The Samaria ostraca
Palace receipts from Samaria show a working administration and a population carrying both Yahwistic and Baalistic names.
Confirmed by the groundInscription8th century BC
Inked receipts for consignments of wine and oil delivered to the palace, naming districts and individuals. The personal names divide between those compounded with Yahweh (-yaw) and those with Baal — a religious mix in the northern kingdom of exactly the kind the books of Kings describe.
In the tenth year. From Azzah to Gaddiyaw. A jar of fine oil.
- Found
- The royal quarter at Samaria, Israel, 1910 — Harvard expedition under George Reisner
- Now held at
- Istanbul Archaeological Museums; Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Language
- Hebrew
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The regnal year on the sherds does not say whose reign, so the dating and the identity of the king are argued.
How historians use it
A key corpus for the administration and onomastics of the northern kingdom.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Reisner, Fisher & Lyon, Harvard Excavations at Samaria (1924)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.