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“House of David” and “King of Israel,” two phrases in this inscription, thrilled the world of Biblical archaeology last July. The former represents the first reference to David in a First Temple-period inscription; and the latter may be the oldest known extra-Biblical reference to Israel in a Semitic script. Uncovered at Tel Dan, in northern Galilee, the foot-high basalt fragment was probably part of a stela, or inscribed standing stone, erected by a foreign conqueror of Dan. The clearly engraved inscription appears to have been executed by someone using an iron stylus with a rounded point after the stone’s face had been smoothed for writing. For more details and a full translation, see the sidebar “New Inscription May Illuminate Biblical Events.”