Israel Antiquities Authority
Posted on 07/22/2019 11:12:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A huge 9,000-year-old Neolithic settlement -- the largest ever discovered in Israel, say archaeologists -- is currently being excavated outside Jerusalem, researchers said in mid July 2019.
This site, located near the town of Motza, is the "Big Bang" for prehistory settlement research due to its size and the preservation of its material culture, said Jacob Vardi, co-director of the excavations at Motza on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, according to The Times of Israel.
Among the many important findings is that 9,000 years ago, the people of the settlement practiced religion. "They carried out rituals and honored their deceased ancestors," Vardi, an archaeologist, told Religion News Service.
Perhaps 3,000 people lived in this settlement near where Jerusalem is today, making it quite a large city for the period that is sometimes called the New Stone Age. The site has "yielded thousands of tools and ornaments, including arrowheads, figurines and jewelry," said CNN." The findings also provide evidence of sophisticated urban planning and farming, which may force experts to rethink the region's early history, said archeologists involved in the excavation."
Although the area has long been of archeological interest, Vardi said the sheer scale of the site -- which measures between 30 and 40 hectares -- only emerged in 2015 during surveys for a proposed highway.
This site predates the first known settlement in Jerusalem by about 3,500 years. Experts had not thought that people lived in such a concentrated fashion during this time in the region.
During the 16-month excavation, archaeologists discovered large buildings, separated by well-planned alleys, used for residential and public purposes. Some of the buildings contained plaster remnants.
(Excerpt) Read more at thevintagenews.com ...
The Hebrews migrated from Egypt around 3,200 years ago. They’re still the oldest surviving inhabitants of the region, though.
I used to see a Dr. Fine. He’s a very fine ophthalmologist. In fact, one of the pioneers of cataract surgery. He treated my mothers cataracts for free. Her vision went from 20-40 before to 20-15 after surgery.
The 6000 year club needs to reevaluate and or recalibrate their measurements.
Yes, Genesis 14 refers to Melchizadek (“ righteous king”) as the “king of Salem” , and Salem is an alternate form of Jeru-Salem (“city of Peace”).
Are these people proto-Hebrews?
......
No the Hebrews didn’t arrive until roughly 5000 years later.
The more interesting question is—were the people there caananites—or a different people?
Whenever a dude saw a chick he liked, he would ask to go to Starbuck’s and a movie.
LOL. Don't be sorry for "going there", or for being "all in". ;^)
The artifacts found were not all from the vicinity, so the dates are based on the dates of similar artifacts from elsewhere. The area must have enjoyed a lot of trade. Recognition of the obsidian trade and the dating of it (Colin Renfrew is generally associated with both) helped transform modern views on how much geographical movement there was during the Stone Ages. This site has an intrusive burial from about 4000 years ago, a couple of warriors buried with bronze gear. The burials were in what by then must have looked like a natural landscape.
Now I know how Moe Howard felt. :^)
Not so much Hebrew as proto-. If the tradition reached back that far, the town would have been mentioned in the OT. It isn't. Eden may have been in what's now the Persian Gulf, IOW, during the period when the sealevels were much lower. The four rivers of Eden could only converge there, with two of them dried up now, so that requires the OT proto-Hebrews to have migrated up the Euphrates into Anatolia.
Alternatively, since the four rivers are said to have flowed *out* of Eden, and the only one still identifiable is the Euphrates, a location in Anatolia is also indicated. Either way, if proto-Hebrews could be archaeologically identified (that's a big if), that would be the place to look. The area of the mountains of the area of Ararat are probably a good central landmark.
Cramer pointed out that the place names (rivers and cities) used by the Sumerians were not Sumerian names, that they represent the survival of the pre-Sumerian names from some unknown language and people(s). Since the Sumerians had the earliest known (/translated) writing system, those pre-Sumerian language fragments got preserved, but leave the rest of the language(s) a complete blank.
I haven't read anything about their use of pottery at this site, and anything about 8000 or so years old is considered preceramic, so the stylistic clues as to cultural affiliation are basically missing (thus far). Their reliance on stone will of course show something. Before pots, the use of gourds and skins to hold liquids must have been ubiquitous, but those are just the kinds of things that won't generally survive in an archaeological context.
Wicker is known to be quite ancient, only because of at least one example of the pattern a woven item left on a wet clay surface which dried with the impression of it. The wicker item itself of course went to dust long ago, or perhaps was imprinted in the clay then taken along when the site involved was left for the last time thousands of years ago.
;^) Try the soup.
Interesting pics here:
*gasp*
That was really something! Thanks!
Bead manufacturing was very time consuming, but of course, they didn't have modern distractions.
But maybe they had aliens to teach them to make beads. In that case “modern distractions” could just be a supposition...
She sez… ;o])
‘Face
That does make sense, though, since superadvanced aliens need slave labor to perform various simple repetitive tasks, rather than relying their superior technology...
Exactly! Only these days, we call them “Drones.” Or at least, that’s what The Suits called the office clerks. ;o]
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