Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered 3,000-year-old textiles stained with a valuable purple dye made from Mediterranean mollusks. Source: https://www.livescience.com/rare-purple-textiles-discovered-israel.html
Tag: biblical
The Atlantic Urges Humankind to Fix the Social Web
Heading into the new year, the Atlantic’s executive editor penned a scathing warning that vast social networks like Facebook “can harm society just by existing…” Even as Facebook has insisted that it is a value-neutral vessel for the material its users choose to publish, moderation is a lever the company has tried to pull again and again. But there aren’t enough…
Could the Christmas Star visible tonight actually be the Star of Bethlehem?
Did the biblical “Star of Bethlehem” come back in 2020? It wouldn’t be crazy to think so. But it’s not the only possibility. Source: https://www.livescience.com/was-christmas-star-really-jupiter-saturn.html
Spooning skeletons: Who were these 3,000-year-old ‘Romeo and Juliet’?
More than 3,000 years ago, a couple at a biblical site in Israel was buried side by side in a spooning position, and archaeologists are calling them Romeo and Juliet. Source: https://www.livescience.com/romeo-and-juliet-skeletons-israel.html
Biblical Goliath may not have been a giant
Goliath, the giant who was felled by King David in the Hebrew Bible, is described as having a jaw-dropping height. Turns out, that may not have been accurate. Source: https://www.livescience.com/was-biblical-goliath-a-giant.html
Horned figures from cult of a Mesopotamian moon god discovered in biblical-era fort
A 3,000-year-old fort containing a carving of mysterious horned figures has been discovered in the Golan Heights. And it may have been built by the kingdom of Geshur, an ally of the Israeli King David. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-fort-figures-biblical-geshur-kingdom-discovered.html
A Spaceflight Engineer Recovers the Lost Software For Apollo 10’s Lunar Module
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Vintage computing enthusiasts have recreated NASA’s legendary “Apollo Guidance Computer,” the 1960s-era assembly-language onboard guidance and navigation computer for the Apollo missions to the moon. Unfortunately, the software had been lost for the Apollo 10 mission (a manned “dress rehearsal” mission which flew to the moon eight weeks before Neil Armstrong’s famous moonwalk mission). But spaceflight…
Cannabis was burned for religious rituals in Biblical-era Israel
Residues of cannabis found on stone altars from a shrine in what was once the Biblical Kingdom of Judah suggest the plant was burned for its psychoactive effects Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2244793-cannabis-was-burned-for-religious-rituals-in-biblical-era-israel/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Welcome to Armageddon: Meet the city behind the biblical story
Megiddo, a place known in the Book of Revelation as “Armageddon,” was occupied between roughly 7000–300 B.C. A prophecy states that in the end times a final battle will be fought near this site. Source: https://www.livescience.com/megiddo-armageddon.html
Archivists Uncover Earliest Evidence of a Person Being Killed By a Meteorite
sciencehabit writes: Although tales of people being killed by meteorite impacts date back to biblical times, few have been documented until the past decade or so. Now, Turkish researchers have uncovered the earliest evidence that a meteorite killed one man and paralyzed another when it slammed into a hilltop in what is now Iraq in August 1888. Documents chronicling the event…