The Deir Alla plaster inscription (Tell Deir Alla, Jordan Valley)

The Deir Alla plaster inscription, excavated at Tell Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley in 1967, is a primary ancient text; the atlas records no publisher and no exact publication year because it is an excavated artifact rather than a published text, and names its author only as anonymous since it is an unsigned inscription. Its strength is that it is a rare non-biblical ancient text naming the seer Balaam, independent corroborating evidence that the figure known from the Book of Numbers was known in the wider ancient Near East outside the biblical text. Its limit is the ordinary one for any fragmentary excavated inscription: portions are damaged, and its precise relationship to the biblical Balaam narrative is debated among specialists.