Philistine Izbet Sartah Ostracon (1000 BCE)

(November 10, 2023) Each line on the Izbet Sartah Ostracon (pottery shard) was written by different people, probably students. The top section is an analysis on the cause of a minor drought and on why the threads of the life network are not working as they should. The newest student wrote the last line which was an "abc" list for the last line yet he or she got a few things wrong.

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 6)

1. A’û  ṢaRāḪu  A  Tu.  A’û [ ] (Lev 6.1)
2. Šū  Tu  Ne’u  Qu  Ḫu.  A  Tu  Lu  AYu. [ ] Ṭa’u Bu.  Ṭu [ ] (Lev 6.2)
3. PuQu  Qu  Qû (Lev 6.3)
4. Qi’u  Qu  GaLû.  Nu  ḪaMû.  A  Tu  Lu  EDû.   Zu  Qu  Se’u.  Ta’û  A’û  Lu  AḪû.  Lu  Pa’ȗ  Du [ ]
5. ABGDEḪZTUKLMNSYŠPQṢT

 In English

1. Motion-powers are excited by these astrology-magic-powers. Motion-powers …
2. The same astrology-magic is affecting the divine threads of Hu. That astrology-magic is lacking Ayu. [missing word] is pasturing the nourishments. Thu [ ].
3. Thread-Openers (Ayu and eagle-vultures) can thread the threads.
4. Envy detaches the threads. The Revealer is paralyzed. Those astrological-powers are lacking awareness. Emanations are blocking the threads. The pasture's (night sky) motion-powers are lacking attendants (owls).  The lack of divine-birds for the life-powers [ ]
5. (student) A B G D E Ḫ Z Ṭ W K L M N S I ’ Š P Q Ṣ T (missed the R, conflated P and Q signs, and reversed signs for B and L)

Line 1 states the common view that motion powers move the fertility fluids through the life network of Atu (Hu and Ba'al)

Line 2 states that because of the rituals of magic crafters that the goddess Ayu who normally trims the unwanted network lines is being inhibited. Thu is the hermaphrodite connective deity of the motion powers.

Line 3 refers to "snake birds" which are the motion power's equivalent to the link trimming eagle-vultures of the life powers.

Line 4 states that the emotion of envy is behind the emotion magic of the magic crafters and that is what is detaching the threads of the life network. This paralyzes the Revealer (god Yahu) because his activities need to be triggered by the fertility fluids. This lack of threads for rain and plant growth is drying up the pastures.

This pottery shard (ostracon) was found during the 1976-1978 excavation at Izbet Sartah which is located in what is now in Rosh-Ha''ayin, a far eastern suburb of Tel Aviv. This was the border between the coastal plain and the hill country. Its site overlooked the Nahal (Wadi) Raba valley which is a major tributary to the Yarkon River leading to the coast. This inscription was first published in 1977 by the excavation’s lead excavator Moshe Kochavi (Kochavi 1977). The shard dimensions are 16 x 9 cm and it has never been translated.  

The small settlement at Izbet Sartah was sort lived only being in existence during the eras of Iron Age 1A (1190-1140 BCE) and Iron Age 1B (1140-980 BCE).  It only has 3 strata. The lowest strata was settled by the Philistines and was composed of small wooden or mud brick dwellings with adjacent storage pits. After the great drought ended and prosperity returned these poor dwellings were cleared away to make room for a stone 4-room house located at the center of the settlement. While typically thought of as Israelite this style of house seems to have been a standard style for the whole area. 

The stone house was surrounded by dozens of smaller poorer buildings. This lasted until the settlement was temporarily abandoned around 1020 BCE for a time long enough for the stone house to fall into disrepair. The last phase of settlement did not last long but its people were able to return and repair the four-room house until it was permanently abandoned around 980 BCE.

This abandonment suggests that some conflict forced its people to flee. This conflict would have been the same one which led to the complete destruction of Shechem and nearby Shiloh by fire around 1000 BCE by an unknown group. At the time Shechem was the ruling city of the hill country based upon its size and common pottery culture (Finkelstein, 2019). The people of Israel were these hill people.  

Scholars trying to translate this inscription have been puzzled. In 1978, Joseph Navah claimed that the lines in this inscription:

In 1980 Frank Cross gave this opinion:

(August 10, 2022)  Genetic studies show the Philistines were mostly European/Aegean in origin. A recent study compared 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from the Philistine city of Ashkelon. They found that the early Iron Age population of this city was genetically distinct from the Bronze Age people yet this genetic difference was no longer detectible in the later Iron Age population. 

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