The first Melchizedek bottle? Notes on the Jerusalem iron IIA pithos inscription

ABSTRACT

The Jerusalem pithos inscription was found in 2012 in an Iron IIA (tenth century, High Chronology) context. Nine epigraphers have already tried to decipher this short Canaanite or Early-Alphabetic inscription, but their readings vary greatly. Galil, followed by Petrovich, boldly restores the words yyn ḥlq (‘inferior, poor wine’) and deduces that this is “the first Hebrew inscription” from Jerusalem. It supposedly relates to allocation of wine by Solomon for his many builders and soldiers in Jerusalem. I suggest here that this reading is forced. The wide-mouthed Jerusalem pithos is not a wine vessel. A negative term like ‘poor, inferior wine’ finds its place in administrative and literary contexts, but cannot be a wine-vessel label. There is no proof that this inscription is in Hebrew and it does not ‘prove’ the United Monarchy.

KEYWORDS:

• Jerusalem
• pithos
• inscription
• Iron age
• Hebrew
• Canaanite
• wine
• politics

Notes

1. Hamilton's study (2015) reached my attention after this article was written. He follows Demsky and interprets the vessel as a fermenting vat; but fermenting liquid (not yet desired or expensive) is not a very likely subject of ownership inscriptions.