Mysterious inscription from the time of King David offers glimpse into the past

 A mysterious inscription from the time of King David provides a fascinating glimpse into the past, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

The inscription was discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa, in the valley of Elah southwest of Jerusalem. A ceramic jar around 3,000 years old that was broken into numerous shards was discovered in 2012. Researchers were fascinated by letters written in Canaanite script that could be seen on a number of the shards. Extensive restoration work was conducted in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority Artifacts Treatment Department, during which hundreds of pottery shards were glued together to form a whole jar. Researchers then discovered the inscription “Eshba’al Ben Beda’.” [...] “This is the first time that the name Eshbaʽal has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country,” said Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the statement. “It is interesting to note that the name Eshbaʽal appears in the Bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David.”

Once again evidence that (despite what anti-collecting archeologists are always saying) and regardless of archeological "context:", artefacts by themselves can reveal important information about the past.

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