Posted on 01/13/2003 9:05:23 AM PST by HAL9000
An inscription attributed to Jehoash, the king of Judea who ruled in Jerusalem at the end of the ninth century B.C.E., has been authenticated by experts from the National Infrastructure Ministry's Geological Survey of Israel following months of examination. The 10-line fragment, which was apparently found on the Temple Mount, is written in the first person on a black stone tablet in ancient Phoenician script. The inscription's description of Temple "house repairs" ordered by King Jehoash strongly resembles passages in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 12.Dr. Gabriel Barkai, a leading Israeli archaeologist from Bar Ilan University's Land of Israel Studies Department, says that if the inscription proves to be authentic, the finding is a "sensation" of the greatest import. It could be, he says, the most significant archaeological finding yet in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. It would be a first-of-its kind piece of physical evidence describing events in a manner that adheres to the narrative in the Bible.
According to Dr. Barkai, such a finding, which appears to furnish proof of the existence of the Temple, must be made available for examination by scholars, and can not be kept a virtual secret.
Detailed research findings about the inscription are to be disclosed in a collection of articles published by the Geology Survey of Israel, a government research institute. Research studies have been prepared by Dr. Shimon Ilani, Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld and Michael Dvorchik, the institute's chief technician who carried out electronic microscope tests of the inscription that, the three say, were largely responsible for the finding's authentication.
Apart from noting that the discovery was made in Jerusalem, the researchers do not disclose where the inscription was found. But sources have indicated that the writing surfaced in the Temple Mount area as a result of widescale excavation work done in recent years in the area by Muslims, and that Palestinians relayed the fragment to a major collector of antiquities in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem collector is represented by attorney Isaac Herzog, a former cabinet secretary and currently a Knesset candidate on Labor's list.
The collector offered to sell the inscription to the Israel Museum, but museum curators who examined the fragment cast doubt on its authenticity, though they did not state categorically that the writing was a forgery.
Ilani and Rosenfeld refused yesterday to discuss the Israel Museum's response with Ha'aretz. But officials from the Geology Survey said that results of the battery of examinations that were carried out must be taken as conclusive: It's inconceivable that such extensive testing would fail to reveal a forgery, they said. The inscription is authentic, they insisted, and the finding is an archaeological sensation that could have global repercussions and that effectively vindicates Jewish claims to the Temple Mount.
The inscription lauds repairs carried out by King Jehoash in ways reminiscent of the description in the Second Book of Kings. It includes the king's request that priests collect public money to be used for the repair of the First Temple; and there are references to the purchase of timber and quarried stones for the carrying out of repairs on the Temple.
The inscription contains fragments from 2 Kings 12:15: "And they did not ask an accounting from the men into whose hands they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen; for they dealt honestly."
The researchers believe that the sandstone used for the inscription was brought from southern Jordan, or the Dead Sea region. Materials that covered the inscription over the years date from 200-400 B.C.E., they suggest.
Ilani and Rosenfeld speculate that during this period, the inscription began to be covered up as a buried object. Should this hypothesis be correct, it would mean that the inscription was exposed to the elements for hundreds of years, before being buried some 500-600 years after it was written.
In his conversation with Ha'aretz, Dr. Barkai noted that "the problem here is that circumstances of the finding are not clear... We should wait for the official scientific publication, at which time we will be able to probe this finding carefully. Right now, of course, we can't rule out any possibility. It's too bad that a matter of this sort was kept under wraps, apparently due to business concerns."
Any bets on whether a more open discussion of Temple Mount archaeology would cause the salamikazes to work even harder at destroying artifacts such as these?
Tons and tons of ancient rubble is being carted out from under the Temple by Muslims, and most of it is being destroyed. They've taken so much out that there's a crack in the side wall and some danger that the Dome of the Rock mosque will collapse.
This is typical Muslim behavior. Over the centuries they have obliterated millions of churches, monuments, and graves in order to destroy all evidence of other religions.
The Labour government under Ehud Barak let them get away with this, and Sharon hasn't done anything to stop it. It's a crime of the highest order. And the whole world is complicit because no one dares step in front of the Muslim juggernaut and tell them that what they are doing must be stopped.
Obviously this fragment would have disappeared with all the rest of one of the workers hadn't let his greed get the better of his religious zeal.
I had a very memorable experience with these traders when I was in Jerusalem on a fulbright in 1983. I discovered an unpublished early christian ivory reliquary for sale in an antiquities shop in Tel Aviv. later a Palestinian friend took me to see a very tall Bedouin, dressed in black from head to toe. It was very secret with a trip through the backstreets of the Old City. He revealed the provenance of this to me, as a favor to my friend. That means that he told me where it came from.
Provenance is very important in establishing the intellectual and monetary worth of something. This black market in antiquities is illegal, but it is profitable. The practitioners are nomads, not nationalists. They deny the power of states and realtors to restrict their movements.
Inconceivable!
Hmmm....
One exciting discovery was the “Water Gate” which is mentioned by Nehemiah, “And the temple servants living in Ophel, repaired to the place opposite the Water Gate towards the east, and the projecting tower” (Nehemiah 3:26). The gate discovered was typical of the period and was made up of three parts: the tower, the internal and the external gatehouse. Archaeologists calculated the date of construction as being during the tenth century BCE and that these were part of the walls of Jerusalem built by King Solomon.
Also discovered was the great projecting tower, “After them the Tekoites repaired another section, opposite the great projecting tower, as far as the wall of Ophel” (Nehemiah 3:27). Built of large hewn stones, the tower was added to the tower of the Water Gate, perhaps by King Uzziah.
First Temple Period Archeological Discoveries South of the Temple Mount
My comment was more directed toward this statement: The inscription is authentic, they insisted, and the finding is an archaeological sensation that could have global repercussions and that effectively vindicates Jewish claims to the Temple Mount.
That has obvious nationalist implications.
Thank goodness that worker's greed led him to steal that piece and sell it. Unfortunately, as news of this find spreads, the muslims will clamp down even harder on their operations to eradicate Jewish archaeological evidence from the temple mount. Even more curtains will go up, the workers will be searched for pebbles as if they worked in a diamond mine, and they will become even more reckless in their rush to commit archaeological genocide.
Pet peeve: I'm sick and tired of people plagarizing the Christian calendar. There is no other rationale for calling that period "the ninth century" other than the fact that it is 9 centuries BC on the Christian calendar. Using the calendar, while inventing phoney changes to render it "multi-cultural" is a form of plagarism (ie: using someone else's work while refusing to credit them for it). Why does Ha'aretz find the Christian calendar so repugnant? If they find it as such, why not just use another calendar system instead of this dishonest use of ours?
Maybe because they are not Christian? Wow! What a freakin' concept! I bet you also freak when people type G-d instead of fully spelling it too.
Many scientists also use Before Common Era and Common Era. And, if they did use a different calendar system, would you complain about that too?
Now, you tell me, why do they use "BCE" instead of "BC"?
I can only speak for myself in saying that if I did use another religion or culture's calendar, I would certainly credit them for it. To do otherwise is dishonest and arrogant.
Inconcieveable!
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