Within about 100 feet of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a remarkable treasure has been discovered: a small fragment of a cuneiform inscription. The text is Neo-Assyrian and dates to the middle of the First Temple period, likely the eighth or seventh century BCE. Although it preserves only about 20 cuneiform signs, it appears to pertain to a delay in payment, possibly of a royal tax that was owed to Assyria by the kings of Judah. The inscription appears to be from a bulla, a small piece of clay used to seal a more extensive document; this is suggested by how thin […]
