• Greek Mummy Found in Lead Coffin
• Robin Lloyd
  LiveScience Senior Edito
• Mon Aug 4,
• A mummy of a middle-aged woman dating to Ancient Greek times has been discovered in a lead coffin inside a marble sarcophagus, the first clear indication of embalming in Greece from the era when the Romans ruled there.
• A research team co-led by Frank Rühli of the University of Zurich was able to show that various resins, oils and spices were used to embalm the body, dating to A.D. 300.
• Along with the skeleton, the methods partially preserved some soft tissues from the body, most of which are now brittle, thin and extremely desiccated, including eyebrows, a muscle in the hand, hair and blood cells.
• Rühli told LiveScience that this a "unique finding for this temporal and spatial setting."
• The body was covered with a gold-embroidered purple silk cloth, indicating that the woman was probably of high social status, Rühli said
• Her bones reveal that she was somewhere between 50 and 60 years old.
• The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
• The mummy currently is held at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Myrrh, fats and resins
• The sarcophagus was uncovered initially in 1962 during an archaeological dig in Northern Greece, on the eastern cemetery of Thessaloniki, which was used from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine Periods for burial and other ritual practices.
• In addition to macroscopic and anthropological analyses, electron microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry examinations were also performed on the remains.
• These showed the presence of various embalming substances including myrrh, fats and resins.
• The lead coffin encasing the remains might also have assisted in their preservation, though the researchers were uncertain if that was intentional or effective.
• The coffin was made specifically for this corpse. The body, with a stature of about 63 inches, or 5 foot, 3 inches, lay on a wooden pallet inside the coffin and was wrapped with cotton and linen bandages.
• Writing about corpses
• Writings by Homer, Herodotus and Pliny the Elder suggest that the Ancient Greeks wrapped their dead in a funeral garment consisting of a long ankle-length robe.
• The corpse also might be washed with water and wine and treated with olive oil, but direct evidence for embalming practices and aromatics that might have been mixed into the oil has been less clear, the researchers wrote.
• "Never before [have] such embalming substances been shown for this time period in Greece," said Rühli's colleague Christina Papageorgopoulou of the University of Zurich,
• "Up to now, only written historic sources suggested that selected people were embalmed in Roman Greece."
• For instance, Alexander the Great is reported to have been preserved in beeswax, Papageorgopoulou and her colleagues wrote.
• The research was done as part of the Swiss Mummy Project, aimed at gaining information about life and death, as well as after-death alterations (e.g. embalming procedures) of historic mummies, by using mainly methods that do not destroy the tissues.
• The work of the Swiss Mummy Project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Research Fund, University of Zurich.

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• More proof of ancient Prishtina, Kosovo capital
• Thursday, 31 July 2008
• T

  he latest ruins of the ancient city of Prishtina discovered under mosques and steaming communal baths or hammams built by Ottoman emperors is further proof of antiquity of the capital of Kosovo,
• known in the ancient times as Pristinium and going back to prehistory.
• The new archeological ruins next to the Ottoman Emperor Mosque and near the foundations of the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo, and other archeological ruins discovered nearby the University Clinic of the University of Prishtina
• and near the ancient Illyrian capital of Ulpiana are further proof that Prishtina has existed since the prehistoric ages.
• 

  Goddess on the Throne
• The Kosovar historian and expert of paleography, Prof.  Jahja Drançolli says that within the old section of the city of Prishtina, specifically in the circle where the Mosque of Sultan Fatih and Sultan Pajazit are located, were discovered some valuable prehistoric ruins of Kosovo’s modern capital.
• "The Goddess on the Throne [a statue of a lady giving birth] was discovered in the underground of the Gërmia City Park, which means that Prishtina is an ancient city, dating to the prehistoric age.
• However, Ottomans came early in the Middle Ages to town where, archives indicate, they found a city with flourishing trade and economy known as Pristinium, which means "old,” and its inhabitants who spoke the tongue of the Albanians.
• During the middle ages we have the realms of Vicianum and the important Lissus-Naissus road with archeological ruins discovered nearby the Prishtina University Hospital,” says Drançolli.
• However, Drançolli says that there are no conclusive facts whether there are any Roman inscriptions at the Ottoman public bath or Ottoman Emperor's Mosque.
• "Because I am still in the process of studying the archeological ruins in addition to the recently discovered vestiges of ancient water or sewage pipes, which seem to be similar to the Roman towns.
• The ancient city of Prishtina was rebuilt by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. So, it is difficult to conclude the origin of vestiges of these pipes since Illyrians during the Roman times, and their ancestors the Albanians during the Byzantine and Ottoman Empire have copied the architectural designs in which the similarities were found in the ancient towns of Roman Empire," adds professor Drançolli.
• Nevertheless, Drançolli says that Prishtina still remains as one of the most important ancient cities of Kosovo even if it lost its importance during the Ottoman Empire when other cities were developed such as Prizren, Gjakova and Vushtrria.
• "Assertively, the most important part of the discovery found on the vestiges of Prishtina is the origin of its name.
• After many years of thorough linguistic and historical studies, we concluded that the ancient name Pristinium means 'ancient, antique, very old', which refutes the Serb myth of its origin", emphasized Drançolli.
• Also, the archeologist Rexhep Vula says that during his studies has identified three large Ottoman public baths found during the construction of the Parliament of Kosovo.
• And nearby around 500 human skeletons were discovered, which were never allowed to be studied by archeologists, but presumably were the bodies of people killed during ancient Balkanic wars.
• Regarding the recent archeological discoveries at the Ottoman hammam in Prishtina, the head of the NGO Cultural Heritage without Borders, Salih Shoshi, said his "institution is in the process of drafting a report on the discoveries of ancient ruins of Prishtina.”

• Sami Bushati  said: 

   

   

   

       

  the next decade will be a fantastic period for anthropologists interested in antiquity and the place of the albanians in it. a revival of a nearly extinct european culture is taking place and within a generation the albanians will be fully re-integrated into europe, bringing a fresh link to one of the most ancient identities of our region.
• regardless of religion or cultural bias, all balkan peoples and indeed all europeans should celebrate the re-emergence of what may be the last traces of the Dacio-Illyric-Thracic root.
• perhaps light will even be shed on the pelasgian culture and its role in the formation of the proto-greek language and inspiration that led to the majestic and brilliant age of ancient athens.

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• Revisiting the Pagan Olympic Games
• New scholarship on the ancient Olympics reminds Christians why Emperor Theodosius outlawed the event so many centuries ago.
• By Steven Gertz
• It begins with an austere mask shattering into pieces, revealing the true focus of this magical night—the human body.
• Minutes later, a centaur (half human, half horse) launches into the darkness a "javelin," a shaft of light arching through the air.
• Then the Greek god Eros descends over scantily clad lovers sensually clutching and releasing each other as they frolic in the water.
• Finally the procession of Greek history begins, with float after float parading the progress of Greek sport, science, mathematics, warfare, theatre, and—culminating in the persona of the goddess Athena and a replica of the Parthenon—religion.
• Over all this, Eros hovers, as though the god of love is guiding the course of human history.
• Christianity was not entirely absent from this spectacular opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
• When 96 percent of your country's population identifies itself as Greek Orthodox, you had better represent the church in your rehearsal of national history. But the Christian faith got only a cameo in the sacred story spanning millennia.
• In a spectacle celebrating the human body and what it can do, why fete the religious prudes responsible for outlawing the Games more than 1,600 years ago?
• Read the papers, listen to the media networks, check out the history bits on the Olympic website, and usually all you'll find about this little-known episode of Christian censorship is a cryptic remark that in a.d. 393, Roman emperor Theodosius banned the Games, along with other festivals, for being "too pagan."
• Under the emperor's direction, fanatical Christians closed and later tore down ancient wonders of the world, most notably the Temple of Zeus built in Olympia and the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria.
• Search a bit more, and you might discover Theodosius's successor, Theodosius II, ordered his Roman army in 426 to demolish the impressive stadium of Olympia, which could accommodate more than 40,000 spectators at its peak.
• The world would have to wait until the modern era before the marvels of the human body and the brilliance of the civilization that dreamed up the Olympics could once again go on display.
• But is that really all there is to the story? Is it really fair to caricature Christians as anti-sport, anti-body? After all, didn't Christians have a part in birthing the Olympics we know today?
• More than this, new historical research suggests Emperor Theodosius may have had some very good reasons for outlawing the Games—
• ancient Olympia sponsored a few events the International Olympic Committee might just look askance at today. Not to mention what went on outside the arena.
• Olympic Gore
• In the August 9, 2004 issue of U.S. News & World Report, journalist Betsy Carpenter offered some penetrating insights (via respected historians) into the ancient Olympics we thought we knew so well.
• She writes, "Almost every dewy-eyed notion about the ancient games is shriveling in the light of the revisionist scholarship." The idea that the Olympics gave amateurs a chance at glory is assuredly a romantic one.
• First of all, Carpenter notes, the original Olympians were professionals—in the sense that they trained and competed virtually full time.
• Top athletes shuttled around other prestigious sporting events, much as they do today. And victors profited royally from their wins, snatching front-row seats at the Games, huge cash prizes, pensions, and even slaves.
• But at least the Greeks prized the noble virtues of "agility, speed, and coordination," right?
• Certainly some of the events—particularly the races—suggest this.
• But one of the most popular events at the ancient games was the four-horse chariot race, Carpenter writes, which often ended in gory pileups.
• The racetrack, which sent its athletes spinning around turn posts, made for multiple spills and accidents. Sophocles tells the story of one young driver flung out of his chariot head-over-heels. "When his companions caught the runaway team and freed the blood-stained corpse from his rig, he was disfigured and marred past the recognition of his best friend."
• The Olympics also featured a "ferocious, no holds-barred brawl known as the pankration. . . [This] was a vicious mix of wrestling, boxing, and street fighting in which punches, kicks to the groin, shoulder and ankle dislocations, and chokeholds were allowed."
• Nor was every death accidental.
• One infamous contestant earned the nickname "Mr. Digits" as he specialized in breaking his opponents' fingers.
• Spectators of boxing events witnessed comparable violence—historian Stephen Miller recounts the story of one Damoxenos who jabbed his opponent with his fingers sticking straight out, pierced the man's rib cage, and yanked out his intestines!
• Sport itself was not necessarily off-limits to Christians—consider St. Paul's reference to "running the good race" in his letter to the Galatians. But bishops and ministers would assuredly have discouraged Christians from competing in the Olympics' combat sports.
• It's not difficult to imagine what Christians thought of all this.
• In fact, the third century minister Hippolytus listed 24 vocations forbidden to Christians in his book, Apostolic Traditions; and eight of these involved brutality, including chariot driving.
• For that matter, church fathers from Justin Martyr to Origen to Tertullian counseled Christians to shun violence, even if they did it in self-defense.
• Competing for the gods
• Moreover, Christians could not have participated in the Games, because they were so thoroughly pagan.
• Before the Games began, competitors processed to the village of Piera on the outskirts of Olympia. There, priests sacrificed a fat pig to Zeus, and the athletes participated in a ceremony of purification.
• Once the contestants had been confirmed, the priests repeated the ceremony, this time sacrificing a pig and sheep before the colossal statue of Zeus in Olympia.
• The athletes then swore allegiance to the Greek gods and fidelity to Zeus.
• Winners of events visited the Temple of Zeus to sacrifice to the gods, and half of every animal was delivered to the priests to be prepared for the Olympic feast. That feast, held on the third day of the Games, was marked by a procession—priests scooped up glowing embers from the fire of Hestia, goddess of the hearth, then carried those embers past spectators singing a hymn to Zeus.
• Nor were the gods relegated to the opening ceremonies.
• Arriving at the Temple of Zeus, the priests mounted the steps and lit the fire in the altar with the embers. There, the priests slaughtered and sacrificed 100 bulls—one at a time—after which the feasting began.
• If this wasn't offensive enough to Christian sensibilities, Greek men competed in the nude—apparently, one runner early in the Games' history lost his loincloth en route and ended up winning the race, thereby encouraging everyone else to follow suit.
• Married women were not allowed in the stands; women who flouted this prohibition ran the risk of being pitched head first off of nearby cliffs.
• But unmarried women were allowed to watch; and hetaeras, or "high-class" escort girls, would prostitute themselves during the banquets for Olympic victors. Some of these women likely came from the population of temple prostitutes dedicated to Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex.
• An Emperor Says "Enough"
• We begin to understand more of why the Roman emperor Theodosius (A.D. 346-395), intent upon not only tolerating Christians—as Constantine had—but also making Christianity the state religion, would do away with the Olympics.
• To be sure, he at first seemed to put up with the pagan aristocracy, and the senator Symmachus even hoped that the emperor would reinstate the ceremony to the gods at the Altar of Victory in Rome.
• But Theodosius came under the tutelage of the bishop Ambrose of Milan during a series of military campaigns he was waging in Italy (by that time the capital had moved from Rome to Constantinople), and Ambrose fanned the flames of Theodosius's Christian faith and conscience.
• And so, on February 24, 391, the emperor began issuing a series of decrees that effectively outlawed Greco-Roman paganism and all the rituals that accompanied it.

  • Hallelujah!!!! Amen!
• First, he prohibited pagan sacrifice, including—for the first time—the state ceremonies still practiced in Rome.
• Then came the closing of all shrines and temples: "No person shall approach the shrines, nor walk through the temples, nor revere the images formed of mortal hands."
• Next came a law forbidding apostasy from Christianity to paganism,
• and finally, on November 8, 392, Theodosius declared all sacrifice and divination punishable by death. That meant destroying private altars, domestic idols placed in hearth and kitchen, hanging garlands, etc.
• Bishop Ambrose was ecstatic, praising "Theodosius who, after the example of Jacob, supplanted perfidious tyrants and banished the idols of the gentiles; who in his faith wiped out all worship of graven images, and trampled down their ceremonies."
• And the Games Return
• Of course, all this is ancient history now—we moderns have revived the Games without all this mythological nonsense. Or have we?

• Consider our present-day Olympian anthem:

    

  "Ancient Immortal Spirit, chaste Father of all that is Beauty, Grandeur and Truth Descending appear with Thy presence Illumine Thine Earth and the Heavens. Shine upon noble endeavors wrought at the Games on Track and in the Field … To Thine Temple, to Thy Worship, come all. Oh! Ancient Eternal Spirit!"

  • words to the modern Olympic anthem...
• Yes, athletes no longer sacrifice animals to Zeus. And yes, a number of Christian athletes are performing in these Games
• But I wonder if, last Friday night when Eros descended to give his blessing on the ceremonies, Theodosius was frowning from beyond. And I wonder if we should have frowned as well.

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• Roman Soldier's Sandal Print Uncovered Near Sea Of Galilee
• Archaeologists have discovered a footprint made by the sandal of a Roman soldier in a wall surrounding the Hellenistic-Roman city of Hippos (Sussita), east of the Sea of Galilee.
• ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2007)
• The footprint was discovered during this eighth season of excavation, led by Prof. Arthur Segal from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa in conjunction with archaeologists from the Polish Academy of Sciences and Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. 
• This rare footprint, which is complete and well preserved, hints at who built the walls, how and when," said Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute at the University of Haifa.
• 
   

  Roman sandal print at Hippos (Sussita) left a pattern of small perforations in cement. Average adult feet on either side of the footprint show scale. (Credit: University of Haifa)
• The print, made by a hobnailed sandal called caliga, the sandal worn by Roman soldiers, is one of the only finds of this type.
• The discovery of the print in the cement led archaeologists to presume that legionnaires participated in construction of the walls.
• The excavations of this section of the southern city walls also revealed towers and well-protected structures for positioning weapons such as catapults and ballistae built into the wall.
• The ancient city of Hippos (Sussita), at 350 meters above sea level, overlooks the Sea of Galilee.
• The city was established during the period of Seleucid rule. It flourished during the Roman and Byzantine periods until it was destroyed by an earthquake in the year 749.
• Hippos (Sussita), together with Beit Shean and other cities east of the Jordan River, formed the "Decapolis", the area in which Jesus performed most of the miracles described in the New Testament.
• "The remains of Sussita, its view of the Golan Heights and the Galilee and its historic significance in Christianity, have made it one of the most attractive sites in northern Israel," said Prof. Segal.
• This season's excavations have uncovered additional, important finds: the city's colonnaded street, some 240 meters long; a magnificent, marble-paneled bathhouse; and a glass bottle with an embossed face.
• On the final day of the dig another unusual find was uncovered: part of a white marble statue, a hand holding a staff, apparently part of a Greek god.
• The archaeologists are hopeful that during the next digging season they will find other pieces of the statue which is estimated to be 2 meters high

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• Roman Temple Uncovered In Ancient Jewish Capital Of Galilee
• ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2008)
• Ruins of a Roman temple from the second century CE have recently been unearthed in the Zippori National Park. Above the temple are foundations of a church from the Byzantine period.
• The excavations, which were undertaken by the Noam Shudofsky Zippori Expedition led by of Prof. Zeev Weiss of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, shed light on the multi-cultural society of ancient Zippori (also known as Sepphoris).
• The discovery indicated that Zippori, the Jewish capital of the Galilee during the Roman period, had a significant pagan population which built a temple in the heart of the city center.
• 
   

  View of the monumental building on the north side of the decumanus with a pile of collapsed columns in the courtyard -- probably the result of an earthquake. (Credit: Gaby Laron)
• The central location of the temple which is positioned within a walled courtyard and its architectural relation to the surrounding buildings enhance our knowledge regarding the planning of Zippori in the Roman era.
• The building of the church on the foundation of the temple testifies to the preservation of the sacred section of the city over time.
• This new finding demonstrates not only the religious life, culture and society in Roman and Byzantine Zippori, but also that this was a city in which Jews, pagans and later Christians lived together and developed their hometown with various buildings.
• The newly discovered temple is located south of the decumanus - colonnaded street - which ran from east to west and was the main thoroughfare in the city during the Roman through Byzantine period.
• The temple, measuring approximately 24 by 12 meters, was built with a decorated façade facing the street. The temple’s walls were plundered in ancient times and only its foundations remain.
• No evidence has been found that reveals the nature of the temple’s rituals, but some coins dating from the time of Antoninus Pius, minted in Diocaesarea (Zippori), depict a temple to the Roman gods Zeus and Tyche.
• The temple ceased to function at an unknown date, and a large church, the remains of which were uncovered by the Hebrew University excavation team in previous seasons, was built over it in the Byzantine period.
• North of the decumanus, opposite the temple, a monumental building was partially excavated this summer. Its role is still unclear, although its nature and size indicate that it was an important building.
• A courtyard with a well-preserved stone pavement of smooth rectangular slabs executed in high quality was uncovered in the center of the building, upon which were found a pile of collapsed columns and capitals - probably as a result of an earthquake.
• The decoration on these architectural elements was executed in stucco. Beyond a row of columns, an adjacent aisle and additional rooms were discovered. Two of them were decorated with colorful, geometrical mosaics.

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• Iron Age Warrior with Roman Links Found in U.K.
• James Owen
  for National Geographic News
  

   

  August 8, 2008
• The grave of an ancient British warrior with tantalizing Roman connections has been unearthed in southern England, archaeologists say.
• The 2,000-year-old skeleton of the tribal king or nobleman was found buried with military trappings, including a bronze helmet and an ornate shield both of a style previously unknown in Britain, experts say.
• The Iron Age man, who died in his 30s, was discovered in June at the site of a new housing development in North Bersted on England's southeastern coast.
• "What we've found is of national and international importance," said dig team member Mark Taylor, senior archaeologist at West Sussex County Council.
• Unique Discoveries
• Pottery—including three large jars placed at the foot of the grave—date the site to between A.D. 40 and A.D. 60, the team said.
• A bronze shield boss was found along with semicircular latticework plates that are thought to have decorated the shield.
• The ornate artwork is unique "certainly in the U.K. and Europe, as far as we know," Taylor said.
• The scroll patterning most closely resembles that of mainland Europe's La Tène culture, named after a late Iron Age site in Switzerland, Taylor noted.
• The domed helmet likely had a similar origin, according to John Creighton, an archaeologist from the University of Reading.
• Creighton, who specializes in the late Iron Age period, said it appears to be a Celtic-style Mannheim helmet—the first one ever found in Britain.

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• Iron Age Warrior with Roman Links Found in U.K.

   

   

  << Back to Page 1   Page 2 of 2
• While the helmet originated in Gaul—the ancient Roman name for a region of western Europe—it was also worn by Roman soldiers, Creighton noted.
• A greater mystery is a large, iron-framed structure that was placed on top of the warrior's body.
• The study team suspects the object was a household item intended for use in the afterlife rather than the remains of a coffin.
• "My hunch is that it was some usable part of the domestic riches that went into the grave with this chap," Taylor said.
• The corroded object may have been a "fire dog," which was used to burn wood inside the home, he suggested.
• Roman Alliances
• Experts say the burial may provide important new evidence of Roman influence in the region before the Roman conquest of England in A.D. 43.
• Alliances forged by the Romans with southern tribal kings after Julius Caesar (see photo) arrived in 55 B.C. are thought to have involved taking hostages.
• "One of the tempting and really exciting prospects is that the find might fulfill the theory that the sons of nobility may have been sent to Rome or sent abroad to undertake military training or to complete their education," team member Taylor said.
• "It was all part of the empire-building process of that time to secure loyal, high-status client kings in the countries that were to become part of the Roman Empire."
• Creighton, of the University of Reading, says the newly discovered grave adds to recent "astonishing finds of metalwork demonstrating a close link between Britain and the Roman world in the years before the conquest."
• Astonishing Finds

• Scientific analysis of the warrior may reveal more evidence of Roman links, experts say.  

    "Hopefully, in six months … we'll have a lot more information," Taylor said.  

• For example, isotope analysis may reveal the chemical signature of the water the warrior drank, which could show if he lived overseas in his youth.   

    The tests may similarly indicate his diet, according to Steve Ford, director of Thames Valley Archaeological Services, which led the excavation.   
• "We might also find out what killed him—whether there had been any traumas such as broken bones or knife wounds," Ford said.

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• Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico
• They described the torturous journey to Xibalba in the Popul Vuh sacred text, originally written in hieroglyphic script on long scrolls and later transcribed by Spanish conquerors.
• "It is very likely this area was protected as a sacred depository for the dead or for the passage of their souls," said de Anda, whose team has found ceramic offerings along with bones in some temples.
• Different Mayan groups who inhabited southern Mexico and northern Guatemala and Belize had their own entrances to the underworld which archeologists have discovered at other sites, almost always in cave systems buried deep in the jungle.
• In the Yucatan site they have found one 1,900-year-old ceramic vase, but most of the artifacts date back to between 700 and 850 A.D.
• "These sacred tunnels and caves were natural temples and annexes to temples on the surface," said de Anda.

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• Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico
• Fri Aug 15, 2008
• By Miguel Angel Gutierrez
• MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves,
• some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.
• Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.
• Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.
• The souls of the dead followed a mythical dog who could see at night, de Anda said.
• Excavations over the past five months in the Yucatan caves revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead.
• That is why we have found the offerings there," de Anda said.
• "They believed that this place was the entrance to Xibalba.
• The Mayans built soaring pyramids and elaborate palaces in Central America and southern Mexico before mysteriously abandoning their cities around 900 A.D.

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• Aug 12, 2008
• Tisha Be'av, the aftermath
• By STEPHEN GABRIEL ROSENBERG
• In the Orthodox calendar, Tisha Be'av, which we observed on Sunday, is the culmination of three weeks of mourning that started with the 17th of Tammuz, when the Babylonians made the first breach in the walls of Jerusalem.
• After the ninth of Av, we relax and some celebrate the festival of the 15th, when the daughters of Israel were first permitted to marry outside their tribe, and which also counts as the annual wine harvest festival.
• But should we not remember the great suffering that must have followed the terrible events of Tisha Be'av?
• In the case of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, we have been assured that life went on in Israel outside Jerusalem,
• and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was able to set up a new center of learning at Yavne.
• It became a powerhouse of scholarship and the beginning of the talmudic period of Jewish Orthodoxy, when the ideas of the Pharisees became enshrined in Halacha, or Jewish law.
• Thousands of Jews had been killed in the revolt and hundreds taken into slavery to Rome, but Jewish life continued in Israel and indeed intensified when the Sanhedrin reconvened at Yavne.
• BUT WHAT of the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple, what happened then to Jewish life?
• There are conflicting accounts of the numbers taken into exile: the Book of Kings says it was 10,000, while Jeremiah counts a total of 4,600 in three waves. But both agree it was the cream of society that was deported.

  • Daniel and the three: Meshech, shadrach and abednego..
• The peasants struggled on, taking over the fields of the departed middle-class under a Babylon-appointed governor, Gedaliah ben Ahikam.
• A well-meaning and fair-minded civil servant, he lacked royal charisma, was hated by the jealous royalist party and was murdered by them.
• As a result turmoil was expected, and many Jews fled to the relative safety of Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them.
• But anarchy did not ensue, and direct rule from Babylon restored some sense of order and economic stability.
• But the Temple had gone and so had the kohanim, its priests.
• Jeremiah, who always opposed rebellion against the Babylonians, advised the exiles to accept their fate in Babylon, "Build yourself houses... plant garden... take wives... have children... multiply there and do not succumb" (29:5).
• He had predicted a stay of 70 years, but it was only to be 50 for those who came back at the earliest opportunity, when Cyrus II issued his cylinder of "human rights" in 538 BCE.
• For others who only came back with Ezra, it was to be 100 years longer, and for many there was to be no return at all.
• THE FIRST thing that must have happened to the unfortunate exiles was a forced march of 1,300 kilometers.
• Their path was along the Fertile Crescent, north to Syria, then east to the Euphrates and south down the river to the heart of Babylonia.
• It must have been a heartbreaking march, the march of the barely living, harassed on all sides by guards and hostile locals. Their transport may have been camels and horses for the lucky few, and some may have ridden on donkeys and asses, carrying their few goods on rough carts drawn by oxen; but the majority would have trudged on foot.
• One can get a picture of such exiles from the wall reliefs of the Assyrian capture of Lachish, whose refugees were deported from their city 100 years earlier than those of Jerusalem.
• They carry their pathetic bundles on their shoulders and their babies balance on kitchen pots on the carts.
• The route taken by the exiles may well have been the main caravan trail, with regular way stations, but their numbers would have been overwhelming, causing great food shortages.
• Fights would have broken out over water from wells controlled by others. Women would have been abducted on the way for immoral imprisonment and children captured for abuse and slavery.
• Many hundreds must have died of starvation and exhaustion.
• To have attempted to escape would have meant certain death in the desert. It may be that the numbers in the Book of Kings were of those who left, and those recorded by Jeremiah - less than half - were those that arrived.
• We can imagine that the first set of exiles, who had been deported 11 years earlier and included King Jehoiachin, could have prepared some kind of accommodation for the second wave of refugees.
• Arrival at Babylon, after months of trekking, would have been a relief.
• We know from the Babylonian annals that Jehoiachin was released from prison and given rations from the royal table. The Babylonians treated our royals with respect, and hopefully they in turn gave help to the later arrivals.
• We presume that they took Jeremiah's advice and settled down to marry and to build.
• Judean women would have been in short supply, as not many would have survived. Taking local wives was the norm, as we know from Ezra many years later, who frowned on the practice.
• But in Babylon it was necessary for survival, and it would have been considered that the act of marriage, in whatever form, was equivalent to conversion of the woman, as it had been for the Patriarchs.
• AND THAT leads us to ask, what was the status of the Jewish religion during the first 50 years of exile?
• There can be little doubt that the exiles kept alive the hope of seeing the Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. But what was there in Babylon, when they wept by its waters, to keep them focused on the Temple?
• The traditionalists claim that in Babylon the exiles created the synagogue, without sacrifice and priests, to compensate for the lost Temple.
• But there is no evidence for that, and little likelihood, as the priests and the sacrifices persisted and appeared again 50 years later in Jerusalem.
• The synagogue as such was not known until the third century BCE in the Egyptian exile.
• It developed as a new form of community center and prayer and continued without the benefit of priest and sacrifice.
• But Babylon was different; it had legitimate priests and they were ready to practice their skills for a future Temple.
• It is likely that there was a form of temple in Babylon that trained the kohanim and the Levites in their duties in readiness for the return, and it would have served, as any temple did, to unite the people in the worship of their God.
• Such a situation had applied in Egypt, when the military colony of Jews built their small temple on Elephantine Island in the sixth century BCE.
• It had an altar for sacrifices and a small shrine for the Shehina, the presence of God.
• Such a building was considered necessary for the small community on the island near Aswan, and so too it would have been for the much larger and more educated group of Jews in Babylon.

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• Tisha Be'av, the aftermath

    By STEPHEN GABRIEL ROSENBERG
• (Continued from page 1 of 2 )
• The prophet Ezekiel ben Buzi, himself a kohen of the Zadokite line, who came with the first deportees in 597 BCE,
• told his people of the abominations being performed in Jerusalem and showed them, by his vision of the heavenly chariot, that God had accompanied them to the waters of the Khebar, a tributary of the Euphrates.
• In his own words he describes how the Lord had provided them with a mikdash me'at, or miniature temple (11:16). That is exactly what the shrine at Elephantine was, at this same period, more like the Tabernacle than the Temple, and that is probably how it was in Babylon.
• EZEKIEL TALKS about the Levites who went astray, having to bear their iniquity (44:10).
• Where did they go astray except in a temple in Babylon?
• In the eyes of Ezekiel, they went astray because they usurped the posts of the kohanim, of the line of Zadok, and that must have been in the service of some form of temple.
• The famous passage in Zechariah, the prophet of the return, accuses Joshua the high priest of wearing filthy clothes (3:4), which sounds mightily like his performing, without the correct ritual garments, in a temple away from Jerusalem.
• Zechariah also alludes to the unorthodox building of "a house in the land of Shinar" (5:11).
• The word "house" stands for temple and Shinar is Sumer, the ancient name for Babylon.
• He mentions that Levites for the Temple in Jerusalem should be brought from Casiphia "hamakom" (the temple?), a village near Babylon, where they were serving under a Levite called Iddo (8:17).
• The evidence from Ezra is more positive.
• It seems that Casiphia was the site of a Jewish temple, and Ezra was happy to bring Levites from there to serve in Jerusalem.
• The evidence is inconclusive and ambivalent as is to be expected when it might have embarrassed later readers. Thus the temple at Elephantine was never recorded in our sources and only came to light from local papyri documents and, 100 years later (10 years ago), by the turn of the spade.
• Could a Jewish temple in Babylon ever be excavated in our time?
• That is unlikely in the present state of war-torn Iraq, but inscriptions abound.
• The great museums of the world house hundreds of unread cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. One day surely, one will be deciphered that will give us the necessary evidence, and then we will have something to celebrate as the aftermath of Tisha Be'av.

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• 'Dead Sea Scrolls on Stone'
• Prof says first-century tablet tells of messiah who will die and rise.
• Gordon Govier | posted 8/15/2008
• A 2,000-year-old inscription, written in ink on a stone, is being called "a Dead Sea Scroll on stone."
• But New Testament scholars scoff at the idea that the inscription "should shake our basic view of Christianity," as one scholar told The New York Times.
• The inscription has been dubbed "Gabriel's Vision" since the phrase, "I, Gabriel," appears several times in the broken text.
• It was apparently discovered somewhere in Jordan about a decade ago, and was more recently purchased by an Israeli-Swiss businessman from an antiquities dealer.
• The legible parts of the Hebrew text are stylistically similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and so far no scholar has raised doubts about its authenticity despite its murky provenance.
• An analysis of the inscription appeared in the Hebrew journal Cathedra a year ago and in Biblical Archaeology Review earlier this year. But few people outside the scholarly world paid attention until The New York Times featured an interview with Hebrew University professor Israel Knohl, who claims additional insight into some of the hard-to-read areas of the text.
• Knohl says one illegible word is the Hebrew word for "live," which led him to translate one sentence as, "In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you."
• He concludes the inscription is about a leader of the Jews who will die and be resurrected after three days.

  • An encouraging word regarding Jesus, the true Messiah or..OR a "plant"; a "device" either of the stone or the translation in order to decieve the gullible and more importantly the Jews for the benefit of that false messiah, the Antichrist, who is said will be assassinated and then resurrected/revived to the astonishment of the world. Might it be the Antichrist and his fallen father, Satan, will duplicate the time of Jesus' resurrection by "rising from the dead" three days after his "head wound?"
• That's in contrast to the typical Jewish image of a triumphant messiah, who is usually seen as a powerful leader like his ancestor King David.

  • This view of the Jewish "messiah" is like the Shiite view of their "messiah", the Mahdi.
• It suggests there were other perspectives on messianism in the first-century Jewish world from which Christianity sprang.
• Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, says Knohl may be reaching too far with his translation.
• "The problem here is that there's not enough text to be able to be really confident about what the passage itself is reading in order to build a theory around it," he says.
• Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, agrees that Knohl offers a lot of conjecture to fill the gaps and holes in the text.
• "But what if he's right?" Witherington asks. "It just means that there were more persons in early Judaism, other than Jesus and his followers, who were talking about a dying and rising messiah. That's not a problem for Christianity, as far as I can see."
• "The text deals with some type of angelic communication, but beyond that it's very hard to tell what all is going on," he says. "The connection to messiah is virtually absent."
• Bock doesn't see much of interest for scholars.
• But Witherington calls it an interesting document, beyond the rarity of an ink inscription on stone. He thinks scholars will continue to be drawn to it.
• "I think this stone is as significant as many of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But it doesn't seem to have any value for the discussion of Jesus except by way of general background text, like the Dead Sea Scrolls."
• "It's some kind of prophetic, apocalyptic Jewish text," he says.

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• Sitchin Is Wrong part 2 of 2
• Added:  April 22, 2008
• Added:  April 22, 2008
• please review some of Dr. Heisers papers on Sitchin to see the specifics that show Sitchin must have known what he was doing in making these errors.
  
  HERE ARE THE RESEARCH LINKS:
  
  http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/
  http://www.michaelsheiser.com/
  http://www.mt.net/~watcher/
  http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...
  http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...
  http://nowheretorun.podomatic.com/ent...
  http://nowheretorun.podomatic.com/ent...
  http://nowheretorun.podomatic.com/ent...
  http://nowheretorun.podomatic.com/ent...
  http://nowheretorun.podomatic.com/ent...
  http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podsh...
  http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podsh...
  http://aaccoa.org/
  http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...
  http://oneheartbooks.com/resources/au...
  http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?...
  http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...
  http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sit...
  http://www.archaeology.org/9811/newsb...

3 more annotations...

• Sitchin Is Wrong part 1 of 2
• Added:  April 22, 2008
• Zechariah Sitchin has been proven wrong by many scholars in dealing with his translations and interpretation of ancient texts one such scholar is Dr. Michael S. Heiser phd.
• but this video takes a look at some of the other reasons that Sitchin is wrong.
  
  namely his archaeological evidence of the huy murals and rekmire switcharoo, as well as his famous rocket artifact.
• please review some of Dr. Heisers papers on Sitchin to see the specifics that show Sitchin must have known what he was doing in making these errors.

4 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 9 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?

2 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 8 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?

2 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 7 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?

2 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 6 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?

2 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 5 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?

2 more annotations...

• Mike Heiser Genesis 6 hybrids, Sons of God, Nephilim 4 of 9
• Added:  August 03, 2008
• Michael S. Heiser, PHD
  UFOs in the Bible?
• Genesis six Hybridization:
  Sons of God. Daughters of Men & The Nephilim.

3 more annotations...