Archaeologica.org

Perhaps we can get back to some actual archaeology? For a change?

Hellenistic jewelry in pre-Hasmonean Jerusalem.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dail...=ZE8A8MZ30

A rare gold earring dating to the second or third century B.C.E. was unearthed during an excavation in Jerusalem.

“It seems as though, at the time, the city did not reach farther than the top of the hill in the City of David, but then spread slightly to the west into the Tyropoeon Valley,” said Gadot and Shalev. “We also learned from this excavation that the residents of this area were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but rather the opposite—they were well-off people. The discovery of familiar Hellenistic pieces of jewelry can teach us about how Hellenistic influences reached Jerusalem during this time.”

Also brings into focus the Maccabaean legends of strife between Hellenized "Jews" and conservative jews.

Seems a lot of weight to place on one ear ring

Circumspice try this link: (let me know if it doesn't work, I have more)

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.pr ... -1.6361328

Or this one:

http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/ ... srael.html

Simon21 wrote:Seems a lot of weight to place on one ear ring

It's one earring more than we had before.

MichelleH wrote:Circumspice try this link: (let me know if it doesn't work, I have more)

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.pr ... -1.6361328

Or this one:

http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/ ... srael.html

Thanks Michelle! Both links worked.

Minimalist wrote:

Simon21 wrote:Seems a lot of weight to place on one ear ring

It's one earring more than we had before.

One is hardly suggesting they throw it away. But often in Israeli (and elsewhere)archaeology a lot of interpretation is often put on a little. There and in Pakistan etc archaeology is often political.

I don't know about Pakistan but there are right-wing Israeli nuts who seek to portray the bible as accurate history so they can "claim" it. Somehow, they overlook the fact that later in that same history they were evicted from Judaea and then overrun by muslims,

If some Apache showed up on my door and insisted that he used to own the land my house is on I'd call the cops. You lost, buddy. Hit the road.

Minimalist wrote:I don't know about Pakistan but there are right-wing Israeli nuts who seek to portray the bible as accurate history so they can "claim" it. Somehow, they overlook the fact that later in that same history they were evicted from Judaea and then overrun by muslims,

If some Apache showed up on my door and insisted that he used to own the land my house is on I'd call the cops. You lost, buddy. Hit the road.

This is why the acculturalisation issue is so important. The Palestinians have been jews, Egyptians, Assyrians, Byzantines etc. Jesus (if he existed) was a Palestinian - there are no races. Consequently to solve the Israeli Palestinian issue simply declare the Palestinians to be old-jewish and hand out free kippers and human rights - problem solved.

This gets particularly hilarious with Islam where you find intelligent people honestly thinking that a small bunch of desert horsemen (at most 20,000) practically annihilated the whole of the Middle east and North Africa (including Egypt) - and then in a feat of awe inspiring prodigious promiscuity promptly repopulated it with moslems. Though how they managed to get on their horses after fornicating to this extent beggars all belief.

It is a fascinating story and like most religious horseshit is mainly a story composed afterwards.

It is what makes the Ghassanids such an interesting factor in the story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassanid ... id_Kingdom

They were heretical ( as far as the Byzantines were concerned) xtians but when you are fighting for your life against the Persians you take what allies you can get and the Ghassanids just happened to be in the right place to hold the Byzantine right flank while they and the Persians tore each other to shreds for most of the 5th century.

So there is an intact (heretical) xtian army ( miaphysites rather than the dyophysites who had won out in Constantinople) sitting there in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time to advance into the power vacuum that had been left by the repeated blood-letting that the Byzantines and Sassanids had inflicted on one another. And nature abhors a vacuum!