Free Republic

Last Update: Saturday, September 27, 2003. 4:26pm (AEST)13th Century tablet could lead to lost archives of Ramses II The discovery of a stone tablet detailing diplomatic ties between the ancient Egyptians and Hittites in the 13th Century BC could be the key to the lost archives of Ramses II, according to archaeologists. Discovered at Qantir 120 kilometres north-east of Cairo, the tablet dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II (1298-1235 BC) and confirms his capital, Pi-Ramses, was in the Nile Delta. "Its the first time that such a written record has been found in the...

Carbon-14 dates from Israel may help settle a scholarly debate that has raged over the past decade: whether David and his son Solomon, founders of the ancient kingdom of Israel, were the larger-than-life nation builders the Bible describes or largely mythical figures, as some recent historians have claimed. The new dates from Tel Rehov, a major Iron Age site in northern Israel, favor the traditional view that King Solomon was both real and powerful. "The implications are enormous for recreating the history of ancient Israel," says archaeologist Lawrence Stager of Harvard University. Researchers led by Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew...

Evidence Of Tunguska-type Impacts Over The Pacific Basin Around The Year 1178 A.D. Emilio Spedicato University of Bergamo, Piazza Rosate 2, 24129 Bergamo, Italy, email: emilio@ibguniv.unibg.it In year 1178 A.D., as related by Clube and Napier in their book The Cosmic Serpent, a strange event was observed to affect the Moon, which may be explained by a large impact on the hidden face, originating the Giordano Bruno crater. A number of observations suggest that catastrophic cometary or meteoritic impacts around the same time also affected the Pacific basin: Maori legends of great fires destroying forests and the moa bird, to...

THE scene is straight from The Maltese Falcon. A secret hotel rendezvous, and a Jewish messenger and his silent Arab accomplice waiting while the learned Israeli academic peers at a black stone tablet. Written in stone: the tablet has been carbon-dated at 2,300 years old but doubts remain about its true origins This was how it began a year and a half ago, the first sighting of what is either a state-of-the-art hoax or an ancient Hebrew inscription — more than 2,000 years old — confirming the Biblical account of Solomon’s temple. The fragment, 31cm x 24cm x 7cm of...

Was Saul real king of Israel? January 4, 2003 1:06 am By RICHARD N. OSTLING Scholars debate history from Bible AP RELIGION WRITERTORONTO--Judging from a session at 2002's key gathering of Bible scholars, King Saul and King David aren't dead yet. So to speak.A lengthy session on non-biblical evidence for the first kings of ancient Israel occurred during the convention of the Society of Biblical Literature, held in November.These are often called years of "crisis" in Old Testament history. Traditionalists say the Old Testament reliably records ancient Israel's history or, more liberally, is substantially historical, though with problems and mistakes.These...

<p>GURAT, France, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Turin Shroud bearing the features of a crucified man may well be the cloth that enveloped the body of Christ, a renowned textile historian told United Press International Tuesday.</p> <p>Disputing inconclusive carbon-dating tests suggesting the shroud hailed from medieval times, Swiss specialist Mechthild Flury-Lemberg said it could be almost 2,000 years old.</p>

LAST FALL, the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, the largest branch of American Judaism, issued a new Torah and commentary titled "Etz Hayim" – "tree of life" – that includes several background essays discussing recent scholarship on the bible and Near Eastern archaeological findings. According to the March 9 New York Times account, the new Torah, the first in 60 years for conservative Jews, is particularly notable because the new scholarship shows that the early books of the bible have no historical validity. The Garden of Eden? An etiological myth. Noah and the flood? A legend that arose in Mesopotamia...

The Climax of a Turbulent Millennium: Evidence for Major Impact Events in the late Third Millennium BC Timo Niroma, Helsinki, Finland The First Intermediate PeriodThe Curse of AkkadTroy IIgThird Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World CollapseNatural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations Two separate cataclysmsSodom and GomorrahWhere did the impacts occur? The First Intermediate Period Selections from "The Egyptians" by C. Aldred (London 1987). "At this distance of time, the overthrow of the Old Kingdom at the end of the Sixth Dynasty has all the appearance of being sudden and complete. "Recent research has attributed the abrupt nature of...

A New Chronology Synopsis of David Rohl's book "A Test of Time" by John Fulton The concept of time for us today is taken to be an absolute unchangeable system. We measure time from the fixed point of Christ's birth so that this is the one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seventh year since he was born. The ancients, however, could not look forward to Christ's birth; instead, they worked on a regnal dating system where events happened in the Nth year of the reign of a particular king. For most of the Old Testament, we can find a good...

GALACTIC ENCOUNTERS, APOLLO OBJECTS AND ATLANTIS: A CATASTROPHICAL SCENARIO FOR DISCONTINUITIES IN HUMAN HISTORY Emilio SpedicatoUniversity of Bergamo Acknowledgements The author acknowledges stimulating discussions with Thor Heyerdahl (Colle Micheri, Liguria and Guimar, Tenerife), Laurence Dixon (University of Hertfordhshire), Victor Clube (Oxford University), Emmanuel Anati (Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici), Zdenek Kukal (Central Geological Survey, Prague), Donald Patten (Seattle), Flavio Barbiero (Livorno), Antonino Del Popolo (Bergamo), Lia Mangolini (Milano), Graham Hancock (Leat Mill, Lifton) and Andrew Collins (Leigh on Sea). Third revised version. First version published in 1985 as Quaderno 85/3. First revised version published in 1990 as Quaderno 90/22...

Ancient history as taught today is a disaster area. The chronology of the first and second millennium BCE is badly wrong. The history of ancient history revisionism offered here is drawn largely from the pages of SIS publications over the last 25 years. The Revision of Ancient History - A Perspective By P John Crowe. An edited and extended version of a paper presented to the SIS Jubilee Conference, Easthampstead Park, Sept. 17-19th 1999 [1] Internet Paper Revision no.1 March 2001 Contents Introduction An Outline History of Revising Ancient History - Up to 1952. 2.1 Exaggerating Antiquity. 2.2 The Early...

February 17, 2002 Researcher refutes claims of Jews' existence during Pharaonic dynasties &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Aided by evidence from mural inscriptions in temples, items in museums and most Importantly verses from the Holy Quran, the researcher Bassam Al Shama' gave proof that the Jews were not existent in Egypt in the age of Pharaonic dynasties and that Prophet Joseph came to Egypt when it was under the reign of the Greek. He also cast doubt on the assumption that the Pharaoh who stood in the face of Moses was neither Ramsis 11 nor his son Nebtah. Al Shama' has in fact ...

What is the validity of history found in the Bible? Is it fact or fiction? What does the hard evidence really have to say about the foundational story of the Old Testament: the Exodus out of Egypt? An in-depth investigation by documentary filmmaker Timothy Mahoney searches for answers to these questions amid startling new finds that may change traditional views of history and the Bible. Filmmaker Timothy Mahoney begins with the question, “Is the Bible just a myth, or did the archaeologists get it wrong?” He decides to tackle this issue with a deliberate scientific approach. After examining the details...

Official Trailer: Patterns Of Evidence: The Exodus

Cairo, December 2nd, 2009 – Egypt’s leading Egyptologist, Dr Zahi Hawass, has revealed that an excavation team under his charge are investigating an ancient tomb at the centre of claims regarding the alleged discovery of a cave underworld beneath the Pyramids of Giza. In August British writer and explorer Andrew Collins announced that he had rediscovered the entrance to a previously unexplored cave system, entered via a mysterious tomb several hundred meters west of the Great Pyramid. The cave entrance was found following clues left in the 200-year-old memoirs of British diplomat and explorer Henry Salt, who recorded how in...

The lake's progress In ancient times Lake Mareotis was a pleasure resort and watering spot surrounded by market gardens. Jenny Jobbins considers the fertile past of an area that is now desert Western Alexandria was once heavily populated in the Greek and Roman eras. Leucaspis, a residential seaport, is among the few surviving remains. Note Lake Mareotis in the background -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the Greek colonisers and Roman cohorts -- and, later, the Persians and Arabs -- marched to and from Cyrenaica along Egypt's northern coast they all had one aim in mind -- to hold and control North Africa. The...

History: Fiction or Science? by Anatoly T. Fomenko