Published by Maney Publishing (c) Friends of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University HIERATIC INSCRIPTIONS FROM TEL SERA' IN SOUTHERN CANAAN Orly Goldwasser Hieratic inscriptions are exceedingly rare in the land of Canaan. Up till now only one inscribed bowl and three smaller bowl fragments have come to light, all from the mound of Lachish (Lachish IV: 131-133; Gilula 1976). Recently, however, about a dozen or so inscribed sherds were discovered in the final Late Bronze Age stratum of Tel Sera', in the excavations conducted by Prof. Eliezer D. Oren of the Archaeological Division of the Ben-Gurion Univer- sity of the Negev (Oren 1978).1Some of these sherds could be joined together to form partially complete bowls inscribed on the exterior (Nos. 1-4 below). There was also one ostracon (No. 7) and two other small sherds (Nos. 5-6), which may be either ostraca or parts of similar bowls that were inscribed before they were broken. The rest of the sherds were not sufficiently legible to enable decipherment (PI. 7:3). 1. THE RECONSTRUCTED BOWLS Bowl NO.1 (Fig. 1; Pis. 4; 5:1; Inv. No. 780; Locus 197; dimensions 6 x 26 cm.). One line of inscription runs around the exterior of the bowl. About one-third of its perime- ter (and apparently part of the inscription) is missing. Text ::i i~ '\ ~4IlJ/- --- ~1 ;/> 1a. lU I~III nnOr ~ 4 ;;j------(:;: IIJ~ nnn III ((n- nnn 9 ':)9 G) ft ~ CD··.. I I I", Translation b3(a)... which [---(southern)i b ) of regnal year 22 (tx) ... record(c) .. ,grain(d) measured in the first (?) quadruple 1J~3/e) making 460 sacks. I am indebted to Prof. Oren for his permission to publish the inscriptions. I must also thank Prof. Sara Groll for her valuable advice and encouragement in my interpretation of the texts. The hieratic and hieroglyphic inscriptions were drawn by Rodica Penchas. 77