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  • From: <david.kimbrough AT charter.net>
  • To: kwrandolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Iron and Steel
  • Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 5:35:59 +0000

Just a technical note, iron and steel are quite different.
King David may have had iron weapons but he almost
certainly did not have steel. Iron must be "steeled" with
certain alloys by specific processes that were certainly
not available in the early iron age.

>
> From: kwrandolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> Date: 2004/05/26 Wed PM 10:59:36 GMT
> To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Exodus & Hyksos & dating
>
> Dear Walter:
>
> Is this a great list or what? First I get one who
questions my claim
> that David at about 1000 BC had iron (steel) weapons, now
you
> question my explanation for iron age villages starting at
1220 BC.
>
> First of all, the cities built listed in Numbers were
east of the
> Jordan River, not the Canaanite hill country.
>
> Secondly, how do you know that it was 1220-1150 BC that
there was a
> sudden burst of construction? Why not earlier? A couple
centuries
> later? To what are the dates correlated? Are the dates
determined by
> written documents listing the reigning monarch, or just
the usual
> pottery? How do you know that they were iron age? The
other poster
> (sorry, I don't mean to forget your name) indicated he
doubted that
> David had steel weapons precisely because a lack of iron
implements
> found in "iron age" villages.
>
> The problem for historians is that the main document
recording the
> history of Israel has two main focuses: first and
foremost, the
> cultic life of the people, and secondly, the political
life. Details
> concerning daily life of the common people got very short
shrift by
> the writers. Therefore, with the lack of any contemporary
written
> explanation for the archeological findings, we are left
with
> speculation (and my detractors claim that I can speculate
with the
> best of them). To top it off, the most important physical
artifacts,
> even of the early iron age, may still have been leather,
wood and
> cloth, precisely those materials least like to survive in
a tell for
> us to excavate today.
>
> Since we don't even have the dates firmly established, I
at this
> point will refrain from speculation. ;-)
>
> As I stated before, I believe the Exodus occurred 1450 ±
50 years BC.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
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>

David Kimbrough
San Gabriel





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