"It will be observed that the characters of the Siloam inscription are carefully and ornamentally written, though the ornamental writing nowhere interferes with the standard shape of the letter. The letters `bet, lambda, mem, nun, pe' are written with elegant double curves, as is the case with `kaf, mem, pe' in the modern Samaritan character. ... there was a tendency to add hooks to the end strokes of the letters ... just as we find them in the Siloam Zain and Sade." [E.J. Pilcher, `The Date of the Siloam Inscription' in PSBA, Vol. XIX, Jan-Dec 1897, p. 165-(178, 180)-182.; Simon B. Parker, Siloam Inscription Memorializes Engineering Achievement, July 1994, p. 36-38.]
"[.. when] (the tunnel) was driven through. And this was the way in which it was cut through: While [. ..] (were) still [..] axe(s), each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for 1,200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the head(s) of the quarrymen was 100 cubits."[1]
["The Siloam Inscription", transl. by W. F. Albright in James b. Pritchard ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relati ng to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1950), p. 321. Isaiah 37: 25. ]
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