Samaria Ostraca

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Hebrew-inscribed ostraca found in Samaria, the capital of ancient Israel

Samaria Ostraca

Sketch of a selection of ostraca

Material| Clay ostraca
Writing| Paleo-Hebrew script
Created| c. 850–750 BC
Discovered| 1910
Present location| Istanbul Archaeology Museums
Part of a series on

Canaanite and Aramaic
inscriptions

Corpora

* Scripturae Linguaeque Phoeniciae
* CIS (Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum)
* KAI (Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften)
* TADAE (Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt)

Discoveries (17th & 18th c.)

* Punic-Libyan bilinguals
* Cippi of Melqart
* Carpentras Stela
* Pococke Kition inscriptions
* Benhisa inscription
* Phoenician Harpocrates statues
* Nora Stone
* Athenian Greek-Phoenician inscriptions

Discoveries (19th c.)

* Tripolitania Punic inscriptions
* Elephantine papyri and ostraca
* Mdina steles
* Carthaginian tombstones
* Humbert Carthage inscriptions
* Turin Aramaic Papyrus
* Blacas papyrus
* Falbe Punic inscriptions
* Reade Punic inscriptions
* Limyra bilingual
* Abu Simbel Phoenician graffiti
* Ain Nechma inscriptions
* Kellia inscription
* Marseille Tariff
* Nimrud ivory inscriptions
* Assyrian lion weights
* Phoenician metal bowls
* Anat Athena bilingual
* Bourgade inscriptions
* Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II
* Gozo stele
* Serapeum Offering Table
* Cirta steles
* Carthage Tariff
* Son of Baalshillek marble base
* Carthage tower model
* Bodashtart inscriptions
* Kition Resheph pillars
* Ankh-Hapy stele
* Pauli Gerrei trilingual inscription
* Baalshamin inscription
* Phoenician sun dial
* Umm al-Amad votive inscription
* Cesnola Phoenician inscriptions
* Khaznadar inscriptions
* Hadrumetum Punic inscriptions
* Mesha Stele
* Abydos graffiti
* Idalion bilingual
* Idalion Temple inscriptions
* Yehawmilk Stele
* Tharros Punic inscriptions
* Royal Steward inscription
* Carthaginian slaughterhouse inscription
* Carthaginian mother goddess inscription
* Carthage Festival Offering inscription
* Wilmanns Neopunic inscriptions
* Pricot de Sainte-Marie steles
* Cherchell Neopunic inscriptions
* Bashamem inscription
* Baal Lebanon inscription
* Saqqara Aramaic Stele
* Tayma stones
* Kition Tariffs
* Adadnadinakhe bricks
* Siloam inscription
* Sant'Antioco bilingual
* Palmyra Tariff
* Osorkon Bust
* Pierides Kition inscriptions
* Eshmun obelisk
* Persephone Punic stele
* Lilybaeum stele
* Henchir Guergour Neopunic inscriptions
* Guelaât Bou Sbaâ Neopunic inscriptions
* Tyre Cistern inscription
* Tamassos bilinguals
* Masub inscription
* Tabnit sarcophagus
* Panamuwa II inscription
* Madaba Nabataean Inscriptions
* Hadad Statue
* Abdmiskar cippus
* Maktar and Mididi inscriptions
* Bar-Rakib inscriptions
* Neirab steles
* Sarıaydın inscription
* Larnakas tis Lapithou pedestal inscription
* Kilamuwa Stela
* Hasanbeyli inscription
* Kition Necropolis Phoenician inscriptions
* Douïmès medallion
* El Amrouni mausoleum
* Abiba’l inscription
* Tortosa “bomos” inscription
* El-Osiris inscription
* Avignon Punic inscription
* Punic Tabella Defixionis
* Quintus Markius trilingual inscription

Discoveries (20th c.)

* Farasa bilingual inscription
* Phoenician Adoration steles
* Banobal stele
* Eshmun inscription
* Sibbolet funeral inscription
* Stele of Zakkur
* Villaricos Phoenician stele
* Assur ostracon and tablets
* Throne of Astarte
* Gözne Boundary Stone
* Thinissut sanctuary inscription
* Gezer calendar
* Samaria Ostraca
* Olbia pedestal
* Giardino Birocchi inscription
* Sardis bilingual inscription
* Rhodes Phoenician-Greek bilingual inscriptions
* Kesecek Köyü inscription
* Aramaic Inscription of Taxila
* Arwad bilingual
* Mitsri genealogy inscription
* KNMY inscription
* Ahiram Sarcophagus
* Byblos Necropolis graffito
* Byblos altar inscription
* Ophel ostracon
* Phoenician arrowheads
* Ur Box inscription
* Byblos bronze spatulas
* Abda sherd
* Son of Safatba'al inscription
* Batnoam sarcophagus
* Yehimilk inscription
* Sefire steles
* Arslan Tash ivory inscription
* Hama graffiti
* Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription
* Arslan Tash amulets
* Tell Halaf inscription
* Agrigentum inscription
* Lachish letters
* Safatba'al inscription
* Hermopolis Aramaic papyri
* Phoenician papyrus letters
* Melqart stele
* Honeyman inscription
* Stele of Serapeitis
* Jebel Massoudj Neopunic inscription
* Adon Papyrus
* Kilamuwa scepter
* Tel Qasile ostraca
* Karatepe bilingual
* Tel el Maskhuta silver bowls
* Pumayyaton and Pnytarion's inscriptions
* Byblos clay cone inscriptions
* Carchemish Phoenician inscription
* Hatran Aramaic inscriptions
* Djinet Neopunic inscriptions
* Wadi Murabba'at papyrus
* Hazor inscriptions
* Al Jib jar handles
* Byblos marble inscription
* Kubaba Aramaic inscription
* El-Kerak Inscription
* Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription
* Yavne-Yam ostracon
* Arad ostraca
* Nebi Yunis ostraca
* Tel Dan bowl
* Seville statue of Astarte
* Khirbet Beit Lei graffiti
* Amman Citadel Inscription
* Ein Gev jar
* Phoenician Sphinx inscription
* Baalshillem Temple Boy
* Abydos Aramaic papyrus
* Pyrgi Tablets
* Carthage Administration Inscription
* Daskyleion steles
* Mozia Punic inscriptions
* Deir Alla Inscription
* Grotta Regina Punic inscriptions
* Tekke Bowl Inscription (Knossos)
* Aramaic Sustenance tablet
* Aramaic inscription of Laghman
* Tel Siran inscription
* Letoon trilingual
* Aramaic inscription from al-Mal
* Hadad-yith'i bilingual inscription
* Ketef Hinnom scrolls
* Sarepta Tanit Inscription
* Çebel Ires Dağı inscription
* Monumental Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem
* Hazael horse frontlet
* Bukan inscription
* İvriz inscription
* Bactria Aramaic documents
* Tel Dan Stele
* Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription
* Çineköy inscription
* Tablet De Geest

Discoveries (21st c.)

* Zayit Stone
* Kuttamuwa stele
* Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon
* Ataruz altar inscriptions
* Ishbaal Inscription

* v
* t
* e

The Samaria Ostraca are 102 ostraca found in 1910 in excavations in ancient Samaria (modern-day Sebastia, Nablus) led by George Andrew Reisner of the Harvard Semitic Museum.[1] These ostraca were found in the treasury of the palace of Ahab, king of Israel, and probably date about his period, 850–750 BC. Authored by royal scribes, the ostraca primarily record food deliveries, serving an archival function.[2]

The ostraca are written in the paleo-Hebrew alphabet,[3] which very closely resemble those of the Siloam Inscription, but show a slight development of the cursive script.[4] The language is typically seen as a northern Hebrew dialect.[2]

Of the 102 ostraca found, only 63 are legible.[1] The primary inscriptions are known as KAI 183–188. They are currently held in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.[5]

## Description

[edit]

Diagram of the excavation

They are written on fragments of five different types of vessels—large thick amphorae, with a drab or grey surface; large thin amphorae, with a drab or grey surface; jugs of soft brown ware with a reddish slip; basins of the same ware; and bowls of coarse ware with a red or yellow slip, all of these presumably being vessels that were used in receiving and storing the revenue. Sherds with a smooth surface or a slip would naturally be preferred for writing.

These ostraca are evidently part of a somewhat clumsy method of book-keeping. Either they were a "day-book," notes of daily receipts to be written up in some form of "ledger" afterwards, or they were the sole record kept of the amount of wine and oil received in various years from various places. It is possible they were written and handed in by the payer, not by the receiver.

All of them began with a date, such as "In the ninth, tenth, or fifteenth year" presumably of the reign of Ahab. This is followed by the amount and quality of wine or oil received, with the name of the place where it came from and of the giver, such as "in the tenth year wine of Kerm-ha-Tell for a jar of fine oil" where evidently wine was accepted in place of fine oil. "A jar of old wine" and "a jar of fine oil" are the most usual descriptions.

## Names of places

[edit]

Some names are of the villages or districts, and others are names of the peasant farmers who paid their taxes in the form of jars of wine. Of the places mentioned on these Ostraca, Shechem is the only one that can be identified with a text occurring in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). In Kerm-ha-Tell, and Kerm-Yahu-'ali, the word Kerm must mean "the village, or vineyard," Tell means "mound", maybe referring to modern Tulkarm in Samaria. Six of these place-names occur in the Hebrew Bible as "tribal subdivisions of Manasseh", in Joshua 17:2. and Numbers 26:28–33:

* Abi-'Ezer
* Khelek
* Shechem
* Shemida'
* No'ah
* Hoglah

The names of the seventeen places occurring on these Ostraca are:

* Abi-'ezer
* Azat Par'an (?)
* Azzo, possibly the current village of Azzun
* Beer-yam
* Elmatan, possibly Immatain[6]
* Gib, possibly the current village of Gaba or Jaba'[7]
* Haserot, possibly Asira ash Shamaliya[7]
* Yasot, possibly the current village of Yasid[8]
* Kerm-ha-Tell, possibly the current town of Tulkarm
* Sepher, possibly the modern-day Saffarin[6]
* Shemida'
* Shiftan, possibly the current village of Shoufa
* Kheleq
* Khoglah
* No'ah Shekem
* Shereq

## See also

[edit]

* List of artifacts significant to the Bible
* Arad ostraca
* Lachish letters

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Faigenbaum-Golovin, Shira; Shaus, Arie; Sober, Barak; Turkel, Eli; Piasetzky, Eli; Finkelstein, Israel (2020). "Algorithmic handwriting analysis of the Samaria inscriptions illuminates bureaucratic apparatus in biblical Israel". PLOS ONE. 15 (1): e0227452. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1527452F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0227452. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6975535. PMID 31968002.
* Finkelstein, Israel (2021). "Notes on the Date and Function of the Samaria Ostraca". Israel Exploration Journal. 71 (2): 162–179\. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27194659.
* Mendel, Anat; Grosman, Leore (2013). "Unpublished Hebrew and Other Northwest Semitic Inscriptions from Samaria Studied with a 3-dimensional Imaging Technology". Kleine Untersuchungen zur Sprache des Alten Testaments und Seiner Umwelt. 15: 177–188.
* Na’aman, Nadav (2019). "A new appraisal of the Samaria Ostraca". Ugarit-Forschungen. 50: 259–272\. ISSN 0342-2356.
* Noegel, Scott B. (2006). "The Samaria Ostraca" (PDF). In Chavalas, Mark William (ed.). The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 396–399\. ISBN 9780631235804.
* Richelle, Matthieu (2022). "Old and New Readings in the Samaria Ostraca". Bulletin de l'Académie Belge pour l'Étude des Langues Anciennes et Orientales. 10–11: 379–413\. doi:10.14428/babelao.vol1011.2022.65023. ISSN 2034-9491.
* Tappy, Ron E. (2016). The Archaeology of the Ostraca House at Israelite Samaria: Epigraphic Discoveries in Complicated Contexts. American Schools of Oriental Research. ISBN 978-0-89757-095-4.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Noegel 2006, p. 396.
2. ^ a b Suriano, Matthew (2007). "A Fresh Reading for 'Aged Wine' in the Samaria Ostraca". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 139 (1): 27–33\. doi:10.1179/003103207x162997. ISSN 0031-0328.
3. ^ Lyon, David G. "Hebrew Ostraca from Samaria", The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1911), pp. 136–143, quote: "The script in which these ostraca are written is the Phoenician, which was widely current in antiquity. It is very different from the so-called square character, in which the existing Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible are written."
4. ^ Suriano, Matthew (March 2007). "A Fresh Reading for 'Aged Wine' in the Samaria Ostraca". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 139 (1): 27–33\. doi:10.1179/003103207x162997. ISSN 0031-0328.
5. ^ "The Biblical Archaeologist". 1982.
6. ^ a b Millard, Alan (1995-11-01). "The Knowledge of Writing in Iron Age Palestine". Tyndale Bulletin. 46 (2): 208. doi:10.53751/001c.30407. ISSN 2752-7042. "Sixteen of the twenty-seven place names can be identified with those of Arab villages existing in the past hundred years in the countryside around Samaria (such as Elmatan, 28.3, modern Ammatin, or Sepher, 16a, b.1, 2, 29.3, modern Saffarin)"
7. ^ a b Zertal, Adam (2004). The Manasseh Hill Country Survey, Volume I: The Shechem Syncline. Leiden. pp. 76–79\. ISBN 978-90-474-1352-3. OCLC 1294374548.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. ^ Zertal, Adam (2004). The Manasseh Hill Country Survey, Volume I: The Shechem Syncline. Leiden. p. 77\. ISBN 978-90-474-1352-3. OCLC 1294374548. "The survey findings support its accepted identification with Yaset (y-s-t) of the Samaria Ostraca, nos. 9–10, 19 and 47."`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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