Posted on 10/21/2007 12:18:49 PM PDT by Alouette
(IsraelNN.com) The unauthorized dig of a trench this past summer by the Moslem Waqf on the Temple Mount, in the course of which it was assumed that precious findings were destroyed, apparently had a thin silver lining. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) personnel monitoring the trench-digging have, for the first time, found traces of the First Temple.
The IAA studied an archaeological level dating to the First Temple Period, exposed in the area close to the south-eastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock.
Archaeological examination of a small section of this level, led by Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch, uncovered fragments of ceramic table wares, animal bones, and more. The finds date from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE; the First Temple existed between the 9th and 5th centuries BCE, having been built by King Solomon in 832 and destroyed in 422.
The archaeological team - Baruch of the IAA, Prof. Sy Gitin, Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Ronny Reich of Haifa University - reached the conclusion, after examining the finds and archaeological data, that their characteristics and location may aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the First Temple Period.
The finds include fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base of a juglet used for the ladling of oil, the handle of a small juglet, and the rim of a storage jar. The bowl sherds were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the First Temple Period.
The IAA announced that it will hold an archaeological seminar concerning these finds and their archaeological interpretation at a later date.
Muslim and Jewish Claims Muslim scholars often deny any Jewish claim to the Temple Mount, and it is often charged that Arab excavations there are employed for the purpose of throwing out truckloads of artifacts that would prove otherwise. Moslem claims to the Temple Mount, on the other hand, have been debunked even by other Moslems. A commentator for the official Egyptian government weekly, of all places, has written that the entire Moslem claim on Jerusalem and the El-Aksa mosque is based on a mistaken reading of one chapter of the Quran. Ahmed Mahmad Oufa wrote that the verse that mentions a night journey by Muhammed to a mosque has nothing to do with Jerusalem, as is generally claimed, but with a mosque near the holy Moslem city of Medina.
Prof. Moshe Sharon, Middle Eastern expert in the Hebrew University, expressed great surprise at the fact that such an article would be published in Arabic and in an Arabic-speaking country. He told Arutz-7 at the time, "All in all, this is not a new claim. We must remember that Jerusalem is not mentioned at all in the Quran [though it is mentioned hundreds of time in the Bible - ed. note]. The verse in question is in Sura [chapter] 17, which states that Muhammad was brought at night from one mosque to a 'more distant' - aktsa, in Arabic - mosque. The first Moslem commentators did not explain this as referring to Jerusalem at all, of course, but rather as a miraculous night journey or night vision or some such. In the beginning of the 8th century, however, they began associating this with Jerusalem, because they had a need to start giving sanctity to Jerusalem, and so they started connecting this verse with Jerusalem... Originally, however, the Moslems recognized the area of the Dome of the Rock as holy because of the Jewish Temple of King Solomon."
Kabbalistic non-standard chronology based on dividing history into three 2000 year blocks rather than the Deuterononical one of Kings and Chronicles (and archeology). And they have the Messianic age beginning in 240 A.D., no matter what Venerable Bede said.
http://www.barmitzva.org/Kabbalah/timeline.htm
Traditional Jewish chronology and standard secular chronology are actually at odds here. For example, conventional secular chronology places the destruction of the First Temple in 586BCE, while traditional Jewish chronology places it in 422BCE.
bump
Yes. According to 1 Kings (6:1, 6:38, 11:42), Solomon reigned 40 years and built the temple between the 4th and 11th years of his reign. There is some uncertainty about the exact date of Solomon’s reign, but by any estimate the article’s date is over a century off.
See #21
Thanks. I was wondering if they were using some non-standard calendar. Seems kind of odd they would mix that in with conventional dates, though—the rest of the article seems to refer to centuries the usual way.
This Darius died in 404--Xenophon's Anabasis begins with his name (as he sets the background to Cyrus the Younger's attempt to seize the throne from his older brother Artaxerxes II).
Why, you know, that's a great point! I guess denial is convenient when trying to aquire another's land.
BAR link on the subject:
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/templemount/bswbTempleIntro.asp
Perhaps you have information as to what instructions Muhammed gave to Allah during that meeting?
I believe he said, "Bugger off, Satan; I came to see...OH, it IS you? Oh, what a joke this will be when the Infidel finally twig to it! Well, just so the goodies keep coming my way...".
btt
Excellent article !
As you wish.
Something tells me you don't take the first eleven chapters of Genesis as history.
According to islam, Mohammed (Pox Be Upon Him) was the final prophet, and any after him were to be considered false. I look forward to being corrected on this, but I believe it's the doctrine.
Again, for perhaps the thousandth time, I ask: when will Israel remove the Waqf from the Temple Mount and take control of the most holy place in Judiasm?
Glad you asked, O infidel dog, who will service my computer for all eternity in Paradise!
It seems that Muhammed (PBUH) realized that some segments of his eternal teachings which were perplexing the faithful had been inspired ... not by Allah the All-Wise ... but by ... you guessed it ... SATAN!
So, undoubtedly Allah the Merciful was telling Muhammed which were the Satanic Verses, and which verses were the straight dope on the Islam situation: a lesson apparently lost on the writer Salman Rushdie, making him most deserving of the fartwa placed upon him.
In re al-Burak, the winged steed who was patiently waiting in the celestial parking lot whilst all this transpired: apparently Muhammed liked him a lot, stroking his neck and leaving on it, and every horse thereafter, that little indentation called "The Thumbprint of the Prophet." If this is not a legitimate claim to that Jerusalem real estate you infidels continually blather on about, what the heck (as Muhammed PBUH hisself was wont to say) is?
Yes, and Muhammed, by another “miracle”, tied his horse up to the Western Wall, the Kotel. So.....Abbas is now saying they want the Western Wall too....
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