Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Fred,

 

I'm not denying that there could be something at  Jabal al-Lawz, I'm just
saying that if there is, it's unlikely to have any connection to what we've
been discussing. As far as the Temple mount, I am sure that there are
ancient ruins there. I'm also sure that given the amount of destruction and
the climate, the chances that documents written on perishable materials
would have survived are very small. And considering the fact that very few
even non-perishable Bronze or Iron Age inscriptions have been found in and
around Jerusalem, I would not hold my breath. Which means that most of what
anyone says on the subject is very speculative.

 

Yigal Levin 

 

From: fred burlingame [mailto:tensorpath AT gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 9:42 PM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] parent & child

 

Hello Yigal ...

 

I think sometimes you all read too much into what I say. I have no clue as
to how to modify or even make a wikipedia entry. I only cite that source
since it seems to be free of viruses and represents a somewhat vanilla
flavored & inoffensive site.

 

As far as jebel al lawz is concerned, your comments could equally apply to
the caves at qumran. Who would have thought such caves contained the mass of
literary documents found? And obviously, some controversial settlement in
antiquity appears there at jebel al lawz.

 

Further, I am not an archaeologist. But isn't the common experience, that a
city or civilization builds on the ruins of the preceding city. So, at
different strata or levels, history is revealed. I would think that digging
down below temple mount, would disclose increasingly receding in time,
strata or levels of prior habitation (including written materials?).

 

And indeed, hasn't some excavation in nearby precincts of temple mount so
disclosed earlier levels of building? As you mentioned? Is it unreasonable
to conclude that the owners of the temple would have buried written
documents on the eve of the invasion and burning?

 

regards,

 

fred burlingame

On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 12:54 PM, Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
wrote:

Isn't it interesting that both Wiki entries were last modified today! Wonder
how that happened.



Anyway, there is no reason to think that Jabal al-Lawz has anything to do
with anything biblical or that there were ever Bronze or Iron Age Canaanites
or Israelites there. As far as the Temple Mount - yes, it is reasonable that
there was a library or archive there. However, considering that the Temple
was burned to the ground twice, not to mention other conqueror over the
ages, plus the extensive renovations done by Herod, plus the wet climate of
Jerusalem, make it very unlikely that any parchment or papyrus has survived.
For comparison, think of the dozens of bullae that were found in the nearby
City of David, which are proof that there was an archive that burned,
causing the clay bullae to harden and survive.



Yigal Levin