Samaria ostraca
Sketch of a selection of ostraca
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| Material | Clay ostraca |
|---|---|
| Writing | Paleo-Hebrew script |
| Created | c. 750–850 BC |
| Discovered | 1910 |
| Present location | Istanbul Archaeology Museums |
The Samaria Ostraca are 102 ostraca found in 1910 in excavations in Sebastia, Nablus (ancient Samaria) led by George Andrew Reisner of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Of the 102, only 63 are legible. The ostraca are written in the paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which very closely resemble those of the Siloam Inscription, but show a slight development of the cursive script.
These ostraca were found in the treasury of the palace of Ahab, king of Israel (Samaria) and probably date about his period, 750–850 BCE. They are currently held in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.
They are written on fragments of five different types of vessels—large thick amphorae, with a drab or grey surface; large thin amphorae, with a drab or grey surface; jugs of soft brown ware with a reddish slip; basins of the same ware; and bowls of coarse ware with a red or yellow slip, all of these presumably being vessels that were used in receiving and storing the revenue. Sherds with a smooth surface or a slip would naturally be preferred for writing.
These ostraca are evidently part of a somewhat clumsy method of book-keeping. Either they were a "day-book," notes of daily receipts to be written up in some form of "ledger" afterwards; or they were the sole record kept of the amount of wine and oil received in various years from various places. They may have been written and handed in by the givers, not by the receivers.
All of them began with a date, such as "In the ninth, tenth, or fifteenth year" presumably of the reign of Ahab. This is followed by the amount and quality of wine or oil received, with the name of the place where it came from and of the giver, such as "in the tenth year wine of Kerm-ha-Tell for a jar of fine oil" where evidently wine was accepted in place of fine oil. "A jar of old wine" and "a jar of fine oil" are the most usual descriptions.
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