Merneptah Stele, circa 1208 BCE, known as the Israel stela, was discovered in 1896 and is now found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (CC-BY-SA, via wikipedia)
Posted on 09/19/2022 6:53:07 AM PDT by SJackson
During construction work at Palmachim National Park near Tel Aviv, a fallen rock reveals an ancient treasure trove from the era of the biblically notorious pharoah
A team of archaeologists was essentially transported back in time when it entered an untouched 3,300-year-old cave at the Palmachim National Park, just south of Tel Aviv, last week. The vast array of discovered items date to the Late Bronze Age, close to or during the rein of the biblically notorious Ramses II.
The cave was spotted when a rock shifted during the course of construction work and light was literally shed on an intact burial assembly about 2.5 meters (eight feet) below. Israel Antiquities Authority inspectors were called to the scene and their excitement is felt in a Hebrew-language video recording an initial inspection of a place no person has walked for more than three millennia.
“Simply amazing,” said IAA’s Uzi Rothschild repeatedly as “Wow, wow,” is heard in the background. “There are jars inside the jars! Wow!” said another voice. “Unbelievable!” said Rothschild.
The excitement peaks even as the video ends with the discovery of potentially multiple skeletons in the corner of the square-shaped cave.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime find! It’s not every day that you walk onto an Indiana Jones set — a cave with tools on the floor that haven’t been touched in 3,300 years,” IAA Bronze Age expert Eli Yannai said in a press release.
Yannai believes the vessels were imported from Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus, which he said was common for burial assemblages of the era. Dozens of pottery vessels of different sizes and shapes were found, including deep and shallow bowls, some of which are painted red, some holding bones; cooking pots; jugs and clay oil lamps that still held their burnt wicks.
Other organic materials may have disintegrated over the millennia, including a likely quiver that held an array of bronze arrowheads or spearheads that were found in the cave.
These are hardly the first archaeological finds from the popular beach park, where there are remains of settlements through the Muslim era. The park holds a designated archaeology trail, which celebrates, among other structures, an ancient fortress that protected the coastline some 3,500 years ago when it was populated by Canaanites, vassals of the ruling Egyptians. Since 1992, archaeologists have dug intermittently at the site and earlier construction there revealed a quarry contemporary to the newly discovered cave.
Merneptah Stele, circa 1208 BCE, known as the Israel stela, was discovered in 1896 and is now found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (CC-BY-SA, via wikipedia)
Yannai dates the finds in the cave date to the 13th century BCE (Late Bronze Age IIB), or roughly the period that most date the biblical Exodus story in which Rameses II is often cast as the hard-hearted pharoah who would not let Moses’s people go.
While there is no direct evidence of Rameses II in Israel, a stele attributing victory over the Canaanites by his son, Merneptah, was discovered in 1896. The stele is considered the earliest textual reference to “Israel” found outside the Holy Land.
“In this period, in the long reign of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty Pharaoh Rameses II, the Egyptian Empire controlled Canaan, and the Egyptian administration provided secure conditions for extensive international trade. These economic and social processes are reflected in the burial cave that contains pottery vessels imported from Cyprus and from Ugarit on the northern Syrian coast, as well as from nearby coastal towns, including Yafo (Jaffa), Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and Tel Ajjul, clearly showing that the population of Yavneh-Yam (Palmahim Beach), played an integral part in the lively trading activity that took place along the coast,” he said.
“The fact that the cave was sealed, and not looted in later periods, allows us, with the scientific means available today, to extract a great deal of information from the objects and materials that survived in them, and which are not visible to the eye, including organic materials. The cave can provide us with a complete picture of burial customs in the Late Bronze Age,” said Yannai.
Despite a requested media blackout until Sunday morning when social media began buzzing with the find on Friday, the initial preliminary video tour went viral even as IAA teams attempted to reseal the cave to prevent damage and theft prior to scientific excavation.
Unfortunately, some items were stolen before the resealing was completed, according to IAA head Eli Eskozido.
“Shortly before the cave was sealed, and despite guarding it, a number of archaeological items were stolen from the cave, and the matter is under investigation,” he said in a statement.
The IAA told The Times of Israel that the IAA and several universities are now in talks to begin formulating plans for a full excavation of the remarkable site.
Thanks to yefragetuwrabrumuy for the article.
ping
Clearly shows a space craft beaming them down.
PINGGGGGGG!......................
There was an interview of Elon Musk by some middle eastern interviewers before a big audience of middle eastern rulers. The interviewer asked musk about space aliens. he prefaced his question by saying that in the middle east among moslems, adam and eve are thought to be space aliens. (Musk wasn’t a big fan of space alien speculation.)
Then there is this very disappointing bit...
Unfortunately, some items were stolen before the resealing was completed, according to IAA head Eli Eskozido.How can can the warmist green kooks explain that this cave is not under water?“Shortly before the cave was sealed, and despite guarding it, a number of archaeological items were stolen from the cave, and the matter is under investigation,” he said in a statement.
Amazing that we have not found stuff like this in the americas
We called it Navi Rubin in 1961. Roman shards were there for the picking. Just down from the Koor.
Unfortunately, some phones were smashed and drives were wiped.
Despite being guarded a number of items were stolen?
Smh
Jeffrey Epstien’s prison guards were employed there.
https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/J565hflq
Thanks for the pings!
Jar Jars?
One of *those* topics.
245. Tiles of buildings erected by Ramses II (in Kantir) which have Greek letters on the back, are products of Greek laborers in the service of the pharaoh. The letters are genuine Greek letters of the sixth century.Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History | Immanuel Velikovsky (1945)
A couple of the guards have new cars now.
Way cool.
[snip] The translation of the Seventy (Septuagint) calls Beth-Shan by the name of Scythopolis;(4) so do Josephus(5) and Eusebius.(6) Georgius Syncellus,(7) the Byzantine chronologist, explained that the use of the name Scythopolis for Beth-Shan was due to the presence of Scythians, who had remained there from among the invading hordes in the days of Psammetichos.
As has been said above, Beth-Shan was besieged and occupied by Seti, and his steles and the graves of the Greek mercenaries who served with him were discovered there. Ramses II, his successor, also occupied Beth-Shan for some time, but no vestiges have been found there of Egyptian kings of later times. The conventional chronology compelled the archaeologists of Beth-Shan to conclude that after Seti and Ramses II the city was practically uninhabited until the time of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the seventh century, although from the Scriptures we know that Beth-Shan was an important city in the days of Judges and Kings.
Seti-meri-en-Ptah Men-maat-Re, who left his steles in Beth-Shan, was Psammetichos of Herodotus. It was the seventh century. [/snip]The Assyrian Conquest: The End of Nineveh | Immanuel Velikovsky
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
