Michael Amatrudo, a 51-year-old Madison resident and insurance executive, says in the ad that he's gotten "lots of use out of these guys over the past 50 years, but it's time to move on." He says he'll take $155 or a trade for a younger set of parents, an Erector set or a "hot blonde."
Recorded human history begins with the rise of urban literate civilization in Mesopotamia and the Middle East, starting with the Sumerians and the cities of Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Kish in the fourth millennium BC. These civilizations had access to barley and wheat, which by consensus would be regarded as the preferred grains by most brewers. The origin of wheat and barley is believed to lie in the Fertile Crescent. Wild barley grew in Israel and Syria, the Jordan Valley with the extremely ancient Neolithic town of Jericho via eastern Anatolia to northern Mesopotamia and western Iran. Apart from barley, all of the major cereal crops such as wheat, oats, rye, millets, maize, sorghum and rice can and have been used to make beer. Some of the oldest written texts in the world contain lists of grains and ingredients for making beer. Sumerian Mesopotamia produced a great variety of beers, most of which were probably weaker than the European beers of medieval times. Wine was made in the Zagros Mountains in Iran and imported to the main urban sites. Beer was a popular drink in Mesopotamia during all eras and was consumed by all social groups, interlinked with mythology, religion and medicine, synonymous with happiness and a civilized life. Both filtered and unfiltered beers were brewed in the region.If you like beer, this post is for you.
According to I. Hornsey, “Beer that had not gone through any sieving or settlement phase was always drunk through straws, in order to avoid gross sediment. Numerous cylinder seals have been recovered which show individuals (usually two) drinking through straws from a communal vessel, something that supports the notion that drinking beer was a social activity….Drinking straws were usually made of reeds, and hence have long since perished, but one or two elaborate and more substantial structures have survived. Three such items were recovered from a royal tomb at Ur. One was made of copper encased in lapis lazuli; one was made of silver, fitted with gold and lapis lazuli rings, and the third was a reed covered in gold, and found still inserted in a silver jar. The silver tube was an impressive L-shaped structure, being ca. 1 cm in diameter, and some 93 cm long. A number of metal ‘straws’ have also been recovered from Syrian sites. Unfiltered Mesopotamian beer, which was thick and cloudy, was low in alcohol but high in carbohydrate and proteins, making it a nutritious food supplement.”
Beer played an important role in the ceremonial life of ancient Egypt, too. As Douglas J. Brewer and Emily Teeter state in their book Egypt and the Egyptians, second edition, “The most popular drink in Egypt was beer, and we assume that all Egyptians – rich and poor, male and female – drank great quantities of it in spite of advice such as ‘Don’t indulge in drinking beer, lest you utter evil speech, and don’t know what you are saying’ (from the ‘Instructions of Ani’). Wages were paid in grain, which was used to make two staples of the Egyptian diet: bread and beer. Beer was made from barley dough, so bread making and beer making are often shown together. Barley dough destined for beer making was partially baked and then crumbled into a large vat, where it was mixed with water and sometimes sweetened with date juice. This mixture was left to ferment, which it did quickly; the liquid was then strained into a pot that was sealed with a clay stopper. Ancient Egyptian beer had to be drunk soon after it was made because it went flat very quickly. Egyptians made a variety of beers of different strengths.”
All kinds of workers were paid in grain and in grain products such as beer and bread. People at all levels of Egyptian society drank beer, with brewing not as tied to the temples as it was in Mesopotamia, although there was some government interference and regulation here as well. Breweries in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syria could be large, but in the warm climate the beer would quickly become undrinkable and could thus not be transported too far or exported to distant regions. Baking and brewing often went on in shared quarters on the estates of Egypt since these two processes involved the same raw materials and similar equipment. Artistic evidence suggests a strong link between brewing and bread-making, both being domestic duties usually performed by women. Women made much of the beer in medieval Europe, too, until brewing become a major, capital-intensive industry and gradually became dominated by men. The roles of microscopic organisms in baking and brewing, however, were not fully appreciated until the scientific advances of nineteenth century Europe.
Beer was also consumed by many other ancient peoples, including the Hittites, Hebrews, Philistines, Thracians, Illyrians, Phrygians and Scythians. Some peoples, like the Nubians and the Ethiopians, would appear to have developed their own methods of brewing, making use of indigenous raw materials. The Eskimos drank chiefly iced water and warm blood before they were confronted by Europeans and their alcoholic drinks.
Wine has frequently throughout recorded history enjoyed greater prestige than beer and has often been the preferred choice of the wealthy and the privileged. It is difficult to say why. Maybe it was because wine was usually stronger than beer or that it kept longer. We cannot say with certainty that it always tasted better. Regardless of the reason for this, it is a fact that wine was often valued more highly. This attitude arguably still exists today, when beer is often viewed as the drink of the "common man," while those eating at expensive restaurants will normally prefer a glass of fine wine rather than a glass of beer to accompany their food.
Wine was widely consumed in the ancient Middle East, and sometimes its effects were enhanced by additives. Along with eating and drinking went song and dance. Egyptians and Mesopotamians found it difficult to grow large amounts of grapes for wine and instead imported what they could not make. Thousands of wine jars were deposited in the tombs of the first pharaohs of Egypt at Saqqara (Memphis) and Abydos, the main centers of the recently united country. The about 700 jars of wine found in the tomb of one of Egypt’s first kings at Abydos, Scorpion I, contain some of the earliest known hieroglyphic writing ever discovered in Egypt, from before 3100 BC. This wine was apparently imported from southern Palestine, and it is quite clear that there was large-scale production of wine in the Levant – present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan – already at this early date.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Archaeologists said Friday they have unearthed a lavish burial site at the seat of the ancient Macedonian kings in northern Greece, heightening a 2,300-year-old mystery of murder and political intrigue.Claude Mariottini
The find in the ruins of Aigai came a few meters (yards) from last year's remarkable discovery of what could be the bones of Alexander the Great's murdered teenage son, according to one expert.
Archaeologists are puzzled because both sets of remains were buried under very unusual circumstances: Although cemeteries existed near the site, the bones were taken from an unknown first resting place and re-interred, against all ancient convention, in the heart of the city.
Excavator Chrysoula Saatsoglou-Paliadeli said in an interview that the bones found this week were inside one of two large silver vessels unearthed in the ancient city's marketplace, close to the theater where Alexander's father, King Philip II, was murdered in 336 B.C.
She said they arguably belonged to a Macedonian royal and were buried at the end of the 4th century B.C.
. . .
Saatsoglou-Paliadeli believes the teenager's bones found in 2008 may have belonged to Heracles, Alexander's illegitimate son who was murdered during the wars of succession around 309 B.C. and buried in secret. The remains had been placed in a gold jar, with an elaborate golden wreath.
Taking their misinterpretation of international law to new heights, the Arab League this week accused the Jews of Israel of violating the rules that govern global behavior by praying atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
The incident occurred on Sunday, when the head of the Temple Institute led a small group of Jewish tourists atop the Temple Mount. Israeli police at the site forbid non-Muslims from praying there or making any kind of outward religious gestures, such as kneeling or bowing.
But the Temple Institute told Israel National News that the group managed to hold a very brief prayer session without being detected.
After reading about the Jewish prayers at Judaism's holiest site, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called them "a serious blow to the holiness of the site."
Moussa insisted that under international law, Jews and Christians are forbidden from praying atop the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount.
Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology
Israel’s Ethnogenesis Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance
by AVRAHAM FAUST
London: Equinox Publishing, 2007
In this book, Faust tackles one of the hottest debates in Biblical archaeology: the “ethnogenesis” (ethnic origins) of early Israel. Faust provides an overview and synthesis of the archaeological and Biblical evidence in a clear and concise manner, and without unnecessary jargon, despite the book’s strong theoretical underpinnings. But Faust goes beyond summarizing the state of the debate, presenting his own interpretations and views on the emergence of early Israel. This book is a must-read for specialists and is highly recommended for non-specialists looking for an introduction to the current debates.
Best Popular Book on Archaeology
From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible
by ERIC CLINE
Washington, DC: National Geographic Books, 2008
In this engaging and well-written book, Eric Cline discusses popular Biblical mysteries such as the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark and the Ten Lost Tribes. He does an excellent job of explaining why many of the sensational claims made about supposed archaeological discoveries relating to these mysteries are unfounded, while providing readers with a clear and balanced account of what we do know about them. Cline’s book shows how archaeologists can responsibly and professionally involve the public in ongoing discoveries.
Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible
Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible
by KAREL VAN DER TOORN
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007
In the words of the author, “professional scribes ... are the main figures behind biblical literature; we owe the Bible entirely to them.” While scholars of the Bible have known this implicitly, no one until now has framed the matter as clearly as Professor van der Toorn in this pathfinding book. The author provides the ancient Near Eastern background concerning the cultural impact of scribes and their writings (covering both Egypt and Mesopotamia); he presents clearly the concepts of both anonymous and pseudonymous authorship in antiquity; he brilliantly creates a coherent narrative out of the many disparate passages in the Bible that deal with writing and the role of the scribe; and finally he treats such subjects as revelation and canon formation in the long process that ultimately produced the Hebrew Bible. The result is a superb work: well conceived, masterfully researched, broad in scope, and accessible to both scholar and educated lay person alike.
Best Book Relating to the New Testament
Romans: A Commentary
by ROBERT JEWETT
Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007
Robert Jewett’s commentary is a signal achievement, a treasury and reference work for generations to come. The mass of detail that he provides enhances the innovative argument that he pursues throughout the substantial volume. With attention to text critical details, rhetoric and style, economics and social life, and the historical circumstances of Jews under the Roman Empire, Jewett details how the Letter to the Romans fits into a broad first-century debate about honor, power and the status of the barbarian.
Photo: Court
esy Tel Dor Excavation DelegationExcavations in Tel Dor have turned up a rare and unexpected work of Hellenistic art: a precious stone bearing the miniature carved likeness of Alexander the Great. Archaeologists are calling it an important find, indicating the great skill of the artist.Read the news report in its entirety by visiting the web page of Israel National News.
The Tel Dor dig, under the guidance and direction of Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of Haifa University and Dr. Ilan Sharon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, has just ended its summer excavation season. For more than 30 years, scientists have been excavating in Tel Dor, identified as the site of the Biblical town of Dor. The town's location, on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast some 30 kilometers south of Haifa, made it an important international port in ancient times.
Historically, Alexander himself passed through Dor in 332 BCE, during his voyage to Egypt. It appears that the city fell to him without resistance. Since that time until its conquest by the Hasmonean Jewish King Alexander Yannai around 100 BCE, Dor served as a stronghold of non-Jewish Hellenists in the Land of Israel.
Netanyahu . . . waxed poetic about it at a briefing with Israeli reporters, enthusing over the organization's collection of maps, pictures and documents of Palestine dating back to the mid-19th century.Claude Mariottini
"This is a treasure, it is something you all must see," he told reporters, as he kept returning to the subject and talking about the archival information there, and about the knowledge of the geography and topography of pre-state Israel housed in that building.
The PEF was founded in 1865 and is the oldest organization in the world created specifically for the study of the Levant, the southern portion of which - as the organization's literature makes clear - was conventionally known as "Palestine."
The organization publishes an internationally respected journal, the Palestine Exploration Quarterly, and brings the latest archaeological findings and research to the public in a series of regular lectures.
The PEF archives houses some 40,000 photographs of Palestine, Jordan and Syria dating as far back as 1850, and also includes archaeological artifacts, natural history specimens, maps, manuscripts and paintings.
The PEF was founded under the patronage of Queen Victoria in 1865 by a group of distinguished academics and clergymen, most notably the dean of Westminster Abbey, to promote research into the archaeology and history, manners, customs and culture, topography, geology and natural sciences of biblical Palestine and the Levant.
Figures associated with the PEF include Charles Wilson and Charles Warren, who carried out key excavations and land surveys in Jerusalem and Palestine in the 19th century.
Subject: King Tut
"I can e-mail you an authentic pic of King Tut if you like which shows his Negro features. Why try to derive his face from a mummy when you already have a life size accurate picture of his appearance? Disinformation! They are hard to find anywhere in the world as the Egyptian government attempts to distance themselves from their African ancestry. Zahi Hawass is a pawn of the Egyptian govt that already has human right issues. Hawass can't be relied on for the truth. King Tut didn't have a father, like Christ he was born through immaculate conception. His mother was his wet nurse Maia (Maya). Her tomb was teh only tomb EVER found with a lion mummy in it. Maya was also the same name as Buddha's mother. He had 144 objects wrapped within the bandages of his mummy. 144,000 is the speed of LIGHT around the earth, thus associated with light beings (Revelations). Tribe of Judah is tribe of light contains 144,000 in numbers. Light travels 6.66 times the earth in a second. Humans are the beast. King Tut reincarnated as Christ to take to the next stage what was begun in Egypt. Old testament was derived from Egyptian mythology. King Tut, King Akhenaten, Moses, A was part of the trinity that started Monotheism"
Crompton quotes the King James translation of a verse from the Holiness Code in Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Crompton speculates that Levitical hostility toward homosexuality arose from the desire to keep the worship of Yahweh distinct from the cultic practices of other cultures in the Ancient Near East, in which transvestite priests often played religious roles.
Another biblical law that now can be explained through recourse to the Ugaritic texts is the prohibition against transvestism in Deuteronomy 22:5. This act is described in the Epic of Aqhat as well. After the hero is slain, his sister Pughat seeks revenge against Anat for the murder. To do so, Pughat disguises herself as a male, replete with rouge (the coloration of males, especially warrior heroes), man’s clothing and weaponry. The Israelite reaction is to forbid transvestism, another aspect of Canaanite society that they found reprehensible. Again, one needs to place this in its proper context. No doubt the average Canaanite male or female dressed in proper fashion throughout most his or her life. But since Canaanite epic literature describes transvestism in a noble manner, we may conclude that this act not only was practiced but also was countenanced. A close reading of the biblical prohibition reveals that the female is referred to first then the male follows. This runs counter to most laws in the Pentateuch, which either are addressed to male solely, or are addressed to male first and female second. This is not coincidental; rather it suggests an even closer connection with Pughat’s action detailed in the Epic of Aqhat.
The list of intellectually dishonest arguments that you will find here is not complete and in no particular order. There are plenty more being used all over the world even as you are reading this very sentence. I have two goals to accomplish with this paper. The first is to discredit Brian McLaren’s book a Generous Orthodoxy. The second is to encourage others to learn the dishonest tactics of debate. When you learn these tactics and get yourself very acquainted with them, you’ll find that people use them more than you could have ever imagined and it will make you a better debater. Also, you will catch yourself from formulating your own arguments in dishonest ways and save yourself some embarrassment from getting caught.
7. Argument from Adverse Consequences (Appeal to Fear, Scare Tactics)
McLaren contends that the Old Testament is simply not God’s word to people in our time. It, instead, was “God’s word to people back then.” He recounts many examples of violent acts and states that they mis-read the Old Testament. He commends a few well-known peaceful people saying that they have it right. In the end, he contends that there is nothing to learn from the Old Testament except what not to do. This compounds McLaren’s belief that works are what it means to follow Jesus. (This point is solidified by Gandhi being used as an example of someone who followed the way of Christ) The reader is left with a feeling that any belief that the Bible is God’s word to our generation can and will eventually lead to ethnic cleansing being justified. (pg 189)
Although scholars have rejected the anti-transvestism law of Deuteronomy 22:5 to be a ban on Canaanite practices, I take the view that this Deuteronomic prohibition is a protest against the immoral practices of Canaanite fertility religion.
They simply speculate the intention of the biblical text. God prohibits women from putting on the male garment and men from putting on the female garment, but instead the intention was to avoid Canaanite worship rituals.
Deuteronomy 22:5 isn't hard to understand. . . . The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. . . . We see nothing in the verse about Canaanite worship or women in the military or transvestism. It is about as straightforward as it can get.
I've dealt with the interpretation of Deuteronomy 22:5. Now I will show you that women in dresses and skirts and men in pants is how that it has been practiced.
Our country practiced the pants as male dress and the dress or skirt as the female dress. Those were the designed distinctions. None other served as the distinction between the genders. They were erased by the culture because the culture didn't care to keep those distinctions any longer, despite what God had said. They were replaced by nothing.
As the property of a neighbor was to be sacred in the estimation of an Israelite, so also the divine distinction of the sexes, which was kept sacred in civil life by the clothes peculiar to each sex, was to be not less but even more sacredly observed. There shall not be man's things upon a woman, and a man shall not put on a woman's clothes.
Papyrus 3:1 Forsooth, the Desert is throughout the land. The nomes are laid waste. A foreign tribe from abroad has come to Egypt.
“A celestial body that only shortly has become a member of the solar system–a new comet–came very close to the earth . . . The comet was on its way from its perihelion and touched the earth first with its gaseous tail . . . One of the first visible signs of this encounter was the reddening of the earth’s surface by a fine dust of rusty pigment. In sea, lake, and river this pigment gave a bloody coloring to the water” (p. 48).
“There occurred more than one world conflagration; the most horrible one was in the days of the Exodus. In hundreds of passages in the Bible, the Hebrews described what happened. Returning from the Babylonian exile in the sixth and the fifth centuries before this era, the Hebrews did not cease to learn and repeat the traditions, but they lost sight of the fearful reality of what they learned. Apparently, the post-Exile generations looked upon all these descriptions as the poetical utterances of religious literature” (p. 298-99).
“Dr. Velikovsky discloses immense erudition and extraordinary ingenuity. He writes well and documents all his statements with original sources . . . His conclusions are amazing, unheard of, revolutionary, sensational . . . If Dr. Velikovsky is right, this volume is the greatest contribution to the investigation of ancient times ever written.”
Several months ago, a same-sex couple petitioned the courts in Israel in an attempt to sue the religiously affiliated commune Yad Hadmashona for punitive damages. According to the petitioners, the moshav prohibited them from holding their marriage celebration on its premises. Clearly, this subject strikes personal discord for both parties—the couple aims to expunge all forms of supposed discrimination and intolerance, while the institution struggles to function successfully within the parameters of its belief system.Read the article in its entirety by visiting Israel Today’s webpage.
Founded in 1971, Yad Hashmona was presented to the state of Israel as a gesture of solidarity by Finland. Today, the grounds function as a commune and serve the public by running a guesthouse, convention center, and banquet hall, which the couple sought to rent for their celebration. Administrators seek to maintain a specific religious ethos and as a result place limits on the type of events renters wish to host. Now, because Yad Hashmona denied its services for the purpose of a same-sex marriage celebration, the commune faces a moral and legal dilemma.
While this decision is not a reflection of the commune's feelings regarding homosexuals as individuals or citizens of the state, it is a direct reference to the institution’s devotion to the sanctity of marriage. Forcing Yad Hashmona to allow such events would defile the community's fundamental beliefs, business would be destroyed and Yad Hashmona may cease to exist.
Jewish writings from the period of Second Temple present a rich and potentially overwhelming variety of first-hand materials. George W. E. Nickelsburg and Michael E. Stone, experts on this formative period, have updated their classic sourcebook on Jewish beliefs and practices to take into account current thinking about the sources and to include new documents, including texts from Qumran not available in the first edition, in a brilliantly organized synthesis.Included are chapters on Jewish sects and parties, the Temple and worship in it, ideals of piety and conduct, expectations concerning deliverance, judgment, and vindication, different conceptions of the agents of God's activity, and the figure of Lady Wisdom in relationship to Israel.
