The Qeiyafa Ostracon

You may have come across a newspaper article entitled something like the following:

• When Was the Bible Really Written? (Fox News)
• Deciphered Etching Sheds New Light on Bible's Origin (Ha'aretz)
  
• Archaeologists Claim Discovery of Oldest Hebrew Writing (AFP)

If you read the articles, you would notice that they all tell a story of an ostracon which somehow indicates that the Bible is super old, way older than most scholars hold. Then you would feel that all these stories came from the same source. And you would be right. It was this press release from Haifa University and Prof. Gershon Galil.

But you would not know that the ostracon in the limelight was discovered in July 2008 at Khibet Qeiyafa, an archaeological dig by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. You would not know that there has been great interest in this ostracon and tons of research and imaging, all chronicled here. You would not know that the original publication of the ostracon was done by Haggai Misgav and followed up by Ada Yardeni. You would not know that the archaeological team that found the ostracon wrote a rather harsh open letter to Prof. Galil.