Posted on 10/04/2015 8:26:21 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
A rare 3,000-year-old seal, from the time of King David in the 10th century BCE, was recently discovered by a 10-year-old Russian volunteer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sifting Project.
Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the project – which sifts through thousands of tons of illegally removed earth from the contested holy site in 1999 by the Wakf religious trust to build a mosque – said that the finding is unprecedented.
“The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem,” said Barkay, a world-renowned archaeologist and Israel Prize laureate, who has led the project for more than 10 years.
“The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon.”
“What makes this discovery particularly significant,” Barkay continued, “is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.”
The seal – discovered by Matvei Tcepliaev, a Russian 10-year-old boy who volunteered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project – was only recently deciphered by archaeologists, he said. According to Barkay, since the project’s inception in 2004, more than 170,000 volunteers from Israel and around the world have taken part in the sifting.
The historical credibility of the biblical text regarding Jerusalem during the 10th century BCE has been hotly debated by archaeologists since the 1990s.
(MATVEI TCEPLIAEV, 10, holds the seal he discovered)
However, recent finds from other excavations – including the Ophel (south of the Temple Mount,) the City of David and the Temple Mount Sifting Project – indicate that the descriptions found within the biblical text relating to Jerusalem may indeed be authentic.
“The discovery of the seal testifies to the administrative activity which took place upon the Temple Mount during those times,” explained Barkay.
“All the parallel seals with similar stylistic designs have been found at sites in Israel – among them Tel Beit Shemesh, Tel Gezer and Tel Rehov – and were dated to the 11th-10th centuries BCE.”
Barkay said the images of two animals, one on top of the other, are inscribed in the base of the seal, possibly representing a predator and its prey. He also noted that the seal is perforated, thus enabling it to be hung from a string.
Apart from the seal, hundreds of pottery sherds dating to the 10th century BCE have been discovered within the Temple Mount’s historic soil, including a rare arrowhead made of bronze and ascribed to the same period, he added.
Roughly 50 percent of the tons of earth removed from the contested holy site have revealed previously unknown insights into the history of the celebrated plateau.
“Since the Temple Mount has never been excavated, the ancient artifacts retrieved in the Sifting Project provide valuable and previously inaccessible information,” said Barkay.
“The many categories of finds are among the largest and most varied ever found in Jerusalem.”
The Temple Mount Sifting Project – which operates under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, with financial support from the City of David Foundation – was co-founded by archeologist Zachi Dvira, who also serves as director.
According to Dvira, even though the findings were extracted from their archeological context, most of the artifacts can be identified and dated by comparing them with those found at other sites.
“In recent years, using newly developed statistical methodologies and technologies, we have managed to overcome the challenge of having finds with no exact context, since they were not recovered in a proper archeological excavation,” Dvira said.
“The Temple Mount Sifting Project has focused its efforts on the enormous tasks of processing and studying the finds and preparing them for scientific publication.”
Dvira added that more than 500,000 finds are still waiting to be processed and analyzed in the project’s Jerusalem laboratory.
It seems as if almost every day another discovery surfaces to further validate the Bible and its teachings. Cuidado world!
Thanks for posting. Interesting.
One pet peeve:
“BCE”
They try so hard to deny Jesus, his impact on humanity, because he is the Truth.
Yet they still use his birth as the fulcrum around which the history of mankind has pivoted. Simply change the term from BC to BCE.
There’s no escaping it, yet they try and try and try.
Exactly! I love to ask people who prefer the BCE term to explain to me what marks the line between CE and BCE... It's fun.
“BCE”
They try so hard to deny Jesus, his impact on humanity, because he is the Truth.
Vain attempt. The BCE still alludes to the birth of Christ.
“Common era” refers to the calendar. Calendar points to birth of Christ.
That would gave the Jews legitimacy to their homeland....
I'm sure it's actually a lost button off the jacket Mohammad was wearing when he didn't visit Jerusalem but just dreamed about it...
/ Extreme sarcasm
I’m surprised we don’t yet have a new calendar based on the life of Baraq Obama.
They are trying to minimize or even remove the impact of Christ. You are right, try as they may, they can’t.
I am tired of this nonsense. Those archaeologists are fools.
The Bible is historical documentation. If they believe a portion of it to be false, they must prove it false before declaring so. Anything else is baseless speculation.
Muslim Authority Tried to Hide Biblical History of Jerusalem by Moving Tons of Earth from the Temple Mount. Looks Like a Boy Ruined That Plan When He Found a 3,000-Year-Old King David-Era Artifact
The Islamic organization that manages Muslim sites on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount once notoriously moved hundreds of truckloads of earth bulldozed from the Temple Mount, a step that was viewed by some Israelis as an effort to erase the Jewish history from the site.
Now, a 10-year-old boy has made a remarkable discovery in the dirt discarded from the site holiest in Judaism and third holiest to Muslims.
The Temple Mount Sifting Project, which for more than a decade has been sifting through the tons of topsoil discarded by the Jerusalem Waqf Islamic trust, announced that the young Russian tourist, Matvei Tcepliaev, found a 3,000-year-old seal dating to the eras of Kings David and Solomon.
What? You mean there isn’t a seal of Mohammed to be found in historically Jewish land? Shocking. /s
VIDEO Richard Freund University of Hartford archaeologist
http://jewtube.tv/religion/archaeological-discovery-confirms-jews-lived-jerusalem-3000-years-ago/
BCE = Before Christ’s Era
Patience .....they will salt this site with one soon.....
This IS the proof of co-existence with a deeply studied and timeline accepted neighbor, Egypt
There is also a Stela I intend to see when in Egypt. A Stela is a large flat stone dedicated to a victory of the King of Egypt over I think Libya. On the bottom corner it mentions that they conquered Israel as well
This binds the Kingdoms back to 1500 BC and as previously posted is uncontrovertible proof and in the Egyptians own hand that Israel existed 2500 years ago
And so the door is slammed shut on the “Palestinians” case, they are land grabbers who took over after the Jews were scattered
Watch and See...
Also, this kills the idea running around that King David was a mythical one...
He is most beloved of God, and a key figure in the Christian faith....
God will NOT be Mocked!
Watch and See...
I do know that the ignorant koranimals are behind it.
> “ rare 3,000-year-old seal, from the time of King David in the 10th century ***BCE***, ... “
Yep, got to hide those references to Christ wherever whenever one gets the opportunity.
Butt.
Thanks for posting
Seal Ping
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