The Archaeology of Sodom

Preface

We are still working on the research for this article but it is important that we get it written down as we go. We are not going to do any preaching or try to explain the different terms in each of the passages of scripture. Instead we are going to look at the 3 locations that different scholars have identified as Sodom and explore them archaeologically with a Christian eye and thinking. Christians have been involved in all 3 identifications so it is not like we are taking sides.

We will use biblical verses and place them in this preface as a reference point. Not all of the verses will be used as we are not going to delve into the why the 5 cities of the plain were destroyed. God has already told us why. We are interested in why people picked these 3 sites, what archaeology says about each of them and demonstrate why 2 of them do not qualify as Sodom.

The verses are important because so many scholars either use them or allude to them in presenting and supporting their arguments.  We may address other topics as we get this paper ready but we shall see. Getting the Bible right, even when doing archaeology saves believers so much trouble and builds their credibility and reputation. We need to be honest in our archaeological work if we want people to listen to us.

Jesus never exaggerated, he never altered, he never lied and we must be careful to follow that example. We also have to be honest when presenting our facts, our theories our conclusions and so on. The Bible tells us that the unbelieving world cannot do anything against the truth, thus we must make sure that we have the truth first, including our archaeological identifications, if we want unbelievers to listen to us and take the gospel seriously.

Christians, churches, Christian organizations have been embarrassed far too often by the many searches for Noah’s ark. That is because over enthusiastic people have let their excitement lead them not God. We should not let this happen with any biblical event. It is far better to say we do not know than try to force a given site to fit the biblical narrative. And keep harping on it when the supposed evidence needs to be stretched to fit the theory. One thing we got from Bob Cornuke is that if the evidence does not fit, then the identification is off. And that applies to 2 of the 3 Sodom sites.

We know many Christians, and we used to talk to them on the old BAS forum, that are embarrassing themselves by their current selection of one site over the other 2 for Sodom. We will get to that later. Sodom and its identification is a little easier to find because of a certain verse in scripture. Unlike Noah’s ark, it still exists today

Bible verses for Sodom

Genesis 10:19

The territory of the Canaanite extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

Genesis 13:10

Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.

Genesis 14:2

that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

Genesis 14:8

And the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) came out; and they arrayed for battle against them in the valley of Siddim,

Genesis 14:10

Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country.

Genesis 14:11

Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply, and departed.

Genesis 18:20

And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

Genesis 19:24

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,

Genesis 19:28

and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

Deuteronomy 29:23

‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’

Deuteronomy 32:32

“For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter.

Isaiah 1:9

Unless the Lord of hosts Had left us a few survivors, We would be like Sodom, We would be like Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:10

[ God Has Had Enough ] Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah.

Isaiah 13:19

And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jeremiah 23:14

“Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Jeremiah 49:18

Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says the Lord, “no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it.

Jeremiah 50:40

“As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord, “No man will live there, Nor will any son of man reside in it.

Amos 4:11

“I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

Zephaniah 2:9

“Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, “Surely Moab will be like Sodom And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah— A place possessed by nettles and salt pits, And a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them And the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

Matthew 10:15

Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Romans 9:29

And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”

2 Peter 2:6

and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;

Jude 1:7

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire

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Ubaid, Sumer & the Bible

 

Scientists seem to always be at a loss when it comes to talking about the origins of ancient people. Too often they simply state that they do not know where certain groups of people come from. In one of his books, which forget which one, WF Albright stated that out of the ancient nations, only Israel knows their origins. The Indians, the Egyptians, The Assyrians, the Germanic tribes and the list goes on,, he stated, do not have any idea how their people and nation came to be.

We find the same situation with Sumer and the Ubaid people. Here is what one ancient encyclopedia has to say about both:

The region of Sumer was long thought to have been first inhabited around 4500 BCE. This date has been contested in recent years, however, and it now thought that human activity in the area began much earlier. The first settlers were not Sumerians but a people of unknown origin whom archaeologists have termed the Ubaid people – from the excavated mound of al-Ubaid where the artifacts were uncovered which first attested to their existence

and

These people were the first agents of civilization in the region. At what point the people who came to be known as Sumerians entered the area is not known ( both quotes come from https://www.ancient.eu/sumer/)

It is accepted that Sumer and subsequent civilizations resided around the Mesopotamia region near or between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Sumer was the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) which is generally considered the cradle of civilization. (Ibid).

And that occupation came about 4500 BC

The region of Sumer was long thought to have been first inhabited around 4500 BCE (Ibid)

We do not agree that the flood took place around 3000 BC as some people place the date. That is just to close for comfort and we would accept an earlier date because we do not actually know when the flood happened. The Bible dating and the human calendar do not follow the same rules and produce competing times. If we attribute the construction of the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx to the pre-world era, then 3000 BC does not sound too far off.

But dating is subjective and not always as accurate as we would like it to be. So for now we will go with the 4500 BC date knowing it could and should be revised. Scientists may not know much about the Ubaid people, we will skip the Sumerians for now, believers can find a clue to their identity and source by reading two passages of scripture.

Ge 11:1 Now the whole world had one language  and a common speech.
Ge 11:2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there (NIV)

This particular NIV version places Shinar in the fertile Crescent at Babylon, which seems right as the second passage of scripture mentions who founded that city:

Ge 10:8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.
Ge 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.”
Ge 10:10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in  Shinar. 
Ge 10:11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh,  Rehoboth Ir,  Calah
Ge 10:12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city

From what we can deduce, given help from archaeology, the Ubaid people were probably the one world, one language civilization that got divided by God and scattered throughout the earth. City building would not be a new idea for them as in the pre-flood civilization cities were quite common. Cain built a city and we cannot be sure how many others followed that example.

From the numerous buried cities found around the world and mysterious buildings that remain, it seems that quite a few people followed Cain’s example. It is also possible that Cain was not the first to build a city and he was the one who followed one of his brothers’ or more example. Thus, it was not impossible or out of the capability of Nimrod and the probably Ubaid people to build the cities in that list.

The ancient encyclopedia backs that point up with the following:

Whoever these people were, they had already moved from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one prior to 5000 BCE. Excavations from al-Ubaid and other sites throughout southern Iraq have uncovered stone tools from the Ubaid people such as hoes, knives, and adzes and clay artifacts which included sickles, bricks, painted pottery, and figurines.

These people were the first agents of civilization in the region. (Ibid)

That encyclopedia is supported by the History Channels section on Sumer. That channel says:

This early population—known as the Ubaid people—was notable for strides in the development of civilization such as farming and raising cattle, weaving textiles, working with carpentry and pottery, and even enjoying beer. Villages and towns were built around Ubaid farming communitie

and

Architecture on a grand scale is generally credited to have begun under the Sumerians, with religious structures dating back to 3400 B.C., although it appears that the basics of the structures began in the Ubaid period as far back as 5200 B.C. and were improved upon through the centuries. The buildings are noted for their arched doorways and flat roofs.

Elaborate construction, such as terra cotta ornamentation with bronze accents, complicated mosaics, imposing brick columns and sophisticated mural paintings all reveal the society’s technical sophistication (https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/sumer)

Unless something changes, we are quite confident in our identification of the Ubaid people as the civilization that built the Tower of Babel and got itself divided.

According to the scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, “The first ruler of Sumer, whose deeds are recorded, if only in the briefest kind of statement, is a king by the name of Etana of Kish, who may have come to the throne quite early in the third millennium B.C. In the King List he is described as he who stabilized all the lands” (The Sumerians, 43). The Sumerian King List is a cuneiform document, written by a scribe of the city of Lagash, sometime around 2100 BCE which lists all of the kings of the region, and their accomplishments, in an attempt to show continuity of order in society dating back to the beginning of civilization (https://www.ancient.eu/sumer/)

We are not going to talk much about the Sumerian King’s list except to say that it provides evidence for the global flood. Also, how else would the author of that list know about pre-flood rulers if there was no connection to Noah and his family? There is no  reason to create a false list to justify a ruler’s reign. Once it was found to be false, the ruler’s validity would be undermined and his authority destroyed or seriously weakened.

it is the following that we will contend with

The Sumerian language is the oldest linguistic record. It first appeared in archaeological records around 3100 B.C. and dominated Mesopotamia for the next thousand years. It was mostly replaced by Akkadian around 2000 B.C. but held on as a written language in cuneiform for another 2,000 years. (https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/sumer)

It may be the oldest linguistic record but we highly doubt that. Since we do not know what language the post flood one world civilization spoke, no one can truly claim that Sumerian is the oldest. The archaeologists’ inabililty to find inscriptions or written records from the Ubaid people doe snot mean that they did not write their language. Also, since we do not know what language they spoke, how would we recognize it if it was discovered?

With dating as flexible as it is, the language examples from the Ubaid nation could easily be attributed to another society. What we are sure of, is that the one world society or the Ubaids, spoke the same language as the pre-flood world. Noah and his family would have brought it with them when  they survived the ark. Since we cannot determine what language the pre-flood civilization spoke, we can never truly identify the true beginning language of the world.

Ge 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
Ge 11:8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

While scientists think that there is a  link holding all the languages in the world to some hierarchical structure, this passage seems to go against that idea. Yes, some languages do descend from other ones, but that cannot be said for all languages of the world.

Currently, about 7,000 languages are spoken around the world. They belong to different language families and their origins date back thousands of years ago. Researchers are still finding it difficult to determine which language is the oldest. However, the earliest written languages on record are the cuneiform script that was discovered in Mesopotamia that dates back to 8^th millennium BC (https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/2018/01/what-are-the-worlds-oldest-languages-10620/)

and

Origins of language

The origins of human language will perhaps remain for ever obscure. By contrast the origin of individual languages has been the subject of very precise study over the past two centuries. There are about 5000 languages spoken in the world today (a third of them in Africa), but scholars group them together into relatively few families – probably less than twenty. Languages are linked to each other by shared words or sounds or grammatical constructions. The theory is that the members of each linguistic group have descended from one language, a common ancestor. In many cases that original language is judged by the experts to have been spoken in surprisingly recent times – as little as a few thousand years ago. (http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13)

Scientists think that there is one mother language but we doubt that thinking. When we read the passage about God confusing the languages, it does not give us details of how exactly he did it. But from what evidence we have seen and God’s power, it is more likely that God made 20, more or less, new languages. We are not even sure if he kept the original pre-flood tongue. The Bible does not tell us.

We cannot be sure but it seems highly unlikely that he used a process such as the one described by scientists. The result was instantaneous and affected different numbers of different groups all with their own portion of the then population. In other words, the establishment of the many different languages was a product of God’s supernatural power, like he displayed at creation. He created the new tongues out of nothing.

He didn’t use a process at creation so why start now? We will conclude, that the people known as the Sumerians were the group that stayed behind and watched their once brethren depart to other lands. Notice that God did not take away their memories and the Sumerians were able to build, write, communicate and much more. They made fine achievements, even being credited with inventing the wheel, as were all the other nations.

We also forget which book Graham Hancock wrote it in, but in his searches, he claimed to have found a group of people that were afraid to build their homes on the flat plain. They built them in the hills and on the sides of mountains. He concluded that this particular group of people were afraid of a flood. If true, this would bring us a little more evidence for the global deluge.

It is also possible that this group thought a lot like the ancient Koreans, who saw how little farm land they had possession of and decided to build their homes on the hills and sides of mountains to preserve the farmland for crops.

As we study the Bible, these little insignificant passages provide us with a large amount of information. We should not be too quick to dismiss them or take the word of unbelieving scientists who ignore scriptures and the answers or clues it provides. As we read those early chapters of Genesis and the life of Abraham, we get the origins for a lot of nations. We know more than the scientists and ancients about the origins of these old nations.

Getting knowledge is something that Solomon encouraged in Proverbs. To be able to handle apologetics correctly, we need to know these historical details. They may save us a lot of embarrassment. Intelligence and knowledge are not wrong to have and help us preserve our faith as well as teach our children the facts that they need to know to preserve theirs.

 

Noah’s Tomb+

We are adding a third post today as we will take the next few days off and focus n other activities. We may have posted this topic before, but we cannot be sure. Many years ago when we were still in Korea, we were sent a copy of the following paper by Dr. Shea himself. He is a nice guy and we happened to like the paper he wrote. We wish we could have traveled to see these discoveries ourselves but things just didn’t work out.

Our copy of the paper is in jpg as our scanner was not that great so we can’t really post it from our archives. But we did find a Christian Forum that posted the article intact. It is the only link to the paper we have found so far. We will quote a few excerpts to whet your appetite.

https://www.christianforums.com/threads/information-on-noah.4226158/

After I returned home, I checked on the internet for many close-up views of various locations on Mount Aragatz.1 From a study of these photographs, I was convinced that there were some rock-cut carvings on the southern slope of this mountain just above Lake Qare (about 9,000 ft., 2.700 m.). I wanted to examine these carvings, so I went back to Armenia in June of 2004, accompanied by a professional photographer friend…

Identification of this first carved stone led to a search for others in the same area. A total of seven carved stones were found within an area of about 25 feet (8 m.) from the first stone. Four of these depict outlines of the heads of various members of Noah’s family…

One of these carved stones is important for determining the nature of the large mound on the other side of the lake. This stone was scored horizontally about two-thirds of the way up, to demarcate the peak. The figure of a man is shown on the right side of this peak. There is a two-word inscription written beside this figure: Noach = Noah and qeber = tomb, grave….

The weathered inscriptions provide the answer to this question. A number of them refer to the tomb of Shem and his wife. One of the clearer inscriptions can be read on one of the markers (Figure 6). The word qeber is written down the left side of the stela. Then the name of Shem with its three short and simple letters is written down the right side of the stela and again, in smaller letters, down the lower part of the center…

These older rocks were carved with badly weathered inscriptions and reliefs similar to those we had seen on Mount Aragatz and in the field of megaliths at Zorats Qarer. This time the carvings revealed a connection between the word for grave, tomb (qeber) and the name of Japheth, another one of the sons of Noah…

This collection of inscriptions indicates that this promontory was not paved just for the use of modern tourists, but in ancient times it served as the site of the burial of Japheth and his wife. To emphasize the connections of this site with the family of Noah, there are carvings of his three sons on top of the columnar rocks just across the road from this lookout. In that location, Shem and his wife were carved on the right, Ham and his wife in the middle, and Japheth and his wife on the left…

The paper is good food for thought

 

Theories & the Bible

We have been watching old videos that we purchased years ago from different archaeological and scientific organizations. We are just refreshing our memories of the content. One of those old DVDs was about the search for Noah’s ark by Bob Cornuke. Now we are not going to do a point by point critique of the video, after all, Mr. Cornuke made some interesting points during the video. We leave that up to Gordan Franz who does a great job of analyzing Mr.Cornuke’s statements.

One statement Mr. Cornuke made did catch our attention though and it came early in the presentation. At about the 10 minute mark, Mr. Cornuke made the statement that what helped changed his mind about the ark being on Ararat was a verse in the Bible that said Noah’s family came from the east. We are not sure which version he was reading but that didn’t sound right to us.

So we did some checking and we went to several different versions, one which we will quote here. Sadly, for Mr. Cornuke, those versions did not agree with his statement. The NIV states

Ge 11:1 Now the whole world had one language  and a common speech.
Ge 11:2 As men moved eastward,  they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. (PRADIS electronic version)

We actually do not know where the ark landed or where Noah and his family finally settled. But the Bible tells us that the people moved east not came from the east. These discrepancies have been noticed in other searches conducted and recorded by Mr. Cornuke which tells us that he is not reading the Bible very well or he is using it to justify his agenda.

Ge 9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)
Ge 9:19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.
Ge 9:20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded  to plant a vineyard

As you can see, God does not give us their exact location. While the supposed grave sites of Noah and two of his sons have been discovered, by Dr. William Shea, these are not indications that they are the actual final resting place of Noah and his family.

This is the problem that arises when people try to support their theories by using the Bible. Sometimes their minds do not let their eyes see what is actually on  the page of scripture. Or they misread what is written  as the Bible does mention the word east in one location description

Ge 10:30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country

But the text does not say that they came from the east as the word west or any of its derivatives are not used by the biblical author.   Notice the following

Ge 10:8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.
Ge 10:9 He was a mighty  hunter  before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.”
Ge 10:10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon,  Erech,  Akkad and Calneh,  in  Shinar.
Ge 10:11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth  Calah
Ge 10:12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city

These words may give us a clue as to the location of Shinar but it does not indicate a move westward, since the other passage said that they moved eastward. Thus the location of Noah’s ark remains a mystery. But as we have said before, we do not need the ark to prove the Bible true. It would be very difficult to provide the right evidence to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the structure discovered was the actual ark.

What is needed is faith and faith is simply believing God and his word over everyone else. The other point to this article is that one must be very careful when using the Bible to provide support for their theories. Little mistakes, like the one described above, can ruin your identification of a location, your credibility and reputation.

 

If you want to do some further reading on this here are a couple of links. The first is to Mr. Cornuke’s website:

http://www.baseinstitute.org/

The second is to ABR’s website which has many articles on Noah’s ark. Scroll down to find the ones written by Gordon Franz. They can be very detailed but well worth the read:

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/category/Flood.aspx

 

Another Archaeological Discovery

The Associates for Biblical Research have made an announcement about the items they have uncovered in their latest excavation in Shiloh

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2018/08/22/NEWS-RELEASE-ABR-Makes-Important-Discovery-at-Biblical-Shiloh.aspx

Associates for Biblical Research announces the discovery of a ceramic pomegranate from its second season of excavations at the ancient city of Shiloh in Israel. The pomegranate was among 500 other objects registered during the dig that was conducted in May and June 2018

This is all good and  fine. We are glad that there are some Christian archaeologists out there digging away and making discoveries. What bothers us though is the following words:

The discovery of the ceramic pomegranate is strong evidence that Shiloh was likely a temenos (a sacred, dedicated precinct) during the early history of Israel

It is not likely but a fact. We already knew that Shiloh was the place where the Israelites placed the tabernacle when they first settled the Promised Land. In fact, there has been written about long before ABR got there. Here is an interesting news piece from 2015

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/48178/welcome-to-shiloh-where-the-modern-and-ancient-collide-judea-and-samaria/

Shiloh was established by Joshua, son of Nun, approximately 3,500 years ago, as the spiritual capital of Israel. The Tabernacle was placed there, and Jews from all over the land came to worship at the location (Joshua 18:1). The Tabernacle stood in Shiloh for over 350 years according to Jewish tradition, and its remains can still be seen today.

Th next link will get you some good pictures of the area:

http://www.generationword.com/Israel/shiloh.html

The next link provides an interactive map and a few words on the site including its religious heritage. The article dates to 2012:

https://waynestiles.com/the-tabernacle-at-shiloh-a-promise-person-place-parable/

Then wikipedia tells us that archaeological excavations at Shiloh began almmost 100 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_(biblical_city)#Archaeology

Soundings were first made in 1922 by Aage Schmidt. A Danish team led by Hans Kjær (overseen by W.F. Albright) excavated for three seasons between the years 1926-32. A probe was done by Sven Holm-Nielson and Marie-Louise Buhl in 1963. An extensive excavation was done by Israel Finkelstein during the years 1981-84.

So when Christians talk about biblical cities, events and so on, they should be careful of the words that they use. It isn’t likely but reality that Shiloh was the religious center for the Hebrews until David and Solomon made their changes. Let’s not mislead people when we do our reporting. Let’s also not follow secular rules and expectations when we construct our reports either. present the facts, draw the correct conclusions and stick with the truth.

 

The Sahara & Noah

If you can stop laughing at the ridiculous and hilarious theories, dating and speculation made by the secular scientists in the following video, you will find lots of evidence for Noah’s flood. You should, by now, be able to spot the faulty reasoning and bad leaps to conclusions made by the researchers They, of course, have no evidence to support their conclusions and theories.

Even the drill samples do not provide the evidence they need to make their ideas plausible. The blowing sand thinking is a stretch, as is the idea that the Sahara became green every 20,000 years. They do not get into how long the Sahara remained green at each of those times nor do they find evidence for more than one time the Sahara was actually green.

We do agree that the Sahara was not always a desert, but we do not agree with the researchers thinking or conclusions. We see evidence for Noah’s flood time and again, though. A topic the researchers noticeably avoid.

Here are a couple of links to web pages filled with evidence for Noah’s flood:

http://dakotascba.com/Flood-Myths.php

http://dakotascba.com/Evidence-for-Noah%27s-Flood.php

Enjoy the video

 

Ancient Cranes

There is a question of how were those mysterious ruins constructed. As you saw in the video no one knows. Not even the supposed experts. There is absolutely no information, no blueprints, no journals talking about construction methods and so on, extant today. When these sites were excavated and explored, not one ancient manuscript was found describing their construction or their purpose.

Everything about these structures is left to assumption and speculation. From history, we can use what clues we have to make educated guesses but some of those guesses can stagger a logical mind. For example, how could the ancient people lift 70-ton rocks and move them from one place to another? The Bible gives us one good clue about what was in existence prior to the modern world.

Solomon tells us in Ecc. that nothing is new under the sun. The word nothing is a completely inclusive word. it tells us that there are no new inventions or ideas. What we have thought to invent and have invented, has been thought of before and possibly invented prior to the modern age. The ancients may not have had jets and tanks but such inventions would have had crude predecessors.

The Greeks have a myth about a man who invented wings and flew from captivity, thus flying has been thought of since ancient times. The early inventors may not have been as successful as their modern counterparts but old ideas become new again when enough generations pass. We are reminded of that Mitsubishi commercial where they show a car with a back window going into the trunk, we are doing this from memory, and the company said new ideas for a new generation or something like that. Unfortunately for Mitsubishi, our uncle had a similar working car back in the 1960s.

Since we brought up the Greeks, we should mention that many scholars, etc., credit the Greeks with inventing just about everything. You can find lists of Greek inventions on the internet. They even credit the Greeks with discovering the Pythagorean Thereom. One reason for this confusion is that under Alexander the Greeks conquered the majority of the known world at that time and could easily adopt those inventions and call them their own. Who was to stop them?

Just so you know, the Babylonians had the Pythagorean Thereom 2000 years before the Greeks did (Pellegrino, Return to Sodom and Gomorrah). They also had a social security system,  time capsules and a lot more. The Greeks are also credited with inventing the ancient crane, a tool that would be vital in helping to construct those mysterious ruins we know nothing about.

Archeologists have uncovered evidence that the Ancient Greeks were the first to use cranes to lift heavy objects. They predict that they were first in use in the 6th Century B.C. When observing various archaeological sites, they noticed that there were distinct markings that created grooves and holes in some of the stone structures. They surmised that these grooves and holes were created by some kind of lifting device. At this time, they were mostly used to lift heavy stone blocks when they were making temples. In other words, the crane was invented because the Ancient Greeks needed a more efficient way to build their temples and other structures (https://www.greekboston.com/culture/inventions/crane/)

The key word is in bold and the evidence is not compelling. We will admit that the Greeks may have seen ancient cranes at work and set about to improve the design and lifting capabilities, but that is as much speculation as is used in that quote. The crane may have been around a lot longer than 6th century BC. Such a late date for their invention does not explain how the ancient societies moved large rocks.

The birth of the crane is inextricably tied with the birth of the pulley — first devised by ancient Mesopotamians as early as 1500 BC for hoisting water. The first compound pulleys were created by Archimedes of Syracuse around 287 – 212 BC, which he used to lift an entire war ship, along with its crew. (http://hbrown.com/cranes-rigging-blog/hydraulic-cranes/history-crane-got-hydraulic-cranes/)

We cannot state with entire certainty that Archimedes was the first. Archaeology does not present us with all the facts nor all the inventions made throughout history. Things just have a way of wearing out and disappearing over time. The immediately above quote makes more sense than having the crane invented at the time of Christ’s birth. The 6th century quote is contradicted by the following:

Archaeologists assume that cranes were used in Greece since 900 BC (although there is no direct proof) (http://greaterancestors.com/ancient-greek-cranes/)

Again speculation and assumption as well as no real evidence of when cranes actually were invented and came into use. What we do have is that the idea of lifting heavy objects with special equipment has been around for millennia:

People, since ancient times, have used different kinds of machines or devices to lift very heavy loads or materials. The so-called “shaduf” was one of the earliest types of a crane. The shaduf was used more than 4000 years ago in ancient Egypt to move water. The shaduf is still used today in some rural areas in India and Egypt (http://www.interestingreality.com/interesting-facts-about-cranes/)

What we are saying is that the pre-flood world may have been so far advanced that they had the special equipment, like cranes, to lift those heavy rocks and move them into  place. Another clue we have comes from the Bible. In Genesis 6 it tells us that there were giants in the world. If we can speculate a bit, we know that giants have a greater strength than normal sized humans. Their lifting capacity would help lift, move and position those large blocks of stone into place.

The advent of the compound pulley contributed enormously to the development of mechanical cranes. A single man pulling on a “Pentaspostos” (a crane with five pulleys), for example, has a mechanical advantage of 5:1. In other words, by exerting a force of 50 lbs, he can pull 250lbs. (http://hbrown.com/cranes-rigging-blog/hydraulic-cranes/history-crane-got-hydraulic-cranes/)

Again, the Bible provides us with the only credible clue to explain the construction of those mysterious ruins. We do not think that Archimedes was the first to invent that tool. More likely he was the first after many generations. Keep in mind that those ancient ruins are put together very tightly. There is no room for straps and other devices cranes use to hold their large cargo and be able to position the rocks as we have found them. Some human strength has to be involved and so far, giants provide the only credible explanation.

A large group of men using ropes cannot accomplish what we have found and they all can’t get their hands on the stones to manipulate them into place.

Some Final Thoughts

We do not agree with those experts that the Greeks invented everything including the ancient crane. We now better. We may not know who was the first to invent it or how powerful they were but we are sure that with nothing new under the sun, the pre-flood world invented cranes and pulley systems to help them construct their mysterious buildings.

The key lesson in all of this is God. As we explore this topic on ancient cranes, we can see evidence of how much intelligence God gave to man.it takes a lot of ability and brains to conceive of such mysterious buildings, plan their construction, draw blueprints, and then actually build them. Then what God gave ancient man we see that he gave the same intelligence and abilities to all humans throughout history.

The evidence is there by all the modern construction taking place today and throughout history. No matter who constructed the first crane and who built those mysterious ruins, the glory needs to go to God for he gave us the tools we need to accomplish such great feats. Secular man may think they are better than God but they are using God’s gifts to achieve their dreams. They need to give credit where credit is due.