Jerusalem Seeks Return of Ancient Tablet*

By MATTI FRIEDMAN
The Associated Press
Friday, July 13, 2007; 7:54 AM

JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem's mayor has asked the Turkish government to
return a 2,700-year-old tablet uncovered in an ancient subterranean
passage in the city, sugggesting that it could be a "gesture of
goodwill" between allies.

Known as the Siloam inscription, the tablet was found in a tunnel hewed
to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city
around 700 B.C. _ a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of
Chronicles. It was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Holy Land's
Ottoman rulers to Istanbul, where it is now in the collection of the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski made the request in a Thursday meeting
with Turkey's ambassador to Israel, Namik Tan, Lupolianski spokesman
Gidi Schmerling said Friday. Lupolianski suggested the tablet's return
could be a "gesture of goodwill" from Turkey, Schmerling said Friday.

Turkey and Israel are close regional allies.

An official at Turkey's embassy in Israel said the request would be
passed on to the Turkish government. A transfer of ownership was
unlikely, the official said, but Turkey would look into lending the
tablet to Israel or creating a replica. The official spoke on condition
of anonymity as required by embassy regulations.

In the Bible's account, the Siloam water tunnel was constructed by King
Hezekiah to solve one of ancient Jerusalem's most pressing problems _
its most important water source, the Siloam spring, was outside the city
walls and vulnerable to the kingdom's Assyrian enemies.

The tunnel, around 500 yards long, was hollowed out of the bedrock by
two teams of diggers starting from each end, according to the tablet,
which was installed to celebrate the moment the two teams met
underground, "pickax to pickax."

"When there were only three cubits more to cut through, the men were
heard calling from one side to the other," the Hebrew inscription recounts.

The tunnel and spring are located in what is today the east Jerusalem
Arab neighborhood of Silwan, controlled by Israel since 1967.