Latest news with #Canaanites
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient donkey sacrifice ritual unearthed in Israel sheds light on Egyptian trade links
The donkeys, found buried under a Bronze Age house in ancient Gath, near Tell es-Safi, were determined to have originated from ancient Egypt. A team of archaeologists has made a groundbreaking discovery in Israel, uncovering the remains of four donkeys that were ritually sacrificed over 4,500 years ago. The donkeys, found buried under a Bronze Age house in ancient Gath, near Tell es-Safi, around 20 km. northwest of Hebron, were determined to have originated from ancient Egypt. According to a new study published in the journal PLOS One, the donkeys were likely used for agricultural labor and trade, and their sacrifice may have been a display of wealth and social status. The researchers found that the donkeys were all female, in their prime age, and had been buried with their legs tied together. The discovery of the donkeys' remains has shed new light on the ritual practices of the ancient Canaanites, who inhabited the region during the Early Bronze Age III (circa 2900 to 2550 BCE). The researchers believe that the donkeys' Egyptian origin may indicate that their owners were merchants and traders who had connections with Egypt. Donkey remains have been consistently found at ancient Gath. After finding a decapitated donkey in 2010, with its head having been 'fully cut off and carefully placed on the abdomen facing in the opposite direction' according to the study, researchers continued searching for other donkeys in the area. Using chemical analysis and testing isotopes and the donkey's tooth enamel, researchers determined the donkey was originally from the Nile Valley. These results were also published in PLOS One in 2016. Researchers added that the choice to sacrifice a donkey, rather than any other animal, at the time was likely a sign of power and wealth, based on the demand for the animal in such a critical transportation role. Donkeys and similar animals were used in the ancient world primarily for hard agricultural labor. This included, but was not limited to, plowing and pulling heavy loads, as well as transportation of goods. These donkeys were also female, which was particularly valuable, and were believed to be replaceable by the sacrificing parties, according to the recently published study. All of their skulls pointed eastward, and their front and back legs had been tied together. Finding the four sacrificial animals depicts the mules' vital roles in both ritual practices and the economy. 'This finding highlights the importance of donkeys in the ancient world, not only for economic and trade purposes but also for ritual practices,' Elizabeth Arnold, an anthropologist and environmental archaeologist at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, told LiveScience. The researchers used isotopic analysis to help determine the origin of the donkeys, and the results revealed that they had lived in the Nile Valley. This discovery suggests that the donkeys were brought to ancient Gath from Egypt, likely as part of a trade or economic exchange. The study's findings provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ancient animals and their role in human society. As the researchers continue to study the remains of the donkeys, they hope to learn more about the complex relationships between humans and animals in the ancient world.
Memri
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Memri
AMP Chairman Hatem Bazian in California Friday Sermon: Kashmir and Palestine Are Battlegrounds for Identity; Zionists Came from Ukraine and Poland, Changed Their Names to Appear Indigenous
In a May 16, 2025 Friday sermon at the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara, CA, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) National Chairman Hatem Bazian drew parallels between the conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir, framing both as struggles over identity and land driven by religious nationalism. Bazian said that in Palestine, the land is being claimed under the pretext of a divine promise tied to Judeo-Christian civilization, while in Kashmir, he argued, the region is being framed as a 'pure land of the Hindu gods' in service of building a Hindu nation-state. Bazian rejected the notion that Palestine belongs to those who claim a divine promise tied to Judeo-Christian civilization, saying it does not belong to those who came from Ukraine or Poland and changed their last names to appear indigenous. He emphasized that the Canaanites were the original inhabitants of the land and said that they were of Arab origin. Bazian argued that the promise to Abraham was not a bloodline promise but one based on belief, citing a Quranic verse in which God tells Abraham that transgressors from his lineage are not included in the promise.
The Print
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Shin Bet chief says Netanyahu wants to make Israel a police state. What it means for country
The affidavit—filed after judges halted Bar's firing by Netanyahu last month—alleges that the Shin Bet chief was told to conduct illegal espionage against democratic protests, obstruct the ongoing criminal trial of the Prime Minister, and disregard the courts as a constitutional crisis unfolds. The decision to fire Bar came even as Shin Bet investigated allegations that two of the Prime Minister's top aides received payoffs from the state of Qatar. Earlier this week, the head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence service, Ronen Bar, filed an explosive 31-page affidavit in the country's High Court of Justice, in essence accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to turn the country into a police state. The Lord spoke to Moses,' so the Hebrew Bible records , 'saying, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.'' The twelve men he despatched returned, saying: 'We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.' The prospect of war against the Amalekites of the Negev, the Canaanites of the sea, and the Amorites of the hill country scared the spies, though. They falsely reported to the people: 'The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants.' Few nations have stories of espionage—and its handmaidens, intrigue and deceit—so entwined with their origin myths. Few nations owe so much to their intelligence services for their survival, either. Even as Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the eminent Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned that 'a country that controls a hostile population of a million foreigners will necessarily be a Shin Bet state, with everything that this requires, with implications on education, freedom of speech and thought and on democratic governance. The corruption characterising every colonial regime will also infect the State of Israel.' The bleak contents of Bar's affidavit are making many Israelis ask if the scholar might have been right. The invisible shield From a cluster of unimposing buildings in Jaffa, only just abandoned by their Palestinian owners, Lieutenant-Colonel Isser Harel began the task of securing the new Jewish state which had emerged in the Middle East in the summer of 1948. Formed in 1940 with training and resources from the British military intelligence service MI4, as well as the Special Operations Executive, Isser's old service, the Shai, had served as the intelligence arm of the Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary. Now, Shai was divided into three services, the Shin Bet, Mossad and military intelligence. Things didn't begin well. Isser Be'eri, the commander of the Israeli Defence Forces' intelligence wing, was cashiered in 1949, for the wrongful execution of an innocent man scapegoated as a traitor. The military intelligence chief was sentenced to just a day's symbolic imprisonment, before which he was pardoned—but it was an early warning of the dangers of unchecked power. Like all domestic intelligence services, historians Ian Black and Benny Morris have written, Shin Bet was called on to monitor public disaffection, particularly anger against post-war black-marketeering. In his private diary, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion recorded why he trusted Harel: 'There's hardly a family that doesn't buy on the black market. In Isser's house there's nothing to eat because he doesn't.' From early in its existence, Shin Bet also found itself sucked into political intrigue. In 1949, Shin Bet was found to be conducting surveillance on members of the right-wing Herut Party, led by to-be Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The bulk of Shin Bet's work, though, involved the control and surveillance of Israel's 200,000 Arab citizens, who lived, until 1966, under military administration, complete with curfews, pass laws and residence permits. Efforts by the Arabs to create their own political formations were stamped out by Shin Bet for fear they would begin a Soviet Union-backed war of national liberation. Large numbers of sensational espionage cases peppered the media through the 1950s, an evident acknowledgment of the successes of Shin Bet. The reality of these cases, Black and Morris suggest, was somewhat less impressive than advertised. Nayifa Aqala, a Haifa resident, was arrested for purchasing postcards, from which Jordanian intelligence was purported to seek to extract the locations of military bases. Galilee resident Mahmoud Yasin, who volunteered to gather military intelligence for Syria, was defeated in his attempt to cross the Israeli border by a large porcupine, which attacked his brother. Even though its battles with low-level border espionage provided Shin Bet with public colour and a reputation for derring-do, its real contribution was as a patient and skilful collector of intelligence on the Soviet Union. Immigrants from the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites were patiently interrogated, providing a wealth of information on the Bloc's technological capabilities and economic problems. The Central Intelligence Agency, declassified documents reveal, was an avid consumer of Shin Bet's interrogations from 1951 on, which laid the foundations for a growing relationship between the two countries. Also read: New round of Iran nuclear negotiations begins. Time to talk about Israel's atomic bombs too The war inside From the middle of 1967, emerging from the war that won Israel the West Bank and Gaza, Shin Bet began warning that despair had begun to turn to rage. The arrival of Israeli settlers looking for cheap land had provoked alarm, leading young volunteers to join the ranks of Al-Fatah insurgents. Shin Bet proved adept at manipulating clan rivalries to gather intelligence, and won the support of conservative traditional leaders like the mayor of Hebron, Sheikh Muhammad Ali Ja'abari, who feared the destruction armed insurgency might bring. To the east, in Gaza, Shin Bet found itself facing a more determined insurgency. Ever since 1949, historian Jean-Pierre Filiu has written, the crowded enclave had received regular flows of weapons, compelling Israel to be drawn into repeated military incursions. Fearing being drawn into an expensive counter-insurgency without end, Defence Minister General Moshe Dayan had withdrawn the Israeli army from the Gaza refugee camps in 1970—but that decision abandoned their control of organised crime and terrorist organisations. Even though Shin Bet soon built a close relationship with the army, allowing it to conduct raids into Gaza's camps at short notice, the situation never fully stabilised. To make things worse, new challenges emerged. In 1972, after the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich, Jewish rage surged. Amihai Paglin, the former operations chief of the Irgun militia, was arrested at the end of September after trying to smuggle weapons and explosives abroad for use in revenge attacks against Arabs. From 1977 on, Jewish extremism grew as a challenge. The Israeli intelligence services remained on top of the challenge—but at a price. General Dayan had long lamented Shin Bet's use of administrative detentions instead of bringing regular criminal prosecutions, Black and Morris note, pointing to its corrosive impact on the legitimacy of Israeli rule in the West Bank. Torture grew more commonplace. And then, in 1986, senior officials of the agency were accused of murdering two hijackers of a bus in cold blood. Legal clemency was granted to the killers, leading many Israelis to worry about the nation's commitment to the rule of law. Inside Shin Bet itself, many were questioning the paradigm of Israel's counter-terrorism campaign. 'I think my son, who served for three years in the paratroopers, participated in the conquest of Nablus at least two or three times,' argued Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon. 'Did it bring us victory? I don't think so. Did it create a better political reality? The tragedy of Israel's public security debate is that we don't realise that we face a frustrating situation in which we win every battle, but we lose the war.' Also read: Trump wants a new Yalta to assert American hegemony. History shows this grand plan will likely fail The looming abyss Four decades of constant war—and the barbaric Hamas assault of 2023—made questions of legality and the rule of law appear irrelevant to a large swathe of Israel's public. The corrosion of institutions this enabled, though, became increasingly apparent. In 2022, credible allegations emerged that Israel's police services had illegally used Pegasus spyware to monitor the phones of several heads of government ministries, a leading businessman, and co-defendant in the ongoing corruption trial of the Prime Minister. 'The future is bleak,' said Avraham Shalom, the Shin Bet director implicated in the 1986 bus murders. 'Where does it lead? To a change in the people's character? Because, if you put most of our young people in the Army, they'll see a paradox. They'll see that it strives to be a people's army, like the Nahal unit involved in building up the country. On the other hand, it's a brutal occupation force, similar to the Germans in World War II.' Bar's affidavit shows Israel still has a core institutional resilience, and individuals of integrity, who can help prevent that outcome. The nation's fate depends on their success. Praveen Swami is contributing editor at ThePrint. His X handle is @praveenswami. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Saba Yemen
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Enemy storms archaeological sites in Yatta & Bethlehem to secure settler incursion
Hebron - (Saba): The Zionist enemy forces stormed the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, to secure the settlers' storming of the 'Carmel Pool' archaeological site. Media activist Osama Makhamra told the Palestinian news agency Wafa, that the enemy forces surrounded the Carmel archaeological area, and closed roads leading to it, and that snipers climbed on the roofs of houses, in order to secure the storming of dozens of settlers to the archaeological site to perform biblical rituals under the pretext of the Jewish holidays. Makhamra added that the site of the pool is a historical archaeological area dug by the Canaanites to collect rainwater and springs to be used for watering livestock and crops. On Thursday, enemy forces stormed the archaeological area of Solomon's Pools, south of Bethlehem. A security source reported that a force of the enemy army stormed Suleiman Pools, and stationed in it, in preparation for securing an incursion of settlers. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Toddler Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Archaeological Relic
A three-year-old child in Israel made a remarkable archaeological discovery in the form of a 3,800-year-old relic. While out on a hike with her parents and two sisters at the archaeological site of Tel Azeka, Ziv Nitzan located a Canaanite amulet in the shape of a scarab while searching the ground for stones. 'We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down, and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone,' one of her sisters, Omer Nitzan, recalled in a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). 'When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it. I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find! We immediately reported this to the Israel Antiquities Authority.' (via Ancient Origins). Scarabs, otherwise known as dung beetles, were revered as a symbol of renewal and regeneration in ancient Egypt. 'Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets. They were found in graves, in public buildings, and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status,' said researcher Daphna later determined that the artifact came from the Canaanites, a people who had longstanding economic and cultural associations with Egypt. Tel Azeka itself had immense historical and religious significance, featuring in the Bible as the location of the battle between David and Goliath. The latest discovery provides researchers with new information about the ancient land. 'The excavation findings show that during this period, Tel Azeka was one of the most important cities in the Judean Lowlands,' excavation director Oded Lipschits said. 'The scarab found by Ziv joins a long list of Egyptian and Canaanite finds discovered here, which attest to the close ties and cultural influences between Canaan and Egypt during that period.'Young Ziv's discovery can soon be seen by all at the IAA, located at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem. It will be displayed alongside other relics from ancient Egypt and Canaan. 'In our public tours, we will present impressive items for the first time, including seals of the pharaohs, Egyptian statues, ritual vessels, and evidence of the Egyptian cultural influence in the Land of Israel,' IAA Director Eli Escusido said.
