Pottery Jar Inscription

As the layers of refuse and soil were removed from this area south of the temple courtyard, leftover items of daily life for ancient peoples were revealed.

Here I qute from Biblesearchers.com. on 7/12/2013

A Mysterious 3,000 year old Pre-Davidian Inscription discovered at the Ophel Archeological Gardens in an Unknown Language no Scholar can Read

Shoved, pushed and compressed under to support and stabilize the earth fill that was under the ancient second floor within a large building structure that was discovered dating to the 10th century B.C.E. when Israel’s most famous kings, King David and his son, King Solomon ruled in Jerusalem. There the Jewish archeological team discovered the oldest known written inscription ever discovered in Jerusalem along with pieces of six other large jar of the same type of construction.

There was one problem; all the archeologists are baffled at what is the meaning of the text. This 3,000 year old text of apparent Canaanite origins was discovered along the top of a large earthenware jug with the earliest alphabetical written text ever discovered in the city of Jerusalem.

Though clueless as to the interpretation of the text, the letters from the left to right spell out the letters M, Q, P, H, N, possibly L, and N. According to Mazar, there is no known word known in any western-Semitic language and so the meaning of the inscription still remains elusive. Yet, Mazar speculates that the inscription could have identified the content within the vessel or possible the name of the owner of the vessel.

Inscribed on the clay of a neck-less ceramic jar, the clay fragment was discovered near the Southern wall of the Temple Mount near what is called the Ophel where the priests lived during their rotations of duty within Solomon’s Temple.

King David, in spite of conquering the city, also according to the rabbinic history paid the Jebusites the full value of the city from money that was collected from all of the Israelite tribes, so the city of Jerusalem now became common property for all the twelve tribes of Israel. This piece of pottery was probably a part of somebody's kitchen from the early people, even before King David's time.

You can read more at this link.