigmatic zigzag symbols.
Description
One side of the stone carries the Northwest Semitic (Phoenician) abecedary extending over two lines:
Rendered in the modern Hebrew alphabet, this corresponds to the sequence:
א ב ג ד ו ה ח ז ט י ל כ מ נ ס ע פ צ
ק ר ש ת
In other words, the Zayit abecedary has the order ו ה ח ז ט י ל כ compared to the standard Semitic abjad order of ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל, switching the positions of he and waw, of zayin and heth, and of kaph and lamedh.
The very top line of the inscription contain the letters:
In the modern Hebrew alphabet this translates to עזר, transliterated ʿzr.
This is the given name Ezer (Hebrew: עֵזֶר, romanized: ‘ēzer, lit. 'help, helper').
The side opposite this inscription has a bowl-shaped depression measuring 18.5 by 14.5 by 6.7 centimetres (7.3 in × 5.7 in × 2.6 in), a volume of approximately 1.8 litres (110 cu in). Other similar ground stone objects have been recovered at Tel Zayit.
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