the oldest hebrew writing ever ?

apparently, just down the road from jerusalem, is khirbet qeiyafa, a new archaeological site being uncovered, which appears to be a fortified forward city from the early iron age (i.e, time of David and Solomon), designed to protect jerusalem from attack. among the discoveries was a potsherd, with some proto-hebrew grafiti.

if looks like the site might end up being a counterpoint, across the valley of elah, from the philistine city of gath (birthplace of goliath, where i dug this summer). the director of the gath dig, aren meir, is quoted in the nyt and jpost articles.

on the other hand, the financing of the khirbet qeiyafa dig may be coming from questionable sources, and i'm not sure what to do with that dichotomy. i really hope that the dig doesn't get wrapped up in problematic politics, the same way as the city of david in the east jerusalem neighborhood of silwan.