Encontradas jóias de 100 mil anos

Folha Online: 23/06/2006 – 10h02

Ricardo Bonalume Neto – da Folha de S.Paulo

Conchas são “jóia” mais velha do mundo

As jóias mais importantes da história da humanidade têm 100 mil anos, 25 mil a mais do que se achava até agora. Qualquer criança poderia fazê-las hoje – são conchinhas furadas para uso em colares. Mas, feitas por homens ou mulheres pré-históricos, elas sinalizam o momento em que o ser humano passou a ser culturalmente moderno. E por isso são valiosas. Dois anos atrás, uma equipe internacional de cinco pesquisadores havia achado na caverna de Blombos, na África do Sul, uma coleção de conchas furadas que interpretaram como tendo pertencido a um colar de contas de 75 mil anos de idade. A equipe era chefiada por Christopher Henshilwood, professor da Universidade de Bergen, Noruega e da Universidade Estadual de Nova York. “Existem apenas 41 conchas, e cada uma delas é uma conta de colar, com furos no mesmo lugar”, disse ele, respondendo a céticos que achavam que as conchas poderiam ter sido furadas por processos naturais. Desde então, os pesquisadores continuaram à procura de mais jóias semelhantes – só que nas prateleiras dos museus. E acharam três conchas parecidas nos sítios arqueológicos de Skhul, em Israel, e de (cont.)



BBC News – Thursday, 22 June 2006

By Paul Rincon

Study reveals ‘oldest jewellery’

The earliest known pieces of jewellery made by modern humans have been identified by scientists. The three shell beads are between 90,000 and 100,000 years old, according to an international research team. Two of the ancient beads come from Skhul Cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel (cont.)

O que está acontecendo no Egito?

Folha Online: 13/06/2006 – 18h46

Diretor de arqueologia do Egito critica a Unesco

da France Presse, no Cairo

O diretor de arqueologia do Egito, Zahi Hawass, criticou duramente a Unesco nesta terça-feira, acusando a agência da ONU (Organização das Nações Unidas) de destruir antiguidades e ultrapassar suas competências (cont.)

 

A figueira foi a primeira planta domesticada pelo homem, dizem arqueólogos israelenses

Folha Online: 02/06/2006 – 09h45

Figo da Palestina redefine data inicial da agricultura

Ana Paula Corradini – Colaboração para a Folha de S.Paulo

Arqueólogos israelenses descobriram que a figueira foi a primeira planta domesticada pelo homem, há 11,4 mil anos. O figo tira o posto do trigo e da cevada, domesticados há 10,5 mil anos na Turquia e na Síria e que até hoje eram considerados as espécies vegetais cultivadas há mais tempo. Ou seja, a agricultura surgiu pelo menos mil anos mais cedo. No estudo, publicado na revista “Science”, Mordechái Kislev, da Universidade Bar-llan, em Israel, conta que (cont.)

BBC News – Friday, 2 June 2006, 00:45 GMT 01:45 UK

Ancient fig clue to first farming

Ancient figs found in an archaeological site in the Jordan Valley may represent one of the earliest forms of agriculture, scientists report. The carbonised fruits date between 11,200 and 11,400 years old. The US and Israeli researchers say the figs are a variety that could have only been grown with human intervention. The team, writing in the journal Science, says the find marks the point when humans turned from hunting and gathering to food cultivation (cont.)

The Temple Mount: the most politically volatile archaeological site in the Middle East

O Monte do Templo: o sítio arqueológico mais politicamente volátil do Oriente Médio.

Leia

Jerusalem’s volatile archaeology – By Malcolm Billings – BBC News: 25 April 2006

One of the most visited archaeological sites in Jerusalem is also charged with emotion that has erupted in riot and bloodshed.

Known as the Western Wall Tunnel it runs under the old walled city and along the length of the western wall of what was once the Temple of Jerusalem.

Built by Herod the Great in 20 BC, the Temple itself was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70.

All that survived was the rock platform – the Temple Mount – on which the Temple was built and the massive retaining wall that supported the foundations of the building.

The Temple Mount, or the Haram al-Sharif as it is called by Muslims, meaning noble sanctuary, is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

For most of the time since the 7th Century it has been in the possession of Muslims, who believe it marks the point where the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven.

 

Archaeological embargo

Jews believe it is the site of the original Temple of Solomon, and where – in the story of Genesis – God tested Abraham’s faith by ordering him to sacrifice his son Isaac, before telling him to stay his hand.

Today, a beautiful Muslim shrine built in the 7th Century, the Dome of the Rock, covers the outcrop of stone where these events are supposed to have taken place.

To add to this eventful history, the building was turned into a church during the time of the Crusaders in the 11th and 12th Centuries.

The crescent on the top of the dome was replaced with a cross, and when the city was reconquered by Saladin in 1187, the first thing he did was to send people on to the roof to remove the offending symbol of the vanquished Christian kings of Jerusalem.

Despite the outcome of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Israeli occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount, the enclosure and the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and a superb range of Muslim Medieval buildings, remain under the jurisdiction of the Muslim religious authorities who control its day-to-day activities.

Both sides observe an embargo on archaeological work on the site.

 

Riot

But archaeological work in the Old City and around the Temple Mount is another matter.

Large areas of the city have been explored by Israeli archaeologists since 1967, including some tunnels dug in the 19th century by British archaeologists.

These tunnels were opened up again when Israelis took control of Jerusalem. In 1996, the digging provoked a riot in which 80 Palestinians and 14 Israeli soldiers were killed.

When digging began again, Israeli archaeologists traced the lower courses of the masonry of the wall along its full length of several hundred metres.

Deep underground they excavated beneath the massive foundation of medieval buildings and along the wall where they found ancient water cisterns, a Roman road and much of the detail of the construction of the 2,000-year-old Temple wall.

 

Unique find

In one part of the tunnel system, they uncovered a three-storey house built in the Crusader period – a unique find for the history of the city of Jerusalem.

Large numbers queue up to walk through this tunnel and at points along the way shrines have been set up for religious Jews to pray for the day that the Temple is rebuilt.

Evangelical Christians also look forward to the rebuilding of the Temple believing, that the Second Coming of the Messiah will not take place until the Temple is up and running again.

The Muslims are intensely aware of these aspirations and are suspicious about any archaeological work beneath the Old City.

Cracks have appeared in medieval building giving rise to Muslim concerns that the Israelis have explored under the Temple Mount.

Not so insist the archaeologists. They maintain that they have only explored along the edge of the wall in an attempt to understand more about the missing Temple.

But rumours persist, however unlikely.

 

Fear and rumour

Many Muslims believe that extreme religious Jews are passionate enough about reclaiming the Temple to believe that they are tunnelling underneath the Haram to undermine the foundations of the ancient Muslim buildings on the site.

Indeed, there is a Jewish religious group which has prepared plans and building materials in readiness for the day they believe will come when God gives the go-ahead for the rebuilding of the Temple.

The Temple Mount is a crucible for fear, rumour and religious prejudice.

It is therefore not surprising to hear archaeologists describe it as the most politically volatile archaeological site in the Middle East.

Aberto museu subaquático em Cesareia

Underwater Museum Opens in Caesarea

Maariv reports on a new archaeological museum that opens this week in Caesarea:

Diving equipment, a guide with oxygen-containers on his back, plastic maps, and a totally wet experience may sound like another regular diving endeavor, but in fact, this is the tour that the first Israeli underwater museum will offer, opening this week in Caesarea.

The archaeological park will open this Friday in Caesarea, on the remains of a port that King Herod built 2000 years ago, the Caesarea Maritima, and which sunk underwater after only a century. The park, a project in which hundreds of thousands of dollars were invested, under the direction of Sarah Aharonson, will allow anyone that has undergone a basic diving course to take off his shoes, wear the diving suit, and dive into the past – the port’s remains.

The park is over 25000 square feet in size, and is divided into four tour routes along the ancient port: the port’s entrance, the lighthouse remains, the remains of the piers, the breakwaters, and the docking platforms, remains of jewelry, statue bases, coins, and a shipwreck.

“This is a one-of-a-kind park in the whole world,” says Dr. Nadav Kashtan, a lecturer at the Dept. of Maritime Civlizations at Haifa University, “the explorers-divers will enjoy a special wet experience of time travel.”

Fonte: Yitzhak Sapir – Toldot: April 23, 2006

Eilat Mazar: I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other

Jim West em seu blog chama a atenção para um artigo sobre Eilat Mazar na Moment Magazine.

O título que escolhi para o post reflete exatamente aquilo que eu comentava hoje em aula, com os alunos do primeiro ano de Teologia do CEARP, sobre a pretensa descoberta do palácio de Davi por Eilat Mazar:

Eu trabalho com a Bíblia numa mão e a ‘picareta’ na outra. Isto é o que arqueólogos bíblicos fazem. A Bíblia é a mais importante fonte histórica e merece, por isso, atenção especial.

Julgue você mesmo… se não acompanhou o caso, leia aqui também.

Encontrados túneis usados pelos judeus na guerra contra Roma

Encontrados em Caná da Galileia túneis usados pelos judeus na guerra contra Roma em 66 d.C.

 

Underground Tunnels Found in Israel Used In Ancient Jewish Revolt

Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday.

The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.

Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously.

“It definitely was not spontaneous,” Alexandre said. “The Jews of that time certainly did prepare for it, with underground hideaways here and in other sites we have found.”

The underground chambers at the Israeli Arab village of Kfar Kana, north of Nazareth, were built from housing materials common at the time and hidden directly beneath the floors of aboveground homes — giving families direct access to the hideouts. Other refuges found from the time of the revolt are hewn out of rock.

“This construction was very well camouflaged inside one of the houses,” Alexandre said. “There are three pits under this house and one tunnel leading to another pit. There are 11 storage jars in that pit.”

Built like igloos, the chambers are wide at the base and small at the top. The tunnels between them are short and the ceilings are too low for standing upright.

Zeev Weiss, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem not connected to the discovery, said the find “can give us more information about life in the Galilee in the first century and the preparations Jews were making on the eve of the revolt.” Weiss is director of excavations at Sepphoris, which was the largest city in the Galilee at the time of the revolt.

The Jewish revolt against Roman rule ended in A.D. 70, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.

The ancient Jews at the Kfar site built their houses over the ruins of a fortified Iron Age city, reusing some of the stones from the original settlement. Then they dug through 5 feet of debris from the ruins to build their hideaway complex. “It was quite a lot of work,” Alexandre said.

The original settlement, which dates from the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., is also a new discovery.

Alexandre attributes current dating of the original city as an Iron Age settlement to pottery remains, which are plentiful. The excavators have also found large quantities of animal bones, a scarab depicting a man surrounded by two crocodiles and a ceramic seal bearing the image of a lion.

The excavation of the city’s architecture has uncovered fortified walls which still stand 5 feet tall in some places. “It’s magnificent,” said Alexandre. “You can walk among them.”

Fonte: Associated Press – March 15, 2006

O Código de Hammurabi

No blog Awilum.com, me deparo, de repente, ao abrir o leitor de feeds, com uma boa foto do Código de Hammurabi. Nesta semana, este foi um dos assuntos de minha aula de História de Israel, no item Noções de Geografia do Antigo Oriente Médio. É por isso que a melhor tradução deste código feita no Brasil, está aqui, diante de mim, em minha mesa.

Em 1792 Hammurabi (1792-1750 a.C.) subiu ao trono de Babilônia. Consolidou sua posição frente aos vizinhos da Baixa Mesopotâmia e em seguida estendeu seu domínio a Mari, aos elamitas, assírios e gútios. No 31º ano de seu reinado Hammurabi já era senhor da Suméria e de Akkad. Entre outras realizações, Hammurabi desenvolveu uma legislação que ficou famosa através de seu conhecido código, que hoje está no Louvre, em Paris.

Eis um trecho do Epílogo do Código de Hammurabi na tradução de BOUZON, E. O Código de Hammurabi. Introdução, tradução do texto cuneiforme e comentários. 4a edição totalmente revista e melhorada. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1987, p. 222-223:BOUZON, E. O Código de Hammurabi. 10. ed. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2003.

(Estas são) as sentenças de justiça, que Hammurabi, o rei forte, estabeleceu e que fez o país tomar um caminho seguro e uma direção boa. Eu (sou) Hammurabi, o rei perfeito. Para com os cabeças-pretas, que Enlil me deu de presente e dos quais Marduk me deu o pastoreio, não fui negligente, nem deixei cair os braços; eu lhes procurei sempre lugares de paz, resolvi dificuldades graves, fiz-lhes aparecer a luz. Com a arma poderosa que Zababa e Ishtar me outorgaram, com a sabedoria que Ea me destinou, com a habilidade que Marduk me deu, aniquilei os inimigos em cima e embaixo, acabei com as lutas, promovi o bem-estar do país (…). Para que o forte não oprima o fraco, para fazer justiça ao órfão e à viúva, para proclamar o direito do país em Babel, a cidade cuja cabeça An e Enlil levantaram, na Esagila, o templo cujos fundamentos são tão firmes como o céu e a terra, para proclamar as leis do país, para fazer direito aos oprimidos, escrevi minhas preciosas palavras em minha estela e coloquei-a diante de minha estátua de rei da justiça (…). Que o homem oprimido, que está implicado em um processo, venha diante da minha estátua de rei da justiça, leia, atentamente, minha estela escrita e ouça minhas palavras preciosas. Que minha estela resolva sua questão, ele veja o seu direito, o seu coração se dilate! (…) Que nos dias futuros, para sempre, um rei que surgir no país observe as palavras de justiça que escrevi em minha estela, que ele não mude a lei do país que eu promulguei, as sentenças do país que eu decidi, que ele não altere os meus estatutos!

Uma indicação: quem quiser começar a entender a estrutura da sociedade babilônica da época de Hammurabi e conhecer melhor o que poderá ter significado este Código, leia a Introdução da obra de Emanuel Bouzon, nas p. 15-38. Traz como título Hammurabi, seu tempo e sua obra.