Israel & Palestine: Archaeology & Archaeological Findings

Evidence indicates lizards and snakes comprised a significant component of the Late Pleistocene humans' diet in the Levant ...
First evidence that ancient humans ate snakes and lizards is unearthed in Israel

Numerous bones were found at a site dating to the late Pleistocene

People who lived 15,000 years ago in what is now Israel feasted on snakes and lizards, archaeologists have discovered.

Prior excavations in the Levant, a geographic region that historically included Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and parts of Syria and Jordan, unearthed thousands of bones belonging to lizards and snakes. Animal bones are usually found where ancient people once lived if the animals were being eaten. But it was unknown if lizards and snakes were part of the human diet or if their bones were left behind by other predators.

By experimenting on the bones of modern squamates — the group that includes lizards and snakes — researchers developed visual references for different types of surface damage, such as erosion, burning or digestion by birds of prey. When the scientists compared these patterns to damage in squamate bones from the el-Wad Terrace, a cave site near Israel's Mount Carmel that was occupied by humans between 11,500 and 15,000 years ago, they determined that many of the ancient bones there had been eaten by people. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-humans-ate-snakes.html
 
Considerable coin cache unearthed.

Youths volunteering at an archaeological dig in central Israel have found 425 gold coins that had lain buried in a clay jar for 1,100 years.

Most of the money dates back to the early Islamic period, when the region was part of the Abbasid caliphate.

The coins weigh 845g (30oz) and would have been worth a huge sum when they were buried - enough to buy a luxurious home in one of the caliphate's cities.

Who owned the cache, and why they never returned to collect it, is a mystery.

"The person who buried this treasure 1,100 years ago must have expected to retrieve it, and even secured the vessel with a nail so that it would not move," the directors of the excavation, Liat Nadav-Ziv and Elie Haddad of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53889695
 
An Egyptian fortress has been excavated in southern Israel. It was a stronghold for the Egyptians and their Canaanite allies at a time when the Philistines and Israelites were challenging the Egyptians' control of the area.
3,200-year-old Egyptian-built fortress found in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a 3,200-year-old fortress built by the Egyptians and Canaanites, the ancient foes of the Israelites in the bible. The fortress was built to keep the newly arrived Philistines out of the region.

The military structure, dubbed Galon Fortress, dates to the middle of the 12th century B.C., when the biblical characters of Deborah and Samson are thought to have lived, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The fortress highlights just how much unrest rocked the area at that time, the IAA said. At the time, the inhabitants of the region — known as the land of Canaan — were ruled by the ancient Egyptians. ...

Then, the Israelites and the Philistines arrived during the 12th century B.C., prompting the Canaanites and Egyptians to ultimately build the recently unearthed fortress. ...

The remains of the fortress and the ceramic artifacts within are remarkable; the nearly 60-foot-by-60-foot (18 by 18 meters) fortress had watchtowers in each of its four corners, and a threshold at the entrance carved from a massive rock weighing 3.3 tons (3 metric tons). ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-egyptian-philistine-fortress-discovered.html
 
The suggested interpretation of this Holy Land (actually Jordan ... ) archaeological site seems a bit of a stretch to me. Still, it makes for an interesting spin on the site's significance ...
Dance floor where John the Baptist was condemned to death discovered, archaeologist says

Archaeologists claim that they have identified the deadly dance floor where John the Baptist — a preacher who foretold the coming of Jesus — was sentenced to death around A.D. 29.

The Bible and the ancient writer Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) both describe how King Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod, had John the Baptist executed. Josephus specified that the execution took place at Machaerus, a fort near the Dead Sea in modern-day Jordan. ...

A courtyard uncovered at Machaerus is likely the place where Salome's dance was performed and where Herod Antipas decided to have John the Baptist beheaded, wrote Győző Vörös, director of a project called Machaerus Excavations and Surveys at the Dead Sea ... The courtyard, Vörös said, has an apsidal-shaped niche that is probably the remains of the throne where Herod Antipas sat. ...

Archaeologists discovered the courtyard in 1980, but they didn't recognize the niche as being part of Herod Antipas' throne until now, Vörös wrote in the article. The presence of the throne next to the courtyard solidifies the conclusions about the dance floor, Vörös wrote. ...

More than half a dozen scholars not involved with the excavations talked to Live Science about the claim that Herod Antipas' throne, and the courtyard where the deadly dance was performed, had been found. Some scholars were convinced, while others were skeptical. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/dance-floor-john-the-baptist-execution.html
 
When armageddon comes, this is where God and Satan will have their final dance-off.
 
Mythopoeika said:
... I'm just wondering how they knew it was a 'dance floor'.
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It's based on presuming:

- the semicircular niche represents a throne for Herod Antipas,
- Salome's dance occurred before Herod Antipas as he sat on a throne,
- Salome's dance occurred in the courtyard at Machaerus, and ...
- the story of Salome (known only from the Bible) is historical fact.
 
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Surely we're not disputing that a young girl dancer would want someone's severed head..
 
hunck said:
Surely we're not disputing that a young girl dancer would want someone's severed head..
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I've met a few 'dancers' who were like that.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I've met a few 'dancers' who were like that.
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Women can be so fickle eh?

head.JPG
 
New Dead Sea Scroll fragments, world's oldest basket, found in desert cave.

6,000-year-old child skeleton also found in Judean Desert cave. It is the first such discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early 1950s.

Some 1,900 years ago, Jewish refugees fleeing the Romans made their way to the Judean Desert. Among the belongings they carried with them were scrolls featuring the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. Two millennia later, fragments of those texts have reemerged.

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Sections of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets scroll discovered in the Judean Desert expedition prior to their conservation. (photo credit: SHAI HALEVI / ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)

“More than 80 fragments of different sizes have been uncovered, some of them carrying text, some not,” Dr. Oren Ableman from the IAA Dead Sea Scroll Unit told The Jerusalem Post. “Based on the script, we dated them to the end of the first century BCE, which means that by the time it was brought to the cave, the scroll was already a century old.”

The new discovery is particularly groundbreaking because one of the excerpts that was deciphered presents a version of Zechariah that was never encountered before, he said.

Verses 16 and 17 of the eighth chapter of Zechariah read: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate – declares the Lord.”

In the fragment, the word “gates” is replaced by the word “streets.”

“We had never seen this before,” Ableman said.

Together with the manuscript, the archaeologists found several coins minted by the Jewish rebels under Bar Kokhba’s leadership, carrying the writing: “Year 1 for the redemption of Israel.”

The cave, known as “the Cave of Horror” in the Judean Desert’s Nahal Hever, is some 80 meters below the cliff top and can be accessed only by clinging to ropes.

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/israel-finds-2000-yr-old-biblical-manuscripts-662148

maximus otter
 
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It has long been thought that Judaic dietary restrictions arose to reflect existing practices or preferences - i.e., they mirrored common knowledge or wisdom about food choices.

A recently reported survey of fish remains at 30 archaeological sites indicates there was significant consumption of non-kosher fish before the dietary prohibitions were documented (and afterward as well), suggesting the prohibitions were new and not derivations of prevailing practices or wisdom.
Discovery of Ancient Fish Bones Reveals Non-kosher Diet of Ancient Judeans

Ancient Judeans commonly ate non-kosher fish surrounding the time that such food was prohibited in the Bible, suggests a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Tel Aviv.

This finding sheds new light on the origin of Old Testament dietary laws that are still observed by many Jews today. Among these rules is a ban on eating any species of fish which lacks scales or fins.

The study reports an analysis of ancient fish bones from 30 archaeological sites in Israel and Sinai which date to the more than 2,000-year span from the Late Bronze Age (1550-1130 BCE) until the end of the Byzantine period (640 CE).

The authors say the results call for a rethink of assumptions that long-held traditions were the basis for the food laws outlined in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

“The ban on finless and scaleless fish deviated from longstanding Judean dietary habits,” says Yonatan Adler from Ariel University.

“The Biblical writers appear to have prohibited this food despite the fact that non-kosher fish were often found on the Judean menu. There is little reason to think that an old and widespread dietary taboo lay at the root of this ban.”
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FULL STORY: https://scitechdaily.com/discovery-of-ancient-fish-bones-reveals-non-kosher-diet-of-ancient-judeans/
 
The fish study poses questions, rather than it gives us a blanket answer of non-adherence to the Kosher diet:

1.) Were the fish eaten, or used for industrial purposes such as glue from bones or producing dyes?

2.) Were the fish definitely the same as modern species, or varieties of fish that were Kosher at the time and have lost their fins/scales over time?

3.) Were the fish indeed not Kosher, but eaten by non-Jews working with the Jews? Or the non Jewish peoples who lived in the land alongside Jews at various times (Amorites, Hittites/Jebusites) ?

4.) There were periods when some Jews turned away from Judaism and to idolatory. If the fish were not Kosher, was it they who ate these fish?

5.) There were several invasion by Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Greek armies (and likely a combined Nubian/Egyptian/Ethiopian force) during the long time period mentioned in the article. Might they have eaten the fish?
 
Victory said:
The fish study poses questions, rather than it gives us a blanket answer of non-adherence to the Kosher diet ...
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Exactly ... It struck me that the site sample size, the timespan covered, and the issue of population / cultural variability at the sites during that timespan made the context too nebulous to support any firm conclusions.
 
Section of Western Wall made accessible to the public.

July 8 (UPI) -- Archaeologists in Israel have unveiled a newly uncovered building from the Second Temple period.

The grandiose structure, located near Jerusalem's Western Wall, was built between 20 and 30 CE, only a few decades before the city's Temple Mount was destroyed by the Romains.

On Thursday, officials with the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation announced that portions of the building will soon be accessible to the public as part of the the Western Wall Tunnels itinerary.

The building, which archaeologists suspect was built to welcome dignitaries and elites to the Temple Mount, was first documented by Charles Warren in the nineteenth century.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/07/08/israel-grand-building-western-wall-temple/8291625757529/
 
An ancient wealthy household's fine toilet has been discovered in Jerusalem.
2,700-year-old toilet found in Jerusalem was a rare luxury

Israeli archaeologists have found a rare ancient toilet in Jerusalem dating back more than 2,700 years, when private bathrooms were a luxury in the holy city, authorities said Tuesday.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the smooth, carved limestone toilet was found in a rectangular cabin that was part of a sprawling mansion overlooking what is now the Old City. It was designed for comfortable sitting, with a deep septic tank dug underneath.

“A private toilet cubicle was very rare in antiquity, and only a few were found to date,” said Yaakov Billig, the director of the excavation. ...

Animal bones and pottery found in the septic tank could shed light on the lifestyle and diet of people living at that time, as well as ancient diseases, the antiquities authority said. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/science-jerusalem-middle-east-israel-555ddebe8076d1c7c99c384dae08fc78
 
"Animal bones and pottery found in the septic tank could shed light on the lifestyle and diet of people living at that time"

I should say so! Must have been painful :oops:
 
A huge 1,500 year old winery has been discovered in Israel.

"A 1,500-year-old wine-making complex, said to have been the world's largest at the time, has been discovered in Israel, archaeologists say.

Five presses were unearthed at the huge Byzantine-era winery at Yavne, south of Tel Aviv, which is estimated to have produced two million litres a year.

After a sophisticated production process it was exported around the Mediterranean.

Those working at the site said they were surprised by its size.

There are plans to make the complex a visitor attraction once preservation work is completed."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-58876369
 
Nosmo King said:
A huge 1,500 year old winery has been discovered in Israel.

"A 1,500-year-old wine-making complex, said to have been the world's largest at the time, has been discovered in Israel, archaeologists say.

Five presses were unearthed at the huge Byzantine-era winery at Yavne, south of Tel Aviv, which is estimated to have produced two million litres a year.

After a sophisticated production process it was exported around the Mediterranean.

Those working at the site said they were surprised by its size.

There are plans to make the complex a visitor attraction once preservation work is completed."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-58876369
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Beautiful.
 

Is there new evidence of Jewish Temple treasures in the Vatican?​

There are several people alive that can personally attest to being eyewitnesses of the Vatican possessing Temple vessels, including the Menorah candelabra.​


Pretend for a moment that the Vatican has in its possession some sacred and precious relics that were originally in the Herodian Jewish Temple located in Jerusalem 1,950 years ago.

If you were the pope living in the 14th century and could verify this fact, would you not ask yourself how indeed such Jewish artifacts had come to your residence in the first place?

495871


The menorah from the Second Temple is depicted being carried by Romans on the Arch of Titus.
(photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM/GPO)

After some digging around (no pun intended), you would have found that your new Vatican residence was actually built over sections of Caesar’s Palace – the Vatican, including St. Peter’s Basilica, was constructed over Emperor Vespasian’s Roman palace approximately 200 years after the sacking of Rome in 455 AD.

What this means is that the vandals and the Visigoths passed over, or simply didn’t find, the select treasures secreted away in that palace, and instead took with them the many items on public display in the Temple, located not far away.

It says in the Talmud that the famous Jewish sage and author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, went to Rome with his colleagues to nullify harsh decrees placed on Judea, and while there, saw the exact items mentioned in this article. They ended up being royal guests at Vespasian’s palace after being asked to attend to his ailing daughter. When they miraculously did heal her, the sages were afforded the chance to see these extremely holy items, proving that they were kept in that place.

In fact, historian Josephus Flavius records the event in which Vespasian took for himself these items specifically as his special treasures for safekeeping, including an ancient Torah scroll.

According to Vatican expert Dr. Michael A. Calvo, those vessels and others found their way to the Vatican via another route, after making their way to Byzantium: “These include Temple candelabra given to Pope Innocent III by Baldwin I after the sacking of Constantinople and the massacre of the Christian Orthodox population,” Calvo claims. “Temple shofars and utensils; garments of the High Priest; the Tzitz – a gold plaque with the words Kodesh L’Hashem (“Holy to the Lord”); cultural objects, and many other objets d’art, books and manuscripts.

But where is the factual, tangible proof that the Vatican “inherited” these sacred items and retains them until today?

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and security services may already have evidence: about 50 years ago, there was a certain Jewish student – let’s call him DM – who was enrolled in a correspondence course at the Urbaniana, the Vatican’s university. Upon attending in person for the last semesters of his doctorate, he found himself the only Jew among 17,000 students! DM told me that he was well-loved, but when push came to shove, both professor and student approached him respectfully in order to convert him.

After firmly refusing time after time, a friend of his (later to become one of the Vatican archivists, Cardinal Antonio Samore) offered to show him what “used to be” his Jewish heritage – the Temple vessels – in an attempt to entice him to convert. DM agreed to be taken to see them months later, at night. When I asked him if there was anything in that cave that had belonged to the Temple, he simply replied: “Everything is there!”

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-696068

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:

Is there new evidence of Jewish Temple treasures in the Vatican?​

There are several people alive that can personally attest to being eyewitnesses of the Vatican possessing Temple vessels, including the Menorah candelabra.​


Pretend for a moment that the Vatican has in its possession some sacred and precious relics that were originally in the Herodian Jewish Temple located in Jerusalem 1,950 years ago.

If you were the pope living in the 14th century and could verify this fact, would you not ask yourself how indeed such Jewish artifacts had come to your residence in the first place?

495871


The menorah from the Second Temple is depicted being carried by Romans on the Arch of Titus.
(photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM/GPO)

After some digging around (no pun intended), you would have found that your new Vatican residence was actually built over sections of Caesar’s Palace – the Vatican, including St. Peter’s Basilica, was constructed over Emperor Vespasian’s Roman palace approximately 200 years after the sacking of Rome in 455 AD.

What this means is that the vandals and the Visigoths passed over, or simply didn’t find, the select treasures secreted away in that palace, and instead took with them the many items on public display in the Temple, located not far away.

It says in the Talmud that the famous Jewish sage and author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, went to Rome with his colleagues to nullify harsh decrees placed on Judea, and while there, saw the exact items mentioned in this article. They ended up being royal guests at Vespasian’s palace after being asked to attend to his ailing daughter. When they miraculously did heal her, the sages were afforded the chance to see these extremely holy items, proving that they were kept in that place.

In fact, historian Josephus Flavius records the event in which Vespasian took for himself these items specifically as his special treasures for safekeeping, including an ancient Torah scroll.

According to Vatican expert Dr. Michael A. Calvo, those vessels and others found their way to the Vatican via another route, after making their way to Byzantium: “These include Temple candelabra given to Pope Innocent III by Baldwin I after the sacking of Constantinople and the massacre of the Christian Orthodox population,” Calvo claims. “Temple shofars and utensils; garments of the High Priest; the Tzitz – a gold plaque with the words Kodesh L’Hashem (“Holy to the Lord”); cultural objects, and many other objets d’art, books and manuscripts.

But where is the factual, tangible proof that the Vatican “inherited” these sacred items and retains them until today?

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and security services may already have evidence: about 50 years ago, there was a certain Jewish student – let’s call him DM – who was enrolled in a correspondence course at the Urbaniana, the Vatican’s university. Upon attending in person for the last semesters of his doctorate, he found himself the only Jew among 17,000 students! DM told me that he was well-loved, but when push came to shove, both professor and student approached him respectfully in order to convert him.

After firmly refusing time after time, a friend of his (later to become one of the Vatican archivists, Cardinal Antonio Samore) offered to show him what “used to be” his Jewish heritage – the Temple vessels – in an attempt to entice him to convert. DM agreed to be taken to see them months later, at night. When I asked him if there was anything in that cave that had belonged to the Temple, he simply replied: “Everything is there!”

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-696068

maximus otter
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The damning evidence was all captured on film too by the angry-looking guy with the old TV camera:

camera2.png
camera.png
 
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