Editor, H. S. (2002;2002). BAR 20:02 (March/April 1994). Biblical Archaeology Society.
"David" Found at Dan
Inscription crowns 27 years of exciting discoveries
Zev Radovan
"House of David" and "King of Israel," two phrases in this inscription, thrilled the world of Biblical archaeology last July. The former represents the first reference to David in a First Temple-period inscription; and the latter may be the oldest known extra-Biblical reference to Israel in a Semitic script. Uncovered at Tel Dan, in northern Galilee, the foot-high basalt fragment was probably part of a stela, or inscribed standing stone, erected by a foreign conqueror of Dan. The clearly engraved inscription appears to have been executed by someone using an iron stylus with a rounded point after the stone's face had been smoothed for writing. For more details and a full translation, see the sidebar "New Inscription May Illuminate Biblical Events."
It's not often that an archaeological find makes the front page of the New York Times (to say nothing of Time magazine). But that is what happened last summer to a discovery at Tel Dan, a beautiful mound in northern Galilee, at the foot of Mt. Hermon beside one of the headwaters of the Jordan River.1
1See the following BAR articles: Avraham Biran, "Prize Find: Tel Dan Scepter Head," BAR 15:01; Hershel Shanks, "BAR Interview: Avraham Biran–Twenty Years of Digging at Tel Dan," BAR 13:04; John C. H. Laughlin, "The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan," BAR 07:05.
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