Two Iron Age Alphabetic Inscriptions from Tell es-Sậfi/Gath,̣ Israel

This paper presents two brief alphabetic inscriptions from Area D in the lower city of Tell es-Sậfi/ ̣ Gath, both deriving from Iron Age IIA contexts. The first is written in an Early Alphabetic script sim-ilar to an inscription previously published from the site (Maeir et al. 2008) and is interpreted as being related to the storage of wine. The second, written in later, “formalized” alphabetic script, is quite frag-mentary and difficult to decipher, for which several possible interpretations are suggested. These two new inscriptions join the relatively large number of alphabetic inscriptions from Tell es-Sậfi/Gath,̣ second only in number to contemporaneous Tel Rehov, and provide additional evidence to the outstanding role of the site during the early Iron Age.