Artifact
Lachish Letters
c. 588 BC
Eyewitness military correspondence from the last days of the kingdom of Judah, written in the same Hebrew used by the biblical prophets. They bring the desperate situation described in Jeremiah vividly to life and confirm the biblical account of the Babylonian campaign against Judah's fortified cities.
About this artifact
Discovered in 1935 and 1938 by James Leslie Starkey during excavations at Tell ed-Duweir (ancient Lachish), one of the most important fortified cities of the kingdom of Judah. The collection of 21 ostraca (inscribed pottery sherds) represents military correspondence written in biblical Hebrew during the final desperate months before Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. One letter poignantly states, 'We are watching for the fire signals of Lachish... we cannot see Azekah,' echoing Jeremiah 34:7 which says Lachish and Azekah were the last fortified cities still holding out. The letters reveal the fear, confusion, and political intrigue of Judah's final days.
