“The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the Judge Gideon ben Yoash,” explained archaeologists Yossef Garfinkel and Sa’ar Ganor, two of four directors of the excavations, which have been held every summer since 2015 on behalf of the IAA, the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

“Gideon is first mentioned as combating idolatry by breaking the altar to Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole. In biblical tradition, he is then remembered as triumphing over the Midianites, who used to cross over the Jordan to plunder agricultural crops. According to the Bible, Gideon organized a small army of 300 soldiers and attacked the Midianites by night near Ma’ayan Harod,” they said, adding that the geographical distance between the above story and where the inscription was found could mean that it was referring to a different “Jerubbaal.”

Still, they said that the “possibility cannot be ruled out that the jug belonged to the judge Gideon.”

“In any event, the name ‘Jerubbaal’ was evidently in common usage at the time of the biblical Judges,” they said.

According to the IAA, the find contributes to understanding of the spread of alphabetic script in the transition from the Canaanite to the Israelite period.