The cuneiform-inscribed agate stone. Credit: Cultura Italia
Posted on 12/24/2011 9:27:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A small-sized find in an ancient megalithic temple stirs the imagination.
Excavations among what many scholars consider to be the world's oldest monumental buildings on the island of Malta continue to unveil surprises and raise new questions about the significance of these megalithic structures and the people who built them. Not least is the latest find -- a small but rare, crescent-moon shaped agate stone featuring a 13th-century B.C.E. cuneiform inscription, the likes of which would normally be found much farther west in Mesopotamia.
Led by palaeontology professor Alberto Cazzella of the University of Rome "La Sapienza", the archaeological team found the inscribed stone in the sancturary site of Tas-Silg, a megalithic temple built during the late Neolithic period, and which has been used for various religious and ceremonial purposes by the ancients from the third millennium BC to the Byzantine era. The inscription was translated as a dedication to the Mesopotamian moon god Sin, the father of Ninurta who, for centuries, was the main deity worshiped far to the west in the city of Nippur in Mesopotamia. Nippur was considered a holy city and a pilgrimage site with a scribal school that generated literary texts.
The location of the find makes it the farthest west the ancient script has ever been discovered, raising questions about how it ended up in the remote location. Some scholars theorize that the inscribed stone was likely looted from the temple of Nippur during military conflict and then transported westward through an exchange of hands by Cypriot or Mycenaean merchants, thought to have had trading relations with the central Mediterranean at the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
The cuneiform-inscribed agate stone. Credit: Cultura Italia
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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And Merry Christmas to *me*. :') This is huge. |
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It’s the same throughout time
“For a good time call Suzie at....”
Of course, when you ring the number, it’s a nursing home.
West? Mesopotamia is in current Iraq which is to the east. It is to the west the looooong way around.
Oh yeah. Continental drift....
i thought it was Jenny @ 867-5309
Older women......not great, but grateful.
Now I’ll have that song in my head all day. Maybe if I turn up the Christmas songs.....
Proof once again, as if any more is needed, that Schools of Journalism are where slow learners go to receive their college degrees. Placing that in one of the opening paragraphs probably indicates the writer has a Masters.
/johnny
It’s part of an Agate Christie novel. “Ten Little Mesopotamians”
sorry, my bad... Merry Christmas
BCE in one part, BC in another.
Hating God is tough to remember throughout an entire article.
Only assuming, as you do, that using BCE means the author hates God.
Older men.....willing, but unable.
You’ve never heard of Columbus? ;’)
It says...”made in China.”
You obviously never met my grandpa. When he died, they had to add a gable to the middle of his casket.
Wait until the History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” writers get a hold of this story.
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