Syro-Palestinian Archaeology

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:57 am

Minimalist wrote:

Doesn't take much.

Boasting again!

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:31 pm

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993351.html

A marine scientist has discovered a series of mysterious stone patterns on the lake bed of drought-stricken Lake Kinneret.

The man-made piles of stone, which are now above water, jut out from the freshwater lake, and sit 30 meters from each other along a 3.5-kilometer stretch of the eastern shore, from the Kinneret College campus to Haon resort.

Gal Itzhaki of Kibbutz Afikim first noticed the stones while strolling along the lake's receded shoreline. He says the patterns are a "fascinating phenomenon" and are part of an "impressive building enterprise."

Also could be evidence of recurrent droughts in antiquity.

kbs2244 · Post by **kbs2244** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:27 pm

Or, conversely, that the recent water levels were abnormally high.
This is the whole “global warming” fight.
What is “normal”?

Post by **Minimalist** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:15 am

A somewhat amusing description of what digging in the Israeli sun in June is really like. From the new Megiddo dig blog.

http://digmegiddo.wordpress.com/

After the first day of swinging pick axes and tearing out roots, we had to do it again yesterday. Muscles ached, and I know it sounds crazy…but it feels good. I am surprised that we all seem to have the same level of excitement of digging around in a 5 by 5 square from 5 AM to 1 PM to maybe find a nice pot or a pile of rocks. Perhaps we were all dropped as children, or simply left unsupervised at the sand box a little too long.

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:06 am

Minimalist wrote:Perhaps we were all dropped as children, or simply left unsupervised at the sand box a little too long.

[/quote]

A prerequsite for being an archaeologist, I wonder?

Post by **Minimalist** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:21 pm

Eric Cline has posted this aerial photograph of Tel Megiddo with the excavation sites marked.

Post by **Minimalist** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:36 am

A link to the official Megiddo web site from Tel Aviv Univ.

Some good videos if you have the right plug-ins.

http://megiddo.tau.ac.il/

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:59 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world ... ref=slogin

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

If you'll all excuse me.....I have to go annoy Arch.

rich · Post by **rich** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:02 pm

He's gonna tell you it was prophecied.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:05 pm

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

He'll shit a brick, Rich!

Then he'll say its a forgery.

rich · Post by **rich** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:09 pm

I'm telling you - he's gonna say it was prophecied. But he's still gonna shit a brick!!!

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:35 pm

Yep ... I agree with Rich. He'll say it's prophecy.

Shall we start taking bets on this?

rich · Post by **rich** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:39 pm

Dang - make the price right and I'll go find Arch and tell 'im to say that!!!

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:18 pm

Nah....he can't agree with this. Completely torpedoes his fairy tales.

In Mr. Knohl’s interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the stone’s passages were probably Simon’s followers, Mr. Knohl contends.

The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19 through 21 of the tablet — “In three days you will know that evil will be defeated by justice” — and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as pathways to justice.

Arch cannot allow that any part of his bible is wrong.

rich · Post by **rich** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:24 pm

He'll say they misinterpreted that and that it is a prophecy - tellin' ya'.