• DOI:10.2307/1355623
• Corpus ID: 163381421

Inscribed Javelin-Heads from the Period of the Judges: A Recent Discovery in Palestine

@article{Milik1954InscribedJF,
  title={Inscribed Javelin-Heads from the Period of the Judges: A Recent Discovery in Palestine},
  author={J. T. Milik and Frank Moore Cross},
  journal={Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research},
  year={1954},
  volume={134},
  pages={5 - 15}
}

• J. Milik, F. Cross
• Published 1 April 1954
• History
• Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

The first inscribed javelin-head was bought from an antiquity dealer on November 1, 1953. Some weeks afterwards more javelin-heads appeared on the market. It was ascertained that they belonged to the same lot, and the provenience was located beyond any reasonable doubt. The three pieces which bear inscriptions came into the hands of Abbe Milik (No. I), Dr. Cross (II), Mr. Harding (III; Amman Museum No. J5137). The first two also acquired most of the uninscribed pieces. The whole hoard contained about 26 javelin and arrowheads, and was found by a felldh of el-Khadr, a village 5 km. west of Bethlehem. As there is no evidence for the occupation of the site earlier than the Roman period, the cache may have been lost or buried with its owner, during or after a battle. Strategically el-Khadr is well situated, dominating an important north-south road as well as an "infiltration" path climbing up from the coastal plain. Typologically, the hoard is relatively homogeneous.1" All the pieces are of bronze, with variations in the alloy. Most of them represent approximately the same type (with variations noted in brackets): blade about 2 mm. thick in section (sometimes thickened towards the point); leaf-shaped, oblong, a few lanceolate, one rhomboidal; central flat rib of about 5 mm.; a bulge at the base of the blade, varying in thickness (often square in section); a square tang enlarging towards the bulge at the base of the blade and joining it, sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly. The measurements vary considerably: length between 10.5 cm. (No. I) and 6.2; breadth from 2.0 cm. to 1.1; maximum proportion 4:1 (8.0 cm. X 2.0); tang between 3.0 and 1.5 cm. in length; maximum proportion of the length of blade to that of tang 3:1 (ca. 9 cm. X 3 cm.). Exceptional types are (1) quite flat blade, without bulging at the base; square tang: 8.0 X 1.4 cm.; (2) central flat rib, blade thickened towards the point, very slight bulging, round tang: twin examples of 8.0 X 4.7 cm.; (3) like the main type, but with a short square tang (in two of the three examples, 1 cm. long), deeply cut into the base of the blade. On the whole, the essential features, especially of the longer pieces, are characteristic of Late Bronze: thin and relatively broad leafshaped blade, without a heightened rib, with only a slight bulge at the juncture of the blade and the tang.2 On the other hand, thickened blade-