The Ophel Akkadian Tablet

A 14th-century BCE clay tablet fragment, discovered in excavations near the Old City of Jerusalem, represents the oldest known written document ever found in the city. The fragment, believed to have originated from a royal archive, underscores Jerusalem’s significance as a major urban center during the Late Bronze Age, centuries before its conquest by King David. The discovery was made by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Dr. Eilat Mazar, during excavations in the Ophel area, situated between the southern wall of the Old City and the City of David. The find was revealed in the Israel Exploration Journal.

The fragment, measuring 2 × 2.8 cm with a 1 cm thickness, was retrieved from fill material beneath a 10th-century BCE structure attributed to King Solomon’s era. It contains Akkadian cuneiform script, the lingua franca of the period, and is considered an official document written by a highly skilled scribe, likely associated with Jerusalem’s royal administration. The script was deciphered by Prof. Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology and Dr. Takayoshi Oshima of the University of Leipzig. While the preserved words—such as "you", "you were", "later", "to do", and "them"—are not individually significant, the exceptional quality of the writing suggests that it was part of a diplomatic letter or official communication.

Diplomatic correspondence was a common practice among rulers in the ancient Near East, with monarchs exchanging messages written on cuneiform tablets. The fragment discovered in Jerusalem is comparable to the Amarna Letters, a collection of over 380 tablets unearthed in the 19th century in Egypt, within the archives of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). These letters, written by the vassal kings of Canaan and Syria, provide insight into political and military affairs of the region. Among them, six letters were authored by Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem, who communicated with Pharaoh Akhenaten. The newly found fragment is believed to be part of a message sent from the king of Jerusalem—possibly Abdi-Heba—to Egypt.

Further analysis conducted by Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University confirmed that the clay material used for the fragment originates from the Jerusalem region, ruling out the possibility that it was imported from elsewhere. This finding strengthens the argument that Jerusalem housed a royal archive in the 14th century BCE, containing diplomatic correspondence similar to the Amarna archive.

Prior to this discovery, the earliest known inscription from Jerusalem was the Siloam Inscription, an 8th-century BCE tablet from the reign of King Hezekiah, commemorating the construction of the Siloam Tunnel. That inscription is currently housed in a museum in Istanbul. The newly found Ophel fragment predates the Siloam Inscription by approximately 600 years, providing the earliest written evidence of Jerusalem’s prominence.

Dr. Mazar emphasized the significance of this discovery in countering claims that Jerusalem was a minor settlement during the Late Bronze Age. The presence of a highly trained scribe, a royal archive, and diplomatic correspondence strongly suggests that Jerusalem was an influential administrative and political center long before its biblical prominence under King David in the 10th century BCE.

Sources

• Horowitz, W., & Oshima, T. (2010). The Akkadian Fragment from the Ophel Excavation in Jerusalem. Israel Exploration Journal, 60(1), 4-10.
• Mazar, E. (2011). Discovering the Ophel: Excavations Conducted by Dr. Eilat Mazar in 2009-2010. Shoham Academic Research and Publication.
• Barkay, G. (2012). New Light on Late Bronze Age Jerusalem from Recent Excavations. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 368, 67-80.
• Goren, Y. (2011). Provenance Study of the Ophel Akkadian Tablet Fragment. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 70(3), 211-220.
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (2010). Ancient Akkadian Tablet Fragment Found in Jerusalem.
• ScienceDaily. (2010).