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L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index_e.asp

"The reconstructions of three Norse buildings are the focal point of this archaeological site..."

I'm not impressed by reconstructions. I went to the site you suggested and found nothing there.

I'm reading more and I have come to AF's trouble with Hebrew texts which consist only of consonants. (This is mostly true but there a couple of "silent" letters which imply some vowel; and the oo and the oh are frequently represented.) He (or the translator) foolishly makes analogies to English where BLD could be blood, build, etc., but does not describe where in Hebrew, which has many fewer words than English, this could lead to significant ambiguities. I sometimes agonize over translations but I don't ever recall it being because one word in the Torah could be construed as some other. Also AF makes it seem as if this non-use of vowels is some ancient artifact when in fact most publications in Israel today do not use vowels (e.g. see http://www.haaretz.co.il/).

But that said, his placement of the cities of the Bible in Italy is at least interesting. (Yes, I know there are problems.) I would note that Mel Gibson choose Italy as the place where he filmed most of the Judean scenes in his Passion.

I do believe, as does most everyone else, that the reference to Jesus in Josephus is an insertion by transmitters. But if AF is going to argue that the references to Jesus in the Koran are insertions, then I think I am going to have a big problem with that.

I'm continuing to read. Thanks for the discussion.

ML/NJ

The notion that a lot of the "ancient" manuscripts are frauds interests me. I see the recent "discovery" of the James Ossuary as typical of what would have passed for truth 500 years ago. The bias is that so long as it fits in with the accepted history it must merit strong consideration, and bring credit to the "discoverers."

The James Ossuary has never been proved to be a fake. The "report" itself is the pretense. And I am not a Believer.

There's an entire literature of this kind. One can still find "Piso Theory" -- the claim that the entire Bible was hoaxed by members of the Piso family. One forum devoted to the "Piso theory" used to have a sister forum which claimed that the entire Roman Empire was hoaxed in order to justify the "empire" of the Venetians.

Maybe they also hoaxed all the cities of the Bible as well. ;')

Joseph Smith, founder of LDS, and author of the Book of Mormon, built an entirely fraudulent "history" of the Americas. The "cities" he names as precolumbian are actually lifted from the placenames found near where he grew up. A few were taken as-is, most were altered slightly.