List of artifacts in biblical archaeology

Selected artifacts significant to biblical chronology

Other significant artifacts

2000 BCE

• Creation myths and flood myths – recorded on the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Atra-Hasis tablets, the Enûma Eliš, the Eridu Genesis and the Barton Cylinder
• Law tablets – ancient Near East legal tablets: Code of Hammurabi, Laws of Eshnunna, the Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, the Laws of Eshnunna and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin. Later codes than Hammurabi's include the Code of the Nesilim. Hittite laws, the Assyrian laws, and Mosaic Law / Ten Commandments..
• Execration texts – earliest references to many Biblical locations
• Shiphrah slave list – Shiphrah was one of two midwives who helped prevent the genocide of Hebrew children by the Egyptians, according to the Book of Exodus 1:15–21. The name is found in a list of slaves in Egypt during the reign of Sobekhotep III. This list is on Brooklyn 35.1446, a papyrus scroll kept in the Brooklyn Museum.

  1500 BCE

• Ipuwer Papyrus – poem describing Egypt as afflicted by natural disasters and in a state of chaos. The document is dated to around 1250 BCE but the content is thought to be earlier, dated back to the Middle Kingdom, though no earlier than the late Twelfth Dynasty. Once thought to describe the biblical Exodus, it is now considered the world's earliest known treatise on political ethics, suggesting that a good king is one who controls unjust officials, thus carrying out the will of the gods.

  14th century BCE

• Berlin pedestal relief – considered by many modern scholars to contain the earliest historic reference to ancient Israel. Experts remain divided on this hypothesis.

  10th century BCE

• Early Paleo-Hebrew writing – contenders for the earliest Hebrew inscriptions include the Gezer calendar, Biblical period ostraca at Elah and Izbet Sartah, and the Zayit Stone
• Pim weight – evidence of the use of an ancient source for the Book of Samuel due to the use of an archaic term.
• Khirbet Qeiyafa pottery sherd – 10th century BCE inscription – both the language it is written in and the translation are disputed. Was discovered in excavations near Israel's Elah valley.
• Tell es-Safi Potsherd – Potsherd inscribed with the two names "alwt" and "wlt", etymologically related to the name Goliath and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of late-tenth/early-ninth-century BCE Philistine culture. Found at Tell es-Safi, the traditional identification of Gath.
• Khirbet Qeiyafa shrines – cultic objects seen as evidence of a "cult in Judah at time of King David" and with features which may resemble features in descriptions of the Temple of Solomon.
• Ophel inscription is a 3,000-year-old inscribed fragment of a ceramic jar found near Jerusalem's Temple Mount by archeologist Eilat Mazar. It is the earliest alphabetical inscription found in Jerusalem written in what was probably Proto-Canaanite script. Some scholars believe it to be an inscription of the type of wine that was held in a jar.

  9th century BCE

• Amman Citadel Inscription – 9th century BCE inscription in the Ammonite language, one of the few surviving written records of Ammon.
• Melqart stele – William F. Albright identifies Bir-hadad with Ben-hadad I, who was a contemporary of the biblical Asa and Baasha.
• Ostraca House – 64 legible ostraca found in the treasury of Ahab – written in early Hebrew.
• Balaam inscription 9th or 8th century BCE inscription about a prophet named Balaam.

  8th century BCE

• Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions – inscriptions in Phoenician script including references to Yahweh
• Sefire stele – described as "the best extrabiblical source for West Semitic traditions of covenantal blessings and curses".
• Stele of Zakkur – Mentions Hazael king of Aram.
• Tell al-Rimah stela – tells of the exploits of Adad-nirari III, mentioning "Joash King of Samaria"
• Shebna's lintel inscription – found over the lintel or doorway of a tomb, has been ascribed to Hezekiah's comptroller Shebna.
• King Ahaz's Seal – Ahaz was a king of Judah but "did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had done". He worshiped idols and followed pagan practices. "He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations". Ahaz was the son and successor of Jotham.
• Bullae are, like ostraka, relatively common, both in digs and on the antiquities market. The identification of individuals named in bullae with equivalent names from the Bible is difficult, but identifications have been made with king Hezekiah and his servants.
• Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III :
• *Layard 45b+ III R 9,1 possibly refers to as
• *The Iran Stela refers to KUR sa-m-ri-i-na-a- "land of Samaria"
• *Layard 50a + 50b + 67a refers to URU sa-me-ri-na-a-a "city of Samaria"
• *Layard 66 refers to URU Sa-me-ri-na "city of Samaria"
• * III R 9.3 50, refers to "Menahem the Samarian"
• * Nimrud Tablet III R 10.2 28–29, refers to the overthrown of Pekah by Hoshea.
• * one fragment refers to "Azriau" and another it has been joined to refers to "Yaudi". Some scholars have interpreted this as Ahaziah / Uzziah, although this is disputed and has not gained scholarly consensus.
• * III R 10,2 refers to KUR E Hu-um-ri-a "land of Bit-Humri"
• * ND 4301 + 4305 refers to KUR E Hu-um-ri-a "land of Bit-Humri"
• Babylonian Chronicle ABC1 – Shalmaneser V refers to URU Sa-ma/ba-ra-'-in "city of Samara"
• Annals of Sargon II :
• *Nimrud Prism, Great Summary Inscription refers to URU Sa-me-ri-na "city of Samerina"
• *Palace Door, Small Summary Inscription, Cylinder Inscription, Bull Inscription refers to KUR Bit-Hu-um-ri-a "land of Bit-Humri"
• * mentioning Jerusalem in the Hebrew language

  7th century BCE

• Bulla of Gemariah son of Shaphan – possible link to a figure during the reign of Jehoiakim. Archaeologist Yair Shoham notes: "It should be borne in mind, however, that the names found on the bullae were popular in ancient times and it is equally possible that there is no connection between the names found on the bullae and the person mentioned in the Bible."
• Seal of Jehucal – Jehucal or Jucal is mentioned in chapters 37 and 38 of the Book of Jeremiah where King Zedekiah sends Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah saying "Please pray for us to the Lord our God". His seal and also one of Gedaliah, son of Pashhur were found within a few yards from each other during excavations in the city of David, Jerusalem, in 2005 and 2008, respectively, by Eilat Mazar.
• Khirbet Beit Lei contains oldest known Hebrew writing of the word "Jerusalem", dated to 7th century BCE "I am YHWH thy Lord. I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem" "Absolve us oh merciful God. Absolve us oh YHWH"
• Mesad Hashavyahu Ostracon is an inscribed pottery fragment dated to 7th century BCE and written in ancient Hebrew language. It contains earliest extra-biblical reference to the observance of Shabbat.
• Victory stele of Esarhaddon – a dolerite stele commemorating the return of Esarhaddon after his army's second battle and victory over Pharaoh Taharqa in northern ancient Egypt in 671 BC, discovered in 1888 in Zincirli Höyük by Felix von Luschan and Robert Koldewey. It is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

  6th century BCE

• Ketef Hinnom priestly blessing – Probably the oldest surviving texts currently known from the Hebrew Bible – priestly blessing dated to 600 BCE. Text from the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Described as "one of most significant discoveries ever made" for biblical studies.
• Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets – Describe the rations set aside for a royal captive identified with Jehoiachin, king of Judah.
• Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet – a clay cuneiform inscription referring to an official at the court of Nebuchadrezzar II, king of Babylon, possibly the same official named in the Biblical Jeremiah.
• Lachish letters – letters written in carbon ink by Hoshaiah, a military officer stationed near Jerusalem, to Joash the commanding officer at Lachish during the last years of Jeremiah during Zedekiah’s reign . Lachish fell soon after, two years before the fall of Jerusalem.
• House of Yahweh ostracon is an ancient pottery fragment discovered at Tel Arad probably referring to the Temple at Jerusalem.

  5th century BCE

• Elephantine papyri, ancient Jewish papyri dating to the 5th century BCE, name three persons mentioned in Nehemiah: Darius II, Sanballat the Horonite and Johanan the high priest.

  2nd century BCE

• Hasmonean coinage

  1st century BCE

• Western Wall – an important Jewish religious site located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Just over half the wall, including its 17 courses located below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period, being constructed around 19 BCE by Herod the Great. The remaining layers were added from the 7th century onwards.

  1st century CE

• Rock of Calvary, identified by Constantine's mother Saint Helena and Macarius of Jerusalem, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
• Grotto of the Nativity, identified by Constantine's mother Saint Helena and Macarius of Jerusalem, within the Church of the Nativity
• Pilate Stone – carved inscription attributed to Pontius Pilate, a prefect of the Roman-controlled province of Judaea from 26–36 CE.
• Pool of Bethesda – in the nineteenth century, archaeologists discovered the remains of a pool corresponding to a description in John's Gospel.
• Delphi Inscription – The reference to proconsul Gallio in the inscription provides an important marker for developing a chronology of the life of Apostle Paul by relating it to the trial of Paul in Achaea mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.
• Erastus Inscription – an inscription found in 1929 near a paved area northeast of the theater of Corinth, dated to the mid-first century and reads "Erastus in return for his aedileship paved it at his own expense." Some New Testament scholars have identified this aedile Erastus with the Erastus mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans but this is disputed by others.
• Judaea Capta coinage – a series of commemorative coins originally issued by the Roman Emperor Vespasian to celebrate the capture of Judaea and the destruction of the Jewish Second Temple by his son Titus in 70 CE during the First Jewish Revolt.
• Nazareth Inscription bears an edict of Caesar prohibiting grave robbing.

  Controversial

• Borsippa – identified as the Tower of Babel in Talmudic and Arabic culture, but not accepted by modern scholarship.
• Ebla tablets – once thought to have made references to, and thus confirmed, the existence of Abraham, David and Sodom and Gomorrah among other Biblical references.
• Foundation Stone – stone also called the Well of Souls, now located in the Dome of the Rock. According to the Bible, King David purchased a threshing floor owned by Araunah the Jebusite, and some believe that it was upon this rock that he offered the sacrifice mentioned in the verse. David wanted to construct a Temple in Jerusalem, but as his hands were "bloodied", he was forbidden to do so himself. The task was left to his son Solomon, who completed the Temple in c. 950 BCE.
• Uzziah Tablet – controversial tablet discovered in 1931 by Professor E. L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in a Russian convent.
• Jehoash Inscription – controversial black stone tablet in Phoenician regarding King Jehoash's repair work. Suspected to be a forgery.
• Warren's Shaft – possible route corresponding to the biblical account of Joab, king David's commander, launching a secretive attack against the Jebusites, who controlled Jerusalem.
• Ivory pomegranate – a thumb-sized semitic ornamental artifact bears an inscription: "Holy to the Priest of the House of God ", thought to have adorned the High Priest's sceptre within the Holy of Holies.
• Tower of Siloam – ruins possibly mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.
• James Ossuary – a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead, bearing an Aramaic inscription in the Hebrew alphabet, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", cut into one side of the box.
• Talpiot Tomb – Joshua son of Joseph tomb; its identification with Jesus is highly controversial.
• Caiaphas ossuary – a highly decorated ossuary twice inscribed "Joseph, son of Caiaphas" which held the bones of a 60-year-old male, discovered in a burial cave in south Jerusalem in November 1990.
• Sudarium of Oviedo – a bloodstained piece of sweat cloth thought to be the cloth that was wrapped around the head of Jesus Christ after he died as described in –. Now it is kept in the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain.
• Titulus Crucis – a piece of wood claimed to be a relic of the True Cross, which Christian tradition holds to be a part of the cross's titulus. Now it is kept in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.
• Acheiropoieta.
• Relics attributed to Jesus, including those identified by Constantine's mother Helena and Macarius of Jerusalem, such as the Holy Nails, Holy Tunic and the True Cross.
• Shapira Scroll, scroll containing an 11th commandment discovered by Moses Wilhelm Shapira, a Jerusalem antiquities dealer. Widely discredited following its 1883 release, resulting in Shapira's suicide. Has been reassessed following the 1946 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

  Forgery or claimed forgery

• Shapira collection – other biblical artifacts in the possession and allegedly forged by Moses Shapira. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947, in approximately the same area he claimed his material was discovered, has cast some doubt on the original forgery charges.
• Stone Seal of Manasseh – Stone seal of Manasseh, King of Judah c.687–642 BCE. Reportedly offered to a private collector for one million dollars.

  Significant museums

• Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem
• Hecht Museum
• Oriental Institute, Chicago
• British Museum
• The Louvre

  External lists

• ANET: Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Third Edition with Supplement. Ed. James B. Pritchard. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969
• COS: The Context of Scripture. 3 volumes. Eds. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger. Leiden: Brill, 1997-2002
• RANE:
• Indices to ANET and COS: and
• The Biblical Archaeology Society website, publishers of Biblical Archaeology Review