Ancient American anchors.
Posted on 11/28/2005 6:31:14 PM PST by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM - Ancient wooden anchors preserved by natural salt for more than 2,000 years have been discovered on the receding shores of the Dead Sea, Israel TV reported Monday.
Archaeologist David Mevorach told the TV station that one anchor dated back 2,500 years — the oldest ever found. Another anchor was 2,000 years old, he said. They were built from acacia wood for Roman ships, he said.
The Dead Sea, with no outlet, has a high concentration of salt. "The salt and the lack of oxygen in the water preserved them in a special way, including the ropes that were tied to the boat," he said.
Also, the small sea has been receding in recent years, as the evaporation rate exceeds the replenishment of water from the Jordan River, diverted for irrigation. Archaeological artifacts have been found along the newly exposed coastline.
Apart from the anchors, what have the bloody Romans ever given us?
roman wooden anchor ping
Ancient American anchors.
"Apart from the anchors, what have the bloody Romans ever given us?"
"Plumbing, highways, aquaducts, currency."
"Yeah but what else have they given us"
Monty Python - ka ching
ping
BTW the bridge that the Hogwarts Express crosses is an old Roman Aqueduct that has stood the sands of time and in the railroad building era of the 18th Century was converted to modern usage.
Mrs Gormley, my Latin Teacher, would wax eloquent regarding the Romans. Hope I did you justice Mrs Gormley.
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Acacia.. hard dense wood
http://www.odu.edu/webroot/instr/sci/plant.nsf/pages/acacia
--
Acacia wood is mentioned only in connection with the tabernacle (Exodus chapters 37 and 38). The following items were made of acacia wood: the ark and its poles, the table of showbread and its poles, the brazen altar and its poles, and the incense altar and its poles, all the poles for the hanging of the curtains as well as the supports [boards]. In short, all the structural features of the tabernacle were constructed of acacia wood.
The genus Acacia includes more than one hundred species of trees and shrubs which are found mainly in the arid and semiarid regions of Africa where they are ecologically the most important plants. Here the acacia trees are often the only plants on an otherwise bleak and monotonous terrain. Several species of acacia grow in the Sinai but not all would be suitable for use in construction. One of the most common is Acacia raddiana and it seems likely that this could be the acacia referred to in the Scriptures.
These trees are conspicuous in the desert with their often slanted, flat tops. The leaves are very small, an adaptation which helps the plant conserve water. In times of water stress, the tree can drop its leaves entirely. The flowers are white and borne in dense head-like clusters. The shape of the fruit varies in different species but in Acacia raddiana is a coiled pod-like structure which contains several very hard seeds.
Because of the slow growth of the tree, the wood is hard and dense. The heartwood is dark red-brown and attractive when polished. This wood is resistant to decay because the tree deposits in the heartwood many waste substances which are preservatives and render the wood unpalatable to insects making the wood dense and difficult to be penetrated by water and other decay agents.
Recent research on the weight of the wood used in the tabernacle system shows that solid boards would be extremely heavy. Therefore, it has been postulated that narrow pole-like structures were used (Zevit, Z. 1992. Timber for the tabernacle: Text, tradition, and realia. Eretz Israel 23: 136-143.) I have not seen large specimens of these trees in the Middle East. Perhaps such trees were present at the time of the wanderers in Sinai.
It is interesting to note that one of the freewill offerings which the children of Israel could bring for the tabernacle was acacia wood (Exodus 35:24). Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.
see #5. It was a Monty Python gag.
Reg
Yeah, all right, I'll grant you the aqueduct and sanitation, the two things the Romans have done.
Matthias
And the roads.
Reg
Oh, yeah, obviously the roads. I mean the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads...
Revolutionary III
Irrigation.
Revolutionary I
Medicine.
Revolutionary IV
Education.
Reg
Yeah, yeah, all right, fair enough.
Revolutionary V
And the wine.
All revolutionaries except Reg
Oh, yeah! Right!
Rogers
Yeah! Yeah, that's something we'd really miss Reg, if the Romans left. Huh.
Revolutionary VI
Public bathes.
Loretta
And it's safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.
Rogers
Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let's face it; they're the only ones who could in a place like this.
All revolutionaries except Reg
Hahaha...all right...
Reg
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Revolutionary I
Brought peace?
Reg
Oh, peace! Shut up!
You are quick, glad I checked the thread b/4 I posted images of ancient anchors.
LOL
Wood floats.
So do witches!!
Roads and waterways and arches in architecture.
And Spagetti????
They strapped lead to the wood or stone until the iron anchor came along..
http://www.abc.se/~m10354/bld/anchors.htm
Acacia grows at the Ein Gedi oasis on the Dead Sea shore.
I saw it when I was there last month.
Darn, no pictures again.
LOL..LOL
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