The first authentic and complete picture of the recent valuable discoveries of ancient Hebrew archives at Tel Ad-Duweir, near Jerusalem, was brought yesterday to New York by the man who promoted and participated in the archaeological expedition which unearthed the priceless porcelain tablets.
The man is Sir Charles Marston, author, archaeologist and member of the British Archaeological Expedition. He arrived in New York yesterday directly from Palestine, bringing with him photographs of some of the documents unearthed in ancient Lachish, now known as Tel Ad-Duweir.
“The photographs will be published by me in a few days, so that the writings will be at the disposal of the Semitic and Hebrew authorities in this country,” Sir Charles stated to a representative of The Jewish Daily Bulletin.
PROMOTED EXPEDITION
Himself a promoter of expeditions to excavate the soil of Palestine for three years on the site of the Biblical city of Lachish.
Speaking yesterday over a National Broadcasting company network from New York, Sir Charles explained how the recent discovery confirming the Old Testament story of the Kingdom of Judah was made.
“Seven hundred years before Christ, next to Jerusalem, Lachish was the most important place in the Kingdom of Judah,” Sir Charles said. “Bible readers will remember how Sennacherib, the great King of Assyrica, besieged it in those days of Hezekiah, King of Judah. A hundred years or so after that Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon destroyed and burnt Lachish. You will remember the wonderful stories about Nebuchadnezzar in the first four chapters of the book of Daniel. He carried all the Jews into captivity.
DUG INTO BURNT RUINS
“This January the expedition dug into the burnt ruins that Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers had left. Like all these old places Lachish had been surrounded by massive walls and towers, parts of which are still standing.
“On the floor of a room in the eastern tower of the gateway, the excavators dug through the burnt rubbish and underneath they found objects of priceless value to modern knowledge, about which I am now going to tell you. But here I would point out that though I did not make the find myself, yet it was one of my expedition that did so.
“I reached Jerusalem about a fortnight after the discovery, and at once motored south to Hebron and then went down a steep gorge to the site of Lachish, now known as Tel Ad-Duweir.
WRITING IN INK
“The journey took just over two hours in a car. I was taken into a little museum, and there on a table were eleven pieces of broken pottery. They looked like fragments from storage jars. Some were red, others were buff colored, but all seemed to belong to jars of similar size and shape. The pieces were roughly about four or five inches square and across each of them in regular flowing straight lines was ink writing. Some of this ink writing was as distinct as the day it was penned, before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city more than 2,500 years ago.
“It is thought that these pieces of pottery had been used to fill the gaps between the stones of the side walls of the room where they lay before it was plastered and that the plaster had preserved the ink writing from fading during all these 2,500 years.
“The staff of the expedition included an excellent young photographer, Mr. Richmond Brown, and when I arrived photographs of the ink inscription had all been sent to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for decipherment and translation. I saw and read the earlier attempts that had been made at translation, but I was asked not to make copies, or even allow copies to be published until the work was complete. I was able, however, to cable the New York Times from Jerusalem on February 17 to announce the discovery, and to indicate what was written on one of the pieces of pottery.
“The writings are in the Hebrew language, the same language in which the Old Testament is written.
“The oldest existing copy of the Old Testament in Hebrew that the world possesses today was written about 1,000 years ago. These Lachish inscriptions are 1,500 years older than that copy. Yet despite that fact, many of the words, and the expressions and the names used are precisely the same. This affords very convincing evidence for the authenticity and the integrity of the text of the Hebrew Bible.
ARE COPIES OF LETTERS
“These Lachish writings are copies of letters sent by the governor of Lachish to his king in Jerusalem. The letters themselves were doubtless written on papyrus paper, the same sort of paper as the prophet Jeremiah used to write his prophecies when the King of Judah burnt them.
“The first inscription deciphered contained the names of Jeremiah, Gemariah, Mataniah, Jaazaniah and Hagab. All those names occur in the Old Testament associated with the time of the prophet Jeremiah.
“It seemed evident when I was at Lachish that the letters had been written to one of the last kings of Judah, before Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon carried the Jews into captivity, and the further decipherment and study of the letters since I left does not seem to have altered this conclusion.
JAHVE FOR GOD
“The Hebrew Bible contains various names for God. One familiar to us as Jehovah, occurs several times in the letters, not as Jehovah at all but as J.A.H.V.E. or JAHVE and thus a long standing scholastic question is settled.
“I remember besides that the tone and substance of the letters suggested that they were written in a time of great national trouble, such as is suggested by the history recorded of the Second Book of the Kings, in the last two chapters.
“The writer of two of the letters presumably the governor of Lachish, in addressing his lord, the king, likens himself to a dog.
“Such is a short story of the findings of a great archaeological treasure and a summary of what that treasure consists. It is safe to predict that this 2,500-year-old ink writing on a few worthless potsherds is going to change the whole outlook of modern civilization. Its more immediate effect will be to change modern notions about the Bible,” Sir Charles concluded.
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.
