(ORDO NEWS) — University of Haifa professor Gershon Galil said he was able to decipher a 3,500-year-old stone tablet discovered in Jerusalem more than a decade ago.
According to the expert, the inscription on the artifact is a curse addressed to the then ruling governor of Jerusalem.
As the professor himself told The Times of Israel, the detailed study will soon be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
After the release of the scientific work, the deciphered inscription can officially be recognized as one of the earliest texts found to date in Jerusalem.
Professor Galil says that this stone was probably used in some kind of sacred ceremony about 3,500 years ago, which can be compared, for example, with a voodoo ceremony.
The scientist does not exclude that it was carried out by priests or other important people who were at enmity with the city authorities.
The text on the stone was a curse addressed to the ruler of Jerusalem. According to the processor Galil, the phrase repeated several times is carved on the stone tablet: “Cursed, damned, you will certainly die.” The expert translated another phrase as “the ruler of the city.”
The difficulty in deciphering lies in the fact that the inscription is made in the so-called dead language, which has long been forgotten.
The inscription contains 20 words and 63 letters of the Proto-Canaanite script, the earliest Semitic alphabet, which is considered the forerunner of modern alphabets used in the regions of the Levant.
The mysterious stone was discovered in 2010 by archaeologist Eli Shukron in an ancient complex called the Pillar Temple in the City of David, near the Gihon Spring.
Commenting on his discovery, Professor Gershon Galil, who, by the way, is the head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History at the University of Haifa, said: the translation he made proves that Jerusalem was not only a fortified city, but also a very important cultural and religious center.
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