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The discovery indicates the existence of extensive trade and cultural ties.
Archaeologists have deciphered a Sabaean inscription on a clay jar, indicating a connection between Israel during the time of King Solomon and the Sabaean kingdom.
This is reported by Heritage Daily.
In 2012, archaeologists excavated in the Ophel area south of the Temple Mount, and found a large jar with text written in Canaanite. It is from him that the Hebrew script used during the time of the First Temple comes.
Only seven letters have survived to our time from an inscription that is the “ancient South Arabian script” used in the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula (the Yemeni region today), where the Sabaean kingdom was the dominant kingdom at that time. This kingdom was the home of the biblical “Queen of Sheba”, a figure first mentioned in the Torah. In the original story, she brings Solomon a caravan of valuable gifts, but her existence is disputed by scholars.
Modern historians identify Sheba with the South Arabian kingdom of Saba in present-day Yemen and Ethiopia, while competing theories place the kingdom in South Arabia or the Horn of Africa (Somalia).
According to researchers, the inscription points to a connection between Jerusalem in the 10th century BC. (during the reign of Solomon) and the Sabaean kingdom. The jar was made in or near Jerusalem, and the inscription suggests that its maker, who supplied incense spices, spoke Sabaean.
“This is further evidence of the extensive trade and cultural links that existed between Israel under King Solomon and the Sabaean kingdom,” said Dr. Weinstub of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Cursor also reported that interesting surprises from Israel were found in the United States in a buried 90-year-old time capsule.
