Image: Ostracon from Khirbet Qeiyafa

Blackpetero at 80% Blog has a post with several pictures of Khirbet Qeiyafa. Khirbet Qeiyafa has been identified with the Ella Fortress and the biblical site of Sha’arayim.

Sha’arayim (the town appears in the English Bible as Shaaraim) was a town in the Shephelah. After David killed Goliath, the Philistines fled to Gath and Ekron by the way of Sha’arayim: “The troops of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron” (1 Samuel 17:52).

Read my posts on Khirbet Qeiyafa:

The Valley of Elah

The Oldest Hebrew Text

The Most Ancient Hebrew Inscription Deciphered

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary