A Mysterious Tease

The Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet

Preparation V

[Post six of thirty-three]

The controversies surrounding a recent archaeological find should matter to you. This post presents a taste of why.

Prominent experts allege that a series of photographs challenge precepts of world history. Others claim, “There is nothing to see here!” Faced with such, you might think, “Show me the photos! Decide myself, I will!” ¹

Photos of a defixio, a curse tablet found in Israel in 2019, present this quandary. Archaeologists could not open it without it crumbling.

They thus employed tomographic scanning to peer inside. This revealed a potential proto-alphabetic script. This claim, given the archaeological context, challenges long-held understandings of world history.

When, however, the archaeologist released photos of the scans, some experts cried, “Hoax!” To them, they showed nothing significant.

I have two goals here. I want to help you reach a well-informed understanding of the tablet. Second, I want to encourage you to act on what you learn.

But beware! Conversing with intelligence about the photos requires more than mere viewing. To most, other than a few specialized experts, they appear mysterious and unknowable. ²

Yet, laypersons with some help can make well-considered observations about them.

To do so, they need three things. First, they need the history. Then they need an opportunity for efficient study. Last and most importantly, they need enthusiasm: enthusiasm for the history and for probing the evidence.

Below, I relate the history.

Furthermore, I guide an efficient online study of the photos.

But what about the enthusiasm? 

Viewing a 30-second video might spark something. It shows, of all things, a technological process applied to a piece of metal.

Wow! How thought-provoking and intriguing can that be?

Well, look at the video below.

Glance at its millimeter ticker in the top left corner. When it gets to .20 mm, focus on the object’s top right.

Or, watch the red bar on the right graph. As it approaches the major breach, focus on the top right of your screen.

Also, move your cursor to the top right and click. This expands the image.

Click here. ³

Now watch.

Did you see anything?

Did you perceive only happenstance cracks, dents, and scratches on an old piece of lead?

But what about a stick man, a mace, some crossed hockey sticks? Did you detect some squiggly lines, a bent arm with an open hand, and a couple of ox skulls?

A canon of human history may hang in the balance, depending on which of these assessments is correct.

Regardless of what you saw, this viewing may have fostered these questions:

• What is the story here?
• How could that story impact history?
• Why should I or others care?

This memorandum seeks to prepare you for these and other issues.

At its end, I aim to help you engage these inquiries:

• Is there anything to see here? and
• If so, so what?”

Now, here is a question. What, if anything, about the video intrigued you most?

Let me know your response in the comment section below.

Thank you for engaging with this topic thus far!

Our next post, the first of our review of the Curse Tablet’s history, is: “The Paradigm”.

I look forward to continuing with you there.

If you appreciate this type of analysis, please “subscribe”, “like”, and “share”.

If you wish to support this work, you can do so in the donation section below. If so, thank you for the encouragement.

Next Post: “The Paradigm”

1. Melanie Lidman, Academic article on controversial 3,200-year old ‘curse tablet’ fails to sway experts, The Times of Israel,14 May 2023, paragraph 37,  https://www.timesofisrael.com/academic-article-on-controversial-3200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024).
   and
   Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (33:59), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
2. Id. 4:51 and 30:54; and
   Melanie Lidman, Academic article on controversial 3,200-year old ‘curse tablet’ fails to sway experts, The Times of Israel,14 May 2023, paragraph 15,  https://www.timesofisrael.com/academic-article-on-controversial-3200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024). ↩︎
3. Scott Stripling, “You are Cursed by the God YHW,” an early Hebrew inscription from Mt. Ebal,  Heritage Science, 12 May 2023,  Supplementary Information, Additional file 1, https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-023-00920-9#Fig7, (7 October 2023). ↩︎

To view the memorandum from the beginning, click here.

For the composite footnotes, click here.