Image Details

TAL ROGOVSKY

SOLDIERS FOR HIRE. After its 11th- or tenth-century destruction, Khirbet al-Ra‘i remained abandoned until the seventh century BCE, when it was absorbed into the kingdom of Judah. By that time, however, the settlement was confined to the site’s summit, where a large building, perhaps a fort, was constructed. In this building, excavators discovered a sherd inscribed with the letters kty, likely a reference to the kittim, Greek mercenaries known from other contemporary Judahite sources such as the Arad Letters. This would suggest that the site was a Judahite outpost housing a garrison of foreign mercenaries.