Jerusalem – The Israel Antiquities Authority says archeologists digging at a Jerusalem site have found the oldest artifact that bears the inscription of Bethlehem – a 2,700 years old seal.
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Eli Shukron, the authority’s director of excavations, says this is the first time the city’s name has appeared on an artifact from this period. The clay seal, or bulla, was found in a Jerusalem dig.
Shukron said on Wednesday the seal bears the ancient Hebrew script used during the period of the first biblical Jewish Temple. He says pottery found nearby dates back to the same period.
He says the seal is 1.5 centimeters (0.59 inches) in diameter and was most likely used to stamp tax shipments.
Sure it’s not palestinian ??
I can read ancient Hebrew – Ksav Ivri.
There is a mistake here.
The word is in this seal is LHM להם with a ה Heh not with a ח Chess,
I don’t know what this fragment could mean, but it is certainly not Bethlehem – בית לחם
Although in our Ksav Ashuri these two letters are similarly written, in Ksav Ivri they are very different.
This is what I read
לשבעת בתלהמ כ
What is a tax stamp from Bethlehem doing in J-m? Sounds like some shady business was going on then, too…