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| Science & Technology |
| Tel Dan Stele, oldest archaeological evidence of King David, comes to NY’s Jewish Museum |
| 2024-12-15 |
| [IsraelTimes] The ancient artifact, which dates to the 9th century BCE, is on view through January 5 Last year, New York City’s Jewish Museum imported a new director from the Israel Museum. Now, it’s brought the oldest archaeological evidence of the existence of King David from the Jerusalem museum, too. The Tel Dan Stele, a stone fragment long held exclusively by the Israel Museum, is on view at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side until January 5. A 12-by-13-inch chunk of basalt, the Tel Dan Stele is a 9th-century BCE stone document acknowledging the military victories of a person whom scholars believe to be King Hazael of Aram, an area in contemporary Syria that includes what is today Damascus. One of those victories was over a descendant of David, the king of ancient Israel. When it was discovered in northern Israel in 1993, the Tel Dan Stele became the earliest evidence beyond the Bible that King David was a real figure. "There is no archaeological evidence surviving from the First Temple," said James Snyder, who took the helm of the Jewish Museum a year ago. "There is from the Second Temple, and that’s at the Israel Museum. From the First Temple, what therefore becomes important are these references to this archaeological evidence of the time of the First Temple, and of evidence that reinforces biblical history." The First Temple, believed to have been built by David’s son King Solomon in the 10th century BCE, was destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. "What makes the Tel Dan Stele so important is that it’s the oldest archaeological evidence of the existence of the House of David, which is the sort of touchstone or fountainhead for the unfolding thereafter of Judaism, Christianity and then Islam," Snyder added. In fact, it’s so old that the Aramaic used in the stele was still being written in the Phoenician alphabet — a language that predates Aramaic. The ancient inscription refers to the "House of David," in translation saying, "[I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g of the House of David." Before coming to the Jewish Museum, the stele was on display for nearly two months at a biblical archaeology museum in Oklahoma. It was previously displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, just blocks from the Jewish Museum, a decade ago. (A replica is also on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC.) |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 "BCE"? There and then went any credibility. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2024-12-15 19:20 |
| #1 the Temple Mount Sifting Project (which began about 20 years ago continues to this day) has resulted in many artifacts from the 1st Temple period (in contradiction to the article). The artifacts are all fairly small including seal impressions, stone weights, pieces of jugs and bowls, etc. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2024-12-15 00:26 |