Armchair Archaelogist!

I have adrenalin rush just watching documentary on archaeology and going to the following two websites. There’s a term for people like me – armchair archaeologist!

http://gath.wordpress.com/ - Archaelogist Aren M Maeir, a biblical archaelogist has a weblog informing you of findings sometimes not even published yet. Really exciting! Like being part of an archaelogical team!

http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/hp_eng.asp - gives you a virtual tour of the City of David

I caught 2 documentaries on King David on History channel recently and it got me really excited about archaelogy again! It’s such a coincidence that I managed to watch these documentaries – imagine, just right after my article “The Christmas Story Foretold”. I really believe God had a hand in it and He must have wanted me to share these findings with you.

One of the documentaries was about whether King David was a mythical figure. How can that he be mythical? So many facts appear today e.g. existence of Bethlehem, Jesus, Israel, Philistine or the similarity of the topography. The bible itself is a book of recordings of people’s testimonies. It has so much detail right down to names of Jesus’ lineage, names of Kings, names of wives, children, no of years ruled, how big the armies were etc.

Apparently it was not until 15 years ago that someone discovered archaelogical evidence of a black basalt stele now called Tel Dan Stele. It was discovered during excavations at Tel Dan in Israel in 1993/1994. It was erected by an Aramaean king and contains an inscription commemorating victories and had insciptions including "Israel" and the "House of David."

The inscriptions caused much excitement amongst biblical scholars and archaeologists because one of the inscriptions are identical to the word "House of David" in Hebrew. If these letters refer to the Davidic line then this is the first time the name "David" has been recognized at any archaeological site. The scholarly consensus among archaeologists and epigraphers is that the fragment is an authentic reference to the Biblical King David.

The other evidence for the existence of King David were findings of topography similar to Gath in the bible, the underground cave possibly used by David to hide in (and not just fictional writings), the water tunnel possibly used by King David to attack the Jebusites (they actually filmed the narrow water tunnels leading into the city behind the unpenetrable walls).

All this is really exciting because it confirms that the bible is not fiction, that God played a part in our history as documented by various people over a long period of time. I’m so excited about this discovery because I can follow these websites on a regular basis on archaelogical findings in Israel without actually going to Israel. Cool!