Hold the Line

“Israeli archaeologists, mathematicians and physicists are joining forces to uncover the meaning behind inscriptions found on pottery fragments believed to be more than 2,500 years old.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday that a Tel Aviv University team has been examining pieces of First Temple-era pots and vessels with ancient inscriptions scratched in. The ancient pot fragment is known as an ostracon.”

“Even more gripping is the tale told by perhaps the most known ostracon from the period, which was found in Lachish, the largest Judahite town after Jerusalem. In the dispatch, an official stationed outside the city reports to his commander on the fall of a nearby stronghold, saying that “we can see the signals from Lachish, but we no longer see Azekah.”

Scholars have taken this as a confirmation of the biblical narrative of Jeremiah, which recounts that Azekah and Lachish were the last fortresses of Judah to fall before Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II.”

Original article: here