BAMBINO (BRIT-AM BIBLICAL ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE)
Discussion of the Bible, Biblical History, Lost Israelite Tribes Identity in the Light of the Bible and other matters relating to Scripture.
No.15


The name "Ephraim" in Hebrew Letters as Seen
by Satellite in the Hills of Ephraim



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BAMBINO no. 15

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BAMBINO-15
BRIT-AM BIBLICAL ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE
Contents:
1. Ancient Seal with Picture of Archer
2. Ancient Hebrew Script

3. Copper Mines in Southern Jordan Probably Utilised by King Solomon


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1. Ancient Seal with Picture of Archer
http://jwest.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/another-seal-discovery/#comment-7459

A rare Hebrew seal from the First Temple period, discovered in archaeological excavations in the Western Wall plaza, west of the Temple Mount, will be presented to the public today.
An image of a warrior shooting an arrow is depicted on the seal, which belonged to a Hebrew person by the name of Hagab. The owner of the seal probably held a military position, possibly that of army commander of the Kingdom of Judah.
The seal, was discovered in the excavations that are being conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, at the behest of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, will be presented to the public at a joint study day of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The seal will be shown today (Thursday, October 30 2008) during a study day dealing with "Innovations in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Surroundings", organized by the Jerusalem Region of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


2. Ancient Hebrew Script
From: Wayne Laurence <wayne@bydand.co.nz>
For your information
Yair - Slainte, Wayne

Earliest example of Hebrew writing found on a shard

Extracts:
Five lines of ancient script on a shard of pottery could be the oldest example of Hebrew writing ever discovered, an archaeologist in Israel says. The shard was found by a teenage volunteer during a dig about 20km (12 miles) south-west of Jerusalem. Experts at Hebrew University said dating showed it was written 3,000 years ago - about 1,000 years earlier than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Other scientists cautioned that further study was needed to understand it.
     Preliminary investigations since the shard was found in July have deciphered some words, including judge, slave and king. The characters are written in proto-Canaanite, a precursor of the Hebrew alphabet. Lead archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel identified it as Hebrew because of a three-letter verb meaning "to do" which he said was only used in Hebrew. "That leads us to believe that this is Hebrew, and that this is the oldest Hebrew inscription that has been found," he said. He said the relic is strong evidence that the ancient Israelites were literate and could chronicle events centuries before the Bible was written. This could suggest that some of the Bible's accounts were based on written records as well as oral traditions.
     The shard and other artefacts were found at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa, overlooking the Valley of Elah where the Bible says the Israelite David fought the Philistine giant Goliath. Mr Garfinkel said the findings could shed significant light on the period of King David's reign. Carbon-14 analysis of burnt olive pits found in the same layer of the site as the pottery shard helped archaeologists date it to between 1,000 and 975 BCE, the same time as the Biblical golden age of King David's rule in Jerusalem.
     Archaeology has turned up only scant finds from David's time in the early 10th century B.C., leading some scholars to argue the Bible's account of the period inflates the importance of him and his kingdom. Some have even suggested his kingdom may not have existed at all. But the fortified settlement where the writing was found contains indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed near Jerusalem in David's time, says Garfinkel.
     But his colleagues at Hebrew University said the Israelites were not the only ones using proto-Canaanite characters, therefore making it difficult to prove it was Hebrew and not a related tongue spoken in the area at the time. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said the inscription was 'very important', as it is the longest proto- Canaanite text ever found. "The differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear," 
he said.

Sources: Associated Press, BBC News, Tahoo! News (30 October 2008) http://tinyurl.com/6y67zn
 http://tinyurl.com/5klmvq

'Oldest Hebrew script' is found

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7700037.stm

3. Copper Mines in Southern Jordan Probably Utilised by King Solomon
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38067/title/Return_of_the_kings

Return of the kings
By Bruce Bower
Extracts:

Contested evidence from an ancient site may reunite archaeology with Biblical accounts of Kings David and Solomon
 
MINING CONTROVERSY Remains of a structure perch on the edge of a copper slag mound excavated to a depth of more than six meters at Khirbat en-Nahas in southern Jordan. A new study concludes that industrial-scale copper production occurred there 3,000 years ago, suggesting that biblical kings controlled what was once a major settlement.

New finds among the remnants of a settlement in southern Jordan show that a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, about 300 years earlier than many archaeologists had assumed, according to an international research team. The site's revised age raises the controversial possibility that, in line with Old Testament accounts, Israel's King David and his son Solomon controlled copper production in southern Jordan, says archaeologist and team leader Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego.

A long-disputed claim that King Solomon's copper mines were located near the Jordanian site must now be taken seriously, the investigators report in the Oct. 28 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We have conclusively shown that industrial-scale copper production occurred at this site in the 10th and ninth centuries B.C., which resonates with Old Testament descriptions of vibrant, complex societies in the same area at that time," Levy says.

Since 2002, Levy and his colleagues have excavated an ancient copper-producing site called Khirbat en-Nahas, which means "ruins of copper" in Arabic. The site lies in a lowland, arid region south of the Dead Sea. Biblical writings identify this area as Edom, home to a kingdom that barred Moses during the Exodus and warred with King David.

In 2006, the researchers excavated down to virgin soil, slicing through more than six meters of industrial smelting debris, or slag. A special software program used 20 new radiocarbon dates and other evidence from the excavation to generate a chronology of the site.

"In calling for a new dialogue between scientific dating techniques and historical sources, especially the Bible, these new results support the possibility that Solomon's mines in the region near the Dead Sea may be dated to the 10th or ninth centuries B.C.," says archaeologist Eric Meyers of Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Scholars have long argued about whether Edom was organized as a kingdom early enough to have threatened the Israelites. During the 1930s, archaeologist Nelson Glueck surveyed southern Jordan and said that he had discovered King Solomon's mines in the northern part of biblical Edom. His claim, and the Bible's assertion that the kingdom of David and Solomon existed 3,000 years ago, came under attack in the 1980s. British excavations of Edom's highlands in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that Iron Age copper production did not begin there until around 2,700 years ago, fueling skepticism.
'
Levy regards Khirbat en-Nahas as a key component of a 3,000-year-old society. Remains of approximately 100 ancient buildings at Khirbat en-Nahas, including a fortress, lie within a large area covered by around 50,000 tons of black slag. Mines and mining trails dot the site. Industrial-scale copper production must have occurred there, Levy argues.

Excavations in 2006 yielded the remains of a four-room structure [usually associated with Israelite settlement - Brit-Am Comment] built on top of more than three meters of copper slag. The team found two ancient Egyptian artifacts in the structure, a scarab and an amulet. Levy says that these finds come from an excavation layer associated with a disruption of copper production near the end of the 10th century B.C. At that time, he notes, Egyptian Pharaoh Sheshonq I conducted a military campaign in the area, perhaps partly to control copper output at Khirbat en-Nahas.

Levy's team has also dated a small outpost with the remains of a watchtower, located just south of Khirbat en-Nahas, to about 3,000 years ago. The two sites shared similar types of pottery and fabrics at that time, the researchers say.

They are now examining pottery and jewelry at the copper-production site for stylistic signs of interactions with early Hebrew kings.






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