Archaeologists unearth long-lost temple believed to be the very site where Jesus Christ performed miracles



Archaeologists believe they have unearthed a long-lost temple which is said to be the very site where Jesus Christ performed miracles.

Recent archaeological excavations in Israel may have revealed the hidden location of where Jesus Christ preached and healed people, according to New Testament accounts.

The archaeologist believes this could be the long-lost temple from over 2,000 years ago that could prove the Biblical narratives mentioning Chorazin.

Archaeologists descended upon a synagogue built in 380 AD that was discovered in 1905. The synagogue is located in the ancient city of Chorazin, which is now part of Korazim National Park in northern Israel.

The archaeologists moved giant rocks that appeared to be strategically placed inside the synagogue and also removed the floor during the excavation.

The excavation revealed an even older temple, buried beneath the synagogue floor.

Behind the rocks, the team discovered pottery, coins, and cookware.

“We can’t date the rocks themselves, but we can date the items found between them," stated lead archaeologist Achia Cohen-Tavor of Dagesh Tourist Archaeology.

Cohen-Tavor explained in a YouTube video documenting the excavation, "What I can date is the pottery and, hopefully, coins coming from between the rocks and definitely what's beneath them. Whatever I get from between those stones would be dating the construction of the synagogue here."

Cohen-Tavor declared, "This is a groundbreaking discovery. I have been excavating all over [the globe], and, for me, it's definitely one of the most important excavations I've ever directed."

The archaeologist believes this could be the long-lost temple from over 2,000 years ago that could prove the Biblical narratives mentioning Chorazin.

Chorazin is well-documented in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Matthew, which mentions the city as a place where Jesus preached and healed people.

However, Jesus eventually cursed the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because the inhabitants did not accept his teachings to repent despite witnessing the miracles that he provided the citizens.

Matthew 11:20-24 reads:

Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."

The 4th-century synagogue at Chorazin features a "Seat of Moses," an ancient chair carved from a basalt block. This chair is where rabbis and other religious leaders would sit and read the Torah.

The "Seat of Moses" is mentioned in Matthew 23:1-3: "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 'The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.'"

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'A king will die': 4,000-year-old Babylonian tablets finally deciphered to reveal disastrous omens



Researchers have finally deciphered a set of 4,000-year-old Babylonian tablets that had ominous omens of doom and destruction.

The four clay tablets dating back some 4,000 years likely originated in Sipparan — an ancient Babylonian city southwest of what is now Baghdad, Iraq.

'There will be an attack on the land by a locust swarm.'

The Babylonian tablets were written in cuneiform — the earliest system of writing that was developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia around 3,400 to 3,300 BCE. The term "cuneiform" comes from the Latin word cuneus, meaning "wedge," and forma, meaning "shape," referring to the wedge-shaped formations made by a stylus on the soft clay tablets.

The British Museum acquired the tablets between 1892 and 1914. However, the tablets have never been fully translated until now.

The translation of the ancient artifacts was recently published in a paper featured in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. The paper was written by Andrew George, an emeritus professor of Babylonian at the University of London, and Junko Taniguchi, an independent researcher.

The paper titled "Old Babylonian Lunar-Eclipse Omen Tablets in the British Museum" declares that the artifacts are "the oldest examples of compendia of lunar-eclipse omens yet discovered and thus provide important new information about celestial divination among the peoples of southern Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BCE."

The paper reads: "They are all found to bear witness to a single text, which organizes the omens of lunar eclipse by time of night, movement of shadow, duration, and date."

The Babylonians were deeply driven by astrology and invented the 12 zodiac signs and the horoscope.

Babylonians recorded the movements of the celestial bodies, the stars, and planets and recognized patterns in them. They believed celestial phenomena were divine signs from the gods and could predict joyous and catastrophic events.

One of the most significant celestial phenomena for the ancient people was lunar eclipses — when Earth’s shadow falls on the surface of the full moon. The Babylonians were able to predict lunar eclipses with fair accuracy for the time.

Babylonians believed that "events in the sky were coded signs placed there by the gods as warnings about the future prospects of those on earth," George and Taniguchi wrote in the paper. "Those who advised the king kept watch on the night sky and would match their observations with the academic corpus of celestial-omen texts."

According to NASA, Babylonians believed lunar eclipses meant evil omens were coming that involved their kings.

The Babylonians went as far as appointing substitute kings so they would be the victims of the wrath of the gods instead of the real king. The substitute king was reportedly killed so the omen was always correct.

The tablets claim that if "an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once, a king will die, destruction of Elam,” referring to a region that is now located in modern-day Iran.

A prediction proclaims if there is "an eclipse begins in the south and then clears" that it will result in the "downfall of Subartu and Akkad," referring to two other regions of the time.

Another omen warns that "a dearth of straw will occur; there will be losses of cattle" if an eclipse occurs on a certain day of the month.

"There will be an attack on the land by a locust swarm," one omen reads.

The tablet text foresees that a "large army will fall" if a lunar eclipse occurs.

George told Live Science, "The origins of some of the omens may have lain in actual experience — observation of portent followed by catastrophe."

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'Monumental' fortification that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings discovered, reveals hidden history from 3,000 years ago



Archaeologists have uncovered a "monumental" fortification that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings some 3,000 years ago. The "dramatic" archaeological discovery solved a 150-year-old mystery in the City of David.

Since 2007, archaeologists have been excavating the area around the Givati Parking Lot, the largest active archaeological excavation in Jerusalem today. The excavation site on the northwestern side of the City of David has unearthed different layers of the city's life from the Middle Ages to ancient times.

'The creation of the moat was a large-scale, monumental operation, designed ... to demonstrate the power of Jerusalem’s rulers to those who entered its gates.'

The most recent archaeological find is the remnants of a moat that split the City of David in half — separating the king's palace and Temple Mount from the rest of the city, including the Ophel in Jerusalem.

The fortification aligns with the city's division noted in the Bible as Ophel and Millo. In the first Book of Kings (11:27), King Solomon described a fortification known as Millo.

"And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the City of David his father," the Bible verse reads.

Archaeologists had been searching for the route of Jerusalem's northern fortification for 150 years. However, the recent excavation finally solved the riddle and revealed a city-dividing moat with unclimbable perpendicular cliffs on both sides.

“It is not known when the moat was first dug, but it is clear that it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah – almost 3,000 years ago, starting from the days of King Josiah,” said Tel Aviv University professor Yuval Gadot and Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dr. Yiftach Shalu.

The archaeologists added, “During those years, it divided between the extension of the city that spread to the south and was served as the residence of the people of Jerusalem and the Acropolis – the upper city, which was where the palace and the temple were located and stood on the Temple Mount, to the north.”

“The connection of the two exposed sections creates a deep and wide trench that stretches across About 70 meters at least, from west to east,” Gadot noted. “Following the dramatic discovery, we reexamined the past excavations reports written by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated in the City of David in the 1960s, in an area located slightly east of today’s Givati Parking Lot.”

Gadot said the "dramatic discovery" has opened up a "renewed discussion of terms from biblical literature that relate to the topography of Jerusalem," which includes Ophel and Millo.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said of the engineering efforts involved in the moat's construction, “The creation of the moat was a large-scale, monumental operation, designed to change and modify the natural topography to demonstrate the power of Jerusalem’s rulers to those who entered its gates.”

Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escusido said in a press release, "The excavations in the City of David never cease to amaze; once again, discoveries are being revealed that shed new and vivid light on the biblical literature. When you stand at the bottom of this giant excavation, surrounded by enormous hewn walls, it is impossible not to be filled with wonder and appreciation for those ancient people who, about 3,800 years ago, literally moved mountains and hills."

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Archaeologists unearth world's oldest wooden structure, 'extraordinary' discovery said to be 476,000 years old



Archaeologists discovered the world's oldest wooden structure, said to be almost half a million years old.

A team of archaeologists unearthed a simple wood structure along a riverbank in Africa. At the dig site, researchers found two bush willow tree logs that appeared to have been manipulated by ancient humans approximately 476,000 years ago. The archaeology discovery makes it older than homo sapiens – believed to have emerged around 300,000 years ago.

Scientists believe that the high water levels from the nearby Kalambo Falls and fine sediment encased the structure to help preserve the wood.

The study of the oldest wooden structure was published in the journal Nature, and declared that archaeologists had discovered "the earliest evidence for structural use of wood in the archaeological record."

According to CNN, "The wood pieces were too old to be directly dated using radiocarbon techniques. Instead, the team used a technique called luminescence dating, which involved measuring the natural radioactivity in minerals in the fine sediment that encased the wood to figure out when it was last exposed to sunlight."

Scientists have determined that ancient humans used stone tools to make notches in the wood to create an interlocking structure. The notches allowed the logs to have to interlock at a right angle.

"It didn't look particularly exciting. But when you look closely and you remove the sand around it, you can see where one sits on top of the other is a notch," said Larry Barham – professor of archaeology at the University of Liverpool.

"This thing was an intended component. It was, in a sense, engineered," Barham said.

"The finds show an unexpected early diversity of forms and the capacity to shape tree trunks into large combined structures," Barham added. "These new data not only extend the age range of woodworking in Africa, but expand our understanding of the technical cognition of early hominins."

Barham told Reuters, "The framework could have supported a walkway or platform raised above the seasonally wet surroundings. A platform could have multiple purposes, including storage of firewood, tools, food and as a foundation on which to place a hut."

“That the wood has remained in place and intact for half a million years is extraordinary. And it gives us this real insight, this window into this time period," said Professor Geoff Duller – coauthor of the study.

Duller noted, "Colleagues have made modern replicas of the stone tools that we see and worked woods of similar density, and we can see that the shaping of these marks is identical. So that’s what makes us really confident (that) this is not a natural process — it has been done intentionally using stone tools."

Architectural Digest reported, "The team’s recovery of additional wooden tools at the site (dated between 390,000 and 324,000 years old) further suggests that the area around this 772 foot waterfall was a popular spot for prehistoric humans."

Scientists had previously believed that humans were nomadic hunters and gatherers during the Stone Age. However, this discovery shows that early humans may have set up a more permanent living situation.

Meanwhile, the earliest known wood artifact is a 780,000-year-old fragment of polished plank found at the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel.

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Archaeologists unearth giant prehistoric hand axes, scientists baffled as to why 300,000-year-old tools are so large



Archaeologists recently unearthed giant prehistoric hand axes in England. Scientists are bewildered at the sheer size of the 300,000-year-old tools and are not positive how humans from the Ice Age used the giant hand axes.

Researchers from University College London discovered the giant hand axes in Ice Age sediments in an ancient river channel in the Medway Valley in southeastern England. The hand axes were found among 800 artifacts buried on a hillside in Frindsbury, Kent. The artifacts were found in the excavation site at Manor Farm that began in 2021. The ancient artifacts are believed to be from the Middle Pleistocene age.

The giant hand axes were crafted from flint stone and measure more than a foot long from tip to butt, plus have very thick bases. Scientists are baffled as to how prehistoric humans were able to use the large stone tools.

"We describe these tools as 'giants' when they are over 22cm long and we have two in this size range," senior archaeologist Letty Ingrey of the University College London Institute of Archeology said in a press release. Ingrey said one of the hand axes is the "longest ever found in Britain."

"These hand axes are so big it’s difficult to imagine how they could have been easily held and used," Ingrey added. "Perhaps they fulfilled a less practical or more symbolic function than other tools, a clear demonstration of strength and skill."

"Generally we think of hand axes as cutting tools like large knives with strong and sharp edges that would have been brilliant for butchering animals and cutting up meat," Ingrey continued. "We're just not sure if the size of this one meant it had another function or was used in a different way. 'Giant' hand axes like the one we found are real outliers, and it's no accident it was made this size. Whoever made it went to a lot of effort, firstly to find a piece of good quality flint big enough to make a tool of this size and then to carefully flake it and shape its long and finely worked tip."

Ingrey explained, "We think the artifacts date from an interglacial (warm period) between about 330,000 and 300,000 years ago. We have no human fossil evidence from the site, so no direct evidence of who was making it. However, we do know that Britain was populated at this time by early Neanderthal people, but there also could have been other archaic human species around."

At the time, the Medway Valley would have been a prime hunting ground for prehistoric humans, likely stocked with red deer, wild horses, as well as now-extinct straight-tusked elephants and lions.

Ingrey admitted, "Right now, we aren't sure why such large tools were being made or which species of early human were making them. This site offers a chance to answer these exciting questions."

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