An inscription dating back to some 3,100 years ago bearing the name of a biblical judge, Jerubbaal, was uncovered in the excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Kiryat Gat in the Southern District of Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

The researchers highlighted that while there cannot be any certainty on whether the inscription refers to the figure mentioned in the Book of Judges, this discovery offers important insights on the connection between the biblical text and historical reality.

Inscriptions from that period – the 12th-11th century BCE – are extremely rare. All the dating has been carried out through both pottery typology and radiocarbon of organic samples found in the same archaeological layer.

The writing, inked on a jug, marks the first time that the name Jerubbaal has been found outside the biblical text. It is believes that the owner penned his name on the jug.

“The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash,” according to Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and archeologist Sa‘ar Ganor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Garfinkel and Ganor co-direct the excavations at the site with Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia – a partner in the dig together with the IAA.

“Gideon is first mentioned as combatting idolatry by breaking the altar to Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole,” they explained. “In biblical tradition, he is then remembered as triumphing over the Midianites, who used to cross over the Jordan to plunder agricultural crops. According to the Bible, Gideon organized a small army of 300 soldiers and attacked the Midianites by night near Ma‘ayan Harod.”

To read More:

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/3000-year-old-inscription-bearing-name-of-biblical-judge-found-in-israel-673576

The day of 12^th Tir (July 4?) is the birthday of Babak Khorramdin Sardar and national hero of Iran.

Babak Khorramdin was born 1200 years ago, (140 years after the occupation of Iran by Muslim Arabs) and was the leader of a movement called Khorram Dinan. This movement, also known as the “Red Shirt”, was led by Babak for more than twenty years against the Abbasid caliphs and occupiers of Iran. The stories of bravery, virtues and justice of Babak and his companions even crossed the borders of Iran to other countries. Babak was finally arrested by the envoys of the Abbasid caliphs and was painfully killed, but his name is still dear and beloved for Iranians.

Babak’s tomb was for many years in a fort called Baz Baz, which is located at an altitude of 2300 meters in mountainous Azerbaijan, Iran. This fort has been known as “Babak Fortress” for centuries. And every year, on the occasion of his birthday, many Iranians from all over Iran go to this fortress and celebrate his memory by dancing and singing.

Unfortunately, after the revolution, and especially in the last few years, the Islamic government has prevented people from gathering around this fort. However, the people who are interested in Babak and his legacy continue to go to the mountains and Babak’s Fort to celebrate his birthday every year on the 12th of Tir (Iranian calendar), on the occasion of Babak’s birthday.

TANK BAY, ANTIGUA—The Antigua Observer reports that an eighteenth-century shipwreck has been found in the mud at Nelson’s Dockyard, which is situated in English Harbor on the island’s southern coast, as part of a collaborative project between the University of the French West Indies (AIHP GEODE), and the Antigua and Barbuda National Parks. A team led by Jean-Sébastien Guibert of the University of the French West Indies used side-scan sonar equipment and a magnetometer to investigate the underwater site. They found that the wooden hull measures about 130 feet long. “The British were very good at keeping records about what happened at the dockyard and we haven’t found anything relating to it, so it’s a big possibility that it’s not British but something else,” said archaeologist Christopher Waters of the National Parks Authority. It may be the wreckage of the 1762 Beaumont, a heavily armed merchant ship built by the French East India Company. The ship was later sold to a private individual, renamed the Lyon, and was eventually captured off the coast of Virginia during the American Revolution. The ship was likely stripped of any useful or identifying objects by enslaved Africans when it sank, Guibert explained, but the researchers will map the site, compare the wreck’s dimensions to records of Beaumont, and analyze its wooden timbers and ballast stone for clues.

According to a statement released by Simon Fraser University, researchers from Simon Fraser University and the University of Sydney examined remains recovered from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries to try and determine how many Germanic-speaking people from mainland Europe arrived in the British Isles between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D. Historic documents suggest that so many people migrated to the British Isles that they replaced its Romano-British inhabitants. Analysis of the bones, however, indicates that between two-thirds and three-quarters of early Anglo-Saxons came from continental Europe. By the Middle Anglo-Saxon period, only 30 to 50 percent of Anglo-Saxons had ancestors from continental Europe. The researchers suggest that Anglo-Saxon Britain was likely to have been made up of people of different ancestries who adopted Anglo-Saxon culture. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE.

The Washington Post reports that the preliminary analysis of the remains of nine people from an unmarked mass grave in Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery has been completed. The grave is thought to hold some of the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, in which an estimated 300 Black people were killed and 35 blocks in the affluent Black community of Greenwood, also known as “Black Wall Street,” were destroyed. Lead forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield said five of the nine sets of remains examined belonged to children. The other four individuals have been identified as an older woman and adults in their 30s and 40s. Stubblefield found a bullet lodged in the left shoulder of one of the men, who had suffered multiple projectile wounds. “Ancestry so far, when we can detect it, has been of African descent,” Stubblefield added. DNA analysis may allow the remains to be identified before they are reburied. “This process has been a very sobering and very powerful experience,” commented J. Kavin Ross, a descendant of a massacre victim and chair of the Mass Graves Public Oversight Committee. “We are hopeful for more findings…I’m anxious to give them a proper rest.”

WARSAW, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that researchers led by Artur Obłuski of the University of Warsaw have found the remains of a large medieval church in the center of Old Dongola, Northern State, Sudan. Dongola was the capital of Makura, one of the Christian Nubian kingdoms, Obłuski explained. He suggests the building could have served as the seat of the archbishop of Dongola, who governed the Nubian churches along a 620-mile stretch of the Nile River. The team members have uncovered the church’s apse, an adjacent wall, and the dome of a large tomb. The apse, Obłuski added, is the largest yet found in Nubia, and it was decorated with plaster and paintings of monumental figures. Much of its walls remain buried. It had been previously thought that the city’s medieval cathedral was situated outside the city walls, but this structure resembles the cathedral unearthed in the center of Faras, the medieval capital of the Nubian kingdom of Nobadia. “There may be more paintings and inscriptions under our feet, just like in Faras,” Obłuski said

HELSINKI, FINLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Helsinki, auditory archaeologist Riitta Rainio and artist Juha Valkeapää danced for six consecutive hours while wearing elk tooth ornaments sewn in rows on an apron, and then examined the microscopic wear marks left behind on the teeth as they clattered against each other. The researchers then compared these wear marks to elk teeth recovered from four graves at Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, a Late Mesolithic cemetery in northwestern Russia. More than half of the 177 burials at Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov contained elk tooth ornaments. Some of the burials contained more than 300 teeth. The study suggests that the distinctive marks on the prehistoric teeth were made over years or even decades of dancing. Rainio says the rattlers offer a clue to the soundscape experienced by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

ASHKELON, ISRAEL—According to a statement released by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, researchers led by Rachel Bar-Natan, Saar Ganor, and Fredrico Kobrin of the Israel Antiquities Authority have uncovered a Roman basilica complex in the ancient city of Ashkelon, which is located along southern Israel’s Mediterranean coastline. Ashkelon residents during the Roman period would have met for social and legal matters, transacted business, and attended performances and religious ceremonies at the basilica complex. The building, which had a roof and walls made of marble imported from Turkey, featured a central hall and two side halls. The central hall was surrounded with rows of marble columns and capitals standing approximately 43 feet tall. The capitals were adorned with plant motifs and eagles, the symbol of the Roman Empire, the researchers explained. The basilica was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 363 and abandoned

TULSA, OKLAHOMA—State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck announced that three additional burials were found at the site of a mass grave at Oklahoma’s Oaklawn Cemetery, according to a KJRH News report. The mass grave is thought to hold the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, according to old funeral home records. An estimated 300 people were killed and 800 wounded on May 31 and June 1 when a white mob attacked businesses, homes, and churches in the area of Tulsa’s prosperous Black Wall Street. DNA testing of the remains will be conducted, Stackelbeck added.