Archaeologists believe that they may have found a jug belonging to an ancient judge of Israel.
A fragment of a clay pot, with an inscription bearing the name "Jerubbaal," was excavated in a storage pit in Khirbat er-Ra'i, Haaretz reported.
The discovery was revealed on Monday by the Israel Antiquities Authority which is handling the excavation of the site, led by Sa'ar Ganor, alongside Hebrew University's Prof. Yossi Garfinkel and Macquarie University's Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davis.
The small vessel, with a capacity of about a liter, was thought to have been a container of a precious liquid. The inscription, deciphered by the epigraphic expert from George Washington University, Christopher Rollston, was written in an ancient alphabetic script. This form of alphabet was said to have been invented by the Canaanites, but influenced by the Egyptians, around 1800 BCE.
"They continued to use this script, which evolved from Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Bronze Age [1500-1200 BCE] and Iron Age I [1200-1000 BCE]. The Hebrew and Phoenician scripts were developed only in the middle of the tenth century BCE," Garfinkel stated, captured by The Jerusalem Post.
Rollston translated the letters into yod, resh, beit, ayin, lamed which equates to YRBA'L or Jerubbaal, one of the judges of Israel. The archaeologists believe that the original inscription could be longer but is lost.
However, since the writing is in the Canaanite script, they are also speculating that the owner of the pot was merely a Canaanite who bore the name Jerubbaal.
The team only renovated the site upon uncovering a pottery similar to their findings in Khirbat Quiyafa, a fortified city during the era of King David which was around 10th century BCE, and did not expect to discover a site dating back to the time of the Book of Judges.
"We thought we might find another fortress, but instead we only found six rooms dating back to that period, so it looks like at that point it might have been just a small village," Garfinkel revealed.
He also shared that the area, which has been under excavation since 2015, was already surveyed by the British archaeologists in the 19th century.
The archaeologist classified Khirbat er-Ra'i as a Canaanite site with a strong Philistine influence, based on the findings.
"I believe that the site was mostly inhabited by Canaanite refugees, who came to live under Philistine hegemony," he said.
Khirbat er-Ra'i is near Lachish, a place which became a prominent city of the Canaanites.
In the Bible, Jerubbaal was the name given to Gideon by the townspeople of Oprah after he teared down his father's altar to a false god called Baal, in obedience to the LORD's command.
"Let Baal contend with him," the people said.
Gideon, the son of Joash the Abiezrite, became one of the judges of Israel when he saved his fellow countrymen from the oppression of Midian. God gave them into the hands of the Midianites after the Jews did evil before His eyes.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were instructed to only worship YHWH, the One True God.When they defied this order and continued on sinning, the Lord would give them to their enemies until they cry out to Him for deliverance.
