A clay tablet identified as a legal document from the Biblical city of Hazor estimated to be about 3600 years old has been restored to the Hebrew University by an American tourist who discovered it at the probable site of Hazor ten years ago. The tourist, who was not identified took the fragment out of the country at the time. According to Israeli law, such archaeological finds must be submitted to the department of antiquities.
Prof. Yigael Yadin, head of the University’s Institute of Archaeology, said the object probably came from the royal archives at Hazor which have not yet been discovered. The Arkadian cuneiform inscriptions correspond with a section of an Arkadian-Sumerian dictionary also discovered at the same site, Prof. Yadin said.
The tourist showed his find to Prof. W. Hallo of Yare University in 1971. Prof. Hallo identified it as a legal document in which the King of Hazor rendered a judgement in favor of a woman in connection with real estate in his kingdom. The inscription is in the old Babylonian style of the Late Period and dates approximately to the 17th century BCS. According to Prof. Yadin the find makes it possible to identify the site of Biblical Hazor and proves there were royal scribes at the palace there.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
