Whoa!

History IV

[Ebal’s Plea, ten of thirty-two]

Abruptly now our plot twists.

In 2019 the team of Scott Stripling, professor of biblical archaeology and church history at the Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas,¹ found a small lead object measuring about 2 x 2 centimeters (.8 x .8 inch).²

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

Stripling had obtained a permit to re-sift Mt. Ebal’s dump piles, ³ lying dormant since Zertal’s death in the 1980s.

His purpose was to assess the usefulness of a relatively unheralded technique called wet sifting,⁴ a process by which previously dry sifted remains are washed to reveal small missed artifacts.

Specifically, he sought to determine an approximate percentage of evidence archaeologist miss by only dry sifting.⁵

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

A workaround, nonetheless, Stripling achieved.

Authorities permitted the transport of some of the altar dump material to a location away from the mountain for processing.⁶

There Stripling’s team then re-dry sifted. This they followed with wet sifting.⁷

At this Stripling expected finding little more than mundane archaeological objects–maybe additional bullae, scarabs, or diagnostic pottery fragments, not archaeological pay dirt.

Yet, in the wet sifting process the team’s small finds expert, Frankie Snyder, discovered in her wet-sifting tray something she immediately recognized.⁸

At this she announced in effect, “Scott, you want to see this!”⁹

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

Eventually, nevertheless, they did!

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-3,200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024);
   
   Ariel David, “New Studies Debunk Controversial Biblical ‘Curse Tablet’ from Mt. Ebal”, haaretz.com, paragraph 5, November 30, 2023; and
   
   Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited), m.youtube.com>watch, (01:09), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
2. 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-3,200-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 ↩︎
3. Id. at (01:12) ↩︎
4. Associates for Biblical Research, “ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found”, biblicarchaeology.org/current-events-list/, Youtube, (02:46), March 24, 2022. ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Id. ↩︎
7. Id. at 16:44 ↩︎
8. Id. ↩︎
9. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited), m.youtube.com>watch, (03:39), 11 May 2023; Steve Law, patternsofevidence.com, Ancient Hebrew Writing on Tablet Discovered at Joshua’s Altar, paragraph 14 and 15, February 4, 2022; and
   Special Update: The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet (Ep1 of 3), Youtube: Patterns of Evidence, youtube.com/watch?v=YX3TH_nfgLo, Episode One at (19:10), May 21, 2024. ↩︎
10. Id. at (19:40) ↩︎