Interesting Archaeological Sites

We had a great thread a couple days ago about interesting archaeological sites and their stories, let's continue it

>The temple at Arad was uncovered by archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni in 1962 who spent the rest of his life considering its mysteries, dying there in the mid-1970s.
The incense altars and two "standing stones" may have been dedicated to Yahweh and Asherah. An inscription was found on the site by Aharoni mentioning a "House of Yahweh", which William G. Dever suggests may have referred to the temple at Arad or the temple at Jerusalem.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Madol
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals
youtube.com/watch?v=JSMVhUn8CKI
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Here's the port from Carthage.

I find Tintagel Castle interesting. Not super ancient but interesting story and interesting for the history of England and the history of English literature. IMO, at least.

So, Geoffrey of Monmouth writes in his 12th Century work, Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), that Tintagel Castle was the site of the legendary King Arthur's conception/birth. King Arther being the legendary King of Britain between the 5th and 6th century. Geoffrey describes Tintagel Castle in relative detail (landscape/defense, etc.). Now, historians largely consider his work a fiction (they still consider it one of the central works of the "Matter of Britain.") as it often doesn't match up with other contemporary histories, and they, obviously, consider Arthur to be total folklore. They are also quick to denounce any relation to Arthur at Tintagel Castle and, in fact, are quick to denounce that this was an important castle at all. This is largely because a castle was built on the site by Earl Richard in 1233 to establish a connection with the Arthurian legends that were associated by Geoffrey of Monmouth. The castle was apparently built in a more old-fashioned style for the time to make it appear more ancient. Over time, as the belief that Arthur is legend and not any type of historical figure grows, the site is basically given up and falls into ill repair and dilapidation.

(cont.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Madol
>The mystery of Nan Madol starts with the fact that nothing about its construction can be explained! Scientists and archaeologists have not verified anything about the megalithic construction. They collectively state that the cities construction “is an unexplainable mystery”

The total weight of the black rocks that make up the city’s construction is estimated at 750,000 metric tons, an average of 1,850 tons a year over four centuries. The basalt ‘logs’ that make up the high walls can weight as much as 50 tons each. What’s even more mysterious is the Saudeleurs who built it didn’t have pulleys, levers or metal to aid in the process. This means to build the city, they would have had to move almost 2,000 tons of stone a year, each year, for 400 years.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals

documentary
youtube.com/watch?v=JSMVhUn8CKI

Anyway, so we know the Romans were in this region they called Dumnonii, named after the British tribal group that lived there, as early as the 1st century. They consider it unimportant until some tin mining discovery in the 3rd century. Roman control of southern Britain collapsed in the 5th century and it split into various kingdoms. This region became Dumnonia and had its own chief or king.

Historians continue to try and say no, Tintagel was not important, and yet they keep finding more and more stuff there to indicate that Tintagel was an important site. So important that between 1933 and 1938, that excavations at the site show that "the quantity of imported pottery (from the Meditteranean) from Tintagel...dramatically greater than that from any other single site dated to about 450–600 in either Britain or Ireland". In fact, "larger than the combined total of all such pottery from all known sites [of this period in Britain and Ireland]." Here's another kicker, only 5% of the island has been excavated. Which leads them to believe that Tintagel was a site where ships docked to deposit their cargo from southern Europe in the Early Medieval period.

Historians STILL say, "no no no. No way this has anything to do with Arthur. No concrete evidence whatsoever."

(cont.)

Anyway, in 1998, the "Artognou Stone" is discovered, dated to the 6th century, with the inscription: PATERN[--] COLI AVI FICIT ARTOGNOU. Roughly translated to "Artognou descendant of Patern[us] Colus made (this). Colus made (this)." Artognou is a cognate form of the Old Briton name of Arthnou. The inscription indicates it was graffiti. Not official/formal. Indicating that this was a person people were talking about and proud to be descendant of or wished/pretended they were descendants of. Along with this stone is even more pottery, glasswork, and stones from Spain and the Byzantine Empire. So trade is for sure happening here with the Meditteranean in the 6th century. Only a wealthy state/castle could/would achieve this.

Historians still reject it.

Then, this last summer of 2016, there was found the remains of various Dark Ages structures including well-constructed buildings of relatively large size dated to the 5th & 6th centuries, with pottery and glass finds indicating that the people who lived at Tintagel were of an elite status, drinking wine imported from the eastern Mediterranean and using food vessels from North Africa and Gaul.

Now, I'm not saying this was the birthplace/conception site of King Arthur. I'm not even saying King Arthur existed. I'm just saying I find it interesting.

interesting indeed pham, thanks for sharing this

The Tower of Jericho is an 8.5-metre-tall (28 ft) stone structure, built in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period around 8000 BCE.[1] It is among the earliest stone monuments of mankind.[2]
The Wall of Jericho was discovered by John Garstang during the excavations of 1930 to 1936, which he suggested were those described in the Book of Joshua in the Bible and dated to around 1400 BCE.[3] Kathleen Kenyon discovered the tower built against the wall inside the town during excavations between 1952 and 1958, in trench I. Kenyon provided evidence that both constructions dated much earlier, to the Neolithic, which is the latest part of the Stone Age, and were part of an early proto-city.[3] The tower highlights the importance of Jericho for the understanding of settlement patterns in the Sultanian period in the southern Levant.[4]

The Tower has been interpreted as a fortification, an anti-flooding system, a ritual centre and a political symbol of communal power and territorial claim.

It's such a pity that basically all the archeaological sites in the Middle-East are in such dire states and uninspiring and barren environments that they're not as impressive irl.

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In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Pessah Bar-Adon discovered a hoard of Chalcolithic artifacts in a cave on the northern side of Nahal Mishmar.[1] The hoard included 432 copper, bronze, ivory and stone decorated objects; 240 mace heads, about 100 scepters, 5 crowns, powder horns, tools and weapons.[2][3] Archaeologist David Ussishkin has suggested the hoard was the cultic furniture of the abandoned Chalcolithic Temple of Ein Gedi.[4][5] Prominent finds from the hoard are currently on display in the archaeology wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

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Thanks for helping keep this up

The Chalcolithic Temple of Ein Gedi is a Ghassulian public building dating from about 3500 BCE. It lies atop a scarp above the oasis of Ein Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, within modern-day Israel. Archaeologist David Ussishkin has described the site as "a monumental edifice in terms of contemporary architecture".[2]

The main building was a broadhouse, 20 metres (66 ft) long and 5.5 metres (18 ft) wide, with an entrance along its long southern wall. Opposite the entrance stood a hoof-shaped niche surrounded by a stone fence. Within were found animal bones, sherds, an accumulation of ashes and the clay statuette of a bull laden with a pair of churns. These indicate the niche served as an altar. A round piece of white crystalline limestone, found at the back of the altar, may have served as the base for a statue of a deity. Stone benches stood along both long walls, while along the short walls the excavators found groups of small pits sunk into the floors. These were found to contain the remains of burnt bones, horns, pottery, and a great quantity of ash.[3] A piece of painted plaster indicates the walls were perhaps even painted and decorated,[2][4] like those from the Ghassulian type site at Teleilat al-Ghassul.[1]

np. we need an /arc/ general

seconded!

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>3500 BCE

Were they even Jews back then?

It can't be that small

nah they were a paganistic culture called Ghassulians, precursor to Canaanites later on in the Bronze age

You see, this is why they lost. The port should be connected to the water. No wonder the Roman navy was better if they couldn't even figure that out.

Natufians were an Epipaleolithic culture that existed from around 12,500 to 9,500 BC in the Levant in the Near East. Here is an example of their houses, the most striking feature being that they usually had burial pits either right next to the structure or right under the floor where they would go about their daily lives.

These burial pits would be filled with multiple deceased, usually in a fetal position and the ones on the bottom being dis-articulated from the weight of those on top and the rocks they would also throw into the pits, possibly due to a belief that the rocks would keep the dead from rising again.

Some pits would be lined with plaster to keep a spherical shape and keep them from collapsing on the dead contained within.

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