A 9th century BCE Aramaic inscription incised on the base of a bowl had been discovered quite by accident on the surface of Tel Dan. The late Professor Nahman Avigad, who published the inscription, read it as “of the butchers.” The bowl on which it was inscribed had probably belonged to the cooks or butchers in the royal household of Dan.
“David Found at Dan,” BAR, Mar-Apr 1994, p. 28.