Archaeological dig ‘finds’ Goliath

An Israeli researcher said he has made a Goliath of a find — the first archaeological evidence suggesting the biblical story of David slaying the Philistine giant actually took place.

A shard of pottery unearthed in a decade-old dig in southern Israel carried an inscription in early Semitic style spelling “Alwat and “Wlt,” likely Philistine renderings of the name Goliath, said Aren Maeir, who directed the excavation.

“This is a groundbreaking find,” he said of the rust-coloured ceramic. Maeir, head of the archaeology department at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said excavators found the shard, possibly part of a bowl, about two metres underground at Tell es-Shafi.