Posted on 11/08/2005 8:48:19 PM PST by saquin
In the 10th century B.C., in the hill country south of Jerusalem, a scribe carved his A B C's on a limestone boulder - actually, his aleph-beth-gimel's, for the string of letters appears to be an early rendering of the emergent Hebrew alphabet.
Archaeologists digging in July at the site, Tel Zayit, found the inscribed stone in the wall of an ancient building. After an analysis of the layers of ruins, the discoverers concluded that this was the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet and an important benchmark in the history of writing, they said this week.
If they are right, the stone bears the oldest reliably dated example of an abecedary - the letters of the alphabet written out in their traditional sequence. Several scholars who have examined the inscription tend to support that view.
Experts in ancient writing said the find showed that at this stage the Hebrew alphabet was still in transition from its Phoenician roots, but recognizably Hebrew. The Phoenicians lived on the coast north of Israel, in today's Lebanon, and are considered the originators of alphabetic writing, several centuries earlier.
The discovery of the stone will be reported in detail next week in Philadelphia, but was described in interviews with Ron E. Tappy, the archaeologist at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who directed the dig.
"All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That should have been "Deuteronomist" (named after the book of Deuteronomy).
I know the author of the book in the link I posted, James Harris, now in his 80's. He has spent a lifetime as a university professor and becoming fluent in translating that language.
Why would you inscribe an alphabet on a stone--not the easiest thing to do--since you already have the information?
This is just a guess, but I think they may also have discovered the first evidence of a school where the teacher has used stone as his blackboard to demonstrate the letters to his students.
Anyone have a better guess?
bump
Sorry, wrong thread. :')
Just curious..
Whatever happened to/with Dr. Vendyl Jones and his search for the Ark of the Covenant?
Ping to #26
Good question. That was all supposed to be wrapped up soon. Probably hit a figurative wall of red tape or some other mixed metaphor.
http://www.vendyljones.org.il/
"Since returning from Israel, Vendyl has answered many letters and phone calls, asking about this date. He has also addressed this in his various classes via PalTalk. We were not initially aware how widespread this statement has become, quoted in many newspapers throughout the Jewish world. Of course it has caused a lot of excitement. However, Vendyl was slightly, but significantly, misquoted. What he actually said was that it would be very appropriate IF he could discover the Ark by Tisha BAv. At this time it is obviously not going to happen. However, as soon as the funding permits, he will be in Israel to drill the bore hole and proceed with the dig to uncover the Tabernacle and the Ark."
Yeah, I read that last month.
I just haven't heard any updates for a while. I hope that everyone involved knows what a certain religon might do to prevent this from happening and take all needed security measures.
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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