A Corpus of Iron Age II Inscriptions from Jerusalem: The Background for the Writing of Biblical Texts

Of the numerous Iron Age II (First Temple period) ancient sites across the southern Levant, none has yielded as many inscriptions as Jerusalem. This abundance manifests in numbers as well as diversity of forms, media, and subjects. They include personal names and titles of kings, princes, governors, scribes, priests, sons, daughters, fathers, wives, and grandfathers (approximately a dozen names are biblically attested) and feature content of a general historical, geopolitical, financial, commemorative, and religious nature. These inscriptions broadly span from the Iron Age IIA to the fall of Jerusalem, ca. 586 BCE. Here, we review the corpus of provenanced Iron Age II inscriptions from Jerusalem and conclude that its size and quality demonstrate a significant literary capacity, the background for the writing of biblical texts.