Image Details

GERSHON GALIL; FROM STRIPLING ET AL., “‘YOU ARE CURSED BY THE GOD YHW’: AN EARLY HEBREW INSCRIPTION FROM MT. EBAL,” HERITAGE SCIENCE 11:105 (2023) / CC BY 4.0

MYSTERIOUS METAL. A diminutive lead object, measuring about an inch on each side, was discovered in 2019 during the sifting of earlier excavation dumps from the site of Mt. Ebal in the West Bank. Shortly thereafter, a group of scholars asserted this lead “tablet” contained a Hebrew inscription from the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1400–1200 BCE). Other scholars, however, remain highly skeptical.

This drawing is scholar Gershon Galil’s reconstruction of the inscription purportedly found there, showing a variety of tiny proto-alphabetic letters covering much of the object. Other scholars, however, believe these “letters” are nothing more than random scratches and indentations in the lead.