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Reading trail · 5 steps

Three inscriptions, three museums

How an inscription travels from the excavation to the collection: a sherd from Lachish in London, basalt from Tel Dan in Jerusalem, a Cypriot amphora in New York. Five steps, each saying why it is here and what was checked.

Start the trail
Pale terracotta amphora with two handles, a pointed base and painted Phoenician writing on its upper body
Photograph of the object: Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription Cypriot amphora with a painted Phoenician inscription, sixth-fifth century BCE. A comparison for writing on vessels; not the Jerusalem inscription. The Met, 74.51.2300.The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 74.51.2300 · The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76 · CC0 · Source · CC0 1.0

Three inscriptions from the Iron Age and a little after, three media (ink on a sherd, carving in basalt, an inscription on a clay vessel) and three museums in three cities. The trail does not claim that the inscriptions are related to one another; it follows the question of what is known about each, where the information comes from, and what happened to the object between the excavation and the display case.

Each step links to a page on this site when one exists in this language, and otherwise to the museum's official page. A step without a page is not deleted: it stays on the trail with its reason.

  1. Detail of the photograph: The upper line: a name, probably the owner's · Pale terracotta amphora with two handles, a pointed base and painted Phoenician writing on its upper body
    Detail of the photograph: Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription The upper line: a name, probably the owner's.The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 74.51.2300 · The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76 · CC0 · Source · CC0 1.0

    Step 1 · RESEARCH & METHOD

    Reading an ancient inscription: from mark to claim

    Photograph, transcription, reconstruction and translation are different steps. A guide to reading names, numbers and meaning on objects.

    Why this step

    Before the objects: how an inscription is read. The article separates script, language and medium, and explains what a reading can and cannot establish. Its two examples are exactly the next two stops.

    Per sources 1, 2 · Verified
    Open this step

  2. No photographText frame in place of a photograph

    Lachish Letter VIII

    Material
    Pottery
    Dimensions
    Length 6.40 cm; width 9.50 cm; thickness 0.30-0.50 cm
    Date as given by the source
    Iron Age; no numeric date in the record
    Record number
    125704 · 1959,0711.4
    Held by
    The British Museum, London

    The source states no licence for its image, so it is not reproduced here

    Step 2 · Object

    Lachish Letter VIII

    A sherd of a pottery vessel with a Hebrew inscription in ink, found at Lachish and on display today in London. The ink is very faded, the record gives no numeric date, and it must not be confused with Letter II.

    Date as given by the source: Iron Age; no numeric date in the record

    Why this step

    Ink on a sherd. A letter found in excavation at Lachish, with a registration number, a findspot and a condition note ("ink very faded"), on display today in London.

    Per source 1 · On display (Room 57 - Ancient Levant, Display Case 10) · Verified
    Open this step
  3. The Tel Dan stele: dark basalt fragments with an incised Aramaic inscription, assembled and displayed on a mount
    Photograph of the object The Tel Dan stele at a temporary exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, February 2017: a visitor's photograph, not the record's image. The stele is held by the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (record 371407-0).Oren Rozen · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Step 3 · Object

    The Tel Dan stele: "House of David"

    A fragment of a basalt stele with an Aramaic inscription, found at Tel Dan and held by the Israel Museum. The photograph here is a visitor's photograph from a temporary exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in 2017 (CC BY-SA 4.0), not the record's image; the museum's own image is seen in the record.

    Date as given by the source: 9th century BCE (Iron Age II)

    Why this step

    Carved in basalt. An inscription found in excavation at Tel Dan and held in Jerusalem. The page says explicitly what the record states and what it does not, and makes no claim that the stele is on display.

    Per source 2 · Iron Age II, 9th century BCE · Verified
    Open this step
  4. Detail of the photograph: The lower line: "Yaton, inspector" · Pale terracotta amphora with two handles, a pointed base and painted Phoenician writing on its upper body
    Detail of the photograph: Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription The lower line: "Yaton, inspector".The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 74.51.2300 · The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76 · CC0 · Source · CC0 1.0

    Step 4 · Object

    Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription

    A Cypriot vessel, a Phoenician inscription and a findspot nobody recorded: one object that teaches us to separate what is written on it from where it came from.

    Date as given by the source: 6th-5th century BCE

    Why this step

    A Phoenician inscription on a Cypriot vessel, with no findspot in the record. The stop that shows an inscription tells of its writer, not necessarily of the vessel's origin. On view in New York.

    Per source 3 · On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 171 · Verified
    Open this step

  5. Step 5 · External page

    Lachish Letter II, British Museum collection record

    Why this step

    The official record of Lachish Letter II, in the same museum and the same display case. The other Lachish letters are not documented here as pages, so this step leads straight to the official record; Letter VIII and Letter II must not be merged.

    Per source 4 · On display (Room 57 - Ancient Levant, Display Case 10) · Verified
    Official page

Places on the trail

Where it was found

Schematic map: Lachish, Tel Dan Mediterranean SeaDead SeaSea of GalileeJordanNegevGalilee Lachish Tel Dan Jerusalem Haifa Beersheba Tyre
  • LachishFindspot per the record
  • Tel DanFindspot per the record

Schematic map: simplified coastlines, not to scale; positions follow the cited records.

End of the trail

End of the trail

From here, continue to an object, a period or another trail.

Back to the overview

Source

Sources and further reading

The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.

  1. 1 Lachish Ostracon VIII (Lachish Letter VIII), collection record 125704

    British Museum · Checked

  2. 2 Tel Dan stele ("House of David" inscription), Israel Museum collection record 371407-0

    The Israel Museum, Jerusalem · Checked

  3. 3 Terracotta amphora with Phoenician inscription, collection record 74.51.2300

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked

  4. 4 Lachish Ostracon II (Lachish Letter II), collection record 125702

    The British Museum · Checked

Continue from here

Follow the next connection

Every card comes from a documented relation or an editorial link. The reason line explains the connection.

Reading trail

Trade across the sea

What attests to trade and what only looks like it: a jar from the Levant, two vessels from Cyprus, ivory from Nimrud and ivories from Jerusalem. Six steps, each with what its record knows and what it does not.

6 steps

Another trail passing through the same step

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