Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba's wealth

The Guardian [UK] ^ | February 11, 2012 | Dalya Alberge

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.

Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.

Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia, said: "One of the things I've always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths. The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba's mines is extraordinary."

[Hegemony Cricket]

GGG ping

[ZULU]

All I can say is WOW!!!

[Parley Baer]

Pretty neat. I hope I live long enough to see the outcome of this.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If there’s still gold to be had from it (by more modern methods), it looks like Yemen or Ethiopia stand to gain handsomely. What DO you do when a gold mine is found on a valuable archaeological dig? Who wins?

[BipolarBob]

All righty. Let’s get on with the business of King Solomons Mines. I recall a movie . . .

[dog breath]

Thanks for posting that, it was very interesting.

[IDFbunny]

So how long before it is completely looted?

[DoughtyOne]

Very cool...

Thanks.

[sinanju]

Presumably, it would have been abandoned when it was depleted but I’m sure modern extractive methods—combined with the current sky-high gold prices—would probably make reopening it economically viable.

[marsh2]

What do you call those pants she is wearing? - Water Camo?

[21twelve]

There is a gold mine in Indonesia where the waste material is of higher grade than many mines in the U.S.! But it isn’t worth it to spend the extra money trying to get it out of the rock when it would just slow them down getting to the good stuff! I imagine it might be a similar situation here. I hope that if there are natural resources still there that the countries can develop them alongside the archaeologic resources.

[Uncle Lonny]

Good for her!

I just hope the Islamization of Ethiopia, which I hear is proceeding quickly, will let her fulfill her mission. Some of the followers of Allah don’t look kindly on the other societies that existed before the 8th century.

[Caipirabob]

So how long before it is completely looted?

Oops...it's gone... : /

Good point. Unless they locked it down with military force it's going to wind up in private collections.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Hegemony Cricket. One of *those* topics.

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[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Hegemony Cricket. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.