Posted on 11/25/2013 9:42:46 AM PST by Red Badger
With range of dramatic finds in excavations ahead of highway expansion, archaeologists trace 10 millennia of human development
A remarkable archaeological find in the Judean lowlands southwest of Jerusalem includes a six-millennia-old cultic temple and a 10,000-year-old house.
The ancient sites were located in routine archaeological digs conducted ahead of a planned expansion of Route 38, the main access road to Beit Shemesh. The building is the oldest ever found in the area, and constitutes remarkable “evidence of man’s transition to permanent dwellings,” researchers said Monday.
Labeling it “a fascinating glimpse into thousands of years of human development,” the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the Netivei Israel Company that is carrying out the highway expansion, invited the public to visit the excavation site in Eshtaol on Wednesday, November 27.
“Settlement remains were unearthed at the site, the earliest of which dates to the beginning of the eighth millennium BCE and latest to the end of the fourth millennium BCE,” the authority said in a statement Monday.
“We uncovered a multitude of unique finds during the excavation,” said Amir Golani, one of the excavators for the Antiquities Authority. “The large excavation affords us a broad picture of the progression and development of the society in the settlement throughout the ages. Thus we can clearly see that in the Early Bronze Age, 5,000 years ago, a rural society made the transition to an urban society. We can see distinctly a settlement that gradually became planned, which included [streets] and buildings that were extremely impressive from the standpoint of their size and the manner of their construction. We can clearly trace the urban planning and see the guiding hand of the settlement’s leadership that chose to regulate the construction in the crowded regions in the center of the settlement and allowed less planning along its periphery.”
The finds allow the researchers to “trace the development of a society which became increasingly hierarchical,” Golani said.
The oldest building found dates from the time of the earliest known domestication of plants and animals.
“Whoever built the house did something that was totally innovative because up until this period [local human groups] migrated from place to place in search of food. Here we have evidence of man’s transition to permanent dwellings, and that in fact is the beginning of the domestication of animals and plants; instead of searching out wild sheep, ancient man started raising them near the house,” researchers said in a statement.
The researchers included Golani, Ya‘akov Vardi, Benyamin Storchan and Ron Be’eri, who serve as excavation directors for the Antiquities Authority.
The house is the oldest structure ever found in the Judean lowlands, they said, dating back to the period known to archaeologists as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.
“The building, almost all of which was found, underwent a number of construction and repair phases that allude to its importance,” they said.
Near the building, excavators found a collection of nine flint and limestone axes placed side by side.
“It is apparent that the axes, some of which were used as tools and some as cultic objects, were highly valued by their owners. Just as today we are unable to get along without a cellular telephone and a computer, they too attributed great importance to their tools. Based on how it was arranged at the time of its discovery it seems that the cluster of axes was abandoned by its owner for some unknown reason,” the researchers concluded.
But the building wasn’t the only find at the site. A handful of buildings from the end of the Chalcolithic period, some 6,000 years ago, was found nearby. At the site, excavators found a six-sided stone column standing some 1.3 meters (51 inches) high and weighing several hundred kilos.
“The standing stone was smoothed and worked on all six of its sides,” the archaeologists said, explaining that its broad face was oriented eastward and concluding that the find ”alludes to the presence of a cultic temple at the site.”
“In the past, numerous manifestations have been found of the cultic practice that existed in the Chalcolithic period. However, from the research, we know of only a few temples” located at Ein Gedi and Teleilat Ghassul in present-day Jordan.
The site will be open for public viewing for two hours on Wednesday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Entrance is free, but visitors must register in advance by telephone at 02-99122366, 052-4284408 or by email at adulam@israntique.org.il.
Excavation at Eshtaol along Route 38. (photo credit: Yoli Shwarz, courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority)
A 10,000 year old house, the oldest dwelling to be unearthed to date in the Judean lowlands. (photo credit: Dr. Ya‘akov Vardi/Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority.
The standing stone (mazzevā) which is worked on all of its sides, serving as evidence of cultic activity in the Chalcolithic period. (photo credit: Zinobi Moskowitz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
Where`s the garage?
I doubt they had guns 10,000 years ago
:p
I get what you are saying though
Street parking only.................
The Bible may not state the age of the earth to an exact number of years but our creation scientists have been able to determine the earth’s age to within a few decades. Compare that to the guesses of so called real scientists who must admit that their guess as to the earth’s age may be within a billion years.
If one were to visit the Creation Museum, they would find exhibits of dinosaurs with saddles. Now, why would dinosaurs who the so called real scientists claim lived hundreds of millions of years ago need saddles if man did not exist when the dinosaurs lived?
Therefore, since dinosaurs had saddles, man must have domesticated the dinosaurs and that could have only happened in the last 5857 years.
Where are the wheels and axles?
Your logic is unassailable.
Garage was blown to hell 10,000 years ago by a cro-islam suicide bomber.
If one were to visit the Creation Museum, they would find exhibits of dinosaurs with saddles. Now, why would dinosaurs who the so called real scientists claim lived hundreds of millions of years ago need saddles if man did not exist when the dinosaurs lived?
<><><><><<>><<>
Wow!!!!
Where exactly did the creation scientists find the bones of dinosaurs with saddles on them? Do you have a link to that information? What were the saddles made of?
Were they English or Western style saddles?
What specific dinosaur breeds were domesticated and saddled?
Oh Lordy!
Creation Museum you say. Young earth theory. Dinosaur saddles. Trained reptiles, you say.
WOW!
You’re all right with me because you aren’t a Muslim or atheist, but denying the obvious while injecting totally farcical concepts will attract flamers.
I kinda fancy the idea of galloping around on a T-Rex. I could do security patrols of my property with it. So cool! I wonder if T-Rex poop would be good fertilizer for my garden, I mean, they were pretty much like a really big chicken.
<><><><>
And if you got into a dinosaur fender bender, let’s face it, t-rex is gonna win.
This would be an actual exhibit at the Creation Museum. Notice the saddle?
Now, please explain how this dinosaur exhibit is any less valid that a dinosaur exhibit you might find at a museum of natural history where they claim dinosaurs lived 165 million years ago and existed before man?
Here is another exhibit for the Creation Museum that point to evidence than man, or in this case woman, lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.
Granted, in this particular exhibit, the woman did not have her dinosaurs in a saddle, it is evident that her dinosaur was domesticated.
Perhaps she used it for some purpose other than transportation.
The natural history display only includes things they find evidence of along with the fossilized remains of the dinosaur. Does the Creation museum have fossilized dinosaurs with fossilized saddles strapped to them, mounted by fossilized toddlers?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
If you were to look closely at the picture of the exhibit from the Creation Museum you would see that dinosaur and saddle are part of the actual exhibit, while the man and baby are from the early 21st century and not part of the exhibit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
