Arad Archive, 900 BCE-early 6th century BCE

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Early Hebrew letters

Eighteen different documents were found by Yohanan Aharoni in Arad in 1964. The Arad inscriptions range over a period of 350 years, covering six different strata. As a result, we can study the development of cursive Hebrew script—so-called old Hebrew (as opposed to the later square Hebrew script)—from the United Monarchy, say about 950 BCE, to the Babylonian conquest of Judah in the early sixth century BCE.

One of the documents is a letter to Eliashib, commander of a fortress in southern Judea, asking him to give wine and flour to the Kittiyim:

To Eliashib: And now, give the Kittiyim three baths of wine, and write the name of the day. And from the rest of the first flour, send one homer of flour in order to make bread for them. Give them the wine from the aganoth vessels.

Arad, Ze’ev Herzog, Miriam Aharoni, and Anson F. Rainey, BAR 13:02, Mar/Apr 1987.

The Saga of Eliashib, Anson F. Rainey, BAR 13:02, Mar/Apr 1987.

Israel Museum

See also:

• Arad Inscription, 609 BCE
• Arad Ostraca, c. 600 BCE
• Arad Temple, 10th-6th century BCE
• The Well at Arad, Ruth Amiran, Rolf Goethert, and Ornit Ilan, BAR 13:02, Mar/Apr 1987.
• Caught Between the Great Powers, Abraham Malamat, BAR 25:04, Jul/Aug 1999.