Posted on 12/01/2010 1:45:37 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
TEL MEGIDDO - Fabled as a site of biblical battles and spectacular palaces, Tel Megiddo today is a dusty mound overlooking Israel's Jezreel valley. It is also host to one of the hottest debates in archaeology — a controversy over the historical truth of the Bible's account of the first united Kingdom of Israel.
Ancient Megiddo is said to have been a key administrative and military centre in the kingdom ruled by King David and his son Solomon during the eleventh and tenth centuries BC. But the biblical narrative is challenged by archaeologists such as Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, who believe that David and Solomon did not rule over an Iron Age empire. Instead, they suggest, David and Solomon commanded a small and not terribly influential kingdom, and Megiddo's peak came nearly a century after the united kingdom had divided.
Important evidence relating to this debate is being unearthed by a unique collaboration between archaeologists and natural scientists, working shoulder-to-shoulder at Tel Megiddo and several other important Israeli sites. "In the past, all too often, archaeologists and scientists worked together, but it was two parallel lines," says archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. It could take months or even years before finds were sent away to the lab, he says, with results taking just as long to come back. "On top of that, sometimes the samples weren't taken correctly."
The Tel Megiddo dig is different. Chemists make up half of the two dozen excavators on the team, which is being led by Finkelstein and Steve Weiner, a structural biologist specializing in mineralized tissues who is director of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Soon, there will be charred remains there to keep lots of diggers busy for seven years.
ping
More grant money wasted on trying to disprove the Bible. The more they try, the more foolish they become. Think about it in a logical way. They maintain that:
- the Big Bang happened spontaneously;
- Matter from the Big Bang accelerated away at speeds greater than the speed of light;
- Evolution accounts for all variations in life on Earth;
- We are all descended from apes, not created;
- The Bible is a story unsupported by facts we uncover and we analyze.
And man is supposed to be the most intelligent life form on Earth? No wonder aliens won’t touch Earth; we are the Talos IV of the Universe.
All the article does is describe analysis methods. which are already well-known and have been for a decade. there is no disproving anything.
The headline is very deceptive.
Really crappy journalism.
And?...
It's amazing how little modern Archeologists know about their disciplines' history. It used to be (19th and early 20th Century) that Archeologists used the Bible to find what they were looking for. I almost always worked like a charm.
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
Finkelstein is a fink.
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.
