An Inscription!

The Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet

History VI

[Post twelve of thirty]

Stripling realized that glyphs adorned the tablet’s outside. Yet, he was most intrigued by what may lie within. There, as with other defixios, someone likely inscribed a curse.

Note

This is the twelfth post of my memorandum on the Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet. It is also the sixth of ten detailing the history of the tablet and the proposed Joshua’s Altar.

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.

Usually, this curse was of a trivial nature, often something like, “She stole my boyfriend, may all her hair fall out!”1

Stripling and a colleague, thus, attempted to open it. The lead of one corner, brittle with age, however, crumbled. Further efforts, they thus ceased.

The Hebrew University in Tel Aviv analyzed the lead fragments. The determination was that the lead originated from a mine in Lavrion, Greece.2

About that mine, historians and archaeologists accept a position. They have concluded that it, indeed, exported its lead to the Middle East. But it was from before the Late Bronze Age into Roman times.

Here, a curious historical anomaly deserves consideration.

In the Mediterranean world around the 12th century B. C., a dark age ensued. Then, the Late Bronze Age civilization imploded. Ancient exports plunged. European / Asian economic and cultural sophistication wilted. A mysterious disaster struck several advanced societies. These include the Hittite, Ugarite, Minoan, Mycenaean, Trojan, and Babylonian. 3 A definitive explanation for why scholars have yet to determine. 4

From this understanding, Stripling deduced a probability.

Someone in the thirteenth century B. C. or earlier likely imported the lead tablet. That is before the ancient dark age of 1200 to 1150 B. C.

The metallurgical analysis, thus, strengthened Stripling’s idea about the tablet’s date. This, however, was not something he considered yet concrete.

Still, Stripling perceived that he had exhausted the tablet’s plausible investigative analysis. It was time for greater focus on his many other pursuits.

Thinking thus, he sent an email to a colleague. With it he attached a tablet photo. Afterwards, in archaeological circles, this began to circulate.

Later, an unexpected opportunity for further investigation materialized.

Stripling read about a technological advancement. Researchers in Europe demonstrated how to peer through lead to discern written content. They were from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Telc, Czech Republic).

Stripling and others made arrangements. Israeli authorities gave a colleague a license to courier the “defixio” to Prague.1

Time passed. The Institute at Telč, 152 km from the Czech capital, finished its analysis. They then forwarded their results.

The Telč team indeed perceived something within. An epigraphic expert there suggested proto-alphabetic letters. That is, ancient letters represented sounds rather than complete thoughts.

These initial revelations alone had profound meaning for Stripling. Now he had his most conclusive evidence for dating the tablet. It had to be Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age I, that is, from as early as 1400 to as late as 1250 B.C.1

Why? This was the accepted period for the use of proto-alphabetic script.

No longer did the tablet present an anachronistic dilemma. It now matched Zertal’s pottery dates.

What else could this new evidence portend?

I probe this further in my next post!

But now here is a question. What do you think likely caused the Late Bronze Age civilizational collapse?

Let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for engaging with this topic thus far!

The next post, the seventh of our review of the Curse Tablet’s history, I entitle: “Staking a Claim”.

I look forward to continuing with you there.

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Next post: “Staking a Claim“