Name inscribed on ancient pot linked to rival of biblical King David

A 3000-year-old pot carrying the name of one of King David’s rivals has sent ripples of excitement through Israel as new, rare evidence of the biblical story’s authenticity.

Ancient pot linked to King David

A 3000-year-old pot carrying the name of one of King David’s rivals has sent ripples of excitement through Israel’s archaeological community as new, rare, evidence of the biblical story’s authenticity.

The ancient Canaanite pictogram inscription has been interpreted as reading “Ishba’al son of Beda” — the same name as given to the son of King Saul as mentioned in the Book of Chronicles. This is believed to be the same person as Ishboshet — a rival of King David described in the Book of Samuel.

#pt From right2left: aleph (w/ bull horns) shin (like snake) bet (like house) ayin (like eye) + lamed #archaeology pic.twitter.com/7B7ktE5Iih

— Ilån Bεn Zıon (@IlanBenZion) June 16, 2015

The name means ‘Man of Ba’al’. The storm god, Ba’al, is often referred to as the religion of Israel’s early opponents. The identity and meaning of ‘Beda’ remains unknown.

In the biblical story, Ishba’al was assassinated by soldiers loyal to his father.

King David’s palace? These ruins at Khirbet Qeiyafa have been linked to the biblical city of Shaarayim. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority

‘King David’s Palace’

The fragmented pot was unearthed at a dig in 2012 among ruins at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley, an area west of Jerusalem. It’s a valley linked to David’s slaying of the giant Goliath.

The pot has only recently been reconstructed and the script translated.

Evidence of the biblical origins of the state of Israel has been scant. The modern state places great significance in finding such evidence to help justify its controversial occupation of Palestinian territories.

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This is why this 1cm tall inscription is being met with such fanfare.

One of the Israeli archaeologists involved described it as a “once in a lifetime” find in their article published in the journal Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

The pot’s discoverers, Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, have previously claimed the Khirbet Qeiyafa site to be the site of a palace and royal storehouse that “belonged to King David”.

It is touted as being the fortified town of Shaarayim as mentioned in the bible.

“This is the only site in which organic material was found — including olive seeds — that can be carbon-14 dated” to the period of King David’s reign, Israel Antiquities Authority spokeswoman said in 2013.

So far, however, the only evidence for this link is found in the name Shaarayim itself. It means “two gates”. Khirbet Qeiyafa has two gates in its ruined walls.

Man of Ba’al ... The inscription on the fragmented pot found at Khirbet Qeiyafa. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority

What’s in a name?

The Israeli archaeologists have not gone so far as to claim the pot belonged to the biblical character. They state that it simply shows the name existed during the early Israelite period.

“It is interesting to note that the name Ishbaʽal appears in the bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David, in the first half of the tenth century BCE,” the archaeologists wrote.

Garfinkel stated in an Israel Antiquities Authority press release that there were no known Judaean inscriptions from the biblical period of King David as recently as five or six years ago. Now there are four, he says.

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There had been doubts that there was even writing in the Holy Land at that time.

“You can see that it existed; before this we didn’t even have any evidence that writing or literacy existed at all,” Garfinkel said.

“Researching any culture we would like to know if the people knew to read and write,” he said. “In this specific case study it’s even more important because it’s the beginning of the biblical tradition, and then it’s not just of interest to 40 archaeologists but to billions of people.”