Nov. 15, 2005 — Israeli archaeologists digging at the supposed hometown of Goliath may have found the first post-biblical evidence of the story of David and Goliath in a small ceramic shard on which names similar to Goliath appear.

Most likely part of a bowl, the rust-colored ceramic fragment was found during a decade-old dig in Tell es-Safi in southern Israel.

Described in the Bible as "Gath of the Philistines," where Goliath lived, Tell es-Safi is one of the largest ancient ruin mounds (tells) in Israel, settled almost continuously from the 5th millennium B.C.

The inscription, dating to the 10th or early 9th century B.C., is the oldest Philistine inscription yet found.

It was written in archaic "Proto-Canaanite" letters and contains two non-Semitic names: "Alwt" and "Wlt."

According to excavation director Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, the two names are remarkably similar to the etymological Indo-European parallels of Goliath.

"It can be suggested that in 10th-9th century Philistine Gath, names quite similar, and possibly identical, to Goliath were in use. The chronological context from which the inscription was found is only about 100 years after the time of David, according to the standard biblical chronology," Maeir said in a statement.

This appears to provide evidence that the biblical story of Goliath, killed by the Hebrew shepherd boy David with a sling, reflects the cultural reality of the time, Maeir said.

According to Lawrence Mykytiuk, a Purdue University Bible scholar who invented a system to determine whether ancient inscriptions apply to people in the Bible, the pottery shard probably does not refer to the biblical Goliath.

Mykytiuk, the author of "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E," applied the three key questions in his identification system — reliability of inscriptional data, setting and matching of identifying marks — to the ceramic fragment.

"The result is no clear identification of the biblical Goliath. Even if his name were clearly written on the potsherd, there are no other indications that might identify or disqualify the person named on it as the biblical warrior.

"Keep in mind that there could have been other men named Goliath among his townsmen," Mykytiuk told Discovery News.

Nevertheless, the finding provides well-grounded cultural background that supports the biblical narrative, according to the scholar.

"This is evidence that non-Semitic names that are remarkably similar to Goliath were used within the time frame of this Philistine warrior in his reputed hometown of Gath.

"This inscription supports the Bible, not with a direct identification of Goliath, but in its historical and linguistic background," Mykytiuk said.

Maeir will present his finding this week at the conference of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Philadelphia.