Archaeologists discover ancient Jewish artifacts, part of Jerusalem walls
Israeli archaeologists have made two recent discoveries expanding knowledge of Jewish history as far back as the time of the First Temple in the seventh century BC.
In one find, Israeli archaeologists unveiled the earliest known reference to Jerusalem in the Hebrew language that doesn’t come from the Bible. On a small piece of papyrus, part of a wine-shipping order, is written in ancient Hebrew: “From the king’s maidservant, from Na’arat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem.”
Plundered from a cave in the Judean Desert (in what is today the West Bank) by antiquities robbers, the papyrus was recovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s robbery prevention unit, dated, and analyzed.
