Endnote 17 – The Bat Creek Inscription: Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee?

The head of daleth is not ordinarily open as it is here. Nevertheless, this occasionally occurs in paleo-Hebrew manuscripts from Qumran (for example, 11 Q paleo Lev). See Freedman and Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, in particular plate 16, column 3, third line from bottom, seventh word from right. Likewise, the vertical should normally be capped by the crossbar, rather than extending above it as in Bat Creek. However, this feature is also occasionally attested. See, for example, Yaakov Meshorer, Coins Reveal (New York: The Jewish Museum, 1983), Collection Handbooks, vol. 1, in particular the d in the word yhd on #20, a coin of Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.).