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Editors’ Pick

April 14, 2016

A Collection of Inscriptions, Written on Potsherds, May Testify to the Antiquity of the Hebrew Bible

Surprisingly high rates of literacy.

Using image-processing software and a specially designed algorithm, a group of archaeologists, mathematicians, and historians analyzed a large number of ancient Hebrew writing samples, and concluded that literacy was relatively widespread in Israel at the beginning of the 6th century BCE. This conclusion, writes Isabel Kershner, sheds some light on the question of when portions of the Bible were written:

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