[4] It has become conventional to refer to the written script as "Proto-Canaanite" until the mid-11th century BC, the point at which "Phoenician" is first attested on the arrowheads.
[5] Frank Moore Cross and Józef Milik wrote in 1954 that "[t]he el-Khadr javelin-heads provide the missing link between the latest of the Proto-Canaanite epigraphs, and the earliest of the Phoenician inscriptions".
[11][10] The arrowhead was dated based on its paleographic style, with scholars concluding that it was probably produced during the 10th century BCE The inscription states: "arrow of Addo, son of Akki".
They used vertical and left-to-right letters, representing a transitional stage between early Iron Age Phoenician scripts and the prior proto-Canaanite inscriptions.
Cross and Milik wrote in 1954: "As there is no evidence for the occupation of the site earlier than the Roman period, the cache may have been lost or buried with its owner, during or after a battle.