belteshazzar

Archive for March 9th, 2010

Very old artworks provide a fascinating glimpse of ancient life, but not without limitations: They typically portray the lifestyles of the rich and famous (rulers, royals, generals, and priests), abandoning the masses to the mists of history.

That’s why the recent discovery of a 1,300-year-old mural at Calakmul, Mexico, is so significant. It is the only known pre-Columbian artwork depicting ordinary Maya engaged in everyday activities, rather than serving the wealthy.

Read the story at http://www.acagle.net/ArchaeoBlog/?p=8731

Unearthed tombs on Crete reveal a dynasty of priestesses reigned on the isle during the “Dark Ages” of ancient Greece.

In an Archaeology magazine report, writer Eti Bonn-Muller details the results from last summer’s excavation of the tombs of Orthi Petra at Eleutherna on Crete, where a team found the burials of a high priestess of Zeus and three acolytes this summer.

“People then may have considered them sorceresses, or intermediaries with the gods,” Bonn-Muller says. Led by archaeologist Nicholas Stampolidis, the team dates the four burials to 2,800 years ago.

Read the story at http://www.acagle.net/ArchaeoBlog/?p=8723

In Australia we are not lucky enough to have our own version of Time Team, but we get the UK version and it is well worth a watch, I am no archaeologist but I am always a little worried that they are always doing things just a little TOO fast and probably destroying some evidence that would be useful. None the less it gets archaeology on TV and packaged in a way that makes it accessible to just about anyone.

Read the story at http://www.topix.net/science/archaeology/2010/03/time-team-america?fromrss=1

An Israeli professor of biblical studies has apparently been able to identify Khirbet Qeiyafa as teh biblical Neta’im as mentioned in the book of Chronicles. I’m always sceptical on these sorts of findings as I am of the opinion that the Bible stores are written so far after the fact that their actual inspiration can usually not be pinned down to a specific. I’m not a scholar though, this story is interesting none-the less. – “Has another mystery in the history of Israel been solved? Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa has identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as “Neta’im”, which is mentioned in the book of Chronicles. “The inhabitants of Neta’im were potters who worked in the king’s service and inhabited an important administrative center near the border with the Philistines,” explains Prof. Galil.”

Read the story at http://www.topix.net/science/archaeology/2010/03/khirbet-qeiyafa-identified-as-biblical-netaim?fromrss=1