Archaeological investigations near Nazareth--Jesus' boyhood home--have revealed that the area was a major cult center 8,000 years before the time of Christ.
Excavations at Kibbutz Kfar HaHoresh, less than two miles from the town center, have so far unearthed strangely decorated human skulls and evidence for unusual, complex burials. "This is the first example in the Levant of a purely religious complex from this remote period," says excavation director Nigel Goring-Morris of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "This is a totally new type of site." The cult center seems to have serviced the religious needs of villagers a few miles away.
It's importance apparently diminished over the years to the point where archaeology cannot, with certainty, establish if the site was even occupied in the first century AD.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Wow - I'd like to know how they established the 8,000 BCE date. That's right around the beginnings of agriculture. It seems like the ceremonial life was pretty extensive, so you would expect a large priesthood, which would need a well established society to support it. Very interesting!
Beats me, the article doesn't give any more depth.
Maybe I'll check the IAA site.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
The evidence suggests the significance of color ritual context, possible ancestors worship, or the desire to preserve the dead for an anticipated afterlife, and a cattle cult. The cattle cult is also observable at the Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük (also, Catal Huyuk, Çatalhüyük, Çatalhöyük), Anatolia, Turkey. This later site is dated to the 8th millennium BC and exhibits a bullfight. The cult seems to exist throughout the Mediterranean and adjacent region in prehistory. The Spanish bullfights may be the last vestiges of this ancient cult.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Of course, the bull was revered during the zodiac age of Taurus, and it's symbolic of virility, so the bull was big circa 2300 B.C., and the ram ruled several centuries later.
Minimalist wrote:No indication of where the dating comes from. You might find the end of this site interesting, OAS, with your previous mention of Catalhoyuk
The evidence suggests the significance of color ritual context, possible ancestors worship, or the desire to preserve the dead for an anticipated afterlife, and a cattle cult. The cattle cult is also observable at the Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük (also, Catal Huyuk, Çatalhüyük, Çatalhöyük), Anatolia, Turkey. This later site is dated to the 8th millennium BC and exhibits a bullfight. The cult seems to exist throughout the Mediterranean and adjacent region in prehistory. The Spanish bullfights may be the last vestiges of this ancient cult.
Interesting tie to Catalhoyuk.
It seems to indicate 2003 as the excavation date. If so they should have published by now. Still no mention of dating methods. It will be interesting to see where this leads.
Wikipedia chimes in with this section on archaeology at Nazareth. Note the footnotes 2 and 3.
Archaeological research has revealed a funerary and cult center at Kfar HaHoresh, about two miles from Nazareth, dating roughly 9000 years ago (in what is known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era).[2] The remains of some 65 individuals were found, buried under huge horizontal headstone structures, some of which consisted of up to 3 tons of locally-produced white plaster. Decorated human skulls found have led archaeologists to believe that Kfar HaHoresh was a major cult center in that remote era.[3]
“Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient Jewish sources earlier than the third century CE. This likely reflects its lack of prominence both in Galilee and in Judaea,” writes American archaeologist James Strange.[4] Strange variously estimates Nazareth’s population at “roughly 1,600 to 2,000 people” in the time of Christ, and in another publication at “a maximum of about 480.” [5] However, some historians argue that the absence of textual references to Nazareth in the Old Testament and the Talmud, as well as the works of Josephus, suggest that a town called 'Nazareth' did not exist in Jesus' day.[6] The latter view is supported by the results of the excavations at Nazareth which do not furnish evidence from Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic or Early Roman times,[7] despite many claims to the contrary made in the literature.[8] Thus, it is possible that the town of 'Nazareth' came into existence only with the spread of Christianity.
In the mid-1990s, shopkeeper Elias Shama discovered tunnels under his shop near Mary’s Well in Nazareth. The tunnels were eventually recognized as a hypocaust (a space below the floor into which warm air was pumped) for a bathhouse. The site was excavated in 1997-98 by Y. Alexandre, and the archaeological remains exposed were ascertained to date from the Middle Roman, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. [9][10][11]
A tablet currently at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, dating to 50 AD, was sent from Nazareth to Paris in 1878. It contains an inscription known as the "Ordinance of Caesar" that outlines the penalty of death for those who violate tombs or graves. However, it is suspected that this inscription came to Nazareth from somewhere else (possibly Sepphoris). B. Bagatti, the principle archaeologist at Nazareth, writes: “we are not certain that it was found in Nazareth, even though it came from Nazareth to Paris. At Nazareth there lived various vendors of antiquities who got ancient material from several places.”[12] C. Kopp is more definite: "It must be accepted with certainty that [the Ordinance of Caesar]... was brought to the Nazareth market by outside merchants."[13]
Jack Finegan describes additional archaeological evidence related to settlement in the Nazareth basin during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and adds that "Nazareth was a strongly Jewish settlement in the Roman period."[14] The critical question now under scholarly debate is when in the Roman period Nazareth came into existence, that is, whether settlement there began before or after 70 CE (the First Jewish War).
If you click on the whole article and scroll down to the bottom you will see where Footnote 2 refers to a 1997 paper at the site. So, perhaps what we are seeing in 2003 is a synopsis for the layman and the real paper is in some scholarly journal? I have noted that those frequently never seem to make it to the web.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Well - the town is mentioned in the 4 gospels, which were variously written between 40CE and 100Ce roughly (not eyewitness accounts, but close enough to be familiar with the landscape and certainly within the Roman period). I would think it existed someplace - maybe now where we think?
General consensus among scholars is that Mark was written around 70 AD...while the embers were cooling in Jerusalem and people were busily trying to convince the Romans that they weren't Jews. The others were strung out over the next 100 years.
The trouble is that we have no actual copies until the 3d or 4th century and christians were certainly not above a little forgery if it helped their cause....just ask Josephus.
BTW, I saw another treatise the other day which suggested that the alleged reference of P. Cornelius Tacitus to Christ and Christians and even Nero's so-called persecution was also a later insertion. I need to go find that again. Very interesting stuff, if somewhat O/T.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Minimalist wrote:General consensus among scholars is that Mark was written around 70 AD...while the embers were cooling in Jerusalem and people were busily trying to convince the Romans that they weren't Jews. The others were strung out over the next 100 years.
The trouble is that we have no actual copies until the 3d or 4th century and christians were certainly not above a little forgery if it helped their cause....just ask Josephus.
BTW, I saw another treatise the other day which suggested that the alleged reference of P. Cornelius Tacitus to Christ and Christians and even Nero's so-called persecution was also a later insertion. I need to go find that again. Very interesting stuff, if somewhat O/T.
I was under the impression that 40CE was the earliest, but even at 70CE they would know the geography.
True but Josephus catalogues his 'campaign' against the Romans throughout Galilee and never mentions any place called Nazareth.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
When you consider that we have far less proof that what we have from the ancient Greek philosophers was not tampered with, the consistency of the Biblical text through the centuries cannot be denied.
Genesis Veracity wrote:When you consider that we have far less proof that what we have from the ancient Greek philosophers was not tampered with, the consistency of the Biblical text through the centuries cannot be denied.
Don't start with the fucking bible.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
