Archaeologica.org

You mean like "El Dorado?"

Yeah, sort of. I'm sure the Incans were referring to some thing, at some time. But the Spaniards only heard the word gold.

<sigh>

They usually did.


Still, the problems with Jerusalem go way back to the mid-60's when Kathleen Kenyon was digging there. There is a major middle Bronze Age city c 1600 BC and a major Judean city c 700 BC and not much in between. We know Hezekiah began building at the end of the 8th century so where was dear old David?

I don't know. I don't keep up with Middle Eastern archaeology like I should. But actually, David didn't build the city - he just occupied it, and the nearby fort of Zion.

I imagine that something will turn up sooner or later. An artifact was found a while back that made reference to "the House of David" I think, but nothing more. Probably a lot of knowledge is under that mosque, but I'm not quite ready for WW III.

Admit it. You just miss Arch.




The Tel Dan stele did refer (apparently) to the House of David. Arch doesn't talk about it much because the rest of the story undercuts his bible tale and he can't deal with that.

Tel Dan was a block inscribed by an Aramaean king who had just defeated the combined armies of Israel and Judah. It was not found in Jerusalem but at Tel-al Qadi in the far northeastern corner of the country.

Admit it. You just miss Arch.

Are you kidding?

He was the reason that I never joined in any of the Bible discussions.
And some of the topics looked great, and I looked forward to a great
thread, but it always came down to a religious argument.

The Bible is an ancient text, like the Rig Veda ( but folks never get in an argument about whether Indra is real or not), or even the Iliad. There is a lot of history and mystery in there.

And like the Bible, archaeology in Jerusalem is too full of religion and politics. Oh well....

Well, yeah, but the problem remains that the artifacts from the 10th to the 7th century don't match the story.

Pittsburgh was founded in 1758. If you dug back to 1358 would you expect to find a city there?

PS, I agree that Arch could derail an entire train of threads all by himself. He had a problem in that archaeology did not support his vision.

And I don't mean just the Bible per se, as it is only a creation of the Council of Nicea. There are many other apocryphal books, and some are even more interesting. Somewhere I've still got the Book of Enoch.

Beagle wrote:
The Bible is an ancient text, like the Rig Veda ( but folks never get in an argument about whether Indra is real or not)

Michael Witzel thinks Indra was real. He thinks he was an invading Aryan warlord.

Ok then.

Beagle wrote:And I don't mean just the Bible per se, as it is only a creation of the Council of Nicea. There are many other apocryphal books, and some are even more interesting. Somewhere I've still got the Book of Enoch.

Be my guest.

http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/enoch.html

Thanks. It's been a very long time since I read this. Obviously an old canaanite scripture, circa Great Flood.

Actually, Bible scholars will tell you there were two Enoch’s.
(There was also, in fact, a city founded by Cain called Enoch.)
One of the Enoch’s was a son of Cain and one a son of Jared.
The latter is most well known.
But both were well pre-flood.
His being the writer of “The Book of Enoch” is pretty well agreed upon as not being true.
That book is dated to about 3 BCE.

New find of Herodian building.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 232712.htm

With their findings on the mountain Tall adh-Dhahab (West) in the Jabbok Valley the archeologists could substantiate one assumption: everything points to the fact that the building remains from the Hellenistic and Roman era, found in 2006, were part of a yet unknown monumental building of Herod the Great (73-4 BC).

Important find in Jerusalem

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

A seal of a family named in the NT as temple servants who were exiled to Babylon and then returned has been found by Dr. Eilat Mazar. What is absolutely astonishing is that the supposedly fiercely monotheistic Jews have a representation of the Babylonian God, Sin, on this relic.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

[/quote]