arqueologia

Já em 10 de fevereiro deste ano, no post O tom político da arqueologia em Jerusalém, eu citava, de artigo publicado na BBC News: …Here history, religion and politics meet. Nothing in Jerusalem can be understood without all three.

 

Pois é: a polêmica continua. Veja este ensaio.

Digging Into Jerusalem

Daniel Luria likes to refer to himself as a “holy real-estate agent.” As a fund-raiser for Israel’s right-wing Ateret Cohanim organization, he considers it his mission to persuade Jews to settle in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. As he walks with a NEWSWEEK reporter through the Muslim quarter of the Old City, he turns a corner and the glittering gold Dome of the Rock rises into view. “This is a drawcard street,” he says, gesturing down the corridor. “It’s always a winner.” He stops at a bustling, Jewish-owned construction site just steps from the Islamic prayer house, peers past a coil of barbed wire, and points to a dark cavity below the building’s floor. Underneath, he explains, archeologists hired by the owner have unearthed stretches of a late-Roman street and parts of an Ottoman bathhouse. “If you can expose your roots, why shouldn’t you go down to the bedrock?” he asks. “From a Jewish ideological perspective, it’s a must.”

In the apartment next door, however, Fatma Asala doesn’t share Luria’s enthusiasm for archeology. The 33-year-old Muslim schoolteacher points to a web of cracks in her bedroom ceiling and complains that the rumble of the compressors next door shakes the whole house. Sometimes, she insists, it sounds as if the clang and whirr of the power tools is coming from directly beneath her floor. Occasionally she wakes up and finds her face covered with a thin layer of concrete dust and flecks of white paint that have fallen from her ceiling. (She calls it her “morning makeup.”) For now, she explains, the excavation is a mere inconvenience. Yet she knows from experience that even a perceived threat to the nearby holy sites can ignite riots among the young Muslim men in her neighborhood, as it did in 2000 when Ariel Sharon’s visit played a key role in touching off the second intifada. If the excavation continues, she predicts, “I expect shooting. I expect a real war.”

A conflict in the Old City is the last thing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice needs right now. For the first time since the failure of the Camp David plan to divide Jerusalem in 2000, policymakers have begun to talk seriously again about a compromise on the city, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital. Last month Haim Ramon, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, floated the notion that a division of the city might be possible —a concession that was once unmentionable in the Jewish state. Yet even as Rice, Olmert and Arab leaders talk in Annapolis, Maryland, Jerusalem’s potentially destabilizing excavation boom goes on. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), there are roughly twice as many digs in and around the Old City as there were two years ago, including at least three adjacent to the holy sites. “Archeology is being turned into a bastardized ideological tool of national struggle, and the timing could not be worse,” says Jerusalem rights lawyer Danny Seidemann. “This is precisely the kind of thing that causes Jerusalem to ignite.”

Archeology has long been a key battleground for two peoples searching for ammunition in a war of national narratives. Yet as the city expands, it has also become a commercial imperative. Most new building projects in or near the Old City require a “salvage excavation” to ensure that construction work won’t damage buried artifacts. New owners, in some cases right-wing trusts linked to Ateret Cohanim and other settler organizations, can choose to hire archeologists from the IAA to complete the actual dig. “In the last year there’s been a huge amount of work around the Old City,” says Jon Seligman, the IAA’s Jerusalem regional archeologist, who adds that the proliferation of digs is the result of “a series of projects that reached fruition at the same time.” Seidemann speculates that the archeology boom might be the result of a concerted effort by Israeli ideologues to tighten their hold on the city and its history. “They’re using archeology, parks and government authority to establish their particular brand of hegemony in and around the Old City,” he says.

Israeli hawks are unapologetic about the new digs. “Every time you put a shovel in the ground, you discover another synagogue,” says former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes dividing Jerusalem. “Archeological truths are uncomfortable, like other truths.” Yet even some archeologists are concerned that all the new “salvage operations” risk politicizing the science. Prominent Israeli archeologist Shimon Gibson says that there has been only one excavation that had “academic motives” in the past 20 years. “Clearly, there’s a lot of money going into these excavations that comes from Jewish sources,” Gibson says. “Perhaps the time has come to put a hold on these salvage operations and their dubious funding.”

Other archeologists argue that some Muslim-controlled digs are just as problematic. Eilat Mazar, of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, complains that a new dig by the Islamic Waqf, which manages the site of the Dome of the Rock, risks damaging relics on what Jews refer to as the Temple Mount. She bemoans the fact that heavy equipment like tractors was used in the recent dig. “I’m really astonished at their stupidity,” she says. For their part, the site’s custodians refuse to even consider the criticisms of Israeli archeologists. “This is a mosque,” says Yussef Natsheh, an art historian whose Old City office is adjacent to the dome. “Archeological laws do not apply to our site.” Among God’s real-estate agents, it seems, there is no monopoly on self-righteousness.

Fonte: Kevin Peraino – Newsweek: 11/26/2007

 

E agora leio, na lista ANE-2, um e-mail de Joe Zias, muito instrutivo, sobre a instrumentalização política da arqueologia em Jerusalém. Ele está justamente comentando o artigo da Newsweek.

There’s a lot of truth in this article as to how archaeology in Jerusalem is highly politicized, unlike the rest of the country. Unfortunately, the situation is so bad that each side is involved, totally ignoring the interests of the profession itself. Gibson, in a way is right. There’s a certain irony here however which hasn’t been discussed. In the City of David excavations several years back one of the right wing organizations funded the dig around the water tunnel, hoping to show that during the Israelite period, the engineering there was something to behold. Lo and behold, the excavators found out that the Israelite water system, was ‘small change’ compared to the magnificent water system built during the Cannanite period centuries earlier. Fortunately the archaeologists from the IAA and those responsible for the arch. there treated it with utmost respect. investing a small fortune for public viewing.

On a more personal level, which shows the politicization of Jerusalem arch, several years ago I accidentally discovered an inscription atop the famous tomb of Absalom which is very near the City of David where all this highly politicized digging is taking place. As the inscription was ca 10 meters in the air and difficult to read, funding was needed to complete the project. The East Jerusalem Development Corp. along with a US Foundation (The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology) readily funded the project, unfortunately funding wise, the Greek inscription mentioned that this was the tomb of Zachariah the father of John the Baptist. So what was believed to be a Jewish tomb, now has an inscription from the 4th century showing that they believed that it was a Christian tomb. In the meantime, we discovered additional inscriptions along the original entrance and I turned again to the city of Jerusalem for funding. Unfortunately, the mayor of Jerusalem Olmert, had left his position to become a member of the kenesset, only to be replaced by a hasidic mayor. When I approached those funding the project, I was told that as it showed a Christian presence in Jerusalem, for political /religious reasons, the chance of obtaining funding was nil. Therefore I approached one of the largest Christian organizations in Israel for help, and they too turned us down, I had the feeling that they too were a bit reluctant to get involved in the politics of archaeology here in the City of David. In the end I received additional funding from the TFBA and with my own personal funds, funded phase II of the project which provided us with what may be the earliest NT inscription (Luke 2:25) carved in stone. I’m sure that had we found inscriptions saying that this was the tomb of Absalom instead of Zachariah the father of John the Baptist, ironically both of which were 100 % Jewish, funding would have been flowing in. Unfortunately, when it comes to the politics of Jerusalem, too many people in the Holy City, love god with all their heart and hate their neighbor with all their soul. Fortunately few of those in archaeological community subscribe to this maxim, whereas too many organizations funding the archaeology of Jerusalem do.

Joe Zias – December 4, 2007

Um interessante vídeo sobre o que está sendo feito em Meguido pode ser visto no site The Megiddo Expedition.

A dica foi repassada por Jim West, que a recebeu de Eric Cline, um dos diretores desta importante escavação arqueológica.

Além de Eric Cline, você verá, ao som da música de Bruce Springsteen, os arqueólogos Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin e outras pessoas que participam das escavações.

O comunicado é da IAA – Autoridade Israelense de Antiguidades: restos de pequenos objetos que podem ser datados, segundo vários arqueólogos, entre os séculos VIII e VI AEC – também chamado de período do Primeiro Templo -, foram encontrados em Jerusalém, na área do Templo.

For the First Time, Archaeological Remains dated to the First Temple Period have been Discovered on the Temple Mount
Archaeological inspection by the Israel Antiquities Authority over works of the Waqf has uncovered remnants from the First Temple Period (Iron Age IIB).

During a recent archaeological inspection on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority over maintenance works of the Waqf, a sealed archaeological level probably dated to the First Temple Period was exposed in the area close the southeastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock. Archaeological examination of a short section of this level, undertaken by Yuval Baruch, the Jerusalem District Archaeologist, uncovered finds that included fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bones. The finds are dated to the eighth to sixth centuries BCE. Yuval Baruch of the IAA, Prof. Sy Gitin, Director of the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Ronny Reich of Haifa University examined the finds and the archaeological data and reached the conclusion that the characteristics and location of the finds may aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the First Temple Period. The finds include fragments of bowls, including rims, bases and body sherds; the base of a juglet used for the ladling of oil; the handle of a small juglet and the rim of a storage jar. The bowl sherds were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the First Temple Period. In addition, a piece of…

Leia o resto da notícia e veja as fotos. E preste bem atenção: são pequenos restos de objetos da época pré-exílica, mas nada indica que tenham ligação com o Templo da época, ainda não encontrado. E mais: séculos VIII-VI AEC não representam a época de Salomão, tradicionalmente colocado no século X AEC.

Portanto, notícias dizendo que, finalmente, foram encontrados testemunhos do templo salomônico, são leituras distorcidas do comunicado dos arqueólogos israelenses.

O artigo de Eric H. Cline sobre arqueologia, do qual falei aqui e aqui, está no Fórum de outubro da Society of Biblical Literature.

Leia Raiders of the Faux Ark: Biblical archeology is too important to leave to crackpots and ideologues. It’s time to fight back.

Artigo e livro de Eric Cline repercutem.

Em Exploring Our Matrix, por exemplo, escreve James F. McGrath:

:: Lara Croft, Indiana Jones, and Eric Cline – October 1, 2007

:: Eric H. Cline – October 3, 2007

Embora às vezes ofuscadas por barulhentos amadores e mídias sensacionalistas, importantes descobertas continuam sendo feitas, na Palestina, por arqueólogos profissionais quase semanalmente.

:: Beehives from the 10th or ninth century BC at Tel Rehov, in Israel’s Bet She’an Valley

:: A possible Egyptian fortress from before the time of the Exodus, buried beneath a seventh century BC Philistine village near the Gaza Strip

:: A quarry in Jerusalem that may have supplied massive stone blocks for the Second Temple, built in the first century BC

:: A wall, possibly from the Second Temple itself, found during repair work on top of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

:: A huge city drain in Jerusalem dating from the time of the First Jewish Revolt in the first century AD.

A maior parte dos links são do blog de Todd Bolen, BiblePlaces Blog, onde, em geral, há belas fotos.

Via Explorator 10.23 – September 30, 2007

Raiders of the faux ark

Biblical archeology is too important to leave to crackpots and ideologues. It’s time to fight back.

NOAH’S ARK. The Ark of the Covenant. The Garden of Eden. Sodom and Gomorrah. The Exodus. The Lost Tomb of Jesus. All have been “found” in the last 10 years, including one within the past six months. The discoverers: a former SWAT team member; an investigator of ghosts, telepathy, and parapsychology; a filmmaker who calls himself “The Naked Archeologist”; and others, none of whom has any professional training in archeology.

We are living in a time of exciting discoveries in biblical archeology. We are also living in a time of widespread biblical fraud, dubious science, and crackpot theorizing. Some of the highest-profile discoveries of the past several years are shadowed by accusations of forgery, such as the James Ossuary, which may or may not be the burial box of Jesus’ brother, as well as other supposed Bible-era findings such as the Jehoash Tablet and a small ivory pomegranate said to be from the time of Solomon. Every year “scientific” expeditions embark to look for Noah’s Ark, raising untold amounts of money from gullible believers who eagerly listen to tales spun by sincere amateurs or rapacious con men; it is not always easy to tell the two apart.

The tools of modern archeology, from magnetometers to precise excavation methods, offer a growing opportunity to illuminate some of the intriguing mysteries surrounding the Bible, one of the foundations of western civilization. Yet the amateurs are taking in the public’s money to support ventures that offer little chance of furthering the cause of knowledge. With their grand claims, and all the ensuing attention, they divert the public’s attention from the scientific study of the Holy Land – and bring confusion, and even discredit, to biblical archeology.

Unfortunately, when fantastic claims are made, they largely go unchallenged by academics. There have been some obvious exceptions, such as the recent film “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” which inspired an outcry from scholars by claiming that archeologists had found, but not recognized, the tomb of Jesus more than 20 years ago. But much more common is a vast and echoing silence reminiscent of the early days of the debate over “intelligent design,” when biologists were reluctant to respond to the neocreationist challenge. Archeologists, too, are often reluctant to be seen as challenging deeply held religious beliefs. And so the professionals are allowing a PR disaster to slowly unfold: yielding a field of tremendous importance to pseudoscientists, amateur enthusiasts, and irresponsible documentary filmmakers.

At a time when the world is increasingly divided by religion, both domestically and internationally, and when many people are biblically illiterate, legitimate inquiries into the common origins of religions have never been more important. I believe that the public deserves – and wants – better. We have an obligation to challenge the lies and the hype, to share the real data, so that the public discussion can be an informed one.

It is time we take back our field.

. . .

The first archeological endeavors in the Holy Land were conducted not by archeologists, but rather by theologians primarily interested in locating places mentioned in the Bible. Pride of place goes to the American minister Edward Robinson, who toured the Holy Land in 1838, accompanied by an American missionary named Eli Smith who was fluent in Arabic, in order to identify as many sites mentioned in the Bible as possible – in other words, to create a historical (and biblical) geography of Palestine. Others soon followed, including Sir Charles Warren, a British general who explored and recorded the features of Jerusalem in the 1860s. None of these men were archeologists, but they made important contributions to the field.

Throughout much of the 19th century, the field of biblical archeology was dominated by men said to have been working with a Bible in one hand and a trowel in the other. The field soon became more scientific, thanks to the efforts of men like Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who introduced into archeology the dual concepts of stratigraphy (when two succeeding cities are built one on top of the other, the lower one will always be earlier in time) and pottery seriation (pottery types go in and out of style, just like today’s clothes, and can be used to help date the stratigraphic levels observable at ancient sites).

By the time Dame Kathleen Kenyon was excavating in Jericho and Jerusalem during the mid-20th century, archeology was in the hands of professionals trained not just in proper excavation techniques, but in the scientific method, and with years of schooling in ancient languages, cultures, and history. They also mastered bodies of literature and theory and spent years practicing their craft and being subjected to peer review. Theological motivation became less important.

Today there are strict standards concerning excavations in every country in the Middle East. Permission to excavate must be obtained from the proper authorities, with presentation of a detailed research plan, good reasons given for the questions being examined, evidence of sufficient funding, and often a strategy for conservation of the site upon completion of the excavation. Peer review of any large funding proposals is obligatory. In short, it is a serious and highly competitive field.

As a result, however, we have seen a rise of two cultures – the scientists and the amateur enthusiasts. Lacking the proper training and credentials, the amateurs are sustained by vanity presses, television, and now the Internet.

For example, in 2006, Bob Cornuke, a former SWAT team member turned biblical investigator – and now president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (BASE) Institute in Colorado – led an expedition searching for Noah’s Ark. Media reports breathlessly announced that Cornuke’s team had discovered boat-shaped rocks at an altitude of 13,000 feet on Mount Suleiman in Iran’s Elburz mountain range. Cornuke said the rocks look “uncannily like wood. . . .We have had [cut] thin sections of the rock made, and we can see [wood] cell structures.”

But peer review would have quickly debunked these findings. Kevin Pickering, a geologist at University College London who specializes in sedimentary rocks, said, “The photos appear to show iron-stained sedimentary rocks, probably thin beds of silicified sandstones and shales, which were most likely laid down in a marine environment a long time ago.”

Then there is Michael Sanders, who has made a habit of using NASA satellite photographs to search for biblical locations and objects. From 1998 to 2001, Sanders announced that he had not only located the lost cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but also the Garden of Eden, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Tower of Babel.

Sanders describes himself on his website as a “Biblical Scholar of Archaeology, Egyptology and Assyriology,” but according to the Los Angeles Times, he “concedes that he has no formal archeological training.” Other newspaper accounts describe him as a “self-made scholar” who did research in parapsychology at Duke University.

And we must not forget documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici. He bills himself as “The Naked Archeologist” in a television series on the History Channel, but has repeatedly stated during media interviews that he is an investigative journalist rather than an archeologist. Jacobovici is perhaps best known for “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” which first aired in March 2007 and which has been described by professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as making “a sensationalistic claim without any scientific basis or support.”

In short, the amateur arena is full of deeply flawed junk science. Important issues are cloaked in legitimate-sounding terminology, little attention is paid to the investigative process, and contrary evidence is ignored.

Biblical archeologists are suddenly finding themselves in a position similar to the evolutionary biologists fighting intelligent design – an entire parallel version of their field is being driven by religious belief, not research principles. The biologists’ situation makes the risk clear – they did not deign to mount a public refutation of the “science” of intelligent design for years, until it was almost too late, and thus anti-evolutionary science began making its way into the public schools.

Why are we sitting the battle out?

Partly, this is a matter of a strain of snobbery that runs through many academic fields: a suspicion of colleagues who venture too far from “serious” topics or appear in the popular media too often.

Partly it is a matter of the uncertainty of the stories themselves: many biblical questions are so shrouded in uncertainty as to be inherently unsolvable. For example, even if the Garden of Eden once were a real place, and even if we knew the general location where it might have been, how would we know when we had found it? When most archeologists and biblical scholars hear that someone has (yet again) discovered Noah’s Ark, they roll their eyes and get on with their business. This can leave the impression that the report might be true.

And partly it is because scientific findings may challenge religious dogma. Biblical scholarship is highly charged because the Bible is a religious book and any research carries the prospect of “proving” or “disproving” treasured beliefs. What if the Exodus might not have taken place as described in the Bible? Similarly, what will people do when told that there are identical stories to Noah and the Ark, but they were recorded between 500 and 1,000 years earlier sans Noah? And that the flood was sent because the people were too noisy and the Gods couldn’t sleep, not because people were evil and sinning? Or when you tell them that “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was a concept expressed in Hammurabi’s Law Code nearly 1,000 years before the Bible?

This is where it can get daunting for academics, for it is at this point that the ideologues frequently weigh in. And these pundits are often sophisticated and convincing debaters, which can make them intimidating opponents for a scholar.

But we don’t need to go looking for Noah’s Ark to find confirmation of details found in the Bible. During the past century or so, archeologists have found the first mention of Israel outside the Bible, in an Egyptian inscription carved by the Pharaoh Merneptah in the year 1207 BC. They have found mentions of Israelite kings, including Omri, Ahab, and Jehu, in neo-Assyrian inscriptions from the early first millennium BC. And they have found, most recently, a mention of the House of David in an inscription from northern Israel dating to the ninth century BC. These are conclusive pieces of evidence that these people and places once existed and that at least parts of the Bible are historically accurate. Perhaps none of these is as attention-getting as finding Noah’s Ark, but they serve to deepen our understanding of, and appreciation for, the Bible.

Religious archeologists and secular archeologists frequently work side by side in the Holy Land. Among the top ranks of researchers, there are evangelical Christians, orthodox Jews, and people of many denominations. It is not religious views that are the issue here; it is whether good science is being done. Biblical archeology is a field in which people of good will, and all religions, can join under the banner of the scientific process.

Most archeological organizations, including the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Society for American Archaeology, state that it is one of the obligations of professional archeologists to make their findings and discoveries generally available. But we need to do more than simply publish research if we are to successfully counter junk science. We need to take our information to the public not only via writing but also via radio, television, film, and any other available media.

Remember that biblical mysteries are not just ancient history. For example, did Joshua really fight the Battle of Jericho and drive the Canaanites out of the land, as stated in the biblical account of the Israelite conquest of Canaan? If so, who was there first and to whom does the land really belong today? Does it matter? It does to many Palestinians, who exert a (dubious) claim as descendants of the Canaanites and Jebusites, and to many Israelis, who exert a similar claim based on their own understanding of their ancestors’ history.

Remember, too, that archeologists who speak out can make a difference. “Disclaimer statements” have recently been posted on Bob Cornuke’s Web pages concerning the Ark of the Covenant, Noah’s Ark, and the location of Mount Sinai. Now, for instance, we find the statement that the BASE Institute “does not make the claim that we have found Noah’s Ark. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions. In our opinion, it’s a candidate. The research continues.”

Even when our own investigations come up empty – we can’t solve all the mysteries in the Bible – we can present the current state of our evidence. And we can promote a shared methodology, and a shared body of facts, that can be used by everyone. The data and opinions that we provide may not end any debates, but they will introduce genuine archeological and historical data and considerations into the mix. We owe it to the ancient world, and to the people who inhabited it, to do no less.

 

Eric H. Cline denuncia: ao mesmo tempo em que vivemos uma época de fascinantes descobertas arqueológicas no Oriente Médio e que podem contribuir muito para a compreensão do mundo bíblico, vivemos uma época de fraudes generalizadas, pressupostos científicos duvidosos, teorias fantásticas e fanáticas sem nenhum fundamento.

É hora de dar o troco. É hora de denunciar. É hora de combater o amadorismo daqueles que se autoproclamam arqueólogos e que montam espetáculos grandiosos para ganhar dinheiro e vender ao público falsos produtos como as “descobertas” da Arca de Noé, da Arca da Aliança, do Jardim do Éden, de Sodoma e Gomorra, do Êxodo, do Sepulcro Esquecido de Jesus, do Ossuário de Tiago…

É hora da arqueologia séria também divulgar, através de todos os meios, as suas descobertas. O público merece e quer o melhor. E os especialistas têm a obrigação de desafiar e desmistificar as mentiras e o sensacionalismo das cada vez mais frequentes fraudes arqueológicas que dizem, via jornais, revistas, televisão, Internet e outros meios eletrônicos que, finalmente, a verdade bíblica, ocultada ao mundo, por séculos, pelas autoridades religiosas judaicas e cristãs, acaba de ser revelada.

 

Vi o texto no PaleoJudaica.com, do Jim Davila. A análise, escrita por Eric H. Cline, está em The Boston Globe – 30 de setembro de 2007.

Eric H. Cline é Professor no Departamento de Literaturas e Línguas Clássicas e Semíticas da Universidade George Washington, em Washington, D.C. Diretor associado de escavações em Megiddo, Israel.

É autor do recente From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007, 256 p. – ISBN 9781426200847.

 

E preste atenção também a este comentário que está na página da Amazon.com: “In a world that turns more and more to irrational views of history, Eric Cline demythologizes the ‘mysteries of the Bible’. He does so with the force of reason, using clear language and a perfect command of the ancient records and the finds from the field.” Israel Finkelstein, Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, author, with N. A. Silberman, of The Bible Unearthed [tradução brasileira: A Bíblia desenterrada].

O artigo de Paolo Merlo, Professor da Pontifícia Universidade Lateranense, Roma, sobre a inscrição de Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, na qual Iahweh aparece associado a Asherah, está disponível online. Em italiano.

O artigo foi publicado pela revista SEL (n. 11, 1994) – Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente Antico – do Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo, de Zaragoza, Espanha.

Leia L‘Asherah di Yhwh a Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. Rassegna critica degli studi e delle interpretazioni (pdf).

Lembro que a descoberta das inscrições de Kuntillet ‘Ajrud e de Khirbet el-Qôm são muito importantes para se debater as origens de Israel e o sincretismo javista/baalista existente em Canaã. Há uma enorme bibliografia sobre o assunto.

Tomei conhecimento do assunto em ABZU e no blog Abnormal Interests, de Duane Smith.

Tem gente “caçando” os patriarcas…

Diz o Star-Telegram.com, ao relatar as escavações do arqueólogo Steven Collins em busca de Sodoma, em Excavating Sodom, posted on Sat, Sep. 08, 2007:

Collins, dean of the College of Archaeology at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, N.M., has searched for a decade for Sodom and Gomorrah, which the Bible says were sinful cities destroyed by God. The excavation is of a Bronze Age site in Jordan, near the Dead Sea. Collins is seeking to determine the authenticity of Old Testament patriarchal narratives, particularly the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Joshua (…) He is using biblical text, archaeology and geography in his quest.

Minha sugestão é que o arqueólogo peça o auxílio de Thomas L. Thompson e de alguns amigos seus, para rápido sucesso na empreitada e aperfeiçoamento do método empregado: o uso do texto bíblico, da arqueologia e da geografia – he is using biblical text, archaeology and geography in his quest 😉

E, finalmente, como castigo, que todos os leitores deste post leiam o capítulo 4 do livro do Cássio, Leia a Bíblia como literatura, que explica o que são os gêneros literários bíblicos!

Via Explorator 10.22 – September 23, 2007.

It is the death of history

Special investigation by Robert Fisk – The Independent: 17 September 2007

4,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq’s historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation.

Evidence amassed by archaeologists shows that even those Iraqis who trained as archaeological workers in Saddam Hussein’s regime are now using their knowledge to join the looters in digging through the ancient cities, destroying thousands of priceless jars, bottles and other artefacts in their search for gold and other treasures.

In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, armies of looters moved in on the desert cities of southern Iraq and at least 13 Iraqi museums were plundered. Today, almost every archaeological site in southern Iraq is under the control of looters.

In a long and devastating appraisal to be published in December, Lebanese archaeologist Joanne Farchakh says that armies of looters have not spared “one metre of these Sumerian capitals that have been buried under the sand for thousands of years.

“They systematically destroyed the remains of this civilisation in their tireless search for sellable artefacts: ancient cities, covering an estimated surface area of 20 square kilometres, which – if properly excavated – could have provided extensive new information concerning the development of the human race.

“Humankind is losing its past for a cuneiform tablet or a sculpture or piece of jewellery that the dealer buys and pays for in cash in a country devastated by war. Humankind is losing its history for the pleasure of private collectors living safely in their luxurious houses and ordering specific objects for their collection.”

Ms Farchakh, who helped with the original investigation into stolen treasures from the Baghdad Archaeological Museum in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, says Iraq may soon end up with no history.

“There are 10,000 archaeological sites in the country. In the Nassariyah area alone, there are about 840 Sumerian sites; they have all been systematically looted. Even when Alexander the Great destroyed a city, he would always build another. But now the robbers are destroying everything because they are going down to bedrock. What’s new is that the looters are becoming more and more organised with, apparently, lots of money.

“Quite apart from this, military operations are damaging these sites forever. There’s been a US base in Ur for five years and the walls are cracking because of the weight of military vehicles. It’s like putting an archaeological site under a continuous earthquake.”

Of all the ancient cities of present-day Iraq, Ur is regarded as the most important in the history of man-kind. Mentioned in the Old Testament – and believed by many to be the home of the Prophet Abraham – it also features in the works of Arab historians and geographers where its name is Qamirnah, The City of the Moon.

Founded in about 4,000 BC, its Sumerian people established the principles of irrigation, developed agriculture and metal-working. Fifteen hundred years later – in what has become known as “the age of the deluge” – Ur produced some of the first examples of writing, seal inscriptions and construction. In neighbouring Larsa, baked clay bricks were used as money orders – the world’s first cheques – the depth of finger indentations in the clay marking the amount of money to be transferred. The royal tombs of Ur contained jewellery, daggers, gold, azurite cylindrical seals and sometimes the remains of slaves.

US officers have repeatedly said a large American base built at Babylon was to protect the site but Iraqi archaeologist Zainab Bah-rani, a professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University, says this “beggars belief”. In an analysis of the city, she says: “The damage done to Babylon is both extensive and irreparable, and even if US forces had wanted to protect it, placing guards round the site would have been far more sensible than bulldozing it and setting up the largest coalition military headquarters in the region.”

Air strikes in 2003 left historical monuments undamaged, but Professor Bahrani, says: “The occupation has resulted in a tremendous destruction of history well beyond the museums and libraries looted and destroyed at the fall of Baghdad. At least seven historical sites have been used in this way by US and coalition forces since April 2003, one of them being the historical heart of Samarra, where the Askari shrine built by Nasr al Din Shah was bombed in 2006.”

The use of heritage sites as military bases is a breach of the Hague Convention and Protocol of 1954 (chapter 1, article 5) which covers periods of occupation; although the US did not ratify the Convention, Italy, Poland, Australia and Holland, all of whom sent forces to Iraq, are contracting parties.

Ms Farchakh notes that as religious parties gain influence in all the Iraqi pro-vinces, archaeological sites are also falling under their control. She tells of Abdulamir Hamdani, the director of antiquities for Di Qar province in the south who desperately – but vainly – tried to prevent the destruction of the buried cities during the occupation. Dr Hamdani himself wrote that he can do little to prevent “the disaster we are all witnessing and observing”.

In 2006, he says: “We recruited 200 police officers because we were trying to stop the looting by patrolling the sites as often as possible. Our equipment was not enough for this mission because we only had eight cars, some guns and other weapons and a few radio transmitters for the entire province where 800 archaeological sites have been inventoried.

“Of course, this is not enough but we were trying to establish some order until money restrictions within the government meant that we could no longer pay for the fuel to patrol the sites. So we ended up in our offices trying to fight the looting, but that was also before the religious parties took over southern Iraq.”

Last year, Dr Hamdani’s antiquities department received notice from the local authorities, approving the creation of mud-brick factories in areas surrounding Sumerian archaeological sites. But it quickly became apparent that the factory owners intended to buy the land from the Iraqi government because it covered several Sumerian capitals and other archaeological sites. The new landlord would “dig” the archaeological site, dissolve the “old mud brick” to form the new one for the market and sell the unearthed finds to antiquity traders.

Dr Hamdani bravely refused to sign the dossier. Ms Farchakh says: “His rejection had rapid consequences. The religious parties controlling Nassariyah sent the police to see him with orders to jail him on corruption charges. He was imprisoned for three months, awaiting trial. The State Board of Antiquities and Heritage defended him during his trial, as did his powerful tribe. He was released and regained his position. The mud-brick factories are ‘frozen projects’, but reports have surfaced of a similar strategy being employed in other cities and in nearby archaeological sites such as the Aqarakouf Ziggarat near Baghdad. For how long can Iraqi archaeologists maintain order? This is a question only Iraqi politicians affiliated to the different religious parties can answer, since they approve these projects.”

Police efforts to break the power of the looters, now with a well-organised support structure helped by tribal leaders, have proved lethal. In 2005, the Iraqi customs arrested – with the help of Western troops – several antiquities dealers in the town of Al Fajr, near Nasseriyah. They seized hundreds of artefacts and decided to take them to the museum in Baghdad. It was a fatal mistake.

The convoy was stopped a few miles from Baghdad, eight of the customs agents were murdered, and their bodies burnt and left to rot in the desert. The artefacts disappeared. “It was a clear message from the antiquities dealers to the world,” Ms Farchakh says.

The legions of antiquities looters work within a smooth mass-smuggling organisation. Trucks, cars, planes and boats take Iraq’s historical plunder to Europe, the US, to the United Arab Emirates and to Japan. The archaeologists say an ever-growing number of internet websites offer Mesopotamian artefacts, objects anywhere up to 7,000 years old.

The farmers of southern Iraq are now professional looters, knowing how to outline the walls of buried buildings and able to break directly into rooms and tombs. The archaeologists’ report says: “They have been trained in how to rob the world of its past and they have been making significant profit from it. They know the value of each object and it is difficult to see why they would stop looting.”

After the 1991 Gulf War, archaeologists hired the previous looters as workers and promised them government salaries. This system worked as long as the archaeologists remained on the sites, but it was one of the main reasons for the later destruction; people now knew how to excavate and what they could find.

Ms Farchakh adds: “The longer Iraq finds itself in a state of war, the more the cradle of civilisation is threatened. It may not even last for our grandchildren to learn from.”

A land with fields of ancient pottery

By Joanne Farchakh, archaeologist

Iraq’s rural societies are very different to our own. Their concept of ancient civilisations and heritage does not match the standards set by our own scholars. History is limited to the stories and glories of your direct ancestors and your tribe. So for them, the “cradle of civilisation” is nothing more than desert land with “fields” of pottery that they have the right to take advantage of because, after all, they are the lords of the land and, as a result, the owners of its possessions. In the same way, if they had been able, these people would not have hesitated to take control of the oil fields, because this is “their land”. Because life in the desert is hard and because they have been “forgotten” by all the governments, their “revenge” for this reality is to monitor, and take, every single money-making opportunity. A cylinder seal, a sculpture or a cuneiform tablet earns $50 (£25) and that’s half the monthly salary of an average government employee in Iraq. The looters have been told by the traders that if an object is worth anything at all, it must have an inscription on it. In Iraq, the farmers consider their “looting” activities to be part of a normal working day.