Gezer Tablet (Formally Calendar) 840 BCE
For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts
For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts
(May 14, 2023) Put some Israelites and Philistines together in a room discussing the cause of a drought and this is the result. Slightly different line by line letter styles indicates many lines were written by different people. The themes of these lines can be classified as either Israelite or Phoenician. Phoenician texts are always supportive of magical motion powers and so blame droughts on the life powers. This is in contrast to the Israelites who were anti-magic and instead always supportive of the life powers. The middle of the road position was that of the Aegeans/Philistines who supported both but were against mixing them inappropriately.
(May 3, 2023) Droughts separate the archaeological periods in the Levant. States weakened by local droughts were often subject to raids right after the droughts by Mesopotamian empires which were unaffected due to their irrigation. Below is the latest widely accepted chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014 shown below:
The Gezer tablet was found in September 1908 during the first archaeological dig at Gezer by R.A.S. Macalister. (Albright 1943)
Gezer was located 18 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Jerusalem on the coastal plain near the border with the hill country. Just prior to the writing of the tablet Gezer had been a prosperous Israelite trading city with the Philistines for 140 years. It was last destroyed during the troubles surrounding the previous 980 BCE drought. After that it was extensively rebuilt by the presumed victor in that struggle which was growing state of (northern) Israel with its capital at Samaria. This was the time when Gezer’s fabled 6 chambered gate and large walls were built.
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These walls would stand for the next 300 years until destroyed by Assyria in 733 BCE (Ortiz and Wolf 2012). An identical gate was built at the same time in the northern trading city of Hazor indicating the same political entity (northern Israel) was responsible for both (Finkelstein 2013). Jerusalem at the time was no larger than Gezer and not as important strategically beyond being the gateway to the Dead Sea area. Jerusalem at the time was at the end of the line for Israelite civilization.
To get a sense of population scale from archaeology, Gezer at this time had a size of 108 dunams. Given an average people density of 50 per dunam this produces a population of 5,400 people. Compare this to Jerusalem at the time which had a size of 130 dunams and so had a population of 6,500 people (Shiloh 1980). In contrast, the Israelite capital city of Samaria had a population twice that of Jerusalem (Broshi and Finkelstein 1992). A rough estimate of the number of people surrounding a city but within its economic zone can be found by multiplying the city population by a factor of 7.
The Gezer rebuilt after the 980 BCE drought was well planned having three distinct areas:
Gezer did not emerge completely unscathed from the 840 BCE Elijah drought and its resulting troubles. After the Elijah drought a social and economic change is observed. Its large administrative center was razed and replaced by housing even though the rest of the city was not destroyed. During the 700’s BCE as the central rule of Judah strengthened this former administrative district would once again start to see administrative buildings with many built on the same lines as the razed ones (Ortiz and Wolf 2012).
(September 6, 2022)
Biblical scholar William Albright (Albright 1943) was the first to propose a translation soon after this tablet was discovered. Yet, many Hebrew scholars today claim that this text is not in Hebrew. These include Andre Llemaire in the year 2000 and Benjamin Sass (Sass 2005 page 84).
YR is Hebrew for “calendar” not month. W does not mean 2nd. That number is represented by the letter B. Letter het (Ḫ) is not a possessive ending ("his"). That letter is the dual use He written in English as either H or E. It is the H used in the word “Yahweh” for example. “Z” does not exist in the text and does not mean “are.”
Albright uses the Hebrew shin letter assignment (Š) which is reversed in Alphabetic Akkadian (Ṣ). This change is /s/ sounds for the tribe of Judah is reflected in the shibboleth story of Judges 12.
Albright somehow sees a P in front of this unusual shin. The word ‘şd is not a known Hebrew word so "howing" is a wild guess (see Talmon – 1963)
‘RM – The picture shows the circle (‘) and stick (R) lines to be touching so it has to be a P. Also, the stick has no triangle so not an R.
# - Albright did not put in the T which is impossible to miss
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(March 20, 2023)
(March 20, 2023)
(March 20, 2023)