Rediscovering the Royal Steward Inscription A Photographic Study

On May 15, 1870, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, then a 24-year-old archaeologist and member of the French consul-general in Jerusalem, ventured into the village of Silwan in search of something called the Stone of ZoheIeth (see 1 Kgs 1:9). Instead he made a different discovery. Something else caught his eye as he passed a neighborhood home-a recessed panel carved into the home's stone facade above its door. A second panel could be seen to the right of the first. Closer inspection of the panels, which Clermont-Ganneau would later refer to as "cartouches: revealed engraved letters "of the Phoenician type."' On the longer of the two panels, carved above the entrance, Clermont-Ganneau was able to make out the Hebrew word for "house" (byt). He would later speculate correctly that the rest read "(the one] who is over the house" (eller 'al-habbayit) or "royal steward."