Interesting Find in Jerusalem

[The Valkyrie]

I wonder how you say 'pencil dick' in Greek?

"Donald Trump".

No sorry, that's "Ingrown man parts".

[Minimalist]

It's only 2018 because Dionysius Exiguus fucked up the computations.  He missed the year "0" and he forgot the 4 years that Augustus ruled as Octavian.  It should be 2023.

Never let a xhristard do anything important!

Augustus ruled as Octavian well before 1 CE.  How did that result in miscalculation counting backwards towards 1 CE?

His calculations are written down somewhere. 

I suppose you could read the Venerable Bede to get the low down but I doubt it is worth it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

All that from one earring?

One earring more than any holy relic?

Not really my point. One earring could have been brought there from elsewhere without the culture that spawned it.

[The Grand Nudger]

Which would tell us alot, then..about both cultures.

[Anomalocaris]

One earring more than any holy relic?

Not really my point. One earring could have been brought there from elsewhere without the culture that spawned it.

That’s true. It is not conclusive.

But one could probably look at other areas and strata where the culture, based on other evidence, seems to have remained insular, and see just how often trinkets from a different culture pop up there, and compare the same to a different area or strata where other evidence points to an admixture of cultures.

This would give some basis to assess how likely it is that appearence of a foreign trinket in a otherwise not well studied location or strata signifies an underlying admixture of cultures.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not really my point. One earring could have been brought there from elsewhere without the culture that spawned it.

That’s true.  It is not conclusive.  

But one could probably look at other areas and strata where the culture, based on other evidence, seems to have remained insular, and see just how often trinkets from a different culture pop up there, and compare the same to a different area or strata where other evidence points to an admixture of cultures.

This would give some basis to assess how likely it is that appearence of a foreign trinket in a otherwise not well studied location or strata signifies an underlying admixture of cultures.

Meh, still a twonky.

[Minimalist]

The excavations are about more than an earring.  What they are indicating is that the area was run by a small cultural elite who may have been increasingly Hellenized.

“It seems as though, at the time, the city did not reach farther than the top of the hill in the City of David, but then spread slightly to the west into the Tyropoeon Valley,” said Gadot and Shalev. “We also learned from this excavation that the residents of this area were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but rather the opposite—they were well-off people. The discovery of familiar Hellenistic pieces of jewelry can teach us about how Hellenistic influences reached Jerusalem during this time.”

The bullshit story in Ezra claims that over 40,000 people returned to a vacant land after the Persians set them free.  Archaeology has shown that the land was not empty.  The Babylonians ruled from the town of Mizpah and "Jerusalem" remained a burned out ruin.

Some years ago there was a fascinating scholarly dispute between Israel Finkelstein and Oded Lipschitz.  Finkelstein did the calculations on the built up area of Jerusalem in the wake of the Persian release.  He determined a group of about 400.  Lipschitz came along later and said that number was too low.  How many did Lipschitz find?  About 1,000.  They were far closer to each other than either of them was to the stupid fucking bible.

Oddly both Finkelstein and Lipschitz seem to support the idea of Philip R. Davies that the "returnees" were Babylonians/Persians who were sent back to run the region and were given a bullshit story to tell to the dolts.  Paraphrasing, it worked something like this:

Peasant:  Hey there.  Who the fuck are you lot now?

Returnee:  We are the exiles returning from Babylon to re-assume our ancient rights as the Yhwh anointed rulers of this land.

Peasant:  Fuck you, I don't remember that.

Returnee:  Well its true and here's a priest to tell you the whole story.  Oh, and btw, King Cyrus said if you don't like it he'll send his army to explain it to you.

Peasant:  Right.  Got you, governor.