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Israelite Alphabet May Have Been Found
Associated Press ^ | 11/09/04

Posted on 11/09/2005 5:11:58 PM PST by anymouse

Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C.

"This is very rare. This stone will be written about for many years to come," archaeologist Ron E. Tappy, a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who made the discovery, said Wednesday. "This makes it very historically probable there were people in the 10th century (B.C.) who could write."

Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn., who was not involved in the find, said the writing is probably Phoenician or a transitional language between Phoenician and Hebrew.

"We have little epigraphic material from the 10th century in Israel, and so this substantially augments the material we have," he said.

The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alphabet; archaeology; epigraphyandlanguage; factsintheground; factsontheground; godsgravesglyphs; hebrew; history; israel; israelites; jerusalem; language; letshavejerusalem; phoenician; rontappy; tappy; telzayit; zayit; zeitah
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.


21 posted on 11/09/2005 7:39:13 PM PST by SJackson (People have learned from Gaza that resistance succeeds, not smart negotiators., Hassem Darwish)
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To: BipolarBob

Naaa, it said, "Kilroy was here".


22 posted on 11/09/2005 7:44:33 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Right Wing Assault

Bingo. It's not looking really good at the moment for the Muslims, is it.


23 posted on 11/09/2005 7:59:46 PM PST by Alia
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To: Boundless

Not at all. 10th century BCE, as others have pointed out, is the time of David. This is perfectly inline with Jewish history. King David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it his capital.


24 posted on 11/09/2005 9:26:18 PM PST by anotherview ("Ignorance is the choice not to know" -Klaus Schulze)
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To: maro

Minoan and its offspring, Mycenaean script, was not an alphabet.


25 posted on 11/09/2005 10:47:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated my FR profile on Wednesday, November 2, 2005.)
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To: Alouette; Fiddlstix

thanks for the pings, but alas...

A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem
New York Times | 11/9/05 | John Noble Wilford
Posted on 11/08/2005 8:48:19 PM PST by saquin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1518542/posts

I will add it to the GGG catalog though.


26 posted on 11/09/2005 10:49:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated my FR profile on Wednesday, November 2, 2005.)
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Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
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27 posted on 11/09/2005 10:49:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated my FR profile on Wednesday, November 2, 2005.)
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To: Boundless
For Jews to celebrate this discovery as their roots, it would seem that they need to officially acknowledge that their former official year zero isn't.

Who is "celebrating" this discovery as the roots of Judaism? I didn't get that from the article - I got that this is merely the discovery of some of the earliest Hebrew writing that has been found to date. That doesn't state or imply that Judaism started then, and even if it did, anyone even remotely familiar with the Bible knows that the Jewish calendar starts with the creation of the world, not with Abraham's birth or with G-d's giving the Torah to Moses.

FYI, Abraham wasn't present at the Creation, and there was a lot of history between then and Abraham's birth (almost exactly 2,000 years), plus many hundreds of years between his birth and the Exodus (roughly 500), and another few hundred years (300 or so) between the Exodus and David's conquest of Jerusalem circa 1000 BCE.

28 posted on 11/10/2005 8:36:53 AM PST by Ancesthntr
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To: Boundless
For me the main point is that Judaism was in Israel waaay before Islam.

Since Islam was invented by Mohammad around the 7th century that is a given but folks need to be reminded of who was where first.

29 posted on 11/10/2005 9:18:49 AM PST by Vinnie
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To: anotherview

Just got back Bought some ancient coins ... stamped 2500 BCE. Such a deal!


30 posted on 11/10/2005 9:51:21 AM PST by Kenny Bunk (Valerie Plame was about as much of a Secret Agent as Aunt Jemima.)
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Glyphs
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution.

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31 posted on 07/06/2010 10:05:54 AM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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