Temple Menorah Stamp Affirms Jewish Claim to Land

Arutz Sheva ^ | 10/1/12 | Gil Ronen

[Eleutheria5]

Just two weeks after a Temple era seal was displayed to the public, archeologists continue to dig up breathtaking proofs of the ancient and never-severed connection between Jews and the Land of Israel. This time, the find is a 1,500 year old tiny stamp discovered near the city of Akko, bearing the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah.

The stamp was used to identify baked products and probably belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Akko in the Byzantine period.

The ceramic stamp dates from the Byzantine period (6th century CE) and was uncovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at Horbat Uza east of Akko, prior to the construction of the Akko-Karmiel railroad track by the Israel National Roads Company.

This find belongs to a group of stamps referred to as “bread stamps” because they were usually used to stamp baked goods.

According to Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period."

.....

[Eleutheria5]

The Menora was obviously an Islamic symbol, signifying Qwanza observance./s

[sheik yerbouty]

How could it possibly be anything else?

[sayuncledave]

"The ceramic stamp dates from the Byzantine period (6th century CE AD)" The article did have a typographical error, fixed it. ;)

[Eleutheria5]

Well, it could be an ancient Zionist forgery, of course. There’s always that.

[elhombrelibre]

Funny.

Ancient Zionist forgery ping to you, SJ.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[cizinec]

I’m not tracking on how this proves it is Jewish land.

1. There were no Muslims in the 6th Century AD. So proving there weren’t any around during that period isn’t too tough.
2. At the time (Byzantine period, as stated in the article) the overwhelming majority of the population was Christian.
3. There were Jewish bakeries all over Europe as well. That does not make Europe legitimately a historical part of Israel.
4. If you were to use the logic that the people there in the 6th Century have the right to the place, I look forward to Greek control of the ME. Sure, Greece is a mess, but not as big a mess as the rest of the ME.

I’m pro-Israel because they are the only real democracy in the Middle East. I think we need to defend them and their expansion because of their ideology, not because of a single bread stamp found at one archaeological site.

[JewishRighter]

You are missing the point of the discovery. In the attempt to delegitimize Israel, Arabs and their fellow-travelers maintain a propaganda line that the Jews have no historical connection to the land at all and that, even if they once did, it ended thousands of years ago, thereby breaking the chain of any historical claims to the land. This archaeological find, like many others, debunks that propaganda by showing a Jewish presence maintained all down the centuries, even during Christian majorities that came and went and preceding the Muslim religion and its claims. In other words, the point is not that kosher bakeries are, in themselves, proof of the Jewish claim to Israel, but part of the historical record showing that Jews were there and never relinquished their claims and their attachment to the land as their homeland.

PS. The article does not say, as you imply, that there were no Muslims. The article does not say that the Jews were the majority population. In fact, it explicitly acknowledges that the area of the find was under Christian control. The article does not say the Jews claim Europe as a historical part of Israel based on Kosher bakeries in Europe, nor does the article claim that Kosher bakeries are the basis for Jewish claims to the land of Israel (I realize this was purely rhetorical, but still...). The analogy to Greece is a non-starter. The Greeks never established a Greek nation in Israel and did not maintain a continuous presence or claim to the land of Israel as a Greek homeland.

[Eleutheria5]

I don’t think we have to prove that our origins are in Israel, or that we were an important part of the population during the Middle Ages, although the majority of the population were Christians of one kind or another after the Roman Empire became Christian. Furthermore, I agree with you that a single bread stamp doesn’t prove anything other than that some Jews did live in Akko during the Middle Ages. Journalists and logic are often not seen together.

[Eleutheria5]

Only one problem, though. This bakery stamp is 1.5 thousand years old. So the Pali narrative can still go: And then Muhammed conquered the land of Palestine, and his soldiers settled down and stomped on all Jewish bakery stamps except that one, raised families, and lived happily ever after, since they either killed, converted or drove out all the Jooos!, who never ever came back until right after the Holocaust, when they stole the land from the direct descendants of Mohammed’s brave soldiers by mass murdering a million poor Palestinians in Deir Yassin, a major city, in 1948. The end.

[JewishRighter]

Your point would be well taken if it were not for the fact that the bakery stamp is just one link in a long historical chain of evidence of a Jewish presence. That chain debunks the Pali narrative, which is one reason they fight so hard against archaeological activity, especially around the Har Habayis.

[commish]

NOw that is a beautiful touching story — especially the part about a million dead muzzies, brings tears of joy to my eyes.

[Para-Ord.45]

bm

[cizinec]

The article does not say, as you imply, that there were no Muslims.

I didn't imply it, I stated it as a fact. There were no Muslims as they did not exist until the 7th Century.

In the 6th Century, Jews, Greeks, Arabs, Romans and many other groups lived and worked in the region. The height of population and world influence for the region was 6th Century Byzantium, which was, indeed, predominantly Greek in culture. There were many ethnic Greeks all over the Middle East before they, the Armenians and other Christians were pushed out or murdered in genocide committed by the Turks in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

Evidence of a Jewish presence is all over the Middle East, in both archaeological evidence and in Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Turkish and British documents, so if these 7th Century invaders want to claim there wasn't a continuous presence even in the face of the already overwhelming evidence, I'm pretty sure this bread stamp won't make a difference to them or any other doubter (Paulbots), nor do I think this artifact demonstrates a continuous presence. It is merely a very small piece of evidence that confirms the overwhelming evidence we already have. Retards will still ignore it.

[JewishRighter]

I didn't imply it, I stated it as a fact. There were no Muslims as they did not exist until the 7th Century.

What you implied was that the article said there were no Muslims. The influence of the region ebbed and flowed over time. One can point to earlier periods that vie for the most influential, including the period of the Kingdom of Israel. Regardless, I don't see what point you are trying to make about the Greeks except to say that Greek culture spread over the near and middle east, which is true but has little to do with the argument over a continuous claim by Jews and Jews alone that the land of Israel is our homeland. I'm gratified that you agree that the historical evidence clearly supports the Jewish claim to the land of Israel, but I think you underestimate the ignorance and the craven, malicious disregard for facts that permeates public opinion in many parts of the world. Therefore, this kind of archaeological discovery is very important to keep contesting the propaganda.

[Eleutheria5]

Evidence of a chain of Jewish presence, it is. A “stamp of approval” on Jewish claim to the land, as A7 makes it out, it is not. The Muftists will have a terutz for that, too. On the other hand, there’s no need to listen to their terutzim, because really, they have the burden of proof for their ridiculous fictitious history, not the burden of rebuttal. A7 sometimes forgets who is asserting and must prove, in their eagerness to present a new item of rebuttal evidence.

[rmlew]

1. There were no Muslims in the 6th Century AD. So proving there weren’t any around during that period isn’t too tough.
1,500 years ago was 612CE. Mohammed's "revelation" occured in 610 CE, so Islam did exist.

2. At the time (Byzantine period, as stated in the article) the overwhelming majority of the population was Christian.
Not at all. In 617CE, during the last uprising, Christians were a plurality, with Jews and Samaritans combining as a majority to try to expel the colonists in the last Persian-Byzantine War. For over a year, Jerusalem was ours again.

3. There were Jewish bakeries all over Europe as well. That does not make Europe legitimately a historical part of Israel.
That's true, but there never was such a claim.

4. If you were to use the logic that the people there in the 6th Century have the right to the place, I look forward to Greek control of the ME. Sure, Greece is a mess, but not as big a mess as the rest of the ME.
How about we just give them Constantinopel, Smyrna and everything in between?

[RichInOC]

.אתה לא צריך להיות יהודי כדי לאהוב לוי

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Eleutheria5. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.