Syro-Palestinian Archaeology

[Ishtar]

She's going to be my next sock!

[Minimalist]

Good choice.

[Ishtar]

Have you seen this site about seals?
http://www.specialtyinterests.net/seal_ ... racon.html

[Minimalist]

That's a good site. The sheer number of these seals that have been found argues against many being modern forgeries. Where is the demand needed to create the 'supply?'

Arch could never reconcile himself to the fact that these seals are almost universally dated to the 6-8th centuries BC. He can't understand that pre-literate societies have no need of such seals. In his myopic view, young hebrew goatherders spent their days in school learning how to read in the 12th century BC!

[Ishtar]

In his myopic view, young hebrew goatherders spent their days in school learning how to read in the 12th century BC!

Er ... I hate to say it but he may have a point.

The oldest writing is from the copious Sumerian cuneiform tablets, dated to 3,000 BC. The Canaanites came from Sumeria/Babylonia. And some Canaanite tribes eventually became the Hebrews....we think!

[Minimalist]

Literacy in the ancient world, for virtually all cultures prior to Rome, was restricted to an estimate 1-5% of the population. The Romans taught basic literacy to the legionaires which may have skewed the numbers a bit for them. Arch thinks that it was like it is now...with universal education but only for his goatherders!

Besides, Arch thinks they were studying "Hebrew" five centuries before the written language was in general usage.

[Ishtar]

So was creationism a compulsory topic on these imaginery goatherders' curriculum?

[Minimalist]

Naturally.

Arch is an interesting fellow. When he isn't standing up for the rights of pedophiles to teach school children he is subjecting them to the friggin' bible.

He's unique.

[Minimalist]

60 Minutes interviews Oded Golan's forger!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/ ... age4.shtml

The Egyptian is Marko Sammech, who did work for Oded Golan over a period of 15 years.

To find him, 60 Minutes sent producer Michael Gavshon undercover to the Cairo market where a lot of fakes are made, something the Egyptian authorities are reluctant to admit.

Marko Sammech was surprised to see 60 Minutes. Gavshon asked him about the James ossuary and Marko denied that he had worked on it; he then showed Marko a picture of that $4 million dollar tablet.

"I inscribed several stone slabs that looked just like this for Golan," Marko remarked.

"Yeah, but I mean, he presumably gave you the text," Gavshon asked.

"Yes, Golan brought me the text and I carved it onto the tablet," Marko replied.

The story also details the finds in Golan's artifact factory in his home.

[Ishtar]

On the Channel 4 documentary last night, The Secrets of the 12 Disciples, they were quite candid about the so-called archaeological find of 'Peter's bones' under the Vatican and also those of James under the church at Santiago de Compostela.

They even interviewed the Vatican-approved archaeologist who discovered 'Peter's bones' and he is was surprisingly frank about the fact that it couldn't be proved, and they could be anybodys. An investigative journalist, Tom Mueller, said that even the grave was not contemporary with Peter's time, but 150 years later.

The Catholic Church talks about 'moral certainty' (whatever the hell that is) that they are Peter's bones. But where they were found, there was also bones of all sorts of animals including a sheep, an oxen and a mouse. Natch, Channel 4 were refused permission to film there.

[Minimalist]

It seems that first they would have to prove that there was a "Peter" in order to claim that they had his "bones."

[Minimalist]

Here, Ish. Enjoy.

http://www.americanatheist.org/spr97/T2/bones.html

Conclusion

When Pope Pius XII told his Christmas radio audience that the tomb of St. Peter had been found, he was wrong. When Pope Paul VI announced in June of 1968 that the bones of the apostle had been identified, he too was wrong. An aura of chicanery amplified by incompetence surrounds these modern relics no less than it enfolds all the other relics of Catholic Christianity. We have just as much reason to believe that Peter’s eleventh-century skull at the Lateran is genuine, or that all the teeth claimed to have come from John the Baptist are genuine – teeth numerous enough to fit out dentures for a crocodile. And that, of course, is no reason at all.

[Ishtar]

Could this chicken be the remains of Peter’s fabled cock?

ROTFLMAO!

Does 'cock' mean the same thing in the US as it does in the UK?

[Minimalist]

Pretty much I guess.

[Ishtar]

Goodness!