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. 

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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!

 

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