Gershon Galil has offered a second alternative reading of the ceramic inscription from Jerusalem, in addition to the first he offered a few days ago. He has also provided a drawing to illustrate the possibility of his second alternative, which I provide below along with his thoughts.
Gershon writes:
Here is another possible reading of the inscription from Jerusalem (from right to left):
[…], mem, qop, lamed, ḥet, nun, [yo]d, [yo]d nun
…נ [יי]נ חלק מ…
… Spoiled Wine from…The term yn ḫlq is attested only once in a text from Ugarit (KTU 4.213:3): “…arb’m (kdm) yn ḫlq b gt sknm“. For the meaning of this classification of wine see the following translations: verdorbener Wein (Aartum); mauvais/perdu vin (Lemaire et al); vino estropeado (del Olmo Lete and Sanmartin). For a short discussion of this term see: K. Aartum, UF, 16 (1984), 1-52, esp. 26.
This is a very simple and possible reading but I prefer my first reading:
[Your poor brothers – You sh]all [gi]ve them their share
The Ophel inscription should be dated to the second half of the 10th century (it was absolutely not written in the 11th century). In the mid-late 10th century the house of David controlled Jerusalem, and I agree with Athas that:
“The language of the inscription is difficult to ascertain from so few letters, but there is good reason to think it is probably Hebrew” (although it is well known that the roots ḤLQ and NTN are clearly also attested in other West Semitic Languages).
The term yn ḫlq is not mentioned in the Bible or in any other extra Biblical Hebrew text. Moreover, the Ophel Inscription was inscribed on an open large size pithos jar, and it is not unreasonable that it contained wine.
Gershon Galil’s reconstruction of the ceramic inscription. (Original rendering by Ada Yardeni)
Update
At the biblical studies forum, Gershon adds:
A short note on the spelling of the word “wine” in West Semitic Languages: In Ugaritic, Old Canaanite, Phoenician (Shiqmona: IEJ, 18 [1968], 227B:2), Ammonite, and even in the Kingdom of Israel (The Samaria Ostraca) wine was always written with only one yod (yn; ka-ra-nu: ye-nu = Aphek-Antipatris: TA 3 [1976], 137:2). But in (southern) Hebrew the form is always yyn (Epigraphic Hebrew [Lachish, Arad and more], Biblical Hebrew [without any exception], Ben Sira, Qumran, and even in the Rrabinic [sic!] sources).
Related Articles
Gershon Galil’s Persperctive on the ceramic inscription from Jerusalem
Good morning (night or noon), Smuel Ahituv, George Athas, Aron Demsky, Gershon Galil, Aren Maier and Christopher Rollston.
It seems that Gershon Galil’s second reading (with my adds in [ ] brackets) of is the best – a Hebrew inscription from the 10th cent BC: “Halak [smooth] wine [sort of less quality wine edible & not spoiled, possibly boiled] from…”.
I, your humble layman challenge you all to contradict this claim; let’s have on ALMMG or elsewhere a nice heated discussion and a fruitful brainstorm.
David, I’ve written some comments on the ALMMG page on Facebook.
Halaq does also mean to apportion, allottment, portion, share. Qohelet 9:9 “Look upon life with the companion who you love all the days of your life of vanity which He has given to you under the sun, all the days of your vanity. For that is your share in this life and in your labor which you labor under the sun.”