The Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon: A New Collation Based on the Multispectral Images, with Translation and Commentary
Brian Donnelly-Lewis · Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research · 2022
This paper provides a new collation of the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon on the basis of the multispectral images produced by Gregory Bearman and William Christens-Barry in collaboration with a number of imaging labs in 2009. It proposes 59 letters in total, with 12 new readings, including 5 new partial reconstructions, all supported by an analysis of these detailed, high-definition images. This new collation permits a renewed attempt at translation of the ostracon, which is interpreted as a record of the summons of a defendant in a legal dispute. In the course of analysis, it is argued that if the decipherment is accepted, the language of the text appears to be an archaic, dialectal form of Hebrew.