Loose Ends

Wrapping Up I

[Ebal, twenty-nine of thirty-two]

Before concluding this memorandum, I address three questions—loose ends.

This post addresses the question: Does Mount Ebal hide other important historical evidence?

The next one handles this: How might the U.S. excavate Joshua’s Altar?

Third, I examine: What action should we take?

Hidden Evidence?

The Curse Tablet likely remembered Joshua’s initial ceremony. Yet it probably did not take part.

The evidence indicates that the author inscribed it later.

Why? Archaeologists have not excavated the part of the round altar that likely existed in Joshua’s time. This implies that the author placed the Curse Tablet on the altar after the initial event.

That raises the possibility that another tablet accompanied the initial ceremony!

Dr. Stripling disagrees. He has said that he would be surprised “if Joshua’s altar revealed any other curse tablets.” 2

He evidently believes that the tablet’s author inscribed it contemporaneously with Joshua’s ceremony.

But note that Stripling anticipates further excavations. He plans to do this as soon as the present geopolitical tensions subside.

But why the anticipation? In part, further excavation and analysis raise interesting propositions.

First, the Book of Job implies that the ancients valued metal as a writing surface. 3

Stripling’s team has found three writing styluses. They found these in the dump Zertal designated as altar material. 4

This suggests several writings on metal. These may lie on the small altar.

An ancient author may have etched a revealing message on a gold ring, earrings, or a bracelet. Afterwards, the scribe included them in a sacrifice.

An original tablet could also have been part of Joshua’s ceremony.

Moreover, the site contains other important evidence.

Recently, geomagnetic dating has proved key to dating ancient sites. 1

After solids heat to an extreme temperature and then cool, something revealing happens. Their magnetic minerals align with the Earth’s core geomagnetic signature. Compare these with the signatures of other burn sites from a similar period. This gives clues about their relative dates.

Scientists should analyze the magnetic signatures of the stones from Joshua’s Altar.

This also applies to the site’s tablet and pottery.

New artifacts from the small altar would also yield valuable information. 1

Match this data to other burn data from sites across the Late Bronze Age Middle East. Examples include those from Egyptian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Minoan, Mycenaean, Trojan, and Babylonian sources. It also includes biblical sites at Jericho, Ai, and Shiloh.

These scientists would compare with an anchor, a known contemporary date.

I realize that zeroing in on a solid anchor in such ancient times may be difficult. Still, we should retrieve and store the geomagnetic data. That way, if archaeologists identify an anchor, the data will be available.

Precision calculation of Joshua’s Altar would follow.

In sum, Mt. Ebal contains archaeological evidence that humanity should glean. This can prove crucial to unraveling historical mysteries.

Again, we need to excavate and analyze Joshua’s Altar.

Now for today’s question: What burn events might compare with that of Joshua’s Altar?

Let me know in the comment section below.

Next Post: “A Solution”

1. Associates for Biblical Research, Cursed! The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet (Part Three, Digging for Truth Episode 200), YouTube, (16:20), May 1, 2023. ↩︎
2. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com > watch, (17:35), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
3. Associates for Biblical Research, Cursed! The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet (Part Two, Digging for Truth Episode 200), YouTube, (10:35), May 1, 2023. ↩︎
4. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (42:22) 1 November 2024. ↩︎
5. ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ, Big Think, Earth’s magnetic field supports biblical stories of destruction of ancient cities When battles raged in ancient cities, their rocks blazed so brightly that they could be reoriented according to Earth’s magnetic field, December 25, 2023 ↩︎
6. Associates for Biblical Research, YaHWeh Curse Tablet: A Tsunami from Mt. Ebal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5njOpRCHQ&t=85s, (13:15) 1 November 2024. ↩︎