Biblical Archaeological Discoveries

Timeline of Significant Dates of Archaeological Expeditions and Discoveries 1879 - Rassam Excavates Many Tablets in Babylon Ruins with a Possible Location of the Hanging Gardens

1878 - Campaigns of Sennacherib, Annals of Ashurbanipal and Many Tablets are Excavated by Rassam

1877 - Victory Stele of Eannatum is Discovered by Frenchman Ernest de Sarzec at Lagash Site

1873 - George Smith Identifies Wreckless Looting By Layard and Ruthless Quarrying By Mosul Bridge Builders

1873 - British Museum Sends George Smith to Further Excavate at Nimrud and Koujunjik

1872 - Britain Sends Conder and Kitchener for Inch to Mile Survey of Sites in Western Israel

1865 - Western Israel is Surveyed Because of Palestine Exploration Fund Foundation

1865 - The Immense Temple of Artemis is Discovered by J.T. Wood Because of a Roman Inscription

1864 - The Study of the Roman Catacombs is Examined Thoroughly by Giovanni De Rossi

1858 - Mariette is Recognized for Locating 15,000 Monuments at 37 Egyptian Sites From Memphis to Karnak

1853 - Ashurbanipal's Library Opened the Door for a Detailed Study of Assyrian and Babylonian History Note: Because of the many tablets discovered by archaeologists we are now certain that written records of important events were documented from the beginning of history. The Bible itself was believed by scholars to have been written long after the events they describe, and that the Old Testament was based on oral tradition at best.

1851 - Massive Assyrian Shipments were Lost in The Tigris River on Their Way to France

1850 - Excavations at the Ancient Area of Erech (Uruk) in the Land of Shinar by W.F. Loftus

1850 - The Sarapeum is Discovered in Egypt by Marriette and the National Museum is Established at Cairo

1850 - The Science of Assyriology is Underway with Many Historians in Disbelief of Biblical Accuracy Note: The new treasures found in the British Museum and the Louvre brought scores of expeditions to the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, Britain, France, Germany, America, and pretty much the whole world was impressed with the findings and wanted to see more, and learn more about the early days of the human race. Although hundreds of thousands of archaeological discoveries have been unearthed, the work still goes on.

1849 - A 12 Volume Word is Published About Prussian Expeditions in Egypt by Karl Richard Lepsius

1846 - The Palaces of Ashurnasirpal, Shalmaneser II, Tiglath-pileser II, Adadnirari and Essarhaddon are Discovered.

1845 - Excavation at Nimrud (Ancient Calah) Began By Austin Henry Layard Note: Austen Henry Layard was an Englishman who was referred to as the "father of a Assyriology." From 1845-1851 he excavated the mounds of Nineveh and Nimrud. He discovered the palaces of five Assyrian kings who were all mentioned in the Bible. He also discovered the great library of Ashurbanipal which contained over 100,000 clay tablets.

1845 - The Foundation is Laid for the Interpretation of Cuneiform and Mesopotamian History

1843 - Khorsabad and the Palace of Sargon II are Discovered by Botta on Another Mound Note: Botta spent nearly 10 years excavating the magnificent Palace of King Sargon

1842 - Excavations of Ancient Assyrian Mounds Began at Koujunjik With Frenchman Paul Emile Botta

1842 - The Behistun Rock Inscription of Darius I is Deciphered and Copied at Considerable Risk Note: Sir Henry Rawlinson was a British army officer in 1835 when he noticed on Behistun Mountain, about 200 miles to the northeast of ancient Babylon, a huge 1700 foot rock standing out in the open plain. The strange perpendicular cliff contained a very smooth surface with strange carvings. After careful investigation Rawlinson determined that the engraved inscription was made in 516 BC by Darius, king of Persia. It was the same Darius who gave orders to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. The book of Ezra in the Bible records this event and the fact that in the same year the Temple was completed. The full inscription recorded the conquests of Darius in Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages. Because of these Rawlinson was able to decipher the ancient Babylonian language within a 14 year period.

1828 - An Exhaustive Topography of Ancient Sites in the Holy Land is Created by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith

1822 - Egyptian Hieroglyphics Are Finally Deciphered by Jean Francois Champollion

1820 - Claude James Rich Visits Mosul and Tries to Identify the Site of Ancient Nineveh

1817 - The Temple of Ramesses I is Discovered at Abu Simbel by Italian Archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni

1811 - Babylon is Excavated in Part by Claude James Rich and Interest is Awakened Note: The scattered mounds invited much attention among travelers and explorers, and many of the local natives believed these mounds were somehow cursed. Claude James Rich was a British agent living in Baghdad, after reviewing some minor discoveries he visited the mounds that made up the site of ancient Babylon in 1811. He began a small excavation with some locals and found some cuneiform tablets which he brought back to Baghdad.

1805 - Caesarea Philippi, Ammon and Ancient Jerash (Gerasa) are Discovered by Ulrich Seetzen

1799 - The Rosetta Stone was Discovered and the key to Egyptian Hieroglyphics Decipherment

Note: The scattered mounds throughout the Euphrates Valley reveal where man's earliest inhabitants built cities. Cities were built upon older cities until the mounds grew to over 100 feet tall and had peculiar shapes.

A reply to what I was talking about the bulk of Bible discoveries was in the 1800's yes some in the 1700's but some of the scriptures have been around for thousands of years.

To: SZonian; bone52; Saundra Duffy; urroner; JDW11235; Burkean; Normandy; killermedic; ... The difference is that the Bible has supporting documentation, archaeology and witnesses, both Testaments.

The BoM on the other hand...MT.

***

May I remind you SZonian, the OT has been around for almost 6000 years and the NT for over 2000 years and the restorted Book of Mormon almost 200 years

Lets put things into perspective in the scheme of things the evidence and proof for some the the OT and NT has started to surface in the late 1800’s about the time the Book of Mormon was coming forth!

59 posted on 05/27/2010 12:52:19 PM PDT by restornu [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu No, you may not “remind me”.

It should be MUCH EASIER to offer proof for the claims in the BoM. But it’s not.

In fact, the BoM took an approach that obfuscates it’s proof so as to protect itself from scrutiny during that time period. JS HID the purported proof from the “saints” that supposedly came in the form of the golden plates. All he had to do was present them for the people to see. What would have been so hard about that?

Don’t you think that for one minute, if God had it in His mind that people needed to know the truth that He would have revealed those plates?

Don’t worry, you don’t need to answer. I’m well versed in the standard LdS reply regarding “worthiness” and “not yet ready to receive...”.

So much for perspective.

63 posted on 05/27/2010 12:59:33 PM PDT by SZonian (We began as a REPUBLIC, a nation of laws. We became a DEMOCRACY, majority rules. Next step is?) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu I agree that the evidence for the Bible is just as “flimsy” as that for the Book of Mormon—it just seems to have been around longer so it seems stronger.

I have no doubt that if record keeping had been better in Jerusalem during Jesus’s time we would be reading accounts of neighbors in Nazareth who thought he was crazy, folks in Bethlehem who swore Mary and Joseph never took that flight into Egypt, guests at that wedding in Cana who disputed the water into wine story, etc. Based on what little we do know, historians can already mount credible arguments against such things as Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, not to mention the significant variations that appear in the four Gospels that are supposed to be telling the same story.

To me it’s all a matter of faith—whether you believe Acts 17:11, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” or whether you believe as Mark Twain, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so,” there has to be a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief.

Glass houses, ya’ll.

84 posted on 05/27/2010 1:47:06 PM PDT by Burkean (.) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu “Lets put things into perspective in the scheme of things the evidence and proof for some the the OT and NT has started to surface in the late 1800’s about the time the Book of Mormon was coming forth!”

You could not be more wrong about archeological history!

The simple FACT is that there isn’t any archeological proof of all the book of mormonite claims about an advanced civilization her in America! Zero.

91 posted on 05/27/2010 1:59:15 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu Wow... You mean we only found the Pyramids, Roman Colosseum, the locations of Jerusalem, Bethlehem the dead sea and other such places a couple of hundred years ago?

103 posted on 05/27/2010 3:19:12 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (Christians: Stand for Christ or stand aside...) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu; bone52; Saundra Duffy; urroner; JDW11235; Burkean; Normandy; killermedic bone52; Saundra Duffy; urroner; JDW11235; Burkean; Normandy; killermedic; Come ON, guys!

Get with the PROGRAM!!!

Sandy is on board: why not the REST of you?

126 posted on 05/27/2010 5:47:53 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: restornu; Elsie proof for some the the OT and NT has started to surface in the late 1800’s about the time the Book of Mormon was coming forth! Resty, this may be THE MOST ASTOUNDINGLY IGNORANT statement I have ever heard you make, girl, and I've been around for a little while now.

Are you actually going to try to claim that until the 1800's, we were unaware of the following concerning the OT?:

Geography. We had no idea whre the OT mountains, rivers, seas, cities, deserts, lakes, wells, etc were located (just like the BOM?)

Culture: The people groups mentioned in the OT were unknown. No history of them, no evidence they ever lived, no artifacts, coins, ruins, graves, etc. (kinda like the BOM people)

Written records: No non-scriptural supporting documents were ever found that indicated that any people or events from OT days existed? Their temples, wells, weapons, taxation, battles, mass graves? (Just like the BOM?)

You have really put your foot in it this time.

397 posted on 06/02/2010 8:24:55 AM PDT by T Minus Four (Abortion: one dead, one wounded.) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

Historical Information...

The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Joseph Smith's story.

No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.

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