Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: archaeology

Showing posts with label archaeology. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

No, it isn't Israelis who try to use archaeology to erase history. It is Palestinians.

On Tuesday, an exhibition called "Inscriptions and Writings of Ancient Palestine" was unveiled at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo.

The exhibit features photos of Canaanite inscriptions from between the 19th and 7th centuries BCE.

The reasons given for the exhibit are almost completely political.

The exhibition is meant "to purify the history of Palestine and the general culture of myths and legends," meaning to exclude the idea that Jews have a history in the region.

The head of the scientific committee of the exhibition, Durgham Fares, said that the exhibition, which will be shown in various countries, "aims to strengthen international, Arab, and Islamic public opinion in support of the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, independence, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, by providing a neutral scientific reading of the history of Palestine."

Fares also described "the importance of archaeological inscriptions and writings in understanding the ancient history of Palestine, and in refuting the modern allegations of the Zionist movement and the occupation."

This is propaganda, not a sober description of Canaanite culture. (The claim that Palestinians are descended from Canaanites is also quite shaky. Some almost certainly were, but most prominent Palestinian families proudly trace their lineage to other parts of the world.)

No one contests the idea that the earliest known use of an alphabet was in the region of Canaan, although it appears to have originated in Egypt as a simplified version of hieroglyphics for Semitic languages.

Unlike the curators of this project, the Israel Museum has an entire apolitical exhibit that credits the creation of the alphabet to Canaanite miners who were working for Egyptians in the Sinai, and who converted the thousands of Egyptian pictograms into a simplified, limited set of consonants.

The Israelis don't hijack history, as they are often accused of. They look at archaeology objectively and if a find is important for Muslim or Christian or Canaanite history they publicize it as well as they do for Jewish history. There is a bias, certainly - everyone is more interested in their own ancestors - but they are not dishonest. In fact, some of the most important Muslim archaeological treasures were found - and preserved - by Israelis. .

As this exhibit shows, the only parties that explicitly use archaeology to erase the history of a people are the Palestinians and their allies.

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The synagogue discovered in Russia helps prove the Temple Menorah branches were round

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The remnants of a Second Temple era synagogue have been uncovered in Russia, according to a Tuesday archaeological news release.

The remains of a synagogue from the time of the Second Temple were discovered in the ancient Grecian city of Phanagoria, located in what is today Southwestern Russia between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

The finding marks the discovery of one of the world’s oldest synagogues and, according to analysis of fragments found at the site, it likely stood for over half a millennium after being constructed around the beginning of the first century BCE.

Among the findings were the remains of several menorahs that were clearly depicting the menorah in the Temple.

There has been somewhat of a controversy in Jewish circles about whether the Temple menorah had rounded or straight branches. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, apparently based on a drawing by Maimonides, had insisted that the menorah had diagonal straight branches.

But there are numerous examples of depictions of the menorah that date from when the Temple existed, or shortly thereafter, and are - as far as I can tell - consistent in showing the menorah with rounded branches.

This Hasmonean coin dates from Second Temple times:

The Magdala Stone, discovered in a synagogue built while the Temple was still there, also makes no mistake as to its shape:

And, of course, the most famous depiction is in the Arch of Titus, celebrating the looting of the Temple.

Now this new discovery adds even more proof that the Temple menorah had rounded branches, based on artwork of people who lived while the Temple existed.

The earliest (possible) menorah I can find with straight branches comes from a piece of pottery discovered on the Temple Mount from Byzantine times, hundreds of years after the destruction:

With all due respect to Maimonides' picture and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the overwhelming evidence is that the menorah had rounded branches.

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Friday memes and cartoons

The second and third ones really, really upset the Israel haters on Twitter.

The fourth was one of the most popular memes I ever posted on Instagram.

By the way, this is Byzantine-era. Jews continued to build towns after 70 CE. There are lots of Talmudic-era synagogues discovered in the Galilee, Judea and Samaria.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Did the Kingdom of Israel control the lucrative "royal purple" and "royal blue" dye trade?

Pottery that contained the argaman dye found at Shikmona

Haaretz publishes a fascinating theory:

Israeli archaeologists are rethinking the history of an ancient factory that, thousands of years ago, was one of the largest sites for the production of “royal purple,” a dye that adorned the robes of the rich and powerful across the Mediterranean.

Tel Shikmona, located on the shore of the modern-day city of Haifa, was interpreted as a Phoenician settlement that produced royal purple from sea-snails. The dye was one of the most sought-after luxuries of the ancient world. But a new paper, putting together information from archaeological digs there over 50 years, reached a new conclusion.

For about two centuries, Shikmona was something of a joint venture: an industrial site controlled by the biblical Kingdom of Israel and run by skilled Phoenician workers, say Prof. Ayelet Gilboa, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa and Dr. Golan Shalvi, formerly also at Haifa and now a postdoctoral researcher at Ben-Gurion University.

Their study, published in June in Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, offers rare insight into the closeness of the ties between the ancient Israelites and the Phoenicians. It also sheds light on the economical background behind the expansion of the Kingdom of Israel, which would rise to become a major regional power during the middle of the Iron Age (or the First Temple Period, if one prefers references to the biblical chronology).

The theory, backed up by archaeology, is that the Israelite kingdom expanded to encompass the already existing Phoenician dye factory. It built fortifications to protect it, indicating that the Israelites employed the Phoenician experts to control the export market for both royal purple (argaman) and royal blue (techelet), very expensive dyes used not only by royalty but also in the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. Tekhelet was also used (and some still use it) in tzitzit, the Biblical commandment to put a tekhelet string on the corners of square garments including prayer shawls.

The archaeologists point to proof that there was a large export trade in argaman, with pottery from Cyprus at the site. They theorize that this site, the only known such factory in that time period, was a major source of the Northern Kingdom's revenue with a near monopoly on the valued dyes.

The paper can be read here.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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Al Jazeera makes up a Herzl quote

Herzl postcard to his daughter from Jerusalem, October 30, 1898

Al Jazeera, which is still respected as a real news source in much of the Western world, published an article entitled, "This is how Israel plunders the antiquities of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem."

The article starts with a quote, supposedly from Theodor Herzl:

"If we ever get Jerusalem and I am still alive and able to do anything, I will remove everything that is not sacred to the Jews in it, and I will burn the centuries-old monuments."

Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement

The rest of the article goes on to falsely claim that Israeli archaeologists ignore anything non-Jewish in their digs and research, an absurd lie.

What about this supposed Herzl quote?

Here is what Herzl really wrote in his journal on October 31, 1898, during his visit to Palestine:

If I remember you in the future, Jerusalem, not with pleasure will I remember you. The moldy residues of two thousand years of cruelty, intolerance, and filth lie in the stinking streets. If we ever get Jerusalem, and if it is within my ability, I will clean it first. I shall remove everything that is not sacred, I shall set up housing for laborers outside of the city, I shalI empty out the nests of filth, destroy them, burn those ruins which are not sacred, and the bazaars I shall move to another place. Preserving the old building style as much as possible, I will erect a modern, convenient, clean and functioning city around the holy sites.“

At no time did he differentiate between things that are sacred to Jews and to non-Jews, and indeed the postcard that he sent his daughter pictured above shows the Dome of the Rock - certainly not something the secular Herzl wanted to destroy.

Al Jazeera is lying, explicitly, in both the quote and the story itself. Why do people still put any trust in this propaganda rag?

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Again, Palestinians use Israel's preservation of Islamic antiquities as proof of Israel destroying Islamic antiquities

The Palestinian Safa news agency "reports:"

The Israeli occupation authorities are still continuing their efforts to obliterate the Islamic and Arab features of Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the Umayyad palaces area, falsifying its identity and ancient history, and stealing its antiquities and historical stones, in order to impose an alleged biblical narrative, and prepare for the establishment of the alleged "Temple".

With its ancient stones and ancient buildings built by the Umayyads, the Umayyad palaces represent an Arab Islamic heritage, and a symbol of Islamic civilization in Palestine, which refutes the claims of the occupation that it discovered Jewish antiquities and assets in the region during its excavations over the past years.

The Umayyad palaces were shown during the early Islamic conquest as a house for the emirate, palaces for the Muslim caliphs and Islamic institutions for managing the affairs of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestine about one thousand four hundred years ago.

In 1967, the occupation took control of this area, and tried to confiscate it under the pretext of the so-called "Holy Basin", in order to suffocate Al-Aqsa Mosque from the southern and western regions, and also turned it into museums, shrines, and Talmudic manifestations, to narrate the biblical Talmudic narrative.

Settlement organizations claim that the palaces are built in the "Holy Basin" area of the "Temple", but the excavations that lasted more than 40 years with the participation of Jewish archaeologists have proven that the buildings are Umayyad palaces and an emirate house, and there is no evidence indicating their relationship to the "Temple" or anything else.

This is a funhouse mirror version of history that ends up not even close to reality.

We've discussed the Umayyad palaces before. They were discovered by Jewish archaeologists and they are being preserved by Israel. If it wasn't for Jews, the Arab world would not even know they ever existed.

The site is there today for visitors. It is preserved by the State of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality. No one is claiming that the Umayyad palaces were never there or that they were Jewish-built. No one is damaging the site.

The real question is why we don't see more Muslim visitors to the area, since it is clearly a major historical Muslim site.

And it is hardly the only Islamic site preserved by Israel in Jerusalem, open to all, with clearly marked signs explaining the importance of the site.

The Safa article also lies in its claims that there is no evidence of any Temple on the southern areas surrounding the Temple Mount. For example, there are dozens of ritual baths in the area which pre-date the Umayyad structures, and the only reason for so many would be if masses of people were preparing to visit the Temple Mount.

The people who are claiming that Jews are erasing history are...wait for it....erasing Jewish history.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

New Muslim conspiracy theory: Unreleased Dead Sea Scrolls prove Islam is the true religion!

Al Shiraa, a news website that appears to be based in Lebanon, has some earth shattering archaeological news.

What is the truth about the manuscripts of Wadi Qumran, and what was their content, and why did the Jews hide them?

...When these manuscripts appeared, the investigators and scholars began to publish them, and the publication was very slow. Then, what was expected happened. The Israeli authorities worked to prevent access to these manuscripts, and after many attempts, the Israeli authorities allowed access to these manuscripts only to whomever they deem appropriate among the qualified scholars. From the point of view of the Israeli authorities, there were eight, most of them Jews, and they stipulated that none of them should publish a picture of a manuscript or display its text, but only that he could publish his conclusions or publish some paragraphs approved by the Israeli authorities .

If this indicates anything, it indicates that they hide what is behind these manuscripts, so only God Almighty knows it . But by the grace of God, the truth is shining, no matter what they do, the manuscripts contain their hidden books, such as Aknon, Thalil, the commandments of the Twelve Fathers, the commandment of Levi, in addition to the commandment of the Essenes, the system, and it represents the beliefs of this Jewish sect.

This book has two appendices. The first is entitled The War Between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. In these manuscripts there is also what is called the Damascus Document, and it talks about hardships that surround the teacher of righteousness. In addition to that are the two books of commandments and hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and some explanatory manuscripts of the Book of Habaquq and the Psalms, and it mentions the hardships that will befall, and there are many fragments and manuscripts Others, such as the manuscript of Lamac, which is written in the Aramaic language of nineteen columns, contain instructions for conducting war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.

Antiquities experts say that these manuscripts are important because they contain the oldest written text of the Torah and the Jewish religion. Fundamental differences have been revealed between it and what is currently known, and this is the secret that made the government of Israel work to hide many manuscripts, in addition to the manuscripts containing something that destroys the religion into Judaism . and the specifications of the teacher of righteousness , who is supposed to be the central figure of this sect, and it will become clear that he is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, whom they denied along with his first gospel.

Consequently , it will show the dominance of Islam and that it is the true, final religion for all religions.

The scholars that hold onto the texts were indeed very slow in releasing them publicly - up until about 1990. They did report to the Israel Antiquities Authority but they were left alone. After a number of controversies, the IAI finally fired the head of the team (a non-Jew) and replaced him with a scholar from Hebrew University, who published all the remaining scrolls by 2002.

In other words, the Jews were the ones who allowed the world to see the Scrolls, all of which are now catalogued and nearly all available digitally online. There are no secrets, and Israel is not hiding anything from the public.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/08 Links Pt2: Expedia, Tripadvisor urge tourists to visit biblical heartland in ‘Palestinian territory’

From Ian:

Remembering The Scorpion Pass Massacre of 1954

March 17 this year will mark 69 years since one of the worst terrorist attacks on Israelis since the establishment of the State in 1948. Although I was only nine years old, this episode, called the Scorpion Pass Massacre, has a prominent place in my memory, perhaps because of the intense discussions it aroused in the Jewish community of Montreal that I was a part of, or perhaps because I was the same age as the Israeli boy who was severely injured. Or, perhaps it was the exotic name of the site of the attack, Scorpion Pass (Maale Akrabim).

The name obviously comes from the common appearance of scorpions (akrabim in Hebrew), venomous animals with two pincer claws and an articulated tail and stinger. Scorpions resemble crustaceans such as lobsters or crayfish, but are in fact related to spiders, mites and ticks. With an evolutionary history going back hundreds of millions of years, they were certainly around in biblical times. Maale Akrabim appears three times in the Tanakh (Numbers 34:3, Joshua 15:3 and Judges 1:36), as an indicator of the southern boundary of the Land of Israel.

The attack took place in 1954, when the population of Israel was 1.6 million and the southern port of Eilat, Israel’s only connection to the Red Sea, was a small development town with 500 inhabitants. As is true today, travellers from Eilat to central Israel could either fly (Arkia began flying from Eilat to Lod Airport, now Ben Gurion Airport, in 1950), or drive the 150 miles to Beersheba. In 1954 the drive to Beersheba was a lonely one that included a long and narrow grade with 18 hairpin turns, known as Ma’ale Akrabim. The ascent, about 60 miles south of Beersheba, is a 1000 foot escarpment that connects the Arava Valley of the south-eastern Negev to the central Negev plateau.

The attack was carried out in the middle of the day on an Egged bus (Israel’s largest bus company) containing 14 passengers plus a driver. The attackers shot at the bus as it was travelling very slowly around one of the hairpin bends, killing the driver. They then boarded the bus and shot most of the passengers. Eleven riders (ten passengers and the driver) were killed and three passengers were injured. One of the injured a nine year-old boy, Chaim Fuerstenberg, survived in a semi-conscious and paralysed state for 32 years, dying in 1986.

Morningstar lowers investment ratings of 28 Israeli companies for operating in contested territory

(This article has been taken down by the Jerusalem Post, apparently for inaccuracies.)

The Jerusalem Post has learned that Morningstar, a financial services firm that rates companies’ investment potential, has reduced the ratings of 28 Israeli companies due to their operations in what the firm’s ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) rating subsidiary Sustainalytics considers to be Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Of the 28 companies, 15 have been given a human rights score of “category 3” (significant controversy) or higher. The list includes several leading companies such as Elbit Systems and Caterpillar, as well as Israel-operating banks and telecommunications companies including PayPal Holdings and Motorola Solutions, which have been given their high controversy ratings due to their operations within East Jerusalem, the West Bank and/or the Golan heights — which Sustainalytics considers to be a human rights abuse.

Considering Morningstar’s significance within the financial ratings market, its negative rating of these companies is cause for concern to those who consider such actions to be in-line with BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) activity.

As well, over 30 American states have laws that prohibit investment or contracts with companies that cause economic harm to those based in Israel. As such, even if just one Israeli company is unfairly targeted on a Morningstar watchlist, it could potentially violate state laws.

Morningstar is now in the process of consulting with human rights experts in order to determine how to proceed with its assessment of these companies.

Dem Senators Blasted Ticketmaster Over Taylor Swift Debacle. They Have Nothing to Say About It Raking In Cash From Farrakhan Hate Rally.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) last fall trained their fire on Ticketmaster after bungled sales for Taylor Swift's concert tour led to price-gouging and automated scalping, calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the ticketing giant. But when the company doled out tickets to Louis Farrakhan's rally—in which the Nation of Islam leader defended Adolf Hitler and predicted another Holocaust against Jews—the Democratic duo had nothing to say.

Blumenthal went on a crusade against Ticketmaster in November, saying "consumers deserve better than this anti-hero behavior." Klobuchar said she had "serious concerns" about Ticketmaster's failure to get the so-called Swifties tickets efficiently and wrote to the company's chief executive officer demanding answers.

Neither Blumenthal, who has warned that the "horrors of the Holocaust" could happen again if Americans don't fight anti-Semitism, nor Klobuchar, who has pledged "to confront anti-Semitism," have criticized Ticketmaster for profiting off of the Farrakhan ticketing sales. The two senators, who sit on the Senate's Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, did not respond to requests for comment.

Farrakhan during his speech claimed that Jews control the levers of power in Washington, Hollywood, and global finance and are using these powers to corrupt the world. "Somebody has to take on the synagogue of Satan," he said. "We cannot let them take the country." Critics had urged Ticketmaster, which charges service fees on each ticket it sells, to drop the Farrakhan event from its sales platform, but the ticket giant did not budge.

Among House Democrats, there has also been silence from lawmakers who criticized Ticketmaster in the past. Last November, more than two dozen House Democrats sent a letter to Ticketmaster, saying it "strangled competition for ticketing in the live entertainment marketplace." The Washington Free Beacon reached out to 28 members who signed the letter and are still in Congress to get their thoughts on Ticketmaster’s decision to sell seats at the Farrakhan event. None of them responded.

Democrats who signed the letter included Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.).

Large cache of Jewish objects hidden by Jews in Lodz in 1939 unearthed (lots of photos)

From Times of Israel:

About 400 items believed to have been hidden in the ground by their Jewish owners during World War II have been accidentally uncovered during home renovation work in a yard in Lodz in central Poland.

History experts say that the objects found in the city’s Polnocna Street include Hanukkah menorahs and items used in daily life, TVN24 reported.

Another Polish media outlet, o2.pl, said that perfume bottles and cigarette holders were also found in the trove, located some 70 centimeters underground.

The stash was found in December, and two of the menorahs were lit on December 22 during Hanukkah celebrations organized by the city’s Jewish community.

Some of the items were found wrapped in Polish, Yiddish, and German language newspapers, which were dated to around October 1939, Israel’s Ynet news site said.

Gazecie Wyborczej, an archaeologist in Lodz, said that the items appeared to have been buried in a hurry, likely when the owners were ordered to appear in the Lodz Ghetto. According to Wyborczej, the site of the building used to be a synagogue.

The items are mostly silver-plated tableware, menorahs and glass containers for cosmetics, according to the regional office for the preservation of historic objects. The office’s experts said on Facebook last week that the objects will be handed over to the city’s archaeology museum.

This is a heartbreaking story, especially when you look at the recovered objects themselves. They aren't for the most part made out of silver or gold but rather silver-plated; they were not objectively that valuable - but they were valuable to the owners. These were personal items that the Jews wanted to keep in their families.

YNet shows some of the objects: