Recent Archaeological Finds

[nChrist]

I would have said

WOW!

but Sister Tina said it better.

[Soldier4Christ]

Vatican archaeologists find tomb believed to be that of Apostle Paul


Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome's second largest basilica.

The sarcophagus, which dates back to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week.

"Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who headed the project at St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica.

The interior of the sarcophagus has not yet been explored, but Filippi didn't rule out the possibility of doing so in the future.

Two ancient churches that once stood at the site of the current basilica were successively built over the spot where tradition said the saint had been buried. The second church, built by the Roman emperor Theodosius in the fourth century, left the tomb visible, first above ground and later in a crypt.

When a fire destroyed the church in 1823, the current basilica was built and the ancient crypt was filled with earth and covered by a new altar.

"We were always certain that the tomb had to be there beneath the papal altar," Filippi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Filippi said that the decision to make the sarcophagus visible again was made after many pilgrims who came to Rome during the Catholic Church's 2000 Jubilee year expressed disappointment at finding that the saint's tomb could not be visited or touched.

The findings of the project will be officially presented during a news conference at the Vatican on Monday.

[nChrist]

ANOTHER

BIG

WOW!

The discoveries are getting massive, and they seem to hit now in an almost continual stream. Again, I can't help thinking that GOD might be giving the lost their chance to turn their lives around and accept JESUS CHRIST as Lord and Savior. The time might be growing short.

Love In Christ,
Tom

1 John 3:1-2  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

[ibTina]

Yes.. another big WOW.... these discoveries really put such a joy into my heart... I feel like this:

         

[Soldier4Christ]

Vatican confirms St Paul's coffin has been found

VATICAN archaeologists have confirmed that St Paul was buried beneath the Roman church bearing his name.

They said they have identified

a Roman sarcophagus beneath the main altar and an epigraph: Paul apostle-martyr.

A small hole in the lid of the stone coffin, through which pilgrims would push pieces of fabric to touch the bones of the martyr, has been filled.

"I have no doubt that this is the tomb of St Paul, as revered by Christians in the fourth century," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who made the discovery, and who will present the results of his scientific tests on the remains of the saint on Monday.

St Paul's sarcophagus was found after five years of extensive excavations at the church, which is second only in size to St Peter's in Rome.

The announcement reinforces the move by the Vatican in recent years to present the Pope as the successor not only of St Peter, but also of St Paul the great missionary.

Paul of Tarsus was a Jew who campaigned against Christians until converted on the road to Damascus. Arrested on obscure charges, he insisted on his right as a Roman citizen to be tried in the capital of the empire.

He was acquitted, but was later a victim of Christian persecution in Rome, and

was beheaded.

In the early fourth century Emperor Constantine built a church above his tomb outside the walls of the city.

"Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," Dr Filippi said. He began looking for the tomb at the request of Archbishop Francesco Gioia, within whose jurisdiction the church falls.

In 2000 the archbishop was inundated with queries from pilgrims about the whereabouts of the saint, which eventually persuaded the Vatican that there was enough demand from tourists to warrant raising the sarcophagus to the surface so that it could be viewed properly.

[Soldier4Christ]

Archaeology Validates the Bible! AGAIN AND AGAIN!

If the Bible is true, then we should expect archaeology to confirm it. This article reveals exciting discoveries of such confirmations—and why most scholars and news media outlets oppose them.


As the Bible continues to be validated by new archaeological evidence, one would expect the public to take note with wonder.

Consider the 1983 discovery by Israeli scholar Adam Zertal, who unearthed a huge sacrificial altar on Mount Ebal, north of Jericho. Its construction perfectly matches the specifications described in Deuteronomy 27:4-8, which was later built by Joshua (Josh. 8:30-35).

Yet, as amazing as Dr. Zertal’s discovery was, it received a less than enthusiastic response from his academic colleagues. They claimed that he was probably politically motivated, linking his finding to the support of Jewish settlements in the region of Nablus (ancient Shechem), where Mount Ebal is located.

“It’s bad for business to find things from the Bible these days,” his peers observed. “It makes us look like unsophisticated messianic fanatics” (“Reclaiming Biblical Jerusalem,” aish.com).

Questioning the validity of the Bible has become fashionable for the academic elite. Weaned on evolutionary theory and molded by years of political correctness, most scholars equate any attempts to validate the Bible as promoting Zionism—a term that advocates of political correctness vigorously reject.

But despite the outcries of Bible skeptics, the restoration of a Jewish homeland in the region of ancient Israel was clearly foretold in Scripture, such as in Zephaniah 2:7 and Zechariah 12:2-8. And the One who orchestrated this prophesied migration, just prior to the Return of the Messiah, was God.

One major school of thought that rejects the existence of ancient Israel is called biblical minimalism (as spelled out in the 1996 book The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History, by Keith Whitelam). This movement actually denies the existence of ancient Israel, instead believing the biblical account to be imaginative fiction—an invention that covers up the “real” history of the Palestinians. (Our article “Palestine and the Palestinians” shows the true origin of the term “Palestine,” and gives a brief historical perspective of the peoples of this region.) Biblical minimalism holds that the monarchies of David and Solomon, and their rulership over a militarily and economically powerful Israelite nation, never existed. Rather, biblical minimalists portray these two kings as minor tribal chieftains of Jerusalem, which (they claim) was a small and insignificant village.

The 2001 book The Bible Unearthed, by Israel Finkelstein, chairman of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, attempted to discredit the biblical record while promoting radical revisions of ancient Israel. The book ranked high on the New York Times’ bestseller list, as Dr. Finkelstein became “the darling of a sympathetic media” (ibid).

As just one of many examples revealing the general leanings of the news media, it may explain why the public-at-large is rarely informed of the archaeological breakthroughs that corroborate the Bible’s authenticity.
A Shocking Discovery

In February 2005, an ongoing archeological project to find the palace of David began to produce an abundance of artifacts and structures, confirming biblical history. This project was spearheaded by Dr. Eilat Mazar, head archaeologist of the Shalem Center Institute of Archaeology, in Israel. She is also the granddaughter of a highly respected archaeologist, Dr. Benyamin Mazar, former President of Hebrew University. (See inset.)

There have been many attempts over the years to locate the palace of David within the ancient Jebusite stronghold that King David had conquered (II Sam. 5:6-10). This narrow fortified strip, which was later renamed the “City of David,” consisted of only nine acres, and is located just south of the former Temple of Solomon complex. Because evidence of the palace could not be found in there, some archaeologists began to doubt the biblical record.

Meanwhile, in Achziv, on Israel’s northern coast, Eilat Mazar was able to draw upon years of excavation experience. Her book The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations is based upon her experiences gained in the 1970s and 80s under the mentorship of archaeologists such as Yigal Shilo, as well as years of guidance from her grandfather. The book recounts the excavation of Dr. Shilo’s discovery of a huge wall—which he believed was a retaining wall for David’s palace, or possibly part of the Jebusite fortress David had conquered. This find served to heighten Dr. Mazar’s passion to locate the palace structure.

Based upon British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon’s discoveries of Phoenician stonework in the 1950s and 60s, a solid clue had surfaced as to the location of David’s palace: “Hiram king of Tyre [ancient Phoenicia] sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons [hewers of stones] and they built David a house” (II Sam. 5:11). This direct link between Dr. Kenyon’s find and the account of David’s house as built by the Phoenicians led Benyamin Mazar to advise his granddaughter to begin her search at the location where the Phoenician stonework was discovered.

Another indicator of the location is found in II Samuel 5:17. It states that when David, upon being anointed king over Israel, heard that the Philistine army was coming after him, he “went down to the hold [stronghold].” This meant that David’s residence was located at a higher elevation than the stronghold called the City of David. Thus, the palace was higher up the hill, just north of the stronghold, but not as far north as what would later become the Temple complex. It became apparent that King David had built his palace outside the walls of the fortified, but cramped, former Jebusite city. His chosen location near the summit of the mountain was on bedrock, with no archaeological layers beneath.

Upon recognizing this discovery in the late winter of 2005, Eilat Mazar found it incredible that the structure was only one to two meters beneath the surface. Skeptics warned that her project was futile due to David’s palace being buried by the many remnants of past cultures. However, she commented, “I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover it, and how well preserved it was, as if it were just waiting 3,000 years for us to find it” (ibid.). She expressed that she, as a Jew and an Israeli, felt great joy when the details of what they found matched the Bible’s descriptions.

She said, “The construction that we found was a complicated and intricate engineering operation that must have required immense resources, and the dating matches.”

It even appears that Dr. Mazar had prepared herself for this discovery by excavating ancient Phoenician ruins on the northern Israeli coast. Her years of experience enabled her to identify the Phoenician construction of David’s palace, which is quite distinct from other ruins in Judea.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

As expected, intellectual skeptics refused to acknowledge the significance of Dr. Mazar’s phenomenal find. Despite overwhelming archeological proof, many chose to continue embracing false notions of biblical minimalism—maintaining that there was no David, no Solomon, no prophets and no Temple.
Other Unique Discoveries

Among Dr. Mazar’s find was a tiny clay disc within the palace ruins. Called a “bulla,” the disc is inscribed in ancient Hebrew script with the impressions of the sender’s name. It served as a “return address” used to seal papyrus scroll “mail.” This bulla bears the name of Jehuchal Ben Shelemiah, who is mentioned in Jeremiah 37:3 as one of two emissaries sent by King Zedekiah to implore the prophet Jeremiah to pray for Jerusalem, which was under siege by the Babylonians.

Later, in Jeremiah 38:1-4, Jehucal (or “Jucal”) was one of the emissaries who, upon hearing Jeremiah’s warning message of the Babylonians’ inevitable victory, declared that the prophet should be executed for demoralizing the people.

The fact that this bulla was discovered in David’s palace shows that this building continued to be used by the kings of Judah (or at least for governmental purposes) for about 450 years, until Jerusalem’s destruction.

Dr. Mazar stressed, “For me, finding the bulla was tremendous. Jehucal was no longer just some name in a biblical account…He was a real person. We now have his business card. The account is a real account. It is very rare to find such precise evidence for a narrative in the Bible” (ibid.).

Her late husband, also an archaeologist, had published material on bullas that helped her examine and decipher these intricate sources of valuable information.

In the last decade, more than 50 bullas have been discovered bearing dozens of Hebrew names. This provides even further confirmation of the biblical account. One such name is that of Gemariah Ben Shaphan, a scribe of King Jehoiakim, in whose chamber Baruch Ben Neriah read Jeremiah’s warning to Judah (Jer. 36:10). Another name inscribed on a bulla is that of Azariah Ben Hilkiah, a member of the family of high priests; he officiated before Jerusalem’s destruction (I Chron. 9:11).

Though Dr. Mazar was exhilarated by these discoveries, she did not bask in personal glory or fame. Her excitement solely focused on the fact that archeology validated God’s Word as historically accurate. (Her late grandfather published a five-volume work showing hundreds of connections between such finds and the Bible.)
Other Bible Opponents

As fast as artifacts are being unearthed, Dr. Mazar and other archaeologists are deeply concerned about the mass destruction and removal of valuable artifacts.

“According to agreements made between the Israeli government and the Waqf, to whom the Israelis handed control of the Temple mount in 1967, the Arabs are not permitted to carry out independent works on the Mount without permission from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Over the years, however, there have been indications of the Waqf breaking this status quo…The greatest breech was discovered in 1999, when the Waqf bulldozed and then paved over close to 6,000 square meters of the ancient Temple Mount surface. Temple Mount artifacts were ripped from the Mount and secretly dumped in several places throughout Jerusalem, mostly in the Kidron Valley east of the Old City and also in the city dump. Over 100 truckloads of Temple Mount rubble, soil and artifacts were clandestinely removed” (“Reclaiming Biblical Jerusalem”).

Dr. Mazar was critical of the “Israel Antiquities Authority, which by law is responsible for any archaeological activity on the Mount; The Authority didn’t pursue the matter, largely because the second intifada broke out and it had little stomach for enflaming Muslim sensitivities” (“Eilat Mazar: Uncovering King David’s Palace,” momentmag.com).

Such are the dilemmas of a turbulent world riddled with unpredictable outbreaks of conflict and chaos.

This same Bible—which Dr. Mazar and others continue to validate through their findings—makes some startling prophetic forecasts. It reveals that the Messiah (Jesus Christ) will soon return, and that Satan, the “god of this world” (II Cor. 4:4)—who “deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)—will be dethroned.

At last, humanity will enjoy the benefits of worldwide peace, abundance and true fulfillment that will be brought by the rule of Christ and His resurrected saints. God’s Word also reveals that King David will once again reign over the 12 tribes of Israel (Jer. 30:9; Ezek 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hos. 3:5).

[Soldier4Christ]

How Jewish is Jerusalem?

You might think that's a silly question, but in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism's intrinsic connection to Jerusalem. The Moslem Waqf, the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount -- the site of Judaism's First and Second Temples -- has been claiming for years that there was never a temple there. But the idea that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem its holy capital has been under attack from far more reputable sources in recent decades as well.

For a growing number of academics and intellectuals, King David and his united kingdom of Judah and Israel, which has served for 3,000 years as an integral symbol of the Jewish nation, is simply a piece of fiction. The biblical account of history has been dismissed as unreliable by a cadre of scholars, some of whom have an overtly political agenda, arguing that the traditional account was resurrected by the Zionists to justify dispossessing Palestinian Arabs. The most outspoken of these is Keith Whitelam of the Copenhagen School which promotes an agenda of "biblical minimalism," whose best-known work is The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History.

Even in Israel, this new school has found its voice. Israel Finkelstein, chairman of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology, began championing a theory several years ago that the biblical accounts of Jerusalem as the seat of a powerful, unified monarchy under the rule of David and Solomon are essentially false. The scientific methods for his assumptions, called a "lower dating" which essentially pushes archaeological evidence into a later century and thus erases all evidence of a Davidic monarchy, were laughed off by traditional archaeologists. But his book, The Bible Unearthed, wound up on the New York Times' best-seller list and he became the darling of a sympathetic media. He concluded that David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were merely "hill-country chieftains" and Jerusalem a poor, small tribal village. He claims that the myth of King David was the creation of a cult of priests trying to create for themselves a glorious history.

Looking in the Wrong Place

But the debunkers of Jewish biblical history got some bad news recently, when a spunky, dedicated archaeologist began her latest dig. Dr. Eilat Mazar, world authority on Jerusalem's past, has taken King David out of the pages of the Bible and put him back into living history. Mazar's latest excavation in the City of David, in the southern shadow of the Temple Mount, has shaken up the archaeological world. For lying undisturbed for over 3,000 years is a massive building which Mazar believes is King David's palace.

For Mazar, 48, one of the world's leading authorities on the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem and head archaeologist of the Shalem Center Institute of Archaeology, the discovery was the culmination of years of effort and solid speculation. From the time she was a teenager, she had her nose in archaeology literature, and worked closely with her grandfather, renowned archaeologist Benjamin Mazar, who conducted the southern wall excavations next to the Western Wall. She holds a doctorate in archaeology from Hebrew University, is author of The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations, and in the 1970s and '80s worked on the digs supervised by Yigal Shilo in the City of David. The significant discoveries made then, including a huge wall called the "stepped-stone structure" -- which Shilo believed was a retaining wall for David's royal palace or part of the Jebusite fortress he conquered -- ignited Mazar to continue to look for the prize: David's palace itself.

Some biblical scholars gave up looking for the palace because, according to Mazar, they were looking in the wrong place. Scholars searched for remains of the palace within the walls of the ancient Jebusite city that David conquered and called Ir David (City of David). This city, while heavily fortified with both natural and man-made boundaries, was also very small, just nine acres in size. When no evidence of such a majestic palace as the Bible describes was found there, the next step was to claim that David's monarchy never really existed.

But Mazar always suspected that the palace was outside the original city, and cites the Bible to prove it. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed, they went on the attack to apprehend him. This occurred after he conquered the Fortress of Zion, which was the actual nucleus of the city, and built his palace. The Bible says that David heard about it and "descended to the fortress," (2-Samuel 5:17), implying that he went down from his palace, which was higher up on the mountain than the citadel/city.

Mazar told Aish.com: "I always asked myself: Down from where? It must have been from his palace on top of the hill, outside the original Jebusite city."

Mazar says she was confident in her assessment of where the palace would be. What she discovered was a section of massive wall running about 100 feet from west to east along the length of the excavation (underneath what until this summer was the Ir David Visitors Center), and ending with a right-angle corner that turns south and implies a very large building.

Scientist, Not Philosopher

Within the dirt fill between the stones were found pottery shards dating to the 11th century BCE, the time when David established his monarchy. Based on biblical text and historic evidence, Mazar assumed that David would have built his palace outside the walls of the fortified but cramped Jebusite city which existed up to 2,000 years before; and in fact, the structure is built on the summit of the mountain, directly on bedrock along the city's northern edge, with no archaeological layers beneath it -- a sign that the structure constituted a new, northward expansion of the city's northern limit.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

What most amazed Mazar was how close the building is to the surface -- just one to two meters underground. "The cynics kept saying, 'there will be so many layers, so many remnants of other cultures, it's not worth digging, it's too far down.' I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover it, and how well-preserved it was, as if it were just waiting 3,000 years for us to find it," Mazar said.

Mazar snickers at the idea that she is some sort of divine emissary revealing the eternity of David's kingdom. "I am a scientist, not a philosopher. My focus is on how magnificent and enduring these complex structures are, that they were preserved and protected for so many generations. In truth, when I began to excavate, I had to be prepared for any result. I even had to be prepared to accept Finkelstein's hypothesis if that's what the facts indicated. Still, I am a Jew and an Israeli, and I feel great joy when the details on the ground match the descriptions in the Bible. Today it's become fashionable to say there was no David, no Solomon, no Temple, no prophets. But suddenly the facts on the ground are speaking, and those outspoken voices are stammering."

Biblical References

The City of David is essentially the ancient nucleus of Jerusalem, located just south of the mountain on which the Holy Temples stood. From here the rest of the city as we know it grew and developed over the course of history. According to tradition, the first significant event that occurred there was the meeting between Abraham and Malki-tzedek, King of Shalem. King David, divinely directed, chose this city as the capital of his united kingdom. And the more archaeologists uncover and identify, the easier it is becoming to form a complete picture of the people who lived there -- with the pivotal Jewish history of the First Temple period, described in the Prophets, played out in its structures and installations.

The Bible says that King David brought God's Tabernacle to its final home in this original Jerusalem, expanded the city, and made it the spiritual and economic capital of the world at that time. According to Jewish tradition, he fulfilled God's master plan for a spiritual monarchy that would endure until the final Redemption.

"The construction that we found was a complicated and intricate engineering operation that must have required immense resources, and the dating matches," says Mazar. "This is the kind of step one would expect of a new ruler who wants to turn the city he conquered into his permanent residence, and who has an exceptional vision of the future development of the city."

According to the Bible, David's palace was constructed by Hiram, King of Tyre, the contemporary Phoenician ruler and his ally against the Philistines. Mazar, an expert in Phoenician construction from her excavations at Achziv on Israel's northern coast, attests that this building bears the mark of Phoenician construction, not likely to be found otherwise in the Judean hills.

In fact, quite a bit about David's palace is known from the Bible itself. It was a "house of cedars" built by Phoenician builders (2-Samuel 5:11 and 1-Chronicles 14:1) who used the cedars of Lebanon and developed a distinct style of stone masonry. Remains of pillars and decorative stone capitals in this particular style were discovered at the site years before, which was one clue Mazar used to look for the palace.

THE CLAY DISC

Mazar believes that the palace was used for Jewish monarchs until the destruction of the First Temple 450 years later. To indicate this, she speaks excitedly about a tiny clay item she found at the site (found on the 17th of Tammuz, the fast day commemorating the siege of Jerusalem before its destruction). It is called a "bulla," a clay disc, inscribed in ancient Hebrew script with the name of the sender as a "return address," used to seal papyrus scroll "mail." The bulla bears the name of Yehuchal Ben Shelemiah,
* who is mentioned in Chapters 37 and 38 of the Book of Jeremiah. Yehuchal was one of two emissaries dispatched by King Tzidkiyahu to Jeremiah, asking him to pray for the people during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. In an about-face, Chapter 38 tells that Yehuchal was one of four ministers who asked the king to kill Jeremiah, claiming that he was demoralizing the besieged nation with his prophecies of doom and destruction.

The bulla found on the site of the palace indicates that the building was used by the king, or at least by his ministers, until the destruction of Jerusalem soon afterwards. (In fact, a nearby cistern uncovered in what might have been a king's courtyard is speculated to perhaps be the pit Jeremiah was lowered into, as recorded in Jeremiah 38:6).

"For me, finding the bulla was tremendous," says Mazar. "Yehuchal was no longer just some name in a biblical account that I might not even have been sure was true. He was a real person. We now have his business card. The account is a real account. It is very rare to find such precise evidence for a narrative in the Bible."

Mazar took the bulla home to examine and decipher. With the help of a needle and magnifying glass, she cleaned off the grains of dust until the ancient inscription was revealed. Together with her boys, aged 14, 13, and 11, they managed to decipher the ancient Hebrew script. Mazar's late husband, also an archaeologist, had published material on bullas, and the boys made use of their father's articles which explained how to properly examine and decipher the clay.

Mazar is heady, not with personal glory or the fame that has followed her since the discovery, but with what she considers validation of the Bible she so loves and respects. "Today the scholarly approach to Tanach [the Bible] is that it's not true unless you can prove it true. Maybe we should do a little reverse. Why don't we say it's true unless we can prove otherwise?"

Too Biblical?

More than ten years ago, Mazar proposed a solid thesis as to the location of the palace, and argued her position in a piece published in Biblical Archaeological Review. After years of digging in the City of David under her professional mentor Yigal Shilo before he passed away, and based on finds several decades ago by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, she knew she was in the right place. David's palace was the topic of her last conversation with her famous grandfather, biblical archaeology Professor Binyamin Mazar, before he died ten years ago. He told her, "Kenyon found the protoaeolic capitals (of the decorative Phoenician stone-work), so go and find where she found them, and start there."

Despite her sound hypothesis and impeccable credentials, she couldn't find any financial backers, as if no one in the academic world really wanted to find David's palace. It would just be too politically complicated. It's no wonder, when even mainstream archaeologists are inclined to play down finds which might be considered too highly charged with biblical or historical accuracy.

An example is Adam Zertal, who in 1983 discovered an enormous sacrificial altar on Mount Eval, on the very mountain where Joshua was described in the Bible as having built an altar after the Jews crossed the Jordan River. The altar he found contained tools dating to the 12th century BCE, the time the Jewish people entered the Land, and its construction matched the descriptions of Joshua's altar in both biblical and rabbinic texts. But instead of the expected excitement accompanying such a monumental find, Zertal's academic colleagues ignored him and his discovery. The more vocal accused Zertal, a secular Jew raised on a kibbutz, of being politically motivated to support Jewish settlements in the area around Shechem (Nablus), where Mount Eval is located.

Despite the seeming indifference from the academic world, Mazar's proposal finally found a sponsor in the Shalem Center, an academic center in Jerusalem that recently established an institute for archaeological studies, and was funded by Roger Hertog, an American Jewish investment banker who told the New York Times that he fronted the dig because he wants to encourage scientific support for the Bible as a reflection of Jewish history.

David Hazony, editor-in-chief of Azure, a journal published by the Center, is excited about Mazar's results. "We don't want to see this shunted to the side like Zertal's discovery," he told Aish.com. "The message he got from his colleagues was, 'It's bad for business to find things from the Bible these days. It makes us look like unsophisticated messianic fanatics.' Unfortunately, academia has done much to undermine the Jews' capacity to say where they come from and what their past is all about. We want to create an environment where serious scholars can pursue their research without feeling intimidated."

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

Bulldozer on the Mount

But as fast as new Jewish artifacts are being unearthed, Mazar is concerned that a great number are being destroyed.

As spokesperson for the Committee Against the Desecration of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, Mazar has for the past six years tried to alert the world to the vandalism being perpetrated by the Muslim Waqf, who have their own agenda of destroying remnants of proof of Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem, and who consistently deny that there ever was a First or Second Temple.

According to agreements made between the Israeli government and the Waqf, to whom the Israelis handed control of the Temple Mount in 1967, the Arabs are not permitted to carry out independent works on the Mount without permission from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Over the years, however, there have been indications of the Waqf breaking this status quo, such as when they sealed up the ancient Hulda Gates entrance to the Temple Mount on the southern wall and buried the adjoining steps and ancient tiling, and the sealing of an underground water cistern that some rabbis thought would lead to the Temple foundations.

The greatest breech was discovered in 1999, when the Waqf bulldozed and then paved over close to 6,000 square meters of the ancient Temple Mount surface. Temple Mount artifacts were ripped from the Mount and secretly dumped in several places throughout Jerusalem, mostly in the Kidron Valley east of the Old City and also in the city dump. Over 100 truckloads of Temple Mount rubble, soil and artifacts were clandestinely removed.

Tzachi Zweig, then an archaeology master's student at Bar Ilan University, blew the whistle on the Waqf when he discovered Temple artifacts in junk heaps around Jerusalem, and then presented some of the artifacts he unearthed at an archaeology conference at the university.

Under the supervision of his mentor, Professor Gabriel Barkay, dozens of truckloads of the "garbage" were moved to a special site near Mount Scopus, where until today teams of archaeologists and volunteers continue to find massive amounts of valuable, significant artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.

Antiquities in Israel has long been a politically contentious topic, with all its religious and nationalistic overtones. The jury is still out on where all this activity will lead. But one thing is certain: Mazar's discovery has rocked the archeological world.

As Hazony wrote in Azure: "Is this absolute proof? No. But it is enough to shift the burden of proof... The normally reserved Amihai Mazar of Hebrew University, one of the most esteemed scholars in the field of biblical archaeology and author of the standard textbook, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-586 BCE, has described the discovery as 'something of a miracle'."

"In the end," says Mazar, "the integrity of the land and its history will prevail. And I'm grateful to have a small part in it."

And Yehuchal's "business card" is actually one of several that have been discovered in the last decade, which give further testimony to the veracity of the biblical account of the king's court activities prior to Jerusalem's destruction. In another excavation site, thought to be the remains of a public building, over 50 bullas were discovered under the charred layers of destruction. King Nebuchadnezzar's fires razed the city, but those same fires solidified the clay seals like a kiln, preserving them in good condition and fully legible. They bear dozens of Hebrew names, two of them belonging to characters in the Bible who were contemporaries of Yehuchal. One of those is Gemaryahu Ben Shafan, one of King Yehoyakim's scribes, in whose chamber Baruch Ben Neria read Jeremiah's words of rebuke and repentance (Jeremiah 36:10). Another name is Azaryahu Ben Hilkiyahu, a member of the family of high priests who officiated before Jerusalem's destruction (Chronicles I, 9:10).

[nChrist]

AMEN AND AMEN!

The devil and the powers of darkness will continue to mock the truth as long as they can, but people with common sense who are willing to look at all the evidence with open eyes and hearts will see overwhelming evidence that the HOLY BIBLE is REAL AND COMPLETELY TRUE!

The absolute REALITY of BIBLE TRUTH is more than the powers of darkness can bear, so great effort will be made with lies and attempts to divert attention from what ALREADY IS ABSOLUTE FACTS! I plan to find and read some of the materials that were mentioned in these articles. I'm especially interested in the summary and compilation of archaeological discoveries that provide absolute proof for many portions of the Holy Bible. I've read about many over the years, but I didn't know that a source existed for a compilation. The forces of darkness are beginning to resemble "Baghdad Bob" in trying to deny what is visible to all willing to open their eyes and look. There is no shortage of "Baghdad Bobs" in this world.

Love In Christ,
Tom

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen, brother. There is a wealth of information on the internet on this subject.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Life-size sketch of giant dome uncovered

Archaeologists digging to reach the tomb of St Paul have stumbled across a life-size "sketch" of the dome of St Peter's produced by one of its architects in the 16th century.

The excavation of St Paul's tomb at the church of St Paul's Outside-the-Walls in Rome is now complete, and the sarcophagus will be on view from the beginning of next year.

However, three feet below the floor of the enormous church, which is the second-largest in the city, the project's team came across a surprise from the Renaissance.

An architectural drawing of the arches and walls of the dome of St Peter's had been carved into 1,726 marble slabs by Giacomo Della Porta, who took over the design and construction work of the dome after the death of Michelangelo. The slabs had formed the floor of the church at the time.

"It was a complete surprise," said Carlo Visconti, one of the engineers. "It is a curious find, and perhaps we shall think about putting it on view to the pilgrims, tourists and students who will come to see St Paul's tomb."

He added that there was a simple explanation for the drawing. When Michelangelo died, he did not leave behind scale drawings of the dome. Consequently, Della Porta decided to sketch out the cupola in life-size and the only covered place large enough for him to work in was the church. "He needed to do the sketch to work out his calculations," said Giorgio Filippi, an architect at the Vatican.

Mr Filippi said the Pope is in the process of deciding whether or not to open the lid of St Paul's sarcophagus in order to examine the remains. The tomb has been locked inside a block of concrete since the 19th century.

[Soldier4Christ]

French archaeologist says Ur royal tomb artifacts came from Burnt City

French archaeologist Michèle Casanova said that the artifacts unearthed from the royal tombs in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur came from Iran’s 5200-year-old Burnt City, the Persian service of CHN reported on Friday.

“Now, we are almost certain that the beautiful artifacts discovered in the city of Ur had been brought from the Burnt City, Jiroft, and Central Asia. This fact raises many questions, including why trade relations were established between the regions,” Casanova said.

Casanova, who is also an expert on ornamental stones and particularly lapis lazuli, and several other foreign archaeologists are working together with the Iranian team at the Burnt City, near the city of Zabol in Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

“The most interesting point is that all the ornamental dishes made of soapstone have been discovered in temples and royal tombs,” noted Casanova, who is also a professor at the University of Rennes.

“This fact indicates that ornamental dishes were very common, so the artifacts were buried with ordinary people. However, such dishes had been brought to Mesopotamia as a precious object for temples and royal families,” he explained.

Nine seasons of excavations have been carried out at the Burnt City.

An artificial eye is one of the most amazing artifacts discovered at the Burnt City during the current excavations led by Mansur Sajjadi.

The team also discovered an earthenware bowl at the Burnt City which bears images of what experts believe is the world’s oldest “animated” picture drawn around it.

Archaeologists had previously estimated the size of the city at 150 hectares, but the latest study shows that the city covers an area of 180 hectares.

It was built circa 3200 BC and destroyed some time around 2100 BC.

The city had four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. Since it was not rebuilt after the last time it was burnt down, it has been named the Burnt City.

[Soldier4Christ]

Cyrus the Great is the King of Persia mentioned a number of times in 2 Ch, Ezra and Daniel.


Discovered Stone Slab Proved to be Gate of Cambyses' Tomb

A huge stone slab discovered accidentally last year was proved to have once been the entrance gate to the mausoleum of Cambyses II, son and successor of Cyrus the Great.

Tehran, 13 December 2006 (CHN) -- Agricultural activities by local farmers near the world heritage site of Pasargadae last year resulted in the accidental discovery of a big stone slab bearing some carvings typical of Pasargadae monuments. The discovered slab was recently proved by archeologists to have been the entrance gate to the mausoleum of Cambyses II, son and successor of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achameneid Empire (550-330 BC).

"A huge stone slab measuring 1.60 meters in height comprised of 5 broken pieces was discovered last March by farmers at a distance of 100 meters from Tall-e Takht and was immediately transferred to Parse-Pasargadae Research Center to be studied by archeologists," said Afshin Yazdani, archeologist of Parse-Pasargadae Research Center.

Tall-e Takht or 'throne hill' is a citadel located at the heart of Pasargadae historical complex, the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, in Fars province. Remains of an unfinished tomb denoted to Achaemenid King Cambyses II can be seen close to Tall-e Takht, from which only a wall has survived the ravage of time.

Based on studies by British archeologist David Stronach, the Tomb, also known as Zendan-e Soleiman/Eskandar (Solomon/Alexander Prison), originally consisted of an almost square, 4-meter-high tower in which a solitary, raised room was approached by a projecting monumental stone staircase. It resembles the Achaemenid era monument of Zoroaster's Kaba in Naqsh-e Rostam historical site

According to Yazdani, the stones used in the gate of Cambyses' tomb are very similar to a stone slab discovered 50 years ago by archeologists. At the time, Stronach proposed a theory that the stone belonged to the mausoleum of Cambyses and drew a sketch of the original gate which he believed to have had two leaves, each comprising of 6 rectangular frames. He also drew 3 flowers each having 12 petals on the top and bottom of each frame.

"As Stronach himself was uncertain about his own drawing of the gate, recent discovery of the gate proves his theory wrong. Based on the new studies, it became known that the entrance gate of what is called Tomb of Cambyses was made of two stone leaves each having a 35 by 59 cm frame with three 12-petaled flowers on the top and bottom," explained Yazdani, adding that the height of each door leaf was found to be 1.75 meters - that is 8 centimeters shorter than the height of the wall. Archeologists believe that the gate was made shorter on purpose to allow circulation of air in and out of the mausoleum.

According to the inscriptions of Bisotun historic site, the mausoleum of Cambyses was destroyed by the Mongol invader Geomat who disguised himself as Bardia, King Cambyses' brother and came to power shortly after Cambyses' assassination and razed down Achaemenid temples. Achaemenid King Darius the Great clearly accounts in Bisotun inscription that he restored the Achaemenid temples after murdering Geomat. "Evidence left on the stone gate very well confirms that it was restored during the early days of Darius the Great's reign," added Yazdani.

According to Yazdani, the new findings together with the fact that a similar structure to the mausoleum of Cambyses, Zoroaster's Kaba, was built also by Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam, proved that it was a temple whereas it had previously been variously regarded as either a tomb, or a fire temple, or a depository.

Cambyses was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great who ruled the Persian Empire from the death of his father in 530 BC to his own death in Ecbatane (Syria) eight years later.

During his reign, Cambyses continued the politic of expansion started by his father. First, he took part with his father to the conquest of Babylonia and was named King of Babylon after he captured the city in 539. After rising to the throne, he invaded Egypt in 525 BC, putting an end to the 26th Dynasty of the Pharaohs and beginning a period of Persian rule that covered much of the next two centuries.

Cambyses later personally led a force up the Nile to conquer Ethiopia, but after annexing the north of the country, he ran short of supplies and had to return.

While on his way back from Egypt with his army in 522 BC, Cambyses was assassinated upon order of one of his brothers, Smerdis, which he himself tried to have assassinated. At his death, after a short period during which Smerdis assumed the leadership, more palace struggles led to the rise to the throne of Darius the Great, whose task was to organize such a vast empire.

The mausoleum of the son and successor of Cyrus the Great, Persian King Cambyses II, was also registered with other ancient monuments of Pasargadae historic complex in UNESCO's list or World Heritage List in 1979.