The Gezer Calendar

The Gezer Calendar, circa 10th Century BCE, the time of King Solomon, is a tablet discovered in 1908 during excavations at Gezer by the Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister. The tablet contains a list of months according to the activities that occurred during each agricultural cycle. The list begins on the Hebrew New Year and corresponds with the agricultural cycles of the Biblical Festivals.

The Gezer calendar inscription is in early Hebrew writing and reads as follows:

“Two months are planting – corresponding to the time after Sukkot

Two months are late (planting) - corresponding to the time of  the latter rain or “Malkosh”

One month is hoeing flax

One month is barley-harvest - corresponding to the time of Passover and the counting of the Omer.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

King Solomon wrote: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:A time to be born, and a time to die;A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;