The Souce of the Lead of the Mount Ebal "Tablet"

The lead object from Mt. Ebal, defined as a "tablet" with an inscription by Stripling et al. (2023), was found during the secondary sifting of sediments from A. Zertal's 1980s excavations at the site. It was sampled for Lead Isotope Analysis to identify the source of the lead and to potentially shed light on its date. The results showed that the lead can be sourced to the mines of Lavrion in Greece, which were exploited almost continually from the fourth millennium B C E until the Late Roman period. As such, the source of the lead is inconclusive as a factor in determining the secure date of this artifact.