Filed under: Archeology
These skulls were photographed by Robert Connolly on his trip around the world during which he was collecting materials about ancient civilizations. The discovery of unusual skulls was thus an unintended ”spinoff” of his efforts. Robert Connolly published his photographs on a CD-ROM, titled ”The Search For Ancient Wisdom”, Cambrix, 1-800-992-8781, in 1995.
One of the skulls coming from Ica (Peru) and Merida (Mexico). It’s equivalent to the modern skull type, but with several factors out of proportion. The eye sockets are about 15% larger than the ones of a modern man skull, but the most significant thing is the cranial capacity, that ranges between minimum of 2600 and maximum of 3200 ccm (our current cranial capacity is about 1450 ccm!).
The data about the skulls is incomplete, and that makes the correct assessment of their age, context with other hominids, as well as placement of their origin extremely difficult. Some of the skulls are very distinct, as if they belong to entirely different species, remotely similar to genus Homo. The first thing that attracts attention is the size and shape of the cranium in all the specimens. There are 4 different groups represented in the pictures. As a matter of convenience, I labeled them ”conehead”, ”jack-o-lantern” or ”J” and ”M” based on the shape of the skull, except the first and possibly earliest type of skull, which I call ”premodern”.
When some of these pictures (the first two) were posted on CompuServe more than year ago, the majority of people assumed that they represented an example of binding of the head, well known to be in fashion in ancient Nubia, Egypt and other cultures. The problem with this theory is that the inside of the cranium of the mentioned skulls, although elongated and with a back sloping, flattened forehead, have the same capacity as normal human skulls; the only difference is the shape achieved by frontal and side deformations. They are actually more similar to the first type of skull (premodern) with the rounded back, than the conehead type. The cone-shaped types of skull are not found amongst the usual skull-binding samples.
The first skull presents problems of its own. The frontal part of the skull seems to belong to an individual of the pre-Neanderthal family, but the lower jaw, though more robust than modern human type, has a modern shape and characteristics. The shape of the cranium does not have any comparison with the Erectus, Neanderthal types, nor the modern human type. Some minor Neanderthal characteristics are present, as is the occipital ridge on the bottom back of the skull and the flattened bottom of the cranium, other characteristics point more towards Homo Erectus. The angle of the cranial bottom is, though, unusual. We cannot exclude the possibility of a deformed individual in this case, but it is highly unlikely that the angle of the frontal part would require a modification of the lower jaw in the process of growing to resemble modern human types with their projected chin rim. The answer seems to be that the skull belongs to a representative of an unknown premodern human or humanoid type.
As is obvious from the comparison with a modern human skull, the cranial capacity lies within the modern human range. This is not surprising, since the late Neanderthals and early modern humans (Cro-Magnon) had larger cranial capacities (both roughly 1600 ccm to 1750 ccm) than modern humans (av. 1450 ccm). The decrease of the cranial capacity (sudden at that – the specimens of modern humans after about 10500 BCE have smaller craniums) is a puzzling matter, but that’s another story.
No less puzzling is what a representative of a premodern human type is doing on the South American continent. According to the orthodox anthropology, this skull simply does not exist, because it cannot be. Textbooks’ oldest date of appearance of humans in North America is about 35000 BCE and much later for South America, based on the diffusion theory assumptions. The only accepted human types entering the continent are of the modern anatomy. There are some other sources that place all types of human genus in both Americas at much earlier dates based on numerous anomalous finds, but the academe sticks to its preconceived notions, no matter what. It’s safer.
http://www.watsonsupply.com/charley/skulls/skulls.htm
ANCIENT CITY FOUND,
IRRADIATED FROM ATOMIC BLAST
Harappa Ruins
The ruins of the ancient cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are extremely radioactive.
Practically nothing is known of their histories, except that both were destroyed suddenly. In Mohenjo-Daro, in an epicentre 150 feet wide, everything was crystallised, fused or melted; 180 feet from the center the bricks are melted on one side, indicating a blast.
Excavations down to the street level revealed 44 scattered skeletons, as if doom had come so suddenly they could not get to their houses. All the skeletons were flattened to the ground. A father, mother and child were found flattened in the street, face down and still holding hands.
It has been claimed that the skeletons, after thousands of years, are still among the mostradioactive that have ever been found,
A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built.
For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators’ gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region. Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945.
Ancient Nuclear War?
There is evidence that the Rama empire (now India) was devastated by nuclear war. The Indus valley is now the Thar desert, and the site of the radioactive ash found west of Jodhpur is around there. When excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reached the street level, they discovered skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets as if some instant, horrible doom had taken place. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city. And these skeletons are thousands of years old, even by traditional archaeological standards. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on par with those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At one site, Soviet scholars found a skeleton which had a radioactive level 50 times greater than normal. Other cities have been found in northern India that show indications of explosions of great magnitude. One such city, found between the Ganges and the mountains of Rajmahal, seems to have been subjected to intense heat. Huge masses of walls and foundations of the ancient city are fused together, literally vitrified! And since there is no indication of a volcanic eruption at Mohenjo-Daro or at the other cities, the intense heat to melt clay vessels can only be explained by an atomic blast or some other unknown weapon. The cities were wiped out entirely. While the skeletons have been carbon-dated to 2500 BC, we must keep in mind that carbon-dating involves measuring the amount of radiation left. When atomic explosions are involved, that makes then seem much younger.
Another curious sign of an ancient nuclear war in India is a giant crater near Bombay. The nearly circular 2,154-metre-diameter Lonar crater, located 400 kilometres northeast of Bombay and aged at less than 50,000 years old, could be related to nuclear warfare of antiquity. No trace of any meteoric material, etc., has been found at the site or in the vicinity, and this is the world’s only known ”impact” crater in basalt. Indications of great shock (from a pressure exceeding 600,000 atmospheres) and intense, abrupt heat (indicated by basalt glass spherules) can be ascertained from the site.
Consider these verses from the ancient (6500 BC at the latest) Mahabharata: …a single projectile Charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame As bright as the thousand suns Rose in all its splendour… a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds… …the cloud of smoke rising after its first explosion formed into expanding round circles like the opening of giant parasols… ..it was an unknown weapon, An iron thunderbolt, A gigantic messenger of death, Which reduced to ashes The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. …The corpses were so burned As to be unrecognisable. The hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause, And the birds turned white. After a few hours All foodstuffs were infected… …to escape from this fire The soldiers threw themselves in streams To wash themselves and their equipment.
Until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, modern mankind could not imagine any weapon as horrible and devastating as those described in the ancient Indian texts. Yet they very accurately described the effects of an atomic explosion. Radioactive poisoning will make hair and nails fall out. Immersing oneself in water gives some respite, though it is not a cure.
Ancient cities whose brick and stonewalls have literally been vitrified, that is, fused together, can be found in India, Ireland, Scotland, France, Turkey and other places. There is no logical explanation for the vitrification of stone forts and cities, except from an atomic blast.
The most numerous vitrified remains in the western United States. In 1850 the American explorer Captain Ives William Walker was the first to view some of these ruins, situated in Death Valley. He discovered a city about a mile long, with the lines of the streets and the positions of the buildings still visible. At the center he found a huge rock, between 20 to 30 feet high, with the remains of an enormous structure atop it. The southern side of both the rock and the building was melted and vitrified. Walker assumed that a volcano had been responsible for this phenomenon, but there is no volcano in the area. In addition, tectonic heat could not have caused such a liquefication of the rock surface.
An associate of Captain Walker who followed up his initial exploration commented: ”The whole region between the rivers Gila and San Juan is covered with remains. The ruins of cities are to be found there which must be most extensive, and they are burnt out and vitrified in part, full of fused stones and craters caused by fires which were hot enough to liquefy rock or metal. There are paving stones and houses torn with monstrous cracks. [as though they had] been attacked by a giant’s fire-plough.”
These vitrified ruins in Death Valley sound fascinating–but do they really exist? There certainly is evidence of ancient civilisations in the area. In Titus Canyon, petroglyphs and inscriptions have been scratched into the walls by unknown prehistoric hands. Some experts think the graffiti might have been made by people who lived here long before the Indians we know of, because extant Indians know nothing of the glyphs and, indeed, regard them with superstitious awe.
Piute legends tell of a city beneath Death Valley that they call Shin-au-av. Tom Wilson, an Indian guide in the 1920s, claimed that his grandfather had rediscovered the place by wandering into a miles-long labyrinth of caves beneath the valley floor.
Eventually the Indian came to an underworld city where the people spoke an incomprehensible language and wore clothing made of leather.
Wilson told this story after a prospector named White claimed he had fallen through the floor of an abandoned mine at Wingate Pass and into an unknown tunnel. White followed this into a series of rooms, where he found hundreds of leather-clad humanoid mummies. Gold bars were stacked like bricks and piled in bins.
White claimed he had explored the caverns on three occasions. On one, his wife accompanied him; and on another, his partner, Fred Thomason. However, none of them [was] able to relocate the opening to the cavern when they tried to take a group of archaeologists on a tour of the place.
It seems one local character knew how to find the place. Brandon relates that ”Death Valley Scotty”, an eccentric who spent millions building a castle-estate in the area, was known to go ”prospecting” when funds ran low. Death Valley Scotty would check out for a few days of wandering in the nearby Grapevine Mountains, bringing back suspiciously refined-looking gold that he claimed he had prospected. Many believe that he got his gold from the stacked gold bars in the tunnel system beneath Death Valley.
Evidence of a lost civilisation in Death Valley came in a bizarre report of caves and mummies in the Hot Citizen, a Nevada paper, on August 5, 1947. The story ran as follows:
EXPEDITION REPORTS NINE-FOOT SKELETONS
A band of amateur archaeologists announced today they have discovered a lost civilization of men nine feet tall in Californian caverns. Howard E. Hill, spokesman for the expedition, said the civilization may be “the fabled lost continent of Atlantis”.
The caves contain mummies of men and animals and implements of a culture 80,000 years old but ”in some respects more advanced than ours,” Hill said. He said the 32 caves covered a 180-square-mile area in California’s Death Valley and southern Nevada.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS SKEPTICAL
“This discovery may be more important than the unveiling of King Tut’s tomb,” he said.
Professional archaeologists were skeptical of Hill’s story. Los Angeles County Museum scientists pointed out that dinosaurs and tigers which Hill said lay side by side in the caves appeared on Earth 10,000,000 to 13,000,000 years apart.
Hill said the caves were discovered in 1931 by Dr F. Bruce Russell, Beverly Hills physician, who literally fell in while sinking a shaft for a mining claim.
“He tried for years to interest people in them,” Hill said, ”but nobody believed him.”
Russell and several hobbyists incorporated after the war as Amazing Explorations, Inc. and started digging. Several caverns contained mummified remains of ”a race of men eight to nine feet tall,” Hill said. “They apparently wore a prehistoric zoot suit–a hair garment of medium length, jacket and knee-length trousers.”
CAVERN TEMPLE FOUND
Another cavern contained their ritual hall with devices and markings similar to the Masonic order, he said.
“A long tunnel from this temple took the party into a room where,” Hill said, “well-preserved remains of dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, imperial elephants and other extinct beasts were paired off in niches as if on display. ”Some catastrophe apparently drove the people into the caves,” he said. ”All of the implements of their civilization were found,” he said, ”including household utensils and stoves which apparently cooked by radio waves.” ”I know,” he said, ”that you won’t believe that.”
While of doubtful authenticity, this is an interesting story, to say the least. The last comment about cooking food with radio waves being unbelievable is ironic. That is the one thing that modern readers of the story could certainly believe was true, considering the widespread use of microwave ovens today.
Who had heard of them in 1947?
Filed under: Archeology
Sep. 25, 2009
> CAIRO - Ancient coins bearing the name and image of biblical Joseph have been found from the Museum of Egypt, contradicting claims made by some historians that coins were not used for trade in olden Egypt.
“The researcher identified coins from many different periods, including coins that bore special markings identifying them as being from the era of Joseph. Among these, there was one coin that had an inscription on it, and an image of a cow symbolizing Pharaoh’s dream about the seven fat cows and seven lean cows, and the seven green stalks of grain and seven dry stalks of grain. It was found that the inscriptions of this early period were usually simple, since writing was still in its early stages, and consequently there was difficulty in deciphering the writing on these coins. But the research team [managed to] translate [the writing on the coin] by comparing it to the earliest known hieroglyphic texts…
“Joseph’s name appears twice on this coin, written in hieroglyphs: once the original name, Joseph, and once his Egyptian name, Saba Sabani, which was given to him by Pharaoh when he became treasurer. There is also an image of Joseph, who was part of the Egyptian administration at the time.
Whether you believe that the biblical account of Joseph did happen (or something close to the biblical account), or even if you don’t, this account of an Egyptian archeological find in a leading Egyptian Newspaper is very cool According to a report in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, by Wajih Al-Saqqar, archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the Biblical Joseph.
> Archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins
> bearing the name and image of biblical Joseph, Al Ahram
> recently reported. Excerpts provided by MEMRI show that the
> coins were discovered among a multitude of unsorted
> artifacts stored at the Museum of Egypt.
>
> According to the report, the significance of the find is
> that archeologists have found scientific evidence countering
> the claim held by some historians that coins were not used
> for trade in ancient Egypt, and that this was done through
> barter instead.
>
> The period in which Joseph was regarded to have lived in
> Egypt matches the minting of the coins in the cache,
> researchers said.
>
> ”A thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the
> year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies
> of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting.
> Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in
> Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.
>
> The discovery of the cache prompted research team head Dr.
> Sa’id Muhammad Thabet to seek Koranic verses that speak of
> coins used in ancient Egypt.
>
> ”Studies by Dr. Thabet’s team have revealed that what most
> archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for
> an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts
> led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many
> such coins have been found at various [archeological sites],
> and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape,
> and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the
> inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved
> face - just like the coins we use today,” the report said.
Filed under: Archeology
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Archaeologists in Israel have found the largest ever cache of rare coins from the time of the last Jewish revolt against the Romans, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said on Wednesday.
The cache includes 120 gold, silver and bronze coins, as well as some pottery and weapons.
It was found in a cave in the Judaean Hills near Jerusalem that served as a hiding place for the Jewish fighters during the so-called Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136 CE), named after its leader.
“This discovery verifies the assumption that the refugees of the revolt fled to caves in the centre of a populated area in addition to the caves found in more isolated areas of the Judaean Desert,” said Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University.
Most of the coins are in excellent condition and “were overstruck as rebels’ coins on top of Roman coins” with imprints showing Jewish images and words such as the facade of the Temple in Jerusalem and the slogan “for the freedom of Jerusalem,” the university said in a statement.
Bar-Kokhba coins of this quality and quantity have never before been discovered in one location,
Israeli archaeologists unveiled never before seen historical artifacts from a recent discovery of a Judean Hills cave used by Jewish refugees during the Bar Kokhba rebellion in 132-35 CE. The findings were presented at a press conference
held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Wednesday morning.
The massive discovery marks the first time Israeli researchers have ever found a large hoard of ancient coins from this era. The gold, silver and bronze coins, 120 in all, were discovered in an undisclosed location within the ‘Green Line’ of Israel. The unlocking of the almost inaccessible cave also yielded iron weapons, storage jars, oil lamps, a juglet, a silver earring and a glass bottle.
The 20-meter deep cave and its bounty are continuing to be explored by Prof. Amos Frumkin and Boaz Langford of the Cave Research Unit in the Department of Geography of the Hebrew University and Dr. Boaz Zissu and Prof. Hanan Eshel of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. The project is made possible with the support of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
The artifacts are believed to be solid evidence proving the theory that Jews found refuge in the Judean Hills during the time-period
A majority of the discovered coins were in excellent condition. Jewish fighters pressed their own insignias into the coins. Leaders of the Jewish resistance imprinted and dated coins for each year of the rebellion with, for example, images of the exterior of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and poetry for reclaiming Jerusalem as a means for spreading the rebellion via currency.
The Bar Kokhba Revolt was fought against the Roman Empire and it was last of the Jewish-Roman wars. The revolt, led by Simon bar Kokhba, was meant to put down the Roman occupation of the land of Israel. Bar Kokhba managed to establish a Jewish state over parts of Judea, as Jews were banned from living in Jerusalem or visiting the site of the destroyed Second Temple. For almost two years until the Roman armies put down the resistance, Jewish resistance fighters inflicted heavy casualties upon the Roman army. Staggering estimates of the Jewish death toll exceed 500,000 civilian causalities and almost 1,000 towns destroyed by the Roman army.
Filed under: Archeology
What if someone could decipher an ancient mystery…a cryptic map that would lead us to the greatest treasures and archaeological finds in modern history? What if that someone had already done it? Welcome to…The Copper Scroll Project.
Headed up by Jim Barfield of Apache, Oklahoma and Chris Knight of Dallas, Texas. The Copper Scroll Project is already in full swing. From meetings to archaeological digs, this is a project that you don’t want to miss out on. Stay connected via our website to all the going ons that have to do with the Copper Scroll project and its team members.
Between 160-200 tons of gold and silver potentially lurk
> under the Judean hills and Negev sands. Their estimated
> worth is over $2 billion today. Whatever the tonnage may be,
> the significance of the archaeological discoveries would be
> far greater than any monetary value. Barfield notes that the
> Copper Scroll offers the greatest chance ever to locate lost
> sacred objects used for worship in the first Jewish Temple.
>
I want you to meet the guy who has cracked the
code on the Copper Scroll. His name is Jim Barfield a small-town Oklahoma man with impressive posture, Barfield sports long (really long) gray
hair and a full goatee. His partner in ”The Copper Scroll
Project” is Chris Knight, another long-haired fellow who
speaks softly and possesses a gentle demeanor. He shares the
same look of confidence and conviction that Barfield exudes
as they talk about the Scroll.
What’s the Copper Scroll?”
“A treasure map,” Barfield answered, ”from the prophet
Jeremiah.” !
The Copper Scroll was discovered in 1952 in one of the
> Qumran caves along the Dead Sea. Though part of the official
> Dead Sea Scrolls Collection, the Copper Scroll differs from
> the others in that it is written entirely on thin sheets of
> alloyed copper rather than papyrus or leather. Furthermore,
> the Copper Scroll is neither scriptural nor literary, but
> rather a detailed list of approximately sixty locations
> where vast amounts of gold, silver, coins, vessels, and
> other religious artifacts are hidden. Such Temple treasures
> might also include the Ark of the Covenant.
>
> THE SCROLL was found rolled in two parts and badly
> oxidized. Fearing it would crumble like thin glass, experts
> debated for four years over the best way to open it. Finally
> the Scroll was sent to a lab in Manchester, England where
> they cut it into twenty-three strips with a high-speed saw.
> Photographs of the strips were taken, and then, since the
> scroll had been found during an expedition sponsored by the
> Jordan Department of Antiquities, the pieces were sent back
> to the country.
Barfield Believes created during the First Temple period. His hypothesis
> derives from the Second Book of Maccabees, as well as a
> lesser known seventeenth century book called Emek Hamelech
> (“Valley of the King”). These two works tell the story of
> the prophet Jeremiah who, with the help of five Holy men,
> one named Shimur Halevi, carefully hid the holy objects of
> the Temple to protect them from the conquering Babylonians,
> and documented those locations on a copper tablet.
>
> The Copper Scroll is a difficult text to understand.
> Written in an early form of Mishnaic Hebrew, many of the
> words used in the Scroll are unfamiliar to scholars because
> they do not appear in any other biblical or rabbinical
> texts. The scribe’s handwriting is sloppy and hurried,
> forcing paleographers to make competing guesses as to the
> scribe’s intention. Most of the locations detailed in the
> Scroll are obscure references, and are too narrow in their
> specificity to be known outside of that time period. The
> list speaks of tombs, dry wells, caves, and pools belonging
> to forgotten people and places.
>
> For example, the Scroll writes ”Sixty-five bars of gold lie
> on the third terrace in the cave of the old Washer’s House,”
> and again, ”Seventy talents of silver are enclosed in a
> wooden vessel in the cistern of a burial chamber in Matia’s
> courtyard.” Adding to the puzzle, next to seven of the
> locations listed on the Scroll, there are two or three
> random Greek letters. I asked Barfield if somehow he had
> discovered the identity of the ”old Washer,” or if he found
> a secret code associated with the Greek letters. He said
> cracking the code was more direct than that. ”Others have
> applied too much of their pre-conceived theories,” he said,
> “and just get lost in the details.”
Barfield said he had deciphered the first location, and twenty minutes later he identified
> the next four locations. He and his wife took their first
> trip to Israel to confirm whether the sites and places that
> he had identified actually existed. ”I wanted to make sure I
> wasn’t just imagining things,” Barfield said. It took six
> months for Barfield to crack the code for the rest of the
> locations. He then boarded a plane, and delivered
> his report directly into the hands of the Israel Antiquities
> Authority (IAA) in Jerusalem.While an abundance of red tape is normally
> standard when organizing an expedition in the most
> religiously sensitive and politically fragile climate in the
> world, Barfield secured a permit with relative ease.
He will be searching for one of the Scroll’s priority locations
> beginning this winter
>
> BARFIELD SAYS he is 99 percent certain that he has
> identified 56 of the 60 locations of the Copper Scroll; the
> other four he maintains only slight reservations. He readily
> admits, however, that he can not be sure the sites have not
> already been found and looted over the last 2,000 years.
Both Barfield and Knight describe themselves as Torah
> observant Christians with a sincere love for Israel and the
> Jewish people. Their central desire in getting involved with
> the Copper Scroll was to return the treasure of the Scroll
> to its rightful owners: the nation of Israel. In a phone
> interview with Barfield we discussed the implications of
> actually finding something on the expedition. I also noted
> that the finder’s fee for such an achievement would be
> considerable. ”If God has selected me to do this,” Barfield
> replied, ”He gave it to a guy that just doesn’t give a darn
> about wealth.
>
> “My children and grandchildren love God and I just want it
> to stay that way,” he continued. ”I want to return these
> items to Israel and what they do from that point is up to
> them.”
Filed under: Archeology
The marble figure was found in the Roman mansion
Also found within the structure was this gold earring inlaid with precious stones.
A spacious edifice from the Roman period (3 CE), uncovered in an ongoing dig across from Jerusalem’s Old City, has provided new evidence that the City of David in the Jewish capital was not immune to Roman settlement.
The building, apparently a mansion that belonged to a wealthy individual, was recently exposed in excavations in the Givati Car Park in the City of David’s Walls Around Jerusalem National Park. The dig, underwritten by the City of David Foundation is being carried out on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority.
The “magnificent” two-story Roman mansion of more than 1,000 square meters has been discovered by archeologists in the City of David Archeological Park outside the capital’s Old City, the Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.
The opulence of the building is apparent in its size and in artifacts recovered throughout the structures, the Antiquities Authority said in a statement.
“This discovery was very surprising,” Ben-Ami said. “We didn’t expect to find any Roman building remains within the City of David. We were astonished at how huge the structure is. So far we uncovered 1,000 square meters and the structure still extends beyond the limits of the excavation area.”
Previously, archeologist believed 3rd century Roman ruins extended only to the edge of the Ottoman Old City walls. The discovery of the mansion within the Givati parking lot, outside the walls and adjacent to the City of David, however, suggests Roman construction may have stretched to the bottom of the Silwan Valley, Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, the excavation’s director thinks.
The find has already revolutionized historians’ understanding of Roman settlement in Jerusalem, he said.
“The prevailing supposition among scholars that the City of David hill remained outside the area of Roman settlement at the time of Aelia Capitolina is no longer valid,” said Ben-Ami.
IAA excavation director Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and fellow archaeologist Yana Tchekhanovets estimated in a statement that the building covered an area of approximately 1,000 square meters (a quarter of an acre). “In the center of it was a large open courtyard surrounded by columns,” Ben-Ami said. “Galleries were spread out between the rows of columns and the rooms that flanked the courtyard. The wings of the building rose to a height of two stories and were covered with tile roofs.” Excavators deduced that some of the walls of the rooms were treated with plaster and decorated with colorful paintings.”
The building most likely met its end during a massive earthquake that shook Jerusalem in 363 CE, Ben-Ami said.
“The destruction is clearly apparently within the excavation area,” he said. “The walls of some rooms are caved-in and their stones are collapsed. It seems we have archeological evidence of the results of the earthquake that struck our region in 363 CE.”
A large quantity of fresco fragments was discovered in the collapsed ruins, from which the excavators deduced that some of the walls of the rooms were treated with plaster and decorated with colorful paintings. The painted designs that adorned the plastered walls consisted mostly of geometric and floral motifs.
The Roman character of the building was obvious from its architectural richness and floor plan, as well as from the artifacts that were discovered among its ruins, Ben-Ami noted.
Among those finds was an elegant marble figurine in the image of a boxer and a stunning gold earring inlaid with pearls and precious stones, both of which made worldwide headlines.
Evidence of 4th Century Earthquake
Architectural elements such as columns and capitals, as well as mosaics and the large amount of fresco fragments that were used in the rooms of the second story were discovered among the ruins of the building, which may have collapsed due to an earthquake.
The coins that were discovered among the ruins and on the floors in particular provided the first evidence that the demise of the building might be dated to the tremors. The coins were dated to circa 360 CE.
“It seems that what we have here is archaeological evidence of the results of the earthquake that struck our region in 363 CE,” Ben-Ami said.
Filed under: Archeology
It says on the rock
יהו”ה אלהינו
Welcome to the Location of the Oldest known TEN Commandments, the only place on Earth where the name of GOD is found having been written into a stone altar dedicated to Him, and the First place of worship established to the Biblical GOD in America!
South of Albuquerque, and west of Los Lunas, New Mexico, an ancient inscription was carved into the face of a boulder centuries ago. It is the text of the Ten Commandments, written in Hebrew! Of particular interest is the fact that the type of Hebrew writing that was used was Paleo-Hebrew, which is the form of Hebrew writing that was used for approximately a one-thousand-year period, ending about 500 BC. This means that we can fairly conclude that the inscription of the Ten Commandments was engraved on the face of a boulder in New Mexico, North America, sometime prior to 500 BC! The Holy One of Israel led colonies of righteous Israelites to the land of America, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian dispersion that occurred in about 587 BC. Harvard scholar Robert Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer, an expert in Semitic languages, concluded that the mysterious inscription was written in a form of Paleo-Hebrew and paraphrased the Ten Commandments.
“I am Yahweh thy God who brought thee out of the land,” Pfeiffer’s translation began. “There shall not be unto them other gods before Me.” Hebrew scholars, such as Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University near Boston, have vouched for its
authenticity. Historian Steven M. Collins points out that the “Las Lunas Stone” inscription in archaic Hebrew was written in the Hebrew letters of the style of the Moabite Stone, dated to about 1,000 B.C. This would place the writing on the stone to the time of the kingdom of ancient Israel under its most affluent and powerful king, Solomon, who reigned from 1014 B.C. to 974 B.C. sea voyages around the world were fairly
common during the time of king Solomon, the son of David, during Israel’s “golden age.” Solomon’s incredible wealth also strongly points to the Las Lunas stone inscription as having been carved during his reign. Financing sailing voyages of discovery and maritime trade is no small feat. Vast sums and investments are required. Solomon was the wealthiest king who ever lived, and undoubtedly had the resources to fund such far reaching and dangerous voyages. Also, during his reign Israel was in league with the other major world powers of the day, including Tyre and the Phoenicians, and the nation of Egypt.
It is ‘Hidden Mountain’ (5507’) in New Mexico having the local “Mystery Stone” as it is still called by the State, now named the ‘Phoenician Inscription Rock’ on the official maps or ”Mystery Rock” in their ’area attractions’ lists.
The site is located 35 airmiles due SW of Albuquerque on Hwy 6 (Historic ‘Route 66’) at mm18 S of I-40 or 16 miles W of I-25 at Los Lunas (where for it has also become known as the ”Los Lunas Decalogue”).
It was once an Israelite Wilderness Tabernacle site some 2500 or more years ago, with its high place Altar inscription to ’the LORD our God’ of the Bible, and 80 ton boulder “Commandments stone” Mezuzah ‘at the gate’ -dating from the ‘Old Testament’ period of the Paleo-Hebrew ‘mother script’. It is the only ’10 commandments’ yet found in the ancient writing. Historically the mountain was called Cerro Los Moqujino (Cliff of the Strange writings) by the Native Americans stating it pre-existed the arrival of their ancestors into the area.
It’s been said there exists about 2,000 glyphs around Hidden Mtn. for a radius of about 6 miles.
The next most significant locale Hebrew is not far away (in the Purgatoire River valley due South of La Junta Colorado), where the oldest written inscriptions in the US are (c.1250 BCE. conservatively), from the earliest Ligature phase of word-formation by ‘tying letters together into a picture’. Those too have YaH inscriptions identifiable with the Exodus people.
The actual massive rock which appears like a small ship with cleared keel (maybe what attracted his attention to it), of the volcanic basalt from the top Tertiary shelf is a remnant of geological prehistory which fell 2/3 of the way down the mountain to become what now has stood ground 2500+ years as a massive “Mezuzah” (Bible script found at every Jewish doorway). Set at a Right angle to the Left of the main entry before a natural gateway to this ancient site with Altar having the same writing but at exactly the opposite angle Leftward unto facing the River where it’s flowing in a strait line perfectly perpendicular to it.
Being the greatest of only three ‘10 commandments’ stones found anywhere in the world (the others being the “Ohio Decalogue” a much smaller example in a unique type of the post exilic Jewish square script and another one of the ”Michigan Artifacts” found written in a Cuneiform style of Hebrew graphics!) and therefore most worthy of copy, these are made utilizing the complete Alphabet, the best example of the print closest to that writing of the original tablets, as the Paleo is the only Hebrew having an equal size characters letter set which plotting on both sides of two tablets according to the accounts would’ve required. These remakes of it are correct down to the very angle it sets at, but without the ancient scribes mistake of overlooking a part afterward realized and inserted (with a diacritical mark^), with the corrected spelling of a couple of the words and addition of yet a couple more he passed up for an accurate to Exodus 20 readable abridgement of the full Decalogue (as below unembossed)
There are a surprising number of evidences and corroborations that there have been Israelites visiting and living upon the American continents for thousands of years.
Other inscriptions, also written in Paleo-Hebrew, have been discovered in the states of Iowa, Ohio, and Tennessee, as well as in Brazil. In Newark, Ohio, a carved stone of curious workmanship was discovered which also bears an engraved inscription of the Ten Commandments of the Covenant – in Paleo-Hebrew. At a site known as Bat Creek cave, in Tennessee, an ancient Hebrew inscription has been found which mentions the Israelite tribe of Judah!
Another fascinating archaeological discovery in America is an ancient artifact bearing an old Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments unearthed in Ohio in 1860. The tablet also includes a scene of an individual – Moses – carved into the front of the tablet in considerable detail, holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments. This artifact was discovered in an ancient burial mound.
Without a doubt, these various inscriptions firmly establish the fact that Israelites were in America long before the arrival of Europeans!
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Native Language & Customs
There are many Native American Indian customs that confirm the fact of their Hebrew origins. Many of those customs and linguistic evidences were noticed and recorded by the first Europeans who had contact with the various Indian tribes. Congressman]; A View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith; and American Antiquities, by Josiah Priest.
The old customs of the American Indian people included many rituals that were the same, or partially modified, from the equivalent Hebrew observances of the Mosaic Law. Each Indian tribe displayed some customs or traditions that are definitely Hebrew in character. Examples include: circumcision in some tribes; ritual purification after touching a dead body; laws of unclean meats [many Indian tribes followed the dietary laws]; cities of refuge [to which a person who accidentally had committed a felony could flee for safety from retribution]; levirate marriages [the obligation of a brother to ‘raise up seed’ to a deceased brother who left a childless widow]; laws of niddah [separation] for menstruating women; ritual purification in preparation for warfare; manner of marriage, divorce, and punishment for adultery; their lunar-based calendar; animal sacrifices; and many others.
A strong example of the Hebrew origin of some American Indian people includes the observance of annual holy days, which correspond with the appointed feasts of the Bible. For example, many Native American tribes celebrated a spring holy day known generally as the “feast of green corn”, which was observed at the time of the full moon in early spring. Corresponding with this, we find that in the Hebrew calendar, the name for the month in which the Passover occurs was originally known as Abib, which can be translated as “green ear [of grain]”. Like the ‘feast of green corn’, the Passover was observed at the time of the full moon. Indian legends, including that of
the Yuchis, stating they had migrated to the area of Florida and Georgia from the region of the
Bahamas. According to their legends, the island sank beneath the sea and they fled for their
lives.
These same Yuchis later migrated to the Oklahoma territory, where they eventually
settled down. Amazingly enough, they show strong evidence that they had contact with the Old World in historic times. They have a custom which is unique among the American Indians. They are racially and linguistically different from their neighbors. Every year on the fifteenth day of the sacred month of harvest, in the fall, they make a pilgrimage. For eight days they live in “booths” with roofs open to the sky, covered with branches and leaves and foliage. During this festival, they dance around the sacred fire, and called upon the name of God. The ancient Israelites had the virtually identical custom, in many respects. In the harvest season in the fall, on the 15th day of the sacred month of harvest (the seventh month), theycelebrate the “festival of booths” for eight days. During this time they lived in temporary booths, covered with branches, leaves, fronds. This festival goes back to the time of Moses and the Exodus from ancient Egypt (Leviticus 23). Dr. Cyrus Gordon, of Brandeis University in Boston, was privileged to sit in on one of the fall harvest festivals of the Yuchi Indians, and listened to their chants, songs, and sacred ceremonies. An expert in Hebrew, Minoan, and many Middle Eastern languages, he was incredulous. As he listened, he exclaimed to his companion, “My God! They are speaking the Hebrew names of God!”
Some of the best-educated Europeans who first contacted American Indians in eastern North America noticed that, in the language of many tribes, there were numerous words that sounded the same, and had the same meaning as Hebrew words! Among those reaching this conclusion were notable early immigrants to North America, such as William Penn, Roger Williams, and Jonathan Edwards. Words that have the same sounds and meanings in Hebrew as they do in Indian languages include words for: man, wife, the heavens, prayer, winter, as well as numerous verbs and phrases. Among the words that were nearly identical to the Hebrew were Yo-he-wah [corresponding to Yahweh], and ha-le-lu or ha-le-lu-yah. Similarly, in the mid-1600’s, reports of Hebrew-speaking Indians in South America first came to the attention of Europeans. As in North America, not only did the Europeans discover many strong similarities between the spoken languages of the Indians and the Hebrew language, they also reported seeing inscriptions written in Hebrew, and a very strong similarity between Indian customs and Israelite practices.
Israelis made to America thousands of years before Europeans because there were sailors from the tribe of Zebulon and they went all over the world and left there mark. They left from the City of Eilat also it is recorded in the Old Testament that Solomon sent his navy all over to bring copper and silver and gold and tin and minerals like turquoise for the temple he was about to build. Also the name and continent is mentioned in The books of Talmud and Mishna that was written thousands of years ago. Israel knew that the world was round. The Vatican accepted the world being round after man stepped onto the moon and then and only then did they apologize for wishing to burn Galileo at the stake for stating that the world is round.
Filed under: Archeology
Things the Hebrews made by slave Labor, and there is alot more
Abu Simbel Temple Of Ramesses II
The Brick store-chambers of Pithom, the city built by Hebrew bondsmen (looking north)
The location of Pithom was the subject of much discussion among Bible scholars, as it is mentioned in the Bible as one of the cities built by the Israelites for the Egyptian Pharaoh. Its location was determined in 1883 by Édouard Naville. Located southwest of Ismailia in Lower Egypt, the main discoveries here were a number of large honey-combed chambers, which most likely served as granaries for the Egyptian army.
Ramesses
Ramesses mummy
The first attested reference to a person known as Rameses outside of Egyptological circles was in Biblical texts, namely Genesis 47:11, Exodus 1:11 and Numbers 33.3.5. Indeed, over the centuries he has been phonetically referred to as Rhampsintus, Remphus, Rapsaces, Rhamsesis and Rhamses. No matter what the pronunciation attributed to him, Ramesses would go on to rule his beloved Egypt for a total of 67 years, making him one of the most enduring and famous pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.
The Egyptian king; the founder of the city of Rameses and of Pithom (comp. Ex. i. 11), who would, consequently, be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. This king, the second of his name (Egyptian, Ra’mes-su; Ra’-mes-es), and the third ruler of the Egyptian dynasty. He reigned for almost sixty-sevenyears. The king was quantitatively the greatest Egyptian builder, and the Ramesseum (called the tomb of Osymandyas by Diodorus, after the second, official name of Rameses II., User-ma’ [t]n-rê’), with its colossal statues, the temples at Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel in Nubia, etc., belongs to the grandest constructions of ancient Egypt; many other monuments, however, were only usurped by this indefatigable builder. The colonization of Goshen and the digging of canals from the Nile to the Bitter Lakes (but hardly to the Red Sea!) formed another great monument of this Pharaoh. His sepulcher is in the valley of the royal tombs at Thebes; his mummy is in the museum of Cairo. THE central figure of Egyptian history has always been, probably always will be, Rameses the Second. He holds this place partly by right, partly by accident. He was born to greatness ; he achieved greatness ; and he had borrowed greatness thrust upon himThat Rameses II was the Pharaoh of the captivity,11 and that Meneptah, his son and successor, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus,12 are now among the accepted presumptions of Egyptological science. The Bible and the monuments confirm each other upon these points, while both are again corroborated by the results of recent geographical and philological research. The “treasure-cities Pithom and Raamses” which the Israelites built for Pharaoh with bricks of their own making, are the Pa-Tum and Pa-Rameses of the inscriptions, and both have recently been identified by M. Naville, in the course of his excavations conducted in 1883 and 1886 for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
One of the “treasure cities” built by the Israelites in their servitude (Ex. i. 11: “Raamses”); the point from which they started on their journey through the wilderness (Ex. xii. 37). Further, the northeast division of Egypt contained a region known as the “land of Rameses” (Gen. xlvii. 11). There the migrating Israelites were settled, “in the land of Goshen” (Gen. xlvi. 34, xlvii. 4, et al.). The addition of the Septuagint to Gen. xlvi. 28—”to the city Heroopolis,” preceding the words “into the land of Goshen”—seems to include the city of Pithom (Heropolis, Heroo[n]polis) in this region, while the passages concerning Rameses as the starting-point of the Exodus extend its boundary so far to the east that “land of Goshen” and “land of Rameses” would seem to be synonymous. The latter name seems to be derived from the famous King Rameses II., who, by digging a canal and founding cities, extended the cultivable land of Goshen, formerly limited to the country at the mouth of the modern Wadi Ṭumilat, over the whole valley to the Bitter Lakes. Less probable is it that the “land of Rameses” is to be limited to that part of the region that was newly colonized by Rameses II.
The city of Rameses betrays its builder and the date of its foundation by its name; from Ex. xii. 37 and Num. xxxiii. 8, 5 it may be concluded that it was situated one day’s journey west of Succoth—the modern Tell al-Maskhutah or its vicinity. Consequently it ought to be not far from the entrance into the Wadi Ṭumilat, near the modern Tell al-Kabir. The inscriptions of Rameses II. mention various colonies—one being called “House of Rameses,” in Nubia, not far from Tanis—but only once such a city in or near Goshen.
Filed under: Archeology
Joseph in Eqypt – 7 good & 7 bad years
Below is from a stone tablet from a tomb (discovered in 1850) of a wealthy Yemenite woman who died during the Egyptian famine recorded in Genesis 41. This tablet confirms the biblical account of Joseph’s careful management of Egyptian food reserves during the 7 years of famine in Egypt.
“In they name O God, the God of Hamyar,
I Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefar, sent my steward to
Joseph,
And he delaying to return to me, I sent my hand maid
With a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of
flour:
And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold:
And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of pearls:
And not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground:
And finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.
Whosoever may hear of it, let him commiserate me;
And should any woman adorn herself with an ornament
From my ornaments, may she die with no other than my
death.”
Sinaitic Inscriptions in Wadee El-Mukattab, Sinai
Above Inscription shot in 1857 by Francis Frith (1822-1898)
BOOK TITLE: Sinai, Palestine, The Nile. ca. 1863
Below from Sinai Inscriptions found
- Exodus from Egypt?
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Compare Moses’ description in the Bible below about the events surrounding the escape from Egypt, with the following 8 ancient inscriptions found on different cliffs in the Wadi Sidra area of the Sinai. Wadi Sidra is a possible natural route the Jews may have chosen in the Sinai after escaping Egypt. The exact route remains uncertain. |
Inscriptions BEGIN:
“The wind blowing, the sea dividing into parts, they pass over”
“The Hebrews flee through the sea; the sea is turned into dry land.”
“The waters permitted and dismissed to flow, burst rushing unawares upon the astonished men, congregated from quarters banded together to slay treacherously being lifted up with pride.”
“The leader divideth asunder the sea, its waves roaring. The people enter, and pass through the midst of the waters.”
“Moses causeth the people to haste like a fleet-winged she-ostrich crying aloud; the cloud shining bright,
a mighty army propelled into the Red sea is gathered into one;
they go jumping and skipping.
Journeying through the open channel,
taking flight from the face of the enemy.
The surge of the sea is divided.”
“The people flee, the tribes descend into the deep.
The people enter the waters.
The people enter and penetrate through the midst.
The people are filled with stupor and perturbation.
Jehovah is the keeper and companion.”
“Their enemies weep for the dead, the virgins are wailing.
The sea flowing down overwhelmed them.
The waters were let loose to flow again.”
The people depart fugitive.
A mighty army is submerged in the deep sea,
the only way of escape for the congregated people.”
Inscriptions END
Sinai Inscription-Miriam’s Rebellion against Moses
The below ancient Sinai inscription records Miriam’s rebellion against Moses.
Moses recorded the rebellion as such:
“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only to Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?” And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:1-3)
Above an example of inscriptions on rocks in the Sinai
Sinai Inscription Follows:
“Miriam, Prophetess of lying lips and deceitful tongue.
She causes the tribes to conspire against the pillar and
prince of the people.
Convoked for tumult, perverted, full of strife,
the people revile the meek and generous man.
The lead with reproaches the blessed one of God.”
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 on January 16, 2008.
The 2,500-year-old stone seal, which has the name “Temech” engraved on it, was found in January 2008 amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.
According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts
October 1, 2008
JERUSALEM
It is the most remarkable find since excavations in the heart of this 3,000-year-old capital of ancient Israel began 140 years ago: a tiny clay seal impression also known as a bulla or stamp, discovered near the ruins of what has been identified as King David’s palace and bearing the name of an influential courtier mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
“It is not very often that archaeologists have surprises that bring them so close to the reality of the biblical text,” said Eilat Mazar, whose pinpoint dig in a relatively small site this summer led her to a clay bulla whose ancient Hebrew script identifies its owner as Gedalyahu ben Pashhur.
Speaking to an enthusiastic audience of 1,500 Israelis who converged on the Palestinian-Arab Silwan quarter, known as Kfar Hashiloah, or Siloam in the Bible, Mrs. Mazar said, “One could not have asked anything more than this.”
AVI OHAYON/SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Excavations at the City of David site, just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, have yielded seal impressions that date back 2,600 years, when the city was besieged by the Babylonians, and at least two from ministers under King Zedekiah.
Ben Pashhur’s name is cited in the Book of Jeremiah 38:1 together with that of Yehuchal ben Shelemayahu, whose bulla was discovered at the same site two years ago.
The two were ministers in the court of King Zedekiah, the last king from the Davidic dynasty to reign in Jerusalem. His reign, from 597 to 586 B.C., ended with the Babylonians’ destruction of the First Temple on nearby Mount Moriah.
Now in the Israel Museum is a stele that archeologists turned up on 21 July 1993, with an inscription referring to the “House of David,” This is the first real evidence that refers to the biblical king. The Tel Dan Stele is evidence for David being on the throne in that territory which we typically refer to as Judah.
This is known as:
The Tel Dan Inscription
(a.k.a. The Bytdwd Inscription)
(a.k.a. The House of David Inscription)
The inscription is by King Hazael of Aram-Damascus in about 825 B.C. It indicated that his father, Hadad II, was victorious in battle against the “foot soldiers, charioteers and horsemen of the King of the House of David” (against Jehosaphat, c. 860 B.C.).
A second stone, called the “Moabite Stone” was discovered by a German missionary names F. A. Klein in 1868 at Dibon (ancient Moab; present-day Jordan).
The inscriptions on this stone recount the rebellion of King Mesha of Moab against King Jehoram of Israel and King Jehosaphat of Judah.
Mesha was the king of the Moabites who was forced to pay tribute to his neighbor, the Nation of Israel. The Bible tells us that this tribute suddenly stopped: “Mesha, king of Moab, rebelled against the king of Israel…” (2 Kings 3:5).
“And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.” – 2 Kings 3:4-5
The Moabite Stone is a dark-colored, basalt monument about four feet high by two feet wide, dating to the reign of King Mesha in about 850 B.C. This artifact is another important source that corroborates the biblical account of the early Israelites. It currently resides in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
It reads: “I Mesha, king of Moab, made this monument to Chemosh, to commemorate deliverance from Israel. My father reigned over Moab 30 years, and I reigned after my father. Omri, king of Israel oppressed Moab many days, and his son (Ahab) after him. But I made war against the king of Israel and drove him out, and took his cities, Medeba, Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz, which he built while he waged war against me. I destroyed his cities, and devoted the spoil to Chemosh, and the women and girls to Ashtar. I built Qorhah with prisoners from Israel.”
THE PHOTOS
http://godssecret.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/1822/
Mount Zion is a hill just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The term “Zion” became a synonym referring to the entire city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
There is reason to believe that in Biblical times the name Mount Zion referred to the area of what today is called the Temple Mount. However, as early as the first century the hill today called Mount Zion had acquired the name for unknown reasons.
On Mount Zion is King David’s Tomb and that of the other kings of Isreal. An unexpected opportunity to investigate this building occured in 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence. A mortar shell hit the site, and Israeli archaeologist Jacob Pinkerfeld was sent to repair the damage. In the course of repairs, he removed the marble floor slabs and dug two pits revealing three earlier floors, shown in the lower left drawing. Five inches below the present floor was a 12th-century Crusader floor; 1.5 feet below that, Pinkerfeld discovered a mosaic floor with geometric designs dating to the Byzantine period (fifth century); 4 inches below the mosaic, he uncovered the remains of a Roman floor (end of the first century), consisting of plaster fragments and stones from a possible pavement. A foundation ledge projecting into the hall at this final level indicated that this earlier Roman floor was the original building’s floor. Pinkerfeld observed that the niche in the northern wall, behind the cenotaph, was Part of the original construction Standing 6 feet above the earliest floor Level, the niche resembles other niches in ancient synagogues. He noted that the niche was oriented towards the Temple Mount and concluded that the building was originally a synagogue and the niche was the aron (ark for Torah scrolls).Pinkerfeld concluded that the original building was a Roman-period synagogue or early Byzantine.
. The thousand-year-old building that houses the Tomb of King David on Mount Zion in Jerusalem is almost always thronging; some have come to pray and pay homage to Israel’s famous king and ancestor of the Messiah, while others pour over sacred texts all day long in the anteroom next to the tomb. Jewish tradition has identified the tomb of King David on “Mount Zion”, a few hundred meters from the Zion Gate for more than one thousand years. The earliest mention of the Tomb of David as identified today appears in the writings of the Moslem geographer al-Makadasi, in the 10th century. However, al-Makadasi based this identification on the tradition of “the People of the Book”, that is, Jews and Christians. The first Jewish source to commit this tradition to writing is the travel diary of the “Jewish Marco Polo”, Binyamin of Tudela [1160 – 1173]. He writes Two Jewish workers employed to reconstruct a damaged monument on Mount Zion accidentally happened upon a secret passage andfound themselves in a palace made of marble columns.Within the palace was a table upon which rested a golden scepter and golden crown, with riches all around. The workers decided this was King David’s Tomb. Suddenly, they were struck down by a fierce wind and heard voices that told them to leave immediately. Three days later, the two workmen were sick in bed and could not be persuaded to return to the site.
The tomb itself is a burial cave, which is not accessible. What is accessible is a cenotaph (stone marker) over the entrance to the cave. The cenotaph is located within a complex of buildings which date to the Crusader Period [12th century], though some of the buildings were added during the Ottoman Period [16th century and later], and may have served as a caravanserai (inn for traders on the caravan routes). The building housing David’s tomb incorporates much more ancient elements. The southern wall includes stones which are quite large and obviously older than the rest of the building. Josephus reports that Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) secretly tried to rob the treasure hidden in David’s tomb. When two of Herod’s clandestine diggers met a mysterious death, fear overcame Herod and he ordered a tomb-memorial erected at the site.
Jews have streamed here for centuries to recite the Psalms written by David, whose life teaches many lessons about human nature.
The tomb is covered with a velvet cloth embroidered with the words David Melech Israel Hai Vekayam, the first song many Jewish children learn, which evokes the sense that David’s spirit is still with us.
Prayers at King David’s tomb also turn to Jerusalem, which David made the united capital of the tribes of Israel. The anniversary of David’s death coincides with the eve of Shavuot, when it is customary to pray and study all night at the tomb.
Behind the marker of King David’s tomb, the cenotaph there used to be stairs going down to the actual burial cave. Workers were sent down to look by Rabbi Goldstein, they came up terrified saying they saw down there amazing ancient things. This area was sealed with cement by Rabbi Goldstein.
