Ancient World Review

Burial Mound In Syria Could Be Oldest Known War Memorial

"An earthen mound in what is now Syria may be the oldest known war memorial in the world, constructed before 2300 BC. The remains of what could be foot soldiers and charioteers were buried in distinct clusters in a monument made of piled-up soil. However, it isn’t clear if they belonged to the winning or losing side, or what the conflict was about." Source: New Scientist (May 2021).

"The finding comes from a re-examination of remains from the White Monument, which was excavated in the 1980s and 1990s. The area was submerged in 1999 by the construction of the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates river, and hasn’t been investigated since."

Comment: This is yet another example of an archaeological discovery which sat around forgotten for decades before anyone took another look and realized what it meant. Rediscoveries aren't unheard of in other fields, of course, but this kind of thing is so common in archaeology that I'm starting to think it must be standard operating procedure.

Also see: The Tell Banat Settlement Complex During the Third and Second Millennia BC (PDF).

Ancient Magical Amulet Used To Ward Off Evil Eye Rediscovered In Israel

"A bronze amulet inscribed with the name of God and magical symbols for protection against demons and the curse of the  'evil eye' has been turned over to authorities after being unearthed in northern Israel 40 years ago." Source: Live Science.

"The amulet, which would have once been worn on a necklace, is thought to date to about 1,500 years ago during the Byzantine period, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) . At that time the region was ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire, which was also known as the Byzantine Empire after Byzantium, the former name of the city it was based in (by then Byzantium had been renamed Constantinople and it is now Istanbul.)"

"Grotesque" 2000-Year-Old Lamp Discovered In Jerusalem

"Archaeologists excavating ancient tunnels below the city of Jerusalem have discovered a curious good luck charm sitting amid the stones: a 2,000-year-old oil lamp made of bronze and shaped like half of a grotesque human face." Source: Live Science.

"The object was intentionally buried in the foundations of a building dating to the city's Roman period (approximately 63 B.C. to A.D. 300), following the destruction of the city and the Second Temple (a Jewish holy site) by Roman forces in A.D. 70. The lamp may have been cached in the building's foundation as a sort of ritual good luck charm, the researchers said."

The Pagan Origins Of Judaism

There doesn't seem to be any doubt that the ancient Israelites were originally polytheistic. Back in the Iron and Early Bronze ages, Yahweh was a tribal weather/storm/warrior deity and the Israelites worshiped a multitude of gods:

"At that time the Israelites [originally Canaanites themselves] worshiped Yahweh alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal, but in time El and Yahweh became conflated, El-linked epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, and other gods and goddesses such as Baal and Asherah were absorbed into the Yahwistic religion." (Wikipedia)

None of this is too surprising. The famous Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac shows that the Israelites once practiced human sacrifice, a distinctly pagan ritual. In the current version of the story, God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son as a test of faith, but when Abraham starts to carry out the order God stops him and Abraham sacrifices a ram instead. Some scholars believe that the original version of this tale may have ended differently:

"Francesca Stavrakopoulou has speculated that it is possible that the story 'contains traces of a tradition in which Abraham does sacrifice Isaac.' R.E. Friedman argued that in the original ... story, Abraham may have carried out the sacrifice of Isaac, but that later repugnance at the idea of a human sacrifice led the redactor of JE to add the lines in which a ram is substituted for Isaac. Likewise, Terence Fretheim wrote that the text bears no specific mark of being a polemic against child sacrifice." (Wikipedia)

One way or another, the story shows that the Israelites once carried out ritual child sacrifices.

It would have been nice if this clip had actually shown the results of the examination of the infant skeleton.

The ancient Israelites also conducted animal sacrifices, a practice which is still recreated on special occasions in Israel today.

Video from 2016. Rituals like this are clear evidence of ancient Israelite paganism.

The Pre-Islamic Site Of Madain Saleh In Saudi Arabia

"Mada’in Saleh, also called Al-Hijr or Hegra, is a pre-Islamic archaeological site. A majority of the vestiges date from the Nabatean kingdom (1st century CE). The site constitutes the kingdom’s southernmost and largest settlement after Petra, its capital. Traces of Lihyanite and Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found in situ, while accounts from the Qur’an tell of an earlier settlement of the area by the tribe of Thamud in the 3rd millennium BC." Source: Unusual Places.

Note: Apparently, there hasn't been a lot of archaeological work at Madain Saleh until recently. According to Wikipedia, "The prohibition on the veneration of objects/artifacts has resulted in minimal archaeological activities. These conservative measures started to ease up beginning in 2000, when Saudi Arabia invited expeditions to carry out archaeological explorations as part of the government's push to promote cultural heritage protection and tourism. The archaeological site was proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. More recent archaeological studies of the area have been made as part of efforts to document and preserve the heritage sites prior to opening the area to more tourism."

 

Is The Real Mount Sinai In Saudi Arabia?

"'Yahweh came from Sinai' (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 68:18). It is in Sinai that Moses first encounters Yahweh; it is back to Sinai that Moses leads Yahweh’s people from Egypt; and it is from Sinai that, two years later, on Yahweh’s order again, Moses sets off with them to conquer a piece of the Fertile Crescent.

"But where is Sinai, with its Mount Horeb [the mountain where God gave Moses the 10 commandments]? Exodus unequivocally places it in the land of Midian ...

"And where is Midian? Greek authors unanimously place it in northwestern Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba [see map]. Even Paul the Apostle, who spent three years in Arabia, knew that 'Sinai is a mountain in Arabia' (Galatians 4:25). It was not before the 4^th century that the biblical Sinai was misplaced in the Egyptian peninsula, probably for geopolitical reasons (Egypt was within the control of the Roman Empire, unlike Arabia, under Persian influence). But placing the biblical Sinai west of the Gulf of Aqaba didn’t make any sense, since that region had always belonged to Egypt (archeology has confirmed it). Why would the Israelites have settled there when chased by the Egyptian army?" Source: "The Arabian Cradle of Zion," by French historian Laurent Guyenot, The Unz Review. Map from World Atlas.

Comment: Whether you agree with Laurent Guyenot in general, he's right about one thing at least. The idea that the biblical Mount Sinai / Mount Horeb is located on the Sinai peninsula doesn't make any sense at all. If the Jews were fleeing Egypt, why would they settle on Egyptian territory? Assuming this is actual history we're talking about here -- a very big assumption -- they would have left Egypt altogether and crossing the Gulf of Aqaba into Arabia would have been a good way to put some distance between them and the pharaoh. If that's what actually happened -- if the real Mount Sinai is in Arabia and not on the Sinai peninsula -- it would overturn centuries of accepted religious doctrine:

"The biblical Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. The summit [in Egypt] has a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is 'Moses' cave', where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments." (Wikipedia)

The supposed Mount Sinai in Egypt. Is this just a pile of rocks in the middle of the desert?

I'm not sure how many Christians, Jews and Muslims still accept the idea that Mount Sinai is in Egypt. Some Christians, at least, have come around to the belief that the mountain is in Saudi Arabia and the idea seems to be gaining in popularity.  The UNZ Review article quoted above points out the effect this is having on Middle Eastern politics:

"The growing popularization of the Arabian Sinai cannot be unrelated to the NEOM project announced in October 2017 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman: a high-tech, ultra-connected, transnational mega city and economic zone, covering 10,230 square-miles (about the size of Massachusetts), which happens to correspond roughly to ancient Midian."

There's a lot that could be said about the Saudis, the NEOM project and the war in Yemen, among other things, but never mind all that. The UNZ Review article is as much about the current politics of the region as it is about the location of the mountain where Moses talked to YHWH, but I'm just interested in the ancient history here. I'm not going to comment one way or another about the political stuff, but I will say that there is something deeply sinister about the Orwellian NEOM smart-city project.

Getting back to where Mount Sinai is actually located, it would be interesting to know if the conventional wisdom has been wrong all these years, but I'm not sure how anybody could prove that this or that pile of granite in the desert is the biblical mountain where Moses received the ten commandments. You would need an ancient map or some kind of non-biblical documentary evidence to do that and nothing of the sort has been discovered as far as I know. But even if the question could be settled conclusively, what difference would it make?

Scholarly interest aside, the importance of all this depends on whether you believe that the Old Testament stories are true. Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe that YHWH appeared on a mountaintop in the form of a burning bush and gave Moses a list of commandments. I don't believe that YHWH exists in the first place and Moses himself is probably a mythological character:

"The modern scholarly consensus is that the figure of Moses is a mythical figure, and while, as William G. Dever writes, 'a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C.', archaeology cannot confirm his existence. Certainly no Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure." (Wikipedia)

The Exodus itself, the founding myth of the Israelites, probably never happened as well:

"The consensus of modern scholars is that the Bible does not give an accurate account of the origins of Israel, which formed as an entity in the southern Transjordan region by the 13th century BCE from the indigenous Canaanite culture. There is no evidence that the Israelites were ever enslaved in ancient Egypt or even lived there and scholars broadly agree that the Exodus has no historical basis. There is a widespread agreement that the composition of the Torah or Pentateuch, the biblical books which contain the Exodus narrative, took place in the Middle Persian Period (5th century BCE), although the traditions behind it are older and can be found in the writings of the 8th-century BCE prophets." (Wikipedia)

In light of all this, the question of where Mount Sinai was located seems pretty much irrelevant.

Jesus In Wonderland

"The events of the ministry of Jesus pivot around a shallow Levantine lake. In the 1st century AD the lake was smaller and shallower (by several metres) than it is today. Two thriving Romano-Hellenic cities were on its eastern shore, Hippos and Julias. On the western shore were the predominantly Jewish cities of Taricheae and Tiberias, the capital of Galilee. Not one of these cities gets a mention in the fable of Jesus." Source: "Fabrication of a Christian Holy Land," Kenneth Humphreys.

"In contrast, certain supposed cities on the short northern shore of the lake (all within one hour's walk) were the hub about which the Jesus story revolved. The original story teller, the author of Mark, not only created a religious fiction, designed to salvage something from the wreckage of Judaism [1]: he set his fable in an imaginary landscape, one that only approximated to a true topography.

"But belief, held with dogmatic certainty, can fashion its own reality. Rather like fans of the Wizard of Oz might locate the Emerald City somewhere on a map of Kansas, later Christians would overlay their Jesus fable on the Palestinian landscape, building churches, erecting shrines and renaming older towns to give physical form to a terrain that hitherto had existed only in a religious fantasy. Life imitated art, the land became holy, and in the process, the truth got buried."

[1] The gospel of Mark is believed to have been written a little after 70 AD. If accurate, this means that it was composed during or soon after the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 AD) which resulted in widespread devastation as well as the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. If Humphreys is correct, the invention of Christianity may have been at least partly in response to this disaster.

The fictional nature of gospel geography can be seen when you consider how small this whole area is -- a point made by Humphreys in his video. The "Sea of Galilee," for instance, is really just a lake around 13 miles long and eight miles wide. The idea that the Son of God would limit his message of universal salvation to this one small area and even then avoid most of the major cities in the region is simply not believable.

New Biblical Scroll Fragments Discovered In Judean Desert Cave

"The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of a new series of ancient fragments of biblical scrolls, found perfectly preserved in a cave in the Judean Desert nature reserve." Source: RT.

"The original Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over 70 years ago, and this latest treasure trove is being heralded as a 'magnificent and rare' find by the authority, which released a video detailing the operation to recover the artefacts.

"Work at the site, located in the desert south of Jerusalem, has been underway since 2017, and archaeologists were thrilled to discover that conditions inside the caves had perfectly preserved the scrolls and other ancient documents."

Note: According to the UPI, some or maybe all of these new scroll fragments were written in Greek. This is interesting in itself since it suggests that they were written by Hellenized Jews (most of the original Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew or Aramaic). This new discovery also shows how translations can corrupt texts over time. In at least one verse, "The translation is slightly different from other copies of the same text, offering insights into the ways Biblical verses changed over time." So much for the inerrant word of God.

Cosmic Impact May Have Destroyed One Of The World's Earliest Human Settlements

"Before the Taqba Dam impounded the Euphrates River in northern Syria in the 1970s, an archaeological site named Abu Hureyra bore witness to the moment ancient nomadic people first settled down and started cultivating crops. A large mound marks the settlement, which now lies under Lake Assad." Source: Archaeology News Network (2020).

"But before the lake formed, archaeologists were able to carefully extract and describe much material, including parts of houses, food and tools -- an abundance of evidence that allowed them to identify the transition to agriculture nearly 12,800 years ago. It was one of the most significant events in our Earth's cultural and environmental history.

"Abu Hureyra, it turns out, has another story to tell. Found among the cereals and grains and splashed on early building material and animal bones was meltglass, some features of which suggest it was formed at extremely high temperatures -- far higher than what humans could achieve at the time -- or that could be attributed to fire, lighting or volcanism."

It appears that this ancient settlement was wiped out by a comet exploding in the atmosphere, a catastrophic event known as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis which is thought to have caused mass extinctions:

"...Based on materials collected before the site was flooded, [researchers] contend Abu Hureyra is the first site to document the direct effects of a fragmented comet on a human settlement. These fragments are all part of the same comet that likely slammed into Earth and exploded in the atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch ... This impact contributed to the extinction of most large animals, including mammoths, and American horses and camels; the disappearance of the North American Clovis culture; and to the abrupt onset of the end-glacial Younger Dryas cooling episode."

The validity of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, it should be noted, is still a matter of debate.

Part two of this video can be found here.

The Gigantic Stones Of The Baalbek Trilithon

The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.

An incredible testament to ancient engineering techniques can be found in the Roman ruins located in modern-day Baalbek, Lebanon, which was known as Heliopolis during Roman times (not to be mistaken with Heliopolis in Egypt).

"In the base of the ruins of the Jupiter Baal Temple [in Baalbek] lie three hewn stones known together as the 'trilithon.' Each is estimated to weigh over 750 tons. [Emphasis added] Construction on the massive Roman temple of Jupiter began roughly 27 years before the birth of Jesus, and while most scholars agree the blocks were cut by the Romans, there is some evidence that the trilithon may predate their presence in the Middle East. In fact, the stones may predate even Alexander the Great, who founded Heliopolis in 334 BCE." Source: Atlas Obscura.

Comment: The Romans were expert engineers, but considering how many huge temples and megaliths have been discovered around the globe, the techniques required to move and raise extremely heavy stones must have been fairly widespread in the ancient world long before the Romans arrived on the scene. At Baalbek, the quarry was located above the site of the temple complex so no lifting was required to move them to the site (apparently), but even sliding those massive stones downhill would have been an enormous challenge. Nobody has the slightest idea how these megaliths were built -- this is probably the greatest mystery in archaeology and if anything would make me believe in ancient aliens or a highly advanced lost civilization it would be these fantastic monuments.

The Baalbek stones are covered starting at 6:03.