Hebrew language debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile, when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic. Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by Late Antiquity, but it continued to be used as a literary language and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew, until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating
Revival of the Hebrew language the Jewish settlement of Rishon LeZion, where a part of the classes were taught in Hebrew. From the 1880s onward, schools in the agricultural settlements gradually began teaching general subjects in Hebrew. In 1889, Israel Belkind opened a school in Jaffa which taught Hebrew and used it as the primary language of instruction. It survived for three years. The Literature Council, which was based on the Pure Language Society, in 1890, to experiment in the municipal and rural schools, showed the possibility to make Hebrew the only language in the settlement. At this point, progress was slow, and it encountered