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Posted on Friday, 30 December, 2011 | 17 comments| News tip by: Karlis
Image credit: Pieter Brueghel, 1563
The 'Tower of Babel stele' is carved in black stone and is believed to date back as far as 604 BC.
The tablet was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen which consists of over 13,000 items including part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient writings of Australia's Aborigines thought to be over 20,000 years old. Full details of the discoveries will be published by a team of scholars in a new book.
"Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE."
#9 Posted by questionmark on 30 December, 2011, 20:24
Are you saying bible thumpers created it? Well, given that the story is at least 3000 years older and does not appear in many other contexts, excluding the inverosimil that could be one of the explanations As I have not seen the thingy close enough to see it myself I cannot say if the second verosimile explanation applies: Taken out of context in the translation.
#10 Posted by JohnathanA on 31 December, 2011, 12:06
Very interesting!
#11 Posted by lakeview rud on 4 January, 2012, 20:31
Ah, the Babel Fish!! That would allow all who are not deaf to hear God's final message to His people...."Sorry for the Inconvenience". Remember to grab your towel when the apocalypse arrives!!!
We don't have a suspected site for the Tower, right? It is only logical the story was taken from Ziggurats but what was the Tower? Entemenanki seems the most likely candidate. Is this the ame as the Ziggurat of Ur? A link shows Entemenanki to have been around and in a habitable state off and on for the periods relevant to the stele. http://www.livius.org/es-ez/etemenanki/etemenanki.html Alternatively, I am somewhat suspicious how the site of the Tower is unverified and the existence of Solomon's Temple is equally unidentified by archaeology. Could this mean theoretically that both of these aus... [More]
#13 Posted by questionmark on 5 January, 2012, 0:19
We don't have a suspected site for the Tower, right? It is only logical the story was taken from Ziggurats but what was the Tower? Entemenanki seems the most likely candidate. Is this the ame as the Ziggurat of Ur? A link shows Entemenanki to have been around and in a habitable state off and on for the periods relevant to the stele. http://www.livius.or...etemenanki.html Alternatively, I am somewhat suspicious how the site of the Tower is unverified and the existence of Solomon's Temple is equally unidentified by archaeology. Could this mean theoretically that both of these auspicious sites co... [More]
We don't have a suspected site for the Tower, right? It is only logical the story was taken from Ziggurats but what was the Tower? Entemenanki seems the most likely candidate. Is this the ame as the Ziggurat of Ur? A link shows Entemenanki to have been around and in a habitable state off and on for the periods relevant to the stele. http://www.livius.org/es-ez/etemenanki/etemenanki.html Alternatively, I am somewhat suspicious how the site of the Tower is unverified and the existence of Solomon's Temple is equally unidentified by archaeology. Could this mean theoretically that both of these aus... [More]
With respect both, don't dismiss too quickly. Shinar may have meant the kingdom on Babylon which was very large at points. It covered up to areas of Northern Syria and may well have encompassed the Phoenician coast. The placement of the story of the Tower in Genesis indicates a point following the flood but well before the time of Abraham. Abraham's ancestor Eber was alive at the time of the Tower's building and several generations went in between. The building of the Tower would thus appear to have occured prior to 3000 BCE. Whereabouts is not easily realized because the Ziggurats could well ... [More]
Well if we go according to Biblical dates, the earth was created roughly 6000 years ago, and the Flood of Noah was about 4500 years ago. That would put the building of the tower of babel maybe 100 to 200 years later after the flood, say between 4400 to 4300 years ago.
one of the apocryphal books says that babel took place during the time of abram. according to the septuagint the flood took place 2242 years after adam and abram was born 1170 years after the flood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogies_of_Genesis#Genesis_numbers