Whoa!

The Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet

History IV

[Post ten of thirty]

Our plot now twists.

In 2019, Scott Stripling’s team found a small lead object measuring about 2 x 2 centimeters. ¹

Because of this tiny artifact, millions of people worldwide soon focused anew on Mt. Ebal.

Note

This is the tenth post of my memorandum on the Curse Tablet.

If you have accessed this post from other than captivatingtwists.com and wish to start the journey from the beginning, click here.

Otherwise, continue below.

This part of our story starts with Stripling obtaining a permit to resift Zertal’s dump piles on Mt Ebal. ² Such had lain dormant since well before Zertal’s death.

His purpose was to assess the usefulness of an unheralded wet sifting technique. The process involved washing dry-sifted remains to reveal small, missed artifacts. ³

In doing so, he sought to make a point. That is the percentage of evidence that archaeologists miss through dry sifting. ⁴

On-site work, however, at Mt. Ebal presented geopolitical headaches.

Stripling, nonetheless, found a workaround.

Authorities allowed him to transport dump material away from the mountain. ⁵

There, his team re-dry sifted. They followed this with wet sifting. ⁶

In doing this, Stripling expected to find mundane archaeological objects. He figured bullae, scarabs, or pottery fragments, but not pay dirt.

Yet the team’s wet-sifting expert, Frankie Snyder, discovered something in her tray. Recognizing what it was, ⁷ she announced in effect, “Scott, you want to see this!” ⁸

For Stripling, the sensation was as if his heart jumped to his throat. ⁹Instinctively, he cautioned, something like: “Whoa! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here!” ¹⁰

Even so, they did!

Now, here are some questions. Did exploring around a creek or mud hole as a kid alert you to the value of wet sifting? Why do you think archaeologists have been so late in using it?

Let me know in the comment section below.

Thank you for engaging with this topic thus far!

Our next post I entitle: “A Defixio?”

I look forward to continuing with you there.

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Next post: “A Defixio?”

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 2,  https://www.timesofisrael.com/academic-article-on-controversial-3200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024). (OLD Mc 8:27) (November) ↩︎
2. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (01:12), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
3. Associates for Biblical Research, “ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found”, biblicarchaeology.org/current-events-list/, Youtube, (01:46), March 24, 2022. ↩︎
4. Id. ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Id., at 16:44 ↩︎
7. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (27:25) 1 November 2024. ↩︎
8. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (03:39), 11 May 2023;
   and
   Steve Law, patternsofevidence.com, Ancient Hebrew Writing on Tablet Discovered at Joshua’s Altar, paragraph14 and 15, February 4, 2022. ↩︎
9. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (27:42) 1 November 2024. ↩︎
10. Id. at 28:23 ↩︎