Israeli archaeologists have unveiled the earliest known nonbiblical Hebrew-language reference to Jerusalem, dating back to the time of the First Temple in the seventh century B.C.
The reference, part of a wine-shipping order, was written in ancient Hebrew on a small piece of papyrus.
It reads: “From the king’s maidservant, from Na’arat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem.”
Plundered from a cave in the Judean Desert (in what is today the West Bank) by antiquities robbers, the papyrus was recovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s robbery prevention unit, dated and analyzed.
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