Endnote 3 – Arad—An Ancient Israelite Fortress with a Temple to Yahweh

Frank Moore Cross, who also made reference to the supposed confusion in the stratigraphy at Arad, suggested that the second letter was not kaf but a Phoenician shin of the sixth century B.C. On one of the bowls, the central stroke is so long as to preclude any association with a Phoenician shin; therefore, we reject his paleographic argument out of hand. Furthermore, those bowls were buried beneath a fill of stratum IX which itself was sealed by floors of the later strata. The stratigraphy here is absolutely certain and in no way confused.