One of the mysteries of archaeology has been the interpretation of 61 inscribed jar handles from the sixth century B.C. found by Dr. James Pritchard at Gibeon. After analyzing the inscriptions and comparing them to a geneology in 1 Chronicles, Dr. Aaron Demsky believes that he has found the solution to the puzzle.
Gibeon was the major city of the Gibeonites, the people who deceived Joshua (Joshua 9). It was here that the Lord made the sun stand still when Joshua fought the Amorites (Joshua 10). In later history, the tribe of Benjamin inhabited the area and remained there until the fall of the Southern Kingdom to the Babylonians in 587 B.C. The geneology of the Benjamites living in the vicinity of Gibeon is given in 1 Chronicles 9:35–44.
The city was excavated by Dr. Pritchard between 1956 and 1962. Among his many significant discoveries there, Dr. Pritchard uncovered the remains of a vast wine industry. A honey-comb of vat-shaped pits were found dug into the rock. The pits were used for aging jars of wine at a constant temperature of 65 degrees. Rock-cut basins, troughs, and settling tanks were also part of the installation.
Pritchard felt that the inscriptions on the jar handles were somehow related to the wine industry, but was unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation of their meaning.
Dr. Demsky’s analysis of the inscriptions led him to conclude that they fell into two major groups. The types of inscriptions in each group are:
Group A —
gbn gdr…
gbn gdr zryhw
gbn gdr mryhw
Group B —
gbn dml sbl + hnnyhw nr
gbn dml...
dml gbn
hnnyhw nr
The meaning of gbn in both groups was obvious. It was the name Gibeon (Hebrew in Old Testament times had no vowels). In Group A, Demsky related gdr to the clan of Gedor listed in the Gibeon geneology in 1 Chronicles 9:37. The third word on the Group A jar handles, he contends, was a personal name.
BSP 2:3 (Summer 1973) p. 90
The inscriptions, Demsky concluded, were “shipping labels” for jars of wine. Each family sent its products to the centrally located wine installations at Gibeon, where their individual accounts were credited. The better preserved jars were then returned to their respective owners, leaving the broken jars for archaeologists to find centuries later. At Gedor, the scribes consistently followed the formula: destination (Gibeon), family (Gedor), owner (Zryhw, Mryhw, etc.).
Similarly, in Group B Demsky associated nr with the family of Ner in 1 Chronicles 9:36. Evidently, then, dml, sbl, and hnnyhw were partners in the wine business from the clan of Ner. The scribes of Ner were not as consistent as their colleagues from Gedor and listed at times the owner’s name before the destination (dml gbn) or family (hnnyhw nr).
One of the handles, not listed in Group A or B, had both family names on it. This one, Demsky postulated, was a joint delivery, possibly from a shared corner of a vineyard.
In the geneological list in 1 Chronicles 9 only the clan of Ner (family of Saul) is traced. In analyzing the list, Demsky found that it names Gibeonite notables approximately contemporary with the owners of the jars. The sons of Azel — Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Shearia, Obadiah, and Hanan (verse 44) — lived in about the sixth century B.C. Demsky writes “It would then not be too far-fetched to find the wealthy landowner Hananyahu of the handles [hnnyhw] mentioned by the Chronicler as Hanan, Azel’s youngest son.”
The jar handles from Gibeon give us an illuminating sidelight on everyday life in Old Testament times.
(Gibeon, Where the Sun Stood Still, by James B. Pritchard, 1962; Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 202, April, 1971)
BSP 2:3 (Summer 1973) p. 91