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Ancient Amulet Discovered with Curious Palindrome Inscription
livescience.com ^ | January 1, 2015 | Owen Jarus

Posted on 01/02/2015 3:24:34 PM PST by BenLurkin

An ancient, two-sided amulet uncovered in Cyprus contains a 59-letter inscription that reads the same backwards as it does forwards.

Archaeologists discovered the amulet, which is roughly 1,500 years old, at the ancient city of Nea Paphos in southwest Cyprus.

One side of the amulet has several images, including a bandaged mummy (likely representing the Egyptian god Osiris) lying on a boat and an image of Harpocrates, the god of silence, who is shown sitting on a stool while holding his right hand up to his lips. Strangely, the amulet also displays a mythical dog-headed creature called a cynocephalus, which is shown holding a paw up to its lips, as if mimicking Harpocrates' gesture.

On the other side of the amulet is an inscription, written in Greek, that reads the same backwards as it does forwards, making it a palindrome. It reads:

ΙΑΕW

ΒΑΦΡΕΝΕΜ

ΟΥΝΟΘΙΛΑΡΙ

ΚΝΙΦΙΑΕΥΕ

ΑΙΦΙΝΚΙΡΑΛ

ΙΘΟΝΥΟΜΕ

ΝΕΡΦΑΒW

ΕΑΙ

This translates to "Iahweh(a god)is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine."

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: amulet; cyprus; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; inscription; notlob; palindrome
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1 posted on 01/02/2015 3:24:35 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin
tell to study this:

FUBO!

2 posted on 01/02/2015 3:26:39 PM PST by 9thLife (Barack Hussein Obama is one of them.)
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To: BenLurkin

That is one of the longest ones I have ever seen.

The classic is: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.


3 posted on 01/02/2015 3:30:08 PM PST by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: BenLurkin

The odd name of the deity referred to here... very similar to the Hebrew name for God.

That name, however, makes sense only in Hebrew as a form of “I am.” It has no meaning in Greek.

A kind of early syncretism?


4 posted on 01/02/2015 3:32:15 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: yarddog

There is also Napoleon’s lament: Able was I ere I saw Elba.


5 posted on 01/02/2015 3:33:02 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck; SunkenCiv

I was thinking it might be a hoax. Maybe SunkenCiv can shed some light on it.


6 posted on 01/02/2015 3:33:08 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Saw this on the History Blog, my favorite destination aside from Free Republic:

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/date/2015/01


7 posted on 01/02/2015 3:34:20 PM PST by centurion316
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To: BenLurkin

A weird take on Christian claims... a very weird one.


8 posted on 01/02/2015 3:36:19 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: BenLurkin; HiTech RedNeck; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; ...
I was thinking it might be a hoax. Maybe SunkenCiv can shed some light on it.
The jury's still out on it, first the artifact has to be detartrated.

9 posted on 01/02/2015 3:46:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Tattarrattat.)
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To: SunkenCiv

You inscribe “Able was I ere I saw Elba” once, just once, and you *never* hear the end of it.


10 posted on 01/02/2015 3:48:00 PM PST by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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> Palindromes date back at least to 79 AD, as a palindrome was found as a graffito at Herculaneum, a city buried by ash in that year. This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of a sentence written in Latin: “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas” (”The sower Arepo holds with effort the wheels”).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome#History


11 posted on 01/02/2015 3:48:32 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Altariel

Mr. Praline: I understand this IS Bolton.

Owner: (still with the fake mustache) Yes?

Mr. Praline: You told me it was Ipswitch!

Owner: ...It was a pun.

Mr. Praline: (pause) A PUN?!?

Owner: No, no...not a pun...What’s that thing that spells the same backwards as forwards?

Mr. Praline: (Long pause) A palindrome...?

Owner: Yeah, that’s it!

Mr. Praline: It’s not a palindrome! The palindrome of “Bolton” would be “Notlob”!! It don’t work!!


12 posted on 01/02/2015 3:51:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BenLurkin

WOW


13 posted on 01/02/2015 3:53:16 PM PST by Bulwinkle (Alec, a.k.a. Daffy Duck)
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To: BenLurkin

“And take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God, whose ark this is.”

They’re digging in the wrong place!


14 posted on 01/02/2015 3:55:02 PM PST by Skywise
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To: SunkenCiv

One amulet doesn’t tell us much either.


15 posted on 01/02/2015 3:59:28 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Don’t forget the first man upon meeting Eve: Madam, I am Adam.


16 posted on 01/02/2015 4:00:22 PM PST by sportutegrl
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To: sportutegrl

Whoops, that should be: Madam, I’m Adam.


17 posted on 01/02/2015 4:02:34 PM PST by sportutegrl
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To: BenLurkin
an image of Harpocrates, the god of silence

Harpo_Marx

18 posted on 01/02/2015 4:08:56 PM PST by mikrofon ("Aloha-Hola" from the Palindrome Convention!)
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To: BenLurkin

The inscription may be written in Greek characters, but none of the words in it appear to be actual classical Greek words. Not a single one of them is in my classical Greek lexicon, and the formation and the word-endings do not make sense.


19 posted on 01/02/2015 4:09:04 PM PST by proxy_user
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To: SunkenCiv

I’m avoiding this story because I suffer from aibohphobia (fear of palindromes).


20 posted on 01/02/2015 4:10:24 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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