Tel Dan Stele

The Tel Dan Stele is a fragmentary stele containing a Canaanite inscription, discovered in 1993 in Tel-Dan by Gila Cook, a member of an archaeological team lead by Avraham Biran, the pieces having been used to construct an ancient stone wall that survived into modern times.

The stele is in several pieces and contains several lines of Aramaic. The surviving inscription, which dates to 9th century BCE, details that an Aramean King killed Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel as well as his ally, the king of the House of David.

These writings corroborate passages from the Bible, as the Second Book of Kings mentions that Jehoram, also Joram, is the son of an Israelite king, Ahab, by his Phoenician wife, Jezebel. Applying a Biblical viewpoint to the inscription, the likely candidate for having erected the stele is Hazael, an Aramean king of Aram-Damascus, whose language would have been Aramaic, who is mentioned in Second Book of Kings as having conquered the Land of Israel, though he was unable to take Jerusalem. The stele is currently on display at the Israel Museum, and is known as KAI 310.

The text of the inscription

1. [ ]...[...] and cut [...]

2. [...] my father went up [against him when h]e fought at [...]

3. and my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors (viz. became sick and died)]. And the king of I[s-]

4. rael entered previously in my father's land, [and] Hadad made me king,

5. And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from the seven [...-]

6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed th[ousands of cha-]

7. riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son [of Ahab]

8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]

9. g of the House of David, and I set [their towns into ruins and turned ]

10. their land into [desolation ]

11. other [... and Jehu ru-]

12. led over Is[rael and I laid]

13. siege upon [ ]