Eylon Levy, international media advisor to the President of the State of Israel Isaac Herzog, and his friend Yakov Ashkenazi, visited the Tel Lachish National Park and chanced on a small potsherd with some inscribed letters.
The Aramaic inscription on the fired potsherd reads “Year 24
of Darius,” dating it to 498 BCE. The short text thus records the name of the
Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I), the father of Ahasuerus—also known asthe biblical Achashverosh from the Book of Esther, which is read annually onthe Jewish festival of Purim.
