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Hebrew Ostraca from Samaria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

David G. Lyon
David G. Lyon
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

In 1908 Harvard University began the exploration of the large hill in central Palestine which marks the site of the ancient Hebrew capital Samaria. The chief results of the year's work were the discovery of a Roman statue of heroic size (probably representing Augustus), a well-preserved Roman altar, an imposing stairway, about eighty feet broad, and the massive foundation-walls of a large building, the connection of which with the Herodian temple to Augustus was considered possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , January 1911 , pp. 136 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1911

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References

2 See this Review for January, 1909.

3 See this Review for April, 1910.

4 The numbers given refer to the enumeration in Professor Reisner's special report on this subject.

5 It is of course often doubtful what vowels to supply in reading these names, and the doubt is increased by the infrequency of the vowel letters. Where the same name occurs in the Old Testament, the vowels represented by the masoretic points have usually been inserted.

6 The copy of the ostracon reads m as the third letter of this name, but there is a break of the fragment across the letter. Since m and n are very much alike, it may be suspected that the break has obscured the reading. If, however, m be the correct reading, we may have here an error of the Hebrew scribe; of such errors at least two others seem to occur in the ostraca. 'Elnathan seems the more likely form of the word.

7 The reading of the first letter in this name is doubtful.

8 The first element is written here Ba‘ala‘, with final ‘ain, which seems to be a scribal error for Ba‘alâ, with final 'aleph.

9 The letters a, i, o with circumflex above them (â, î, ô,) are used in the transliteration of names in this article to indicate the presence of 'aleph, yod, and waw respectively.