The "Old Testament" tales and Iraq

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.


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One of the great crimes committed against the people of Iraq was the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the destruction of many important ancient sites inside Iraq.
As the drums beat for more war in Iran, there is a valid concern that Iran's ancient archeological sites face risk of destruction. I agree. And more to the point, I think that destruction of ancient sites is deliberate policy.

Egypt is literally littered with the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of her rulers. As much as has been found, it is estimated that only one-third of Egypt's archeological wonders have been uncovered. A newly discovered temple was uncovered while digging a sewer line, and a cache of finely preserved mummies was literally stumbled over by a cow in a pasture.

Iraq's ancient heritage was enshrined in its ancient sites and museum. As a result of the war, many of those sites have been damaged or destroyed. Part of the ancient city of Ur now lies underneath a US air base runway. The treasures of the museum have only partly been recovered. The treasures from the looted archaeological sites have been scattered to the world.

Now we take aim at Persia, and as the illustrations in this National Geographic article show, there is a rich cultural heritage of artifacts and ancient sites facing the bombs.

All of this wealth of archaeological treasures must, of course, annoy Israel. We are reared, from birth, with "Old Testament" tales of the greatness of the ancient Israelites, of the powerful kingdoms of Solomon and David, and the first temple. Yet Israel, while rich in antiquities, is almost totally devoid of artifacts from this supposedly glorious time in her history [c. 1000 BCE]. The existence of the fabled First Temple was supported with just two artifacts, a carved staff ornament in the
shape of a pomegranate, and the Jehoash tablet. Both of these artifacts have been exposed as frauds. We are told that once there was a magnificent temple on that hill, but it "all went away." The wonders emerging from the soil of Egypt, Iraq, and Iran serve as a constant reminder that ancient buildings of such a scale... simply do not vanish without a trace.

There is considerable reason to suspect that the tales told in the Hebrew Scriptures are just that-- tales. The Bible is not science; it is the collected stories of a primitive tribal people telling each other how important they are. And like fishermen talking about the won that got away, or Ramses with his temple carvings of the did-not-really-happen victory over the Hittites at Kadesh, the writers of the ancient testaments assumed that the people they were telling stories to had no way to verify the claims for themselves. So, "embellishment" was a low-risk activity.

We do know from the available archaeological evidence that the Exodus probably actually happened to the Hyksos, not the Israelites. We know that the story of Moses is suspect because no Egyptian princess would hide a Hebrew child inside Pharaoh's household, then give the kid a Hebrew name ["Moses" is actually an Egyptian title meaning "Prince" and is included in the names of many Pharaoh's names such as Tut-Moses, Ah-Moses, Ra-Moses (Ramses, etc.)] But a good story is a good story and the writers of the ancient texts were probably not thinking much further into the future than the guys who pen the "Celebrity dates space alien" stories you see at supermarket checkout lines. The fact that the celebrity is a real person does not prove that the space alien exists. It's just a story.

But, over time, entire religions with attendant wealth and power structures have been built on the premise that these Biblical stories really happened exactly as written. And today, here in the twenty-first century world, technology has started to catch up with these ancient legends and call many of them into doubt.

So, for a nation that justifies its existence on the writings of the Old Torah, the plethora of sites and artifacts confirming the ancient histories of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc., must seem a dire political threat for a nation whose own ancient history seems to have left little if any traces.

In that context, the strange behavior of the US military, which posted guards around the Iraq oil ministry, while leaving the Baghdad museum unguarded, suddenly starts to make sense, if the supporters of a very insecure nation decide that leveling the archaeological playing field is preferable to allowing the obvious disparity in archaeological proofs of claimed ancient histories to stand clear...!
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