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Photo courtesy of Dr. Ze’ev Meshel/Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology

The reconstructed text on the plaster fragments is also Hebrew but written in Phoenician script: “May he lengthen their days and may they be sated … recount to YHWH of Teman and his asherah … because YHWH of the Teman has shown them favor, has bettered their days.” These geographical references in connection with a deity (Yahweh of Teman or Shomron) were fairly common in antiquity and indicated the area(s) over which the deity ruled or where he dwelled.