Reply
Fri 11 Nov, 2005 08:06 am
AP
Finding Said to Boost Proof of Goliath
Thu Nov 10, 8:36 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Archaeologists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine's name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible's tale of David's battle with the giant.
While the discovery is not definitive evidence of Goliath's existence, it does support the Bible's depiction of life at the time the battle was supposed to have occurred, said Dr. Aren Maeir, a professor at Bar-Ilan University and director of the excavation.
"What this means is that at the time there were people there named Goliath," he said. "It shows us that David and Goliath's story reflects the cultural reality of the time." In the story, David slew Goliath with a slingshot.
Some scholars assert the story of David slaying the giant Goliath is a myth written down hundreds of years later. Maeir said finding the scraps lends historical credence to the biblical story.
The shard dates back to around 950 B.C., within 70 years of when biblical chronology asserts David squared off against Goliath, making it the oldest Philistine inscription ever found, the archaeologists said.
Scientists made the discovery at Tel es-Safi, a dig site in southern
Israel thought to be to be the location of the Philistine city of Gath.
well know we have scientific evidence that there was a person named goliath. Fascinating.
The records of the Roman Empire show that there was once an "Arturus, Dux Bellorum Britannicum"--Arthur, War Duke of Britain. In the two centuries after Arthur was reputed to have lived, the name Arthur is found to frequently have been given to first sons--and families recording births were often the more affluent families in the community--people weren't much interested in serfs, whether they had children, and what those children were named.
None of which supports a contention that the King Arthur as described in Le Mort d'Arthur printed by Caxton in 1485 bears any resemblance to the truth.