Oldest Writing

During an excavation in Jerusalem just south of the walls of the old city a clay chip from a 3400-year-old clay tablet covered with the cuneiform script has shown the importance of that city in the late Bronze age. Researchers from Hebrew University said the chip was found in the debris beneath a 10th-century bc tower and was possibly from the royal archives.

The researchers believe it is a royal missive sent by the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and dates precisely to the same period as the tablets found at Tell elAmarna. The clay chip is the oldest example of writing found in Jerusalem and predates the next example by 600 years.

Image courtesy of Hebrew University