Archaeologica.org

In any crime 'follow the money.' Look who put up the money for her dig.

Just like the clowns who pick up a stick in Turkey and pronounce it part of the Ark. When the C14 test comes back and the stick dates to 1000 AD you never hear them publicize that with the same fervor as the original. The damage has been done and gullible fools think that silly story is true.

They do not care about truth, arch. They care about headlines to dazzle the foolish

She tried to hedge her bet by saying "it could be" or "I may have found" but the bible-thumpers won't accept that.

You have demonstrated that your "level of proof" for bible bullshit is shockingly low

An example is Adam Zertal, who in 1983 discovered an enormous sacrificial altar on Mount Eval, on the very mountain where Joshua was described in the Bible as having built an altar after the Jews crossed the Jordan River. The altar he found contained tools dating to the 12th century BCE, the time the Jewish people entered the Land, and its construction matched the descriptions of Joshua's altar in both biblical and rabbinic texts. But instead of the expected excitement accompanying such a monumental find, Zertal's academic colleagues ignored him and his discovery. The more vocal accused Zertal, a secular Jew raised on a kibbutz, of being politically motivated to support Jewish settlements in the area around Shechem (Nablus), where Mount Eval is located

archaeologist wrote:

In any crime 'follow the money.' Look who put up the money for her dig.

that is a moot point though as the same charge can be levelled against anyone.

Even you cannot be that naive. She was funded by a settler group that wants Jews to 'reclaim' their land. Figure it out.

Just like the clowns who pick up a stick in Turkey and pronounce it part of the Ark. When the C14 test comes back and the stick dates to 1000 AD you never hear them publicize that with the same fervor as the original. The damage has been done and gullible fools think that silly story is true.

i have been wondering about that. has there been any word on the dating yet?

Not that I ever heard and I rather doubt they'll ever turn up. Those nasty facts get in the way of a good myth

They do not care about truth, arch. They care about headlines to dazzle the foolish

in part that is true as they seek money to continue their 'work' but it doesn't mean everyone or their discoveries are discredited.

But one must be skeptical of their analysis. So far they have found a pile of rocks. It could have been built anytime.

She tried to hedge her bet by saying "it could be" or "I may have found" but the bible-thumpers won't accept that.

no some wnt to have it proven so they can say 'i told you so' i prefer they prove it first before proclaiming what it is.

Absent inscriptions on a door post that say "Dave's House" I can't imagine you'll get that. Especially since there is no indication of literacy in Judah at that time.

**it is getting harder to find your answers amidst the crap that is being posted in all the threads lately.

And yet, you manage. (Must be one of those 'miracles', huh?)

archaeologist wrote:

You have demonstrated that your "level of proof" for bible bullshit is shockingly low

you claim to want proof then when it appears you do a nice tap dance around it. Did you read the rest of the article?

I've been following the story since it first came out. Along with the Edomite copper factory, another "Hosannah" from the bible-crowd. Like the Albright school, they think every time they dig up a rock it has to be part of the fucking bible. Their desire to prove the bible gets in the way of their objectivity. Which is a polite way of saying they are desperate to show that their is some truth to their fairy tales.

under the heading Too Biblical there is the following:

An example is Adam Zertal, who in 1983 discovered an enormous sacrificial altar on Mount Eval, on the very mountain where Joshua was described in the Bible as having built an altar after the Jews crossed the Jordan River. The altar he found contained tools dating to the 12th century BCE, the time the Jewish people entered the Land, and its construction matched the descriptions of Joshua's altar in both biblical and rabbinic texts. But instead of the expected excitement accompanying such a monumental find, Zertal's academic colleagues ignored him and his discovery. The more vocal accused Zertal, a secular Jew raised on a kibbutz, of being politically motivated to support Jewish settlements in the area around Shechem (Nablus), where Mount Eval is located

or are you going to find fault with that discovery also? as i have said in the past, the evidence is there, how you choose to deal with it is up to you.

Zertal's "altar" was one of your postings before. He has not convinced his peers. He has certainly not convinced me. PS - if there was no Joshua (and there wasn't) there was no Joshua's altar. It may have been an altar built by any of the innumerable Canaanite groups in the area from time immemorial but without some kind of proof it is merely another example of the "Hallelujah" chorus that the bible-thumpers send up whenever they dig up a rock. I know this is good enough for you. They could sell you anything. It is not good enough for me.


i will continue to discuss jerusalem if you want to but it seems it might destroy your faith in finkelstein and dever.

You need evidence to do that. So far, you still have none.

You need evidence to do that. So far, you still have none

Zertal's "altar" was one of your postings before. He has not convinced his peers.

It may have been an altar built by any of the innumerable Canaanite groups in the area from time immemorial but without some kind of proof

it is merely another example of the "Hallelujah" chorus that the bible-thumpers send up whenever they dig up a rock.

Absent inscriptions on a door post that say "Dave's House

Especially since there is no indication of literacy in Judah at that time

archaeologist wrote:

You need evidence to do that. So far, you still have none

no, you just dismiss it and don't give it credit as evidence.

Zertal's "altar" was one of your postings before. He has not convinced his peers.

did i? i don't recall unless it was in the group of top ten months ago. isn't the second part of that, a good excuse for not believing/

Buried somewhere in this very thread. If you want to believe every charlatan who says he found Moses' pisspot, go ahead. I am a bit more discriminating.

It may have been an altar built by any of the innumerable Canaanite groups in the area from time immemorial but without some kind of proof

this is a possibility and a coincidence but... it could still be Jsohua's.

Joshua was a heroic myth, created by priests much later on.

it is merely another example of the "Hallelujah" chorus that the bible-thumpers send up whenever they dig up a rock.

this happens a lot as they get too excited about seeing their faith realized and it is hard to contain until it is proven true.

Yeah. Funny how it keeps happening.

Absent inscriptions on a door post that say "Dave's House

if that happened you would call it a forgery so i will conclude that no evidence will open your mind up.

If it happened it would be a forgery as they did not have a script to write it out. Perhaps they could have borrowed hieroglyphs?

Especially since there is no indication of literacy in Judah at that time

ha. ha.ha. ever thought of writing for leterman or aseop's fabes?

In all you horseshit you have never come up with a hebrew inscription from the time period in question. Don't feel bad though, no one else has either. The reason for that is that hebrew developed shortly before the bible was written down. Funny how that worked out, huh?

Buried somewhere in this very thread. If you want to believe every charlatan who says he found Moses' pisspot, go ahead. I am a bit more discriminating

Joshua was a heroic myth, created by priests much later on

If it happened it would be a forgery as they did not have a script to write it out. Perhaps they could have borrowed hieroglyphs?

In all you horseshit you have never come up with a hebrew inscription from the time period in question

while on the exodus and the 40 years of wandering,

Minimalist wrote:

thus the implications are huge no matter how you look at it.

If some bible thumping jackass told you that he'd found the reed basket that Moses floated down the Nile in, you'd piss your pants with joy, jump up and down a few times and shout Hallelujah.

You're far too ready to believe anything these phonies tell you.

Schoville's eighth entry is the Mount Ebal "altar." The excavator of this site, Adam Zertal, advances the interpretation that the installation was an altar built by Joshua upon entering the promised land, in fulfillment of Moses' command to that effect. The case for the installation being an altar is based on the preponderance of scorched or burned animal bones found in the ash layers. The case for connecting this altar with the early Iron Age Israelites is the lack of donkey, dog, or pig bones in the ash of the burned bones. Zertal's inference that the installation is an altar used by the same population that occupied the new Iron I villages in the Palestinian highlands—people that Finkelstein and Dever both call "proto-Israelites"—seems pretty reasonable to me, although the accuracy of that inference is hotly disputed in some quarters. Going a step further and identifying the altar as Joshua's altar is intriguing, but there's nothing that specifically links the Ebal altar to any specific person—not that we should expect to find a "Joshua was here" graffito on the side of the altar or the wall of the larger enclosure. (Though finding "Joshua + Rahab 4 Ever" carved into a terebinth would really be a gas.)