Heavenly Egyptian Charm Found in Israeli City

LiveScience ^ | Monday, September 10, 2012 | Staff

[SunkenCiv]

A rare scarab amulet newly unearthed in Tel Aviv reveals the ancient Egyptian presence in this modern Israeli city.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, have long uncovered evidence of Egyptian influence. Now, researchers have learned that a gateway belonging to an Egyptian fortification in Jaffa was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times. They have also found the scarab, which bears the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III... Scarabs were common charms in ancient Egypt, representing the journey of the sun across the sky and the cycle of life.

Jaffa was the site of major trading activity since the second millennium B.C. Excavations in the 1950s uncovered the Egyptian fortification, which dates back to the dynasty of Ramses II... Mud brick architecture and household pottery also point to Egyptian influence, according to researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany and the University of California, Los Angeles, who have been conducting new explorations at the site.

Jaffa has long been a crossroads for international influence. The city is also the site of a rare marble slab from the era of the Crusades. The slab, which dates back 800 years, bears an inscription in unusual Arabic script referring to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Frederick II led the Sixth Crusade in 1228 in an effort to conquer the Holy Land, and managed to gain the territory through diplomacy instead of violence.

[SunkenCiv]

Scorched mud bricks from an Egyptian fortification gate in Jaffa. [CREDIT: ©: Martin Peilstöcker + The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project]

[SunkenCiv]

One of *those* topics.

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[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

So Morsi just wants back what is already Egypt’s.

What is the problem? </s>

[RummyChick]

Just throw it in the burning pile of rubble at the next artifact bonfire thrown by the Muslim Brotherhood.

[Moorings]

Fascinating. Wonder who destroyed the Egyptian fortification.

[BIGLOOK]

Not surprising, the Babylonians rounded up the Jews for their building and architectural skills and so did the Egyptians; of course that was at a time when the tribes were scattered around the neighborhood. Just another slave trade transit site.

[Verginius Rufus]

Amenhotep III was the father of the famous or infamous Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaton, who tried to impose a kind of quasi-monotheism on Egypt which only lasted as long as he was alive. Apparently Akhenaton was the second son so if his older brother had survived things might have taken a different course. Sort of like Charles I of England who only became king because his older brother Henry died young.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

They have also found the scarab, which bears the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III... Scarabs were common charms in ancient Egypt, representing the journey of the sun across the sky and the cycle of life.
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I know I’m pretty off topic, here, but isn’t the scarab a dung beetle?

Would you believe that I found one of those suckers at my back door (in the deep South)? NO, NOT kidding. Still have him preserved with the roll of poop (or mud) he was hauling. I’ve wondered it they have been imported.

[OneVike]

Thanks for the ping. :>)

[brityank]

I know I’m pretty off topic, here, but isn’t the scarab a dung beetle?

Wikipedia does have its uses!

Scarabaeidae

Many scarabs are scavengers that recycle dung, carrion, or decaying plant material. Others, such as the Japanese beetle are devastating agricultural pests.

[brityank]

Even better:

Scarab (artifact)

Modeled upon the Scarabaeidae family dung beetle, which rolls dung into a ball for the purposes of eating and laying eggs that are later transformed into larva, the scarab was seen as an earthly symbol of this heavenly cycle. This came to be iconographic, and ideological symbols were incorporated into ancient Egyptian society.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

;-)

[marron]

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, have long uncovered evidence of Egyptian influence. Now, researchers have learned that a gateway belonging to an Egyptian fortification in Jaffa was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times.

I remember that Velikovsky made the claim that Israel was actually independent for only a relatively brief time, and that the south fell back under Egyptian suzerainty after the death of Solomon. That, while it had a hebrew king, it also had an Egyptian governor.

[SunkenCiv]

You are correct, the scarab beetle is a dung beetle.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks, all. Related post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2929206/posts?page=27#27

[Verginius Rufus]

Solomon's son Rehoboam should be the patron saint of Obama and the whole Democratic Party.

At the beginning of his reign, the Israelites came to Rehoboam and asked him to lighten the load which his father had imposed on them. Rehoboam answered them, "I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."