Whoa!

The Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet

Facts

History IV

[Post ten of thirty-three]

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.

This episode starts with Stripling obtaining a permit. He planned 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 artifacts. ³

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

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. ⁴

There, his team re-dry-sifted. They followed this with wet sifting.⁵

In doing this, Stripling expected to find mundane archaeological objects. He figured bullae, scarabs, or pottery fragments, but not pay dirt. ⁶

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

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

They did!

Now, here are some questions. Did exploring a creek or mud hole as a kid make you aware of the value of wet sifting? Why do you think archaeologists adopted it so late?

Let me know in the comment section below.

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).
   and
   Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (08:27), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
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, (10:46), March 24, 2022. ↩︎
4. Associates for Biblical Research, “ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found”, biblicarchaeology.org/current-events-list/, Youtube, (16:36), March 24, 2022. ↩︎
5. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (03:35), 11 May 2023;
   and
   Steve Law, patternsofevidence.com, Ancient Hebrew Writing on Tablet Discovered at Joshua’s Altar, paragraph14 and 15, February 4, 2022. ↩︎
6. Associates for Biblical Research, “ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found”, biblicarchaeology.org/current-events-list/, Youtube, (15:59), March 24, 2022. ↩︎
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. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (27:32)
   1 November 2024. ↩︎
9. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (28:17) 1 November 2024. ↩︎

To view the memorandum from the beginning, click here.

For the composite footnotes, click here.