Visual, tactile evidence that reaches across 2,800 years..
Old tablet from King Solomon's Temple?
] <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/14/israel.tablet.ap/"; target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/14/israel.tablet.ap/</a>;
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli geologists said they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative.
The find -- whose origin is murky -- is about the size of a legal pad, with a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that strongly resembles descriptions in the Bible's Book of Kings. It could also strengthen Jewish claims to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem's Old City that is now home to two major mosques.
Muslim clerics insist, despite overwhelming archaeological evidence, that no Jewish shrine ever stood at the site. That claim was made by Palestinian officials in failed negotiations with Israel in 2000 over who would be sovereign there.
The origin of the stone tablet is unclear, making it difficult to establish authenticity.
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday quoted an unidentified source as saying it was uncovered in recent years, during renovations carried out by the Muslim administrators of the mosque compound known to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
From there, it reached a major antiquities collector in Jerusalem, Haaretz said. The Holy Land has a thriving trade in antiquities, often operating on the edge of the law.
The sandstone tablet has a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that resembles descriptions in Kings II, 12:1-6, 11-17, said Israel's Geological Survey, which examined the artifact. The words refer to King Joash, who ruled the area 2,800 years ago.
In it, the king tells priests to take "holy money ... to buy quarry stones and timber and copper and labor to carry out the duty with faith." If the work is completed well, "the Lord will protect his people with blessing," reads the last sentence of the inscription.
The Jerusalem collector has declined to come forward, and David Zailer, a lawyer for the collector, would not say where the tablet was found or give any further details.
Gabriel Barkai, a biblical archaeologist, said the collector asked the Israel Museum to determine the authenticity of the inscription and was told the museum's experts could not rule out a forgery. The Israel Museum declined comment Monday.
The collector then took the tablet to Israel's Geological Institute, whose experts studied it over the past year. "Our findings show that it is authentic," said Shimon Ilani, who performed geological tests on the inscription. Carbon dating confirms the writing goes back to the 9th century B.C., he said.
In the outer layer, Ilani and his colleagues found microscopic flecks of gold that could have been burnt into the stone when a building containing both the tablet and gold objects was destroyed.
This could mean the tablet was actually part of Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., said Amos Bean, director of the institute.
"These specks of gold are not natural material, but a sign of human activity," said Bean. "They could be from gold-plated objects in the home of a very rich man, or a temple. ... It's hard to believe that anyone would know how to do these things to make it look real."
The stone itself was probably from the Dead Sea area and was originally whiter than its current dark gray, Bean said.
Hershel Shanks, editor of the Washington-based Biblical Archaeology Review, said the tablet, if authentic, would be "visual, tactile evidence that reaches across 2,800 years."
Barkai said the inscription's resemblance to biblical passages "has far-reaching implications of the historical importance of the biblical text."
Several other inscriptions excavated in recent years refer to characters or events from the Bible. A stone inscription found in northern Israel includes the phrase "house of David." Most experts consider this to be the first ancient writing outside the Bible that refers to King David or the Davidic line of kings, which has corroborated the basic history of the Hebrew Scriptures.
.
.
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Interesting find.
Although I?m not religious I always believed that the Bible was true historical account of the Jewish people. Too bad they had to get GOD into that record.
] <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/14/israel.tablet.ap/"; target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/14/israel.tablet.ap/</a>;
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli geologists said they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative.
The find -- whose origin is murky -- is about the size of a legal pad, with a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that strongly resembles descriptions in the Bible's Book of Kings. It could also strengthen Jewish claims to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem's Old City that is now home to two major mosques.
Muslim clerics insist, despite overwhelming archaeological evidence, that no Jewish shrine ever stood at the site. That claim was made by Palestinian officials in failed negotiations with Israel in 2000 over who would be sovereign there.
The origin of the stone tablet is unclear, making it difficult to establish authenticity.
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday quoted an unidentified source as saying it was uncovered in recent years, during renovations carried out by the Muslim administrators of the mosque compound known to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
From there, it reached a major antiquities collector in Jerusalem, Haaretz said. The Holy Land has a thriving trade in antiquities, often operating on the edge of the law.
The sandstone tablet has a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that resembles descriptions in Kings II, 12:1-6, 11-17, said Israel's Geological Survey, which examined the artifact. The words refer to King Joash, who ruled the area 2,800 years ago.
In it, the king tells priests to take "holy money ... to buy quarry stones and timber and copper and labor to carry out the duty with faith." If the work is completed well, "the Lord will protect his people with blessing," reads the last sentence of the inscription.
The Jerusalem collector has declined to come forward, and David Zailer, a lawyer for the collector, would not say where the tablet was found or give any further details.
Gabriel Barkai, a biblical archaeologist, said the collector asked the Israel Museum to determine the authenticity of the inscription and was told the museum's experts could not rule out a forgery. The Israel Museum declined comment Monday.
The collector then took the tablet to Israel's Geological Institute, whose experts studied it over the past year. "Our findings show that it is authentic," said Shimon Ilani, who performed geological tests on the inscription. Carbon dating confirms the writing goes back to the 9th century B.C., he said.
In the outer layer, Ilani and his colleagues found microscopic flecks of gold that could have been burnt into the stone when a building containing both the tablet and gold objects was destroyed.
This could mean the tablet was actually part of Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., said Amos Bean, director of the institute.
"These specks of gold are not natural material, but a sign of human activity," said Bean. "They could be from gold-plated objects in the home of a very rich man, or a temple. ... It's hard to believe that anyone would know how to do these things to make it look real."
The stone itself was probably from the Dead Sea area and was originally whiter than its current dark gray, Bean said.
Hershel Shanks, editor of the Washington-based Biblical Archaeology Review, said the tablet, if authentic, would be "visual, tactile evidence that reaches across 2,800 years."
Barkai said the inscription's resemblance to biblical passages "has far-reaching implications of the historical importance of the biblical text."
Several other inscriptions excavated in recent years refer to characters or events from the Bible. A stone inscription found in northern Israel includes the phrase "house of David." Most experts consider this to be the first ancient writing outside the Bible that refers to King David or the Davidic line of kings, which has corroborated the basic history of the Hebrew Scriptures.
.
.
.
___
Interesting find.
Although I?m not religious I always believed that the Bible was true historical account of the Jewish people. Too bad they had to get GOD into that record.
Comments
<strong>
Interesting find.
Although I?m not religious I always believed that the Bible was true historical account of the Jewish people. Too bad they had to get GOD into that record.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'm with you on that. I love archaeology, even spirituality, but religion doesn't need to play a part in this find.
<strong>
I'm with you on that. I love archaeology, even spirituality, but religion doesn't need to play a part in this find.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hmm,..
Should religion play a part in any "find" or politics?
[
Why do I get the uneasy feeling this sentiment of yours only applies to this particular item? Am I being a little too legalistic in reading your posts?
[/
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
[ 01-14-2003: Message edited by: Anders the White ]</p>
<strong>
Why do I get the uneasy feeling this sentiment of yours only applies to this particular item? Am I being a little too legalistic in reading your posts? </strong><hr></blockquote>
Why? Because we fight in so many threads?
Sorry, I actually meant that archaeological finds are important outside of their religious ties. Like the Pyramids or something. They were religious, but we don't see them as proof that Pharaos were gods.
At least I hope we don't....
A most interesting find, I'd say.
<strong> So your views on the jewish people is purely nationalistic (which isn´t bad in itself)?
[ 01-14-2003: Message edited by: Anders the White ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Uhhh? What else can they be?
<strong>
Uhhh? What else can they be?</strong><hr></blockquote>
A group of people sharing the same religion like most jews see themselves. The concept of a nonbelieving or -practising jew is kind of hard for me to grasp. It doesn´t correlate with anything in my mothers family or any other jews I know
[ 01-16-2003: Message edited by: zMench ]</p>
It reminds me: You never told if you are in Israel yourself or in US Mika?
<strong>Must be a difference due to geographics.
It reminds me: You never told if you are in Israel yourself or in US Mika?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't think so. I lived in Europe and North America and it's the same everywhere. The "religious Jews" (debatable) are definitely more visible than the others, but they make up a small minority.
Re: Q. I travel a lot. But my home base is Haifa. Bet Oren to be more specific. I also use a proxy. So for all you know I could be posting from Japan. Although due to language barriers I probably wont.
[quote]Originally posted by Anders the White:
<strong>A group of people sharing the same religion like most jews see themselves. The concept of a nonbelieving or -practising jew is kind of hard for me to grasp. It doesn´t correlate with anything in my mothers family or any other jews I know</strong><hr></blockquote>
The traditional way religious Jews view themselves is a people and a nation: Am Israel (the people of Israel) or Umath Israel (the nation of Israel), not as a strictly religious community.
From the late 18th century on, as a consequence of the Aufklärung, some Western Jews wanted to reduce their Jewish identity to a mere religious affilation, so they claimed to be Germans, French, English, etc? but of the ?Mosaic religion? or ?Israelite confession? in the same way their neighbours were Catholics, Lutherans, or Methodists. Some went as far as proscribing the very words ?Jews? (as it had negative connotations in so many languages) and ?synagogue? (as it had negative connotation as well, as in ?Synagogue of Satan?), brought in organs, ditched the Hebrew and Aramaic and started singing hymns in German.
Yet the Aufklärung had another consequence on some Jews, who thought of themselves as human beings just like everybody else, both in the individual and in the collective sense. Rather than seeking to become part of the nation of diaspora in which they lived, they rather sought to renew a normal existence in their geographical location, where they had a history of autochtone sovereignity and profane culture, rather than a mostly religious one. Since ?we-are-human-beings-just-like-everybody-else-ists? is ungainly, they called themselves ?Zionists? in reference the one of the mountains of Jerusalem, and a name for the land of Israel found in poetry and other forms of litterature, Zion.
As the more modern societies were entering a phase of secularisation, Jews in those societies, as well as Jews seeking to build a modern society of their own, became mostly secularised as well.
The more cultivated among them, including the biggest atheists, appreciate the Bible as the pillar of their litterature (Imagine what Shakespeare is to the English, add to what Homer is to the Greeks, and multiply by ∞ ) and as the account of their ancient times, when the World was young, etc?
Some religious Jews will of course, contend there can be no Jews and no Israel without adhering to the Torah, as some French vieux Catholiques will argue France can only be the elder daughter of the Mother Church (of Rome) and some very pious Russian Orthodox will swear Mother Russia is the inherently Pravoslavic.
But that's their opinion.
[ 01-16-2003: Message edited by: Immanuel Goldstein ]</p>
<strong>I travel a lot. But my home base is Haifa. Bet Oren to be more specific.</strong><hr></blockquote>
בית אורן
I visited the place for a short time so many years ago, when it was still a citadel of self-managed anarcho-syndicalism*.
Memories?
*The others, if you want to get the general idea, think Dennis, the one King Arthur calls ?old woman? in Monty Python's Holy Grail he explains the gist of it.
[ 01-16-2003: Message edited by: Immanuel Goldstein ]</p>
Oh Immanuel, you?re making me blush. You know that?s only a show to keep the unwashed at bay. They?re better off in Zichron and its gaudy castles.
[ 01-16-2003: Message edited by: zMench ]</p>