Ancient Finds and Information Confirmed I think to some extent most of us are interested in archaeology. Anyone who likes antiques might not think they are dealing with archaeological objects, which are commonly known as artifacts, but many believe if something is more than 75 years old it falls into that category. This might mean most of us have an artifact or two in our homes. I have a lithograph from 1860 which is worth really nothing, but I love it never the less. It depicts two Scottish soldiers in full color. When I look at it, I can’t help but think about what the times back then were like. The world has changed so much. If the average person looks into what is stored in their attic, they might find an old typewriter or two. There were just so many of those machines made. At one time when I got my first full time job it was with Underwood, a famous typewriter maker at the time. It was the old story those who couldn’t keep up with the new technology went by the wayside. Underwood made good machines, and even eventually came out with an electric model, but IBM had come out with the famous ball electric typewriter which did away with all those annoying keys which would get stuck from time to time and that was the end for many other typewriter companies and then came word processors. They only lasted for a short period of time because computers with word processing software put them out of business. It seems no matter how long we dig, we keep finding unexpected things. Recently a group of mummies were found in Egypt which had gold tongues. A gold plate had been inserted over their real tongues. This make a person wonder why the Egyptians did this, nothing like this had been found before, to my knowledge? When archaeologists were asked why they believed this was done, the consensus was so that they could speak before the court of the god Osiris in the afterlife. These mummies were about 2,000 years old, but were said to be poorly preserved, which made the golden tongues even more mysterious. One would have thought if they were being prepared this way, the preparation for the afterlife would have been accomplished much better with greater care about the rest of the body. An article came out talking about a bullet being found which was ancient. It turned out to be a shot for a sling which was thousands of years old. What made it even more incredible was it was inscribed with the sentence, “Victory of Hercules and Hauronas.” Obviously, the shot was ancient Greek. It is reasonable to think it was used in the battles between the ancient Greeks and Hasmoneans. I believe many of us have heard stories about lost legions in different wars, but did you know some of these stories go back thousands of years? The Roman 19th Legion was lost during the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. This battle was one of the most terrible defeats the Romans ever had. There were many other Legions, cohorts, and cavalry involved also. Scientists were able to examine the different metal composition of the weapons used are where able to identify those weapons which were used by the 19 Legion, proving they were there. Scientists are always interested in ancient foot prints. Ultimately, they might be responsible someday for proving humans were around a lot longer than we have been told. Human footprints were found in Spain. They had been previously dated as being 106,000 years old. On a later reexamination scientists realized they had been wrong and the footprints were much older. To be exact, it was determined they were made over 300,000 years ago. There are human footprints which appear to have been made at the same time dinosaur footprints were made in the same place. This could mean humans have been on this planet for not hundreds of thousands of years, but many millions. There may have been thriving races in Italy before the Romans. We know the Etruscans were there and we are finding out they were also an advanced race. The Romans adapted some of their ideas and this helped to make them even greater. Gigantic Cyclopean walls have been found across Italy and they are pre Roman. They look like the Mycenaean fortifications of ancient Greece. Could the Mycenaeans have settled a colony in Italy? If they did, It could have been as early as 1750 B.C. or earlier. The jungles of South and Central America are giving up their secrets at an accelerated pace as we develop new ways of exploring them. The use of Lidar technology has quickened that pace. It allows us to see through the jungle canopy and boy have we found a lot. Scientists have found many buildings from the Mayan Snake Dynasty. This was a dynasty of Kaanul rulers that lasted for about 650 years and spread out from their original home in Calakmul in Mexico. Structures from this period are being found throughout the jungle. What archaeologists are finding is said to be from about 850 to 635 B.C. The scientists are also not just finding buildings but even cities. When we look at the ancient city of Calakmul we are looking at one of the largest cities in the ancient Americas. Sometimes people read of battles in the bible which were said to have taken place, but we have no way to know if they actually happened. It is said one of the periods which is the hardest to know much about took place from 1200 to 500 B.C. It is known as the Levantine Iron Age. A new weapon of discovery has come on the scene and it is known as geomagnetic and/or archaeomagnetic dating. It can be used on excavated artifacts, along with historical sources including the bible. Let’s hope this will lead to being able to back up more of the stories in the bible about those battles. One very interesting story in the bible is about the Tower of Babel. Archaeologists had dug in Shinar for decades hoping to prove the existence of the tower, but when Iraq became unstable, they had to stop. The work as begun again, but this time archaeologists are announcing they have found some unusual building material and they think it could have been part of the famous tower. The material was a type of brick which was said to have been commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar II.
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