Illustration X: Table of West Semitic Alphabets
Illustration XI: Table of West Semitic Numerals
II. Sites of Towns and Villages.
1. Nomenclature. The sites of ancient towns and villages are usually conspicuous in Palestine, and are recognized in the local nomenclature. They are denoted by the words tall , plural tulûl , meaning 'mound', and khirbah , plural khirab meaning 'ruin'. These words are commonly spelt in English tell and khirbet (less correctly khurbet ) and we use these more familiar forms here. As a rule, though not invariably, the sense of these terms is distinguished. A tell is a site represented by a mound of stratified accumulation, the result of occupation extending over many centuries, and easily recognizable among natural hillocks by its regular shape, smooth sides, and flat top. A khirbet is a field of ruins in which there is little or no stratification. Nearly all the sites of the latter type are the remains of villages not older than the Byzantine or Roman period.
2. Identification of ancient sites. This is a task less easy than it appears to be, and many of the current identifications of Biblical sites call for revision. Similarity of name, on which most of these identifications depend, is apt to be misleading; in many cases sites identified thus with Old Testament places are not older than the Byzantine Period. [1] This similarity of name may sometimes be a mere accident; it may also sometimes be accounted for by a transference of site, the inhabitants having for some special reason moved their town to a new situation. In such cases the tell representing the older site may perhaps await identification in the neighbourhood. In attempting to establish identifications, the date of the site, as determined from the potsherds, and its suitability to the recorded history of the ancient site in question, are elements of equal importance with its name.
[1] An example is Khirbet Teku'a, long identified with the Biblical Tekoa.