Goliath Ostracon

Excavations at Tell es-Safi identified the Philistine city of Gath, revealing a massive settlement with a siege trench matching the biblical account of Hazael's campaign. A sherd from the site bears two names, alwt and wlt, etymologically related to the name Goliath and Indo-European rather than Semitic in form. We dont know if it refers to the biblical figure, who would predate it. What it establishes is that names of that type were genuinely in use among Philistines at Gath, grounding the narrative's onomastics in real regional practice.