Tell Afis Fragment and the Tel Dan Stele Physical, Philological, and Semantic Convergences

This study arises from the observation of striking similarities between two Aramaicepigraphic documents: the Tel Dan Stele (Israel Museum, Jerusalem, KAI 310) and theAramaic fragment from Tell Afis (TA.03.A.300, discovered in 2003 and published byAmadasi Guzzo in 2009). Both objects share the same basaltic material, a comparable degreeof polishing, a similar glyphic style, and mention the same royal anthroponym — Hazael(HZ L). Yet the Tel Dan Stele is unanimously recognized as shattered and incomplete: its ʾthree fragments (A, B1, B2) preserve only a portion of the original text, and the author'sname — Hazael — does not appear anywhere in the extant material. Starting from thisobservation, we propose a systematic comparison at three levels — physical, philological, andsemantic — in order to assess whether the Tell Afis fragment could constitute an additionalpiece of the same stele. The geographical distance between the two findspots (approximately400 km) does not, in itself, constitute a disqualifying argument, as the motivation for thedisplacement remains unknown. We conclude that the convergence of indicators warrantsinstrumental petrographic analysis and a digital comparison of fracture profiles.