Arad Ostraca (House of YHWH)

A collection of over 100 ostraca (inscribed pottery sherds) discovered during excavations at Tel Arad in the eastern Negev by Yohanan Aharoni between 1962 and 1967. The inscriptions are written in Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic and date from the 10th to 6th centuries BCE. The most significant is Ostracon 18, which contains the phrase "the House of YHWH" (beit YHWH), providing one of the earliest extra-biblical references to the Temple in Jerusalem. Other ostraca contain military correspondence, administrative orders for food rations, and references to the priestly families of Keros and Pashhur — the latter mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1 and Ezra 2:38. The site also contained a small Israelite temple with an altar oriented toward Jerusalem, which appears to have been deliberately dismantled — possibly during King Hezekiah's or Josiah's religious reforms (2 Kings 18:4, 23:8). The Arad letters provide a window into the military administration and daily life of a Judahite fortress.