6. The Use of Hieratic Numerals in the Arad Fortress
In addition to the structured calendrical practices described above,
another compelling manifestation of Arad’s numerical system appears in its use
of hieratic numerals, a practice that further reveals the fortress’s
integration into broader scribal and bureaucratic traditions. These numerals
originated in Egypt and reached neighboring regions as early as the Bronze Age,
presumably through itinerant or relocated scribes (Goldwasser 1991; Vita 2012;
Burke 2020). Scribes were firmly established in the Egyptian army (Malamat
2001; Imhausen 2003), and Na’aman (2020) has argued that Egyptian military
centers in the Levant played a key role in the long-term process of hieratic
application and adaptation (Wimmer 2008), which is likely to have continuously
unfolded from the Late Bronze Age into the Iron Age (Wimmer 2024: 127). (Amir
Gorzalczany and Baruch Rosen, “Measuring
Time, Distance, and Mass in the Arad Fortress, Early 6th Century BCE,” Jerusalem
Journal of Archaeology 8 [2025]: 114)
