Arad Ancient Hebrew dataset is available on figshare (CC BY 4.0 license): Modern Hebrew dataset is available on figshare (CC BY 4.0 license). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript, its Supporting Information files and a public repository. Received: AugAccepted: AugPublished: September 9, 2020Ĭopyright: © 2020 Shaus et al. PLoS ONE 15(9):Įditor: William Schniedewind, University of California Los Angeles, UNITED STATES The high literacy rate detected within the small Arad stronghold, estimated (using broadly-accepted paleo-demographic coefficients) to have accommodated 20–30 soldiers, demonstrates widespread literacy in the late 7 th century BCE Judahite military and administration apparatuses, with the ability to compose biblical texts during this period a possible by-product.Ĭitation: Shaus A, Gerber Y, Faigenbaum-Golovin S, Sober B, Piasetzky E, Finkelstein I (2020) Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level. This is a major increment over the previously published algorithmic estimations, which revealed 4–7 writers for the same assemblage. Remarkably, the forensic examination reveals a high probability of at least 12 writers within the analyzed corpus. Our study demonstrates substantial agreement between the results of these independent methods of investigation. Comparison of forensic examination with algorithmic analysis is also unique. To the best of our knowledge, no such large-scale pair-wise assessments of ancient documents by a forensic expert has previously been published. The examination was performed by two new algorithmic handwriting analysis methods and independently by a professional forensic document examiner. Here we present the handwriting analysis of 18 Arad inscriptions, including more than 150 pair-wise assessments of writer’s identity. Due to the site’s isolation, small size and texts that were written in a short time span, the Arad corpus holds important keys to understanding dissemination of literacy in Judah. 600 BCE, the eve of Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem. Excavation of the site yielded over 100 Hebrew ostraca (ink inscriptions on potsherds) dated to ca.
Arad is a well preserved desert fort on the southern frontier of the biblical kingdom of Judah.
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