The ending "-ayim" indicates the dual in Hebrew, thus leading to the suggestion that the name refers to the two hills on which the city sits. However, the pronunciation of the last syllable as "-ayim" appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint. In fact, in the unvocalized Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible the "yod" that would be required for the "-ayim" ending (so that it would be written , as in post-biblical Hebrew, rather than ) is almost always absent. It is only the much later vocalization, with the vowel marks for "a" and "i" squeezed together between the lamed and the mem, that provides the basis for this reading. In extra-biblical inscriptions, the earliest known example of the "-ayim" ending was discovered on a column about 3km west of ancient Jerusalem, dated to the first century BCE.