event · E0319
Yerushalayim Column Inscription כתובת חנניה בר דודלוס מירושלים
A stone column drum from a Hasmonean-era potters' village on the western approach to Jerusalem, inscribed in Aramaic: "Hananiah bar Dodalos of Yerushalayim." It is the earliest known stone inscription spelling ירושלים in full, with the second yud, exactly as the city's name is written today — where the Tanakh's own text almost always writes ירושלם. Found in a 2018 Israel Antiquities Authority salvage excavation near Binyanei HaUma (the International Convention Center), it went on display at the Israel Museum on its announcement. No freely licensed photograph of the column could be verified, so this entry carries no image.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- כתובת חנניה בר דודלוס מירושלים
- Also known as
- Hananiah bar Dodalos inscription, Jerusalem full-spelling inscription
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3700–3760 AM (1st century BCE, Herodian period)
- Academic
- 1st century BCE
- Date range
- 1st century BCE (Herodian)
- Duration
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
Why it matters
The name every siddur, every ketubah, and every road sign spells ירושלים — with two yuds — is not quite how the Tanakh usually writes it; the scriptural spelling is almost always the shorter ירושלם, and the familiar full form appears only a handful of times. On this column, a craftsman of the late Second Temple era — a potter with a Greek-flavored name, working at the city's edge — wrote his hometown the way we still write it, the earliest stone to do so. It is a small find, and that is its charm: not a king's monument but a workman's signature, showing the city's everyday name settling into the form Jews have carried ever since.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The column drum was found in 2018 in an IAA salvage excavation directed by Danit Levi at a Hasmonean-era potters' village near Binyanei HaUma (the International Convention Center), Jerusalem, in a Roman-period reuse context. Its Aramaic inscription reads "Hananiah bar Dodalos of Yerushalayim," and it was placed on display at the Israel Museum upon its announcement in October 2018. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| It is the earliest known stone inscription spelling ירושלים in full, with the second yud, as the name is spelled today. In the Tanakh the name is almost always written ירושלם (read "Yerushalayim" but written without the second yud); the full spelling occurs only a handful of times, as in Esther 2:6. | biblical archaeology | ★★★★☆ |