Zayit Stone

Zayit Stone

Drawing of inscription on the Zayit Stone
Material	Limestone boulder
Size	38 pounds
Writing	Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew
Created	Tenth century BCE
Discovered	2005

The Zayit Stone is a 38 pound limestone boulder discovered on 15 July 2005 at Tel Zayit (Zeitah) in the Guvrin Valley, about 50 km (35 miles) southwest of Jerusalem. The boulder measures 37.5 cm × 27 cm × 15.7 cm high and was embedded in the stone wall of a building. Although some scholars consider the text to be written in the Phoenician alphabet, it is frequently considered to be the earliest known example of the complete Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. The flat side of the boulder is inscribed with a complete abecedary, although in a different order to the traditional version. The first line contains eighteen letters (aleph through tsadi), while the second contains the remaining four letters (qoph through tav) followed by two enigmatic zigzag symbols.

One side of the stone carries the Paleo-Hebrew abecedary extending over two lines:

In modern Hebrew alphabet, the letters are:

There is some debate over whether the forms of these letters are anticipatory of later developments in Hebrew and should thus be characterized as "Palaeo-Hebrew" or whether they lack such features and should be characterized as "Phoenician" or more generally "South Canaanite."

The side opposite this inscription has a bowl-shaped depression measuring 18.5 cm × 14.5 cm × 6.7 cm deep. Other similar ground stone objects have been recovered at Tel Zayit. Their function is uncertain, but "they may have served as mortars, door sockets, or basins of some kind."

The very top line of the inscription contain the letters:

In the modern Hebrew alphabet this translates to:

The word עזר is mentioned in the bible many times and depending on the verse, it either translates to, "Help" or "Helper". For example: "Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me; Lord, be my helper" (Psalms 30:11), "And I looked, and there was none to help" (Isaiah 63:5).

The stone was discovered on July 15, 2005 by volunteer excavator, Dan Rypma, during excavations under the direction of Ron E. Tappy of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary at Tel Zayit as part of the archeological excavations which took place during the 1999–2001, 2005, 2007, and 2009–2011 seasons.

The inscription was discovered in situ in what appears to be a tertiary usage as part of wall 2307/2389 in square O19. Like the Gezer calendar, the abecedary is an important witness to the letter forms in use in the Levant in the early Iron Age.