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(11) Dr. Paolo Matthiae, discoverer of the fabulous Ebla
tablets, poses at the ruins where the finds were made. Shown here is the
"Creation Tablet", the only account outside the Bible which describes a
creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). Experts disagree violently on translations
offered for some of the tablets, including this one.
Figure #12 - click above - for larger image
(12) One of the three Davenport (Iowa) Tablets found in
1877 and 1878, a prime example of how authorities take sides. Barry Fell
sees here a message in three ancient languages; others with some good reason
have cried "fraud" from the time the finds were made.
Figure #13 - click above - for larger image
(13) "Send me archers!" begs a king in Canaan of Pharaoh
Akhenaten in this famous Tell el-Amarna Tablet. Conventional interpretation
places these tablets before the Children of Israel entered Canaan. Velikovsky
offers interesting evidence that the tablets date to the time of the Divided
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. As with many controversies, chronology is
the key to the problem, and conventional ancient chronology rests on shaky
foundations. A convincing solution to placing the Tell el-Amarna tablet
events into Old Testament history still eludes us.
Figure #14 - click above - for larger image
(14) The Grave Creek inscription found in a West Virginia
Indian mound around 1838, an apparent hoax inspired by an incident in Dicken's
Pickwick Papers. A printer, Andrew Price, was able to show recently
that the text read in well-disguised English: "Bil Stumps Stone Oct 14
1838," the same name used for a fake inscription in Dicken's novel published
in 1836.
Figure #15 - click above - for larger image
(15) Pieces of the 4,000-year-old King Lipit-Ishtar law
code found at Nippur and dated about 150 years earlier than the accompanying
example shown here of the much more famous and extensive code of Hammurabi.
The dust has not yet fully settled on dating Hammurabi.
Figure #16 - click above - for larger image
(16) One of the many attempts to relate languages found
among widely separated civilizations. In this example symbols from the
Minoans in the Mediterranean, the Chinese, and a Middle American culture
are compared. There is no way to prove such assertions at present, but
scholars of the stature of William F. Albright were convinced that some
day such links between ancient cultures would be verified.
Figure #17 - click above - for larger image
(17) Dr. Henriette Mertz cites inscriptions such as these
(including the Grave Creek Stone) as evidences for ancient transoceanic
travel.
Figure #18 - click above - for larger image
(18) Window into the distant past, an inscription and
a cylinder seal impression from Ebla, where the finds of inscriptions will
occupy scholars for many decades to come.
Figure #19 - click above - for larger image
(19) Ancient baked clay tokens probably used for an accounting
system, a forerunner of the abacus, trademarks, tally systems, and widespread
modern use of symbols and tokens. The most ignorant and forgetful can still
count sheep or metal ingots by means of tokens.
Figure #20 - click above - for larger image
(20) A tantalizing mystery, the Phaistos Disk has never
been deciphered, but one good possibility is that it may have been a set
of cues for navigation to a "top secret" destination. The ancient traders
were most secretive about choice distant trading ports. The spiral design
is linked in ancient times with both navigation and astronomy.