Posted on 10/13/2019 4:19:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists in Israel announced Sunday that they had uncovered a 5,000-year-old city north of Tel Aviv.
It is the largest Bronze Age urban area found in the region to date and could fundamentally change ideas of when sophisticated urbanization began taking place in the area, they said.
Israel's Antiquities Authority said in a Facebook post that the city was discovered at the En Esur excavation site during road works near Harish, a town some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv.
The archaeologists described the city as "cosmopolitan and planned." It covered 65 hectares (160 acres) and was home to about some 6,000 people, they added, which would have been a significant size for the era.
This is the "New York of the early Bronze Age," the authority's statement read.
Residential and public areas, streets and allies, and fortifications were all uncovered at the excavation site. Other discoveries included an unusual ritual temple and burnt animal bones likely used for sacrificial offerings, as well as pieces of statues, pottery and tools.
The achaeologists said the city's inhabitants likely lived from agriculture and trade with other regions and kingdoms.
Older ruins dating back 7,000 years were also found under the Bronze-Age city.
The find could provide new insight into when rural populations began to gather in urban settings in the Southern Levant area, today the location of Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and parts of Syria.
During the region's early Bronze Age, which lasted from roughly 3,200 B.C. to 1,200 B.C., low-density villages in rural settings were thought to have been the predominant social living unit.
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
It was the lead solder in the radiators that did it -- but it also added a sweet taste to the moonshine.
Hey, when one's history is entirely imaginary, there's no limit to how far back it can go! ;^).
A rose-red city half as old as Time.
One billion years ago the city's age
Was just two-fifths of what Time's age will be
A billion years from now. Can you compute
How old the crimson city is today?
-- Martin Gardner
I was curious about that. And I’m sure they retrofitted used radiators full of good gunk and chemicals also.
Didn’t the Romans accidentally add lead to their wine using lead vessels? Or was that a myth? I read this many times but was never sure.
I am also anxious to learn about this aspect of the find. I think it a bit curious that the IAA has failed to name the site. I hope that does not portend a quick excavation and dismissal in favor of modern road building.
Prehistoric bootleggers... I like that. :)
A model Tet? Offensive!
The original pet rocks.
Eventually it was replaced by a second Model Aleph.
Yes, that move was even bolder.
Someone saddled on the idea that lead plumbing caused the fall of Rome, and some people just cling like a dingleberry to the whole lead poisoning idea. There aren't a lot of human remains from the Roman Empire that have been known about for more than a few decades (most of them come from Herculaneum) and I very much doubt that anyone has looked for possible lead poisoning. It's a given that NO evidence for lead poisoning was obtained prior to the emergence of the notion itself.
OF course, back then they were called sandalleggers. That's probably when the AA concept of a "barefoot meeting" originated.
Sounds like they're doing a thorough job -- also, the dig has probably been going on for a while (at least a few years), but this is the first I'd read about it. Must be they finally have some dates to publish, that kind of thing.
I have a file on it on my desktop. CBN (Pat Robertson) and a scientific journal (?) did a story on it in the past few weeks. There have been questions why the site remains unnamed - other than New York of the ancient Levant... Look that up in your concordance. :)
Of course there are no records from 5K BCE to identify urban remains, but the top levels might appear in Egyptian or even Greek records. Phoenician? ...or just a modern name: The Interchange Impressway?
***sandalleggers***
Good point! 😉
The site may have been abandoned (well, obviously, eh? ;^) well before anyone from literate areas wandered in. Best shot might be Eblaite records, assuming that this "NY" site was large enough and prosperous enough when/if their existences overlapped..
In another article on this find, it is stated that the entire site will soon be paved over as part of an enormous vehicle interchange.
They'd better get a move on then.
Thanks, and glad I looked for more -- that is pretty cool:
IAA archaeologists also discovered an earlier, 7,000-year-old Chalcolithic settlement under several of the 5,000-year-old structures... Salvage excavations have been taking place at the site for the past two and a half years, financed by Netivei Israel – the National Transport Infrastructure Company Ltd. Over 5,000 high school students and volunteers from the area have participated in them. Due to the importance of the site, Netivei Israel has significantly increased the height of the planned interchange and will preserve the excavations through high-tech documentation and physical conservation.
...megalopolis may rewrite history. Uncovered in northern Israel, Ein Esur, largest Early Bronze Age settlement ever excavated here...
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