Posted on 09/04/2014 12:56:44 PM PDT by Red Badger
A 3,500-year-old inscription on a stone block found in Egypt is what archaeologists say the oldest weather report of the world.
The inscription on a six-foot-tall calcite stone, called the Tempest Stela, describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses," according to Nadine Moeller and Robert Ritner at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute who have translated the 40-line inscription.
The stela's text also describes bodies floating down the Nile like "skiffs of papyrus."
"This was clearly a major storm, and different from the kinds of heavy rains that Egypt periodically receives," Ritner said in a statement.
The researchers believe the unusual weather patterns described on the slab were the result of a massive volcano explosion at Thera, the present day island of Santorini in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Thera eruption is estimated to have occurred between 1621 and 1605 BC and would likely have caused destruction in Egypt.
However, there are no concrete ancient records of the catastrophe.
If the stone's inscription truly indicates the aftermath of eruption, it would help researchers understand the impact of natural disasters on ancient civilisations.
"This new information would provide a better understanding of the role of the environment in the development and destruction of empires in the ancient Middle East," David Schloen, assistant professor of ancient cultures at the institute said.
According to researchers, the inscription could further change the chronology of events in ancient Middle East.
The stone block, found in pieces in Thebes, modern Luxor, dates back to the era of Ahmose, the first pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty whose reign marked the beginning of the New Kingdom, when Egypt's power was at its highest.
The translation of the stone's inscription suggests Ahmose ruled at a time closer to the Thera eruption.
"If the stela does describe the aftermath of the Thera catastrophe, the correct dating of the stela itself and Ahmose's reign, currently thought to be about 1550 BC, could actually be 30 to 50 years earlier," said the researchers.
"This is important to scholars of the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean, generally because the chronology that archaeologists use is based on the lists of Egyptian pharaohs, and this new information could adjust those dates," Moeller added.
Yeah, but that was a few hundred years earlier..................
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1626606/posts
“According to the Bible, Abraham was born in Ur, believed to be in Northern Iraq — where the Kurds are — and then moved to Harran, in eastern Turkey — where the Kurds are.
It would be a surprise if the Jews were not ethnically related to the northern/eastern Mediterranean peoples and the Kurds.”
There is rain, darkness and the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses, film at eleven.
This sounds like global warming to me.
There is rain, darkness and the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses, film at 1100 B.C. ..................
It’s been going on since the last Ice Age..................
They can tell it was a weather report because it features a shapely blonde babe with huge bazoombas.
Is there any mention of a man named Al-Gorzee blaming it on global warming?
“Weather forecast for tomorrow: hot and dry over the next 3,500 years”
It was my first thought too — and it seems such an obvious one that I wonder why the reporter didn’t mention it, if only to tell us that the date for this report doesn’t line up with the date for the Exodus.
Everyone's a critic.
Whiners...
Thanks Red Badger. This has come up before, still no sale. :') Buuuuut, a nice too-list topic, so, kudos.
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Thanks Red Badger. This has come up before, still no sale. :') Buuuuut, a nice too-list topic, so, kudos.
A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose [The Tempest Stele]
Thera Foundation | September 1989 (last modified March 26, 2006) | E.N. Davis
Posted on 11/1/2009 11:04:33 AM by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2375891/posts
[last time I checked, the originating website is kaput]
Those are great.
The Sumerian civilization dwindled approximately 3500 years ago, replaced by peoples from the North and East; a replacement that was often the result of war. There are several lament texts that have been found, each mourning the destruction of a different Sumerian city. These texts are all from the same time period, causing one to wonder if the laments are simply reflections of humans at war, or truly those of wars of the Gods themselves - quarreling over their own ideologies.
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/lamentations/lamentur.html
excerpt:
(Great) fires he lit that heralded the storm. The people mourn.
And lit on either flank of furious winds the searing heat of the desert.
Like flaming heat of noon this fire scorched.
The storm ordered by Enlil in hate, the storm which wears away the country,
covered Ur like a cloth, veiled it like a linen sheet.
On that day did the storm leave the city; that city was a ruin.
O father Nanna, that town was left a ruin. The people mourn.
On that day did the storm leave the country. The people mourn.
Its people(’s corpses), not potsherds,
littered the approaches.
The walls were gaping;
the high gates, the roads,
were piled with dead.
In the wide streets, where feasting crowds (once) gathered, jumbled they lay.
In all the streets and roadways bodies lay.
In open fields that used to fill with dancers,
the people lay in heaps.
The country’s blood now filled its holes, like metal in a mold;
bodies dissolved — like butter left in the sun.
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/lamentations.htm
Lament for the Cities of Turin and Sumer
92...The dark time was roasted by hailstones and flames. The bright time was wiped out by a shadow. (2 mss. add 2 lines: On that bloody day, mouths were crushed, heads were crashed. The storm was a harrow coming from above, the city was struck by a hoe.) On that day, heaven rumbled, the earth trembled, the storm worked without respite. Heaven was darkened, it was covered by a shadow; the mountains roared. Utu lay down at the horizon, dust passed over the mountains. Nanna lay at the zenith, the people were afraid. The city ...... stepped outside. The foreigners in the city even chased away its dead. Large trees were uprooted, the forest growth was ripped out. The orchards were stripped of their fruit, they were cleaned of their offshoots. The crop drowned while it was still on the stalk, the yield of the grain diminished...
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