Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls?

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave.

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin.

The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

Jordan says it will "exert all efforts at every level" to get the relics repatriated.

The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.

"They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Mr Saad.

"Maybe it will lead to further interpretation and authenticity checks of the material, but the initial information is very encouraging, and it seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery, maybe the most important discovery in the history of archaeology."

more at the BBC
h/t
Cronaca

UPDATE:
Stick a fork in the Lead Codices

here kitty kitty

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A wonderful tribute to the Lebanese people…

A group of well dressed people “liberate” the Hizbullah-controlled Beirut Airport Duty Free Central Area, for a few minutes, dance the Lebanese Dabke (Debka). Everyone joins in.

Weekly Standard:

Most of the dancers are professionals, hired by M&C Saatchi MENA, to promote their client, Beirut Duty Free, while others swept up by the emotion just joined in. The aim of the spot, some Saatchi employees explain, was to leave passengers with a memory of Lebanon they could take with them on their journey
h/t
Gateway Pundit

Sunday, March 6, 2011

mystery solved

When I posted this a couple of years ago, a conversation ensued wondering what the shoulder held weapon at 27 seconds was. Mystery solved! Thanks to intrepid researchers Steve Harris and Goldworldnet at the Politics for Pros thread on Silicon Investor, we have concluded it's a Carl Gustav 20mm M/42 recoilless rifle, developed by the Swedes in 1940. Good work fellas!

the word of the day is 'transphobia'

“Oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education,” Diane Schneider told the audience at a panel on combating homophobia and transphobia. Schneider, representing the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the US, advocated for more “inclusive” sex education in US schools, with curricula based on liberal hetero and homosexual expression. She claimed that the idea of sex education remains an oxymoron if it is abstinence-based, or if students are still able to opt-out.

Comprehensive sex education is “the only way to combat heterosexism and gender conformity,” Schneider proclaimed, “and we must make these issues a part of every middle and high-school student’s agenda.” “Gender identity expression and sexual orientation are a spectrum,” she explained, and said that those opposed to homosexuality “are stuck in a binary box that religion and family create.”

more at Protein Wisdom

NEA official admits it's really all about power


h/t
Steve Bartin