Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk"<peter_kirk AT sil.org>]

Thanks for this interesting info. Actually I don't think he needed 
satellite photos. My atlas dated 1958 (before the days of satellite 
photos) clearly shows a seasonal river named "W. Rima" flowing into 
the upper side of a sand desert near to "Turaif", and another seasonal 
river appearing on the lower side of the sand desert at "Umm Wajid" 
and flowing down to the Kuwait/Iraq border. Not hard to infer that in 
wetter times they were one and the same river.

I appreciate you not wanting to smear Sauer's name by association with 
Rohl. His theory is quite different from Rohl's. But why are you 
smearing Rohl's name? I hope not by association with Velikovsky. But 
if not, why not, except that he has put forward a theory which (like 
Sauer's) does not meet with the approval of some of the academic 
estblishment? "Swindler" is a strong word (and one which could even 
land you in court, though I'm not sure if any court as jurisdiction 
over a list like this). Would you care to justify it?

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Genesis and Gilgamesh/Exod 15
Author:  <ronning AT nis.za> at Internet
Date:    21/01/2000 10:27


Ben asked for:

>  author, book, publisher,
>  date and page reference

James Sauer, "The River Runs Dry", Biblical Archaeological 
Review July/August 96 pp. 52

A geologists was trying to figure out where the abundant 
granite and basalt pebbles in Kuwait came from, and noted 
that a likely source was the Hijaz mountains in western 
Saudi Arabia (one of the common identifications of Havilah, 
where Gen 2 put the Pishon River), and when he looked at 
satellite photos he found the dried up (estimated to be dry 
since about 3000 BC) river bed.

The source of the river checks out also with the description 
of Havilah "the gold of that land is good".  Good indeed - 
near the ancient river source is the "cradle of gold" a mine 
rediscovered a few decades ago and still producing 5 tons of 
gold a year.

(a good example of why Niels told us not to read BAR)

I posted this information about a year ago, at which time 
Ian also tried to smear it by associating it with the name 
of that swindler David Rohl, just as he is doing now - 
reminds me of remarks made recently about "flawed 
methodologies" (ignoring inconvenient facts).

On another thread, for those who think Exodus 15 presumes 
that the temple has been built, I'd call your attention to 
Psalm 114:1-2 " When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of 
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,  Judah became God's 
sanctuary, Israel his dominion."  So Exodus 15
applies even if a temple was never built, (and Israel had a 
king since the exodus, as Exod 15:18 [The Lord will reign 
forever and ever] and Num 23:21 [The shout of the King is 
among them] also show).

Regards,

John Ronning