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The mother of all Palestinian modern-day curses
During a Dead Sea-area dig in 2002, Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld discovered two small packages wrapped in cloth. The contents of one of them, just recently made public, was a scathing curse aimed at Israeli leaders."Oh God almighty, I beg you God to destroy Ariel Sharon, son of Devorah, son of Eve." Thus opens a unique text, written in eloquent Arabic, on parchment found more than two years ago at the bottom of the Dead Sea. "Destroy all his supporters, loyal aides and confidants, and all those who love him and whom he loves among the human beings and among devils and demons," the anonymous writer continues with his curse. The Dead Sea leaves those who visit it with a doleful impression. It is evaporating fast and needs artificial resuscitation. The once grand inlet in its southern part now has dry patches. Sinkholes are opening around it, endangering anyone walking on the shore. The Dead Sea at various times has been a bustling center of human activity. Hebrew University Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld spent years studying the region. In August 2002, he started digging near Matzad Kidron (Hirbat Mazen in Arabic) in the remnants of a magnificent fortress that belonged to Hasmonean King Alexander Yanai from 103 to 76 BCE, south of the Einot Zukim reserve. The fortress' walls are well-preserved, rising five or six meters high. This fortress was, in fact, a shipyard and housed Alexander Yanai's royal ship, Hirschfeld says. In his book "Longing for the Desert: The Dead Sea Valley in the Time of the Second Temple," he explains that the fortress' location was chosen for its solid land, as opposed to the swampy shifting land north of it. This meant boats could be brought close to the shore and towed to the shipyard. The Dead Sea's rapidly sinking level, an ecological hazard, is a blessing to archaeologists. At certain points, the sea has receded up to 200 meters from the beach, and explorers are now digging in the exposed land. In August 2002, Hirschfeld and his team dug up 2,500 bronze coins inscribed "King Jonathan," Alexander Yanai's Hebrew name. These coins are part of what is known as "the Dead Sea treasure" - hundreds of thousands of coins that may have fallen from one of the king's ships. They were discovered more than 15 years ago, and several others have been discovered since. "The people who worked with me searched a few dozen meters offshore and kept finding more and more coins," Hirschfeld says. One of his aides, Yoav Lupen, found something else 20 meters from the shore - two small packages of parchment wrapped in cloth, soaked in a preservative substance with a pungent odor resembling turpentine, and folded in sheets of lead. The packages were handed over to antiquities' preserver Orna Cohen, who opened one of them. It contained a modern, astonishingly venomous curse script. Posted by: tipper 2004-12-14 |
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