Archaeological Evidence of Gideon the Judge?

Earlier this week, archaeologists officially announced the discovery of a 3,100-year-old inscription from the site of Khirbet al-Ra'i, thought by some to be biblical Ziklag (e.g., 1 Samuel 30). Khirbet al-Ra'i is a small hill settlement about 2.5 miles west of Tel Lachish, the important Canaanite city-state and, later, Judahite center famously destroyed by Sennacherib (701 B.C.E.). The Khirbet al-Ra'i excavation -- a joint project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Macquarie University -- has been carried out every summer since 2015.