Ricardo González Villaescusa
News appeared in News Science and Technology Science and Technology Notes No. 23 , June 2007, pp. 21-23.
All the ingredients for a good script for an action movie, exotic landscapes and Hollywood spies in the news ranks first in the press about the discovery of the tomb of Herod. It goes without saying that this news reached the press and other scientific. Usually precedes scientific publishing notes and press conferences. On this occasion, except for error of this writer, the scientific arguments do not appear in any previous publication. The story jumps to the media, warned from now, with clear overtones of being a manipulation in the service of the geopolitics of the hot zone of the planet.
Go ahead do not share the vision of an archeology of the event would come to illustrate the data reported by written documents. On the other hand, find the tomb of a king no longer an entity smaller than reality provides little useful knowledge about past societies. At other times they found tombs like Philip of Macedonia, despite the magnificence of the remains found, some authors have not yet confirmed the identity of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, with the remains found in the grave.
data
Judging from the press conference given by Ehud Netzer the director of excavations carried out in the Herodias (course palace built by Herod) and the many news by the newspapers on the Internet, identifying the real tomb is based on having found a sarcophagus that is exceptional The translation of the press conference said "We began to understand that we were approaching our goal when we found the first pieces of the sarcophagus, two of which are here. This is, I can say, a monumental sarcophagus. There is only one or two of its kind found so far. Not every rich Jew or citizen of that time could have one for himself. It is truly one of royalty. "We therefore conclude that Netzer in other media:" I have no doubts. What we found is the tomb of Herod "
We do not deny that it is a sarcophagus from what you see in the pictures, it probably is, but even admitting that there are only a few specimens of these characteristics, there is more evidence that can confirm the identity of owner and unless it can be the one that housed the remains of the last king of the Jews. In other news media reproduce this states that the burial would have suffered destruction by someone "who wanted to break every vestige of his memory," in allusion to its being a king imposed by Rome, little loved by the Jews of his time to be considered a traitor. Fragmentation help with identification. It should be noted that archaeological remains are often found fragmented and not always be identified willful destruction fractures. That fact must also be demonstrated by the analysis of the archaeological record and the news does not give the items demonstration.
From the archaeologist then enter the text argument of the historian Josephus in War of the Jews (I, XXXIII, 9) when describing the funeral procession that preceded the burial the king and English translation whose original Greek reads: "Read the will, all great voices rose, giving the felicitation to Archelaus, and they and all the people, running everywhere, praying to God to give them peace, and they in turn also promised. From here care to put in the tomb of king celebróla Archelaus as honestly as he could, showed all his pomp to honor the burial, and all his wealth, because habíanlo placed on a bed of gold all wrought with pearls and precious stones, the platform purple trim, the body also came dressed purple or scarlet wore a crown on his head, a royal scepter in his right hand around the bed were the sons and relatives, then all of his guard, a squad of people of Thrace, Germans and Swiss, all armed and in order of war, went before, all the other soldiers followed their captains then very conveniently. Five hundred slaves and freedmen brought odors, and so was born the way body two hundred stadia castle called Herodias [emphasis added] and was buried there, as he commanded. This was the end of the life and deeds of King Herod. "
However, if we go to a translation of French critics, also available online , reads a note on the two hundred furlongs (the stadium is a unit of some 185 Greek m away) that says, according to the manuscript copy of the original, to be used, can be read seventy stadia (13 km) or eight stages (1.5 km). Meanwhile, Herodias as shown in the same manuscript lines above (I, XXI, 10) was located seven miles from Jerusalem (about 11.1 km, coinciding with the site excavated by Netzer), but ... that Herod's funeral procession departed from Jericho. In other words, there is no unambiguous distance to a critical reading of the texts to suggest where Herod was buried. Moreover, it is more than likely that the palace being described in the text of the historian Flavius \u200b\u200bJosephus [ "Having thus agreed to the glory and honor of their relatives and friends did not want to forget himself, before he wanted a castle in front of a mountain, on the Saudi side, very strong and trim, was called Herodias, as its name. And a building that was seven miles from Jerusalem ... "], had been buried there, the historian would have called as Herodias and not a measure of distance from Jericho.
Where?
(
View larger map ) really digging the Herodias is located 6 km southeast of Bethlehem, West Bank, an area administered by Israel since the Six Day War (1967), when it was occupied by the army Israeli conflict and the reason for this state and the Palestinian Authority. Herodias excavations began only a few years later (1972), the military annexation of this territory, led by Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist specializing in "sites and artifacts from the territories occupied by Israel as stated in the English version of Wikipedia 2007.
View larger map ) really digging the Herodias is located 6 km southeast of Bethlehem, West Bank, an area administered by Israel since the Six Day War (1967), when it was occupied by the army Israeli conflict and the reason for this state and the Palestinian Authority. Herodias excavations began only a few years later (1972), the military annexation of this territory, led by Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist specializing in "sites and artifacts from the territories occupied by Israel as stated in the English version of Wikipedia 2007.
mid-sixties he co-directed with Yigael Yadin excavations at Masada, the emblematic city of the Jewish resistance to Rome (our Numancia or Alesia of the French), financed by large Jewish capital and the participation of hundreds of volunteers around the world. The site is the symbol of the beginning of the diaspora, which would have ended with the creation of Israel in 1948, and where Israeli troops swear allegiance to the state of Israel.
Location (red dot) from the excavation of Herodias where they found the sarcophagus of Herod course on a map of West Bank of Wikipedia. Dark green indicates areas administered by the Palestinian Authority in light green those run by Israel.
When does the news?
Eight days after the publication of the Winograd report. The preliminary findings of the commission of inquiry into the so-called Second Lebanon War that eventually forcing the resignation, sooner or later, the Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert, to be devastating to it, the defense minister, Amir Peretz, and that former chief of the armed forces during the conflict, General Dan Halutz
To this we must add the unnecessary efforts by archaeologist Ehud Netzer, made he appears to restore the image of Herod could not remember that he staged the killing of the innocent that has the New Testament or the enormous merits achieved by the king for a great job building industry (palaces and infrastructure) for the good of his people . The archaeologist's work could have been critical and analytical about the work and the role of Herod in charge of Jewish society from contact colonizer of the Roman Empire, without needing to enter an ethical evaluation of their actions. Acts which, on the other hand, we admit the possibility of not committing, but is irrelevant in terms of historical analysis of the society.
The conclusion is simple, most likely never see the finding published in a prestigious scientific journal. The words of the assistant field director of excavations can help us understand the context in which they arise "We know that Herod was the last king of Judea and lived at a critical time for Judaism, the Jewish people and for Christianity ... "Are we now at a critical time for the state of Israel? Is it necessary to smoke screens?
national All buildings have made use of archeology to legitimize the construction state. Although some more than others. In the latest edition of the magazine La Recherche an article about a recent book recounts the interest of archaeologists Nazis to demonstrate the "sibling" historic archaeological remains beyond the Rhine and the arguments justifying the ideology that fueled Pangerman the Third Reich and justify the invasion of France by the Germans. This would lead to the strange looking archaeologies the Third Reich relics as the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail for which there is a parodic image on the first and third installments of the Indiana Jones saga ...
Nothing new under the sun.
Bibliography
JP Legendre, L. Olivier, B. Schnitzler, Des occupée by archaeological Nazis in France, La Recherche , June 2007, no. 409, 54-57.
JP Legendre, L. Olivier, B. Schnitzler (dirs.), L'archéologie Nazi Europe de l'Ouest , In Folio, 2007.
