[EggsAckley]

<Bat Creek Stone

[sheik yerbouty]

it looks like the early Hebrew letters that were used before the Babylonian exile. I can't read the old stuff, maybe there is a Freeper who can.

[Just mythoughts]

Thank you so much, very interesting.

This doesn't look like scratching, sure looks like who ever put it there was leaving a message.

[rmlew]

The problem is that Hebrew writting was indistinguishable from modern Hebrew 2000 years ago. Check out the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Antoninus]

A quick google search turns up some info that casts serious doubt on the provenance of this artifact:

The Bat Creek Stone

A very interesting read!

[st_stickler]

The second scratching possibly resembles the Hebrew letter Aleph, and the two letters on the end possibly resemble Hebrew lettering Of the two, it is intriguing that the letter it resembles would be the form used on the end of a word (Hebrew reading from right to left). However, spaces weren’t added to the Hebrew language until long after the events ad Masada which makes them suspect. One might also argue that the first letter on the left resembles a malformed Dalet, but none of the other letters resemble Hebrew letters of any time period (at least not without some stretching).

It should also be noted that by the time of the events of Masada, most Jews spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew, though it would not have been unheard of for some to understand it.