Wednesday, August 13, 2008

THEY AREN'T MADE OF CRYSTAL, but still ...
Three 9,000-Year-Old Skulls Found in Galilee

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have discovered three 9,000-year-old skulls at the Yiftah'el dig in the Lower Galilee, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday. Experts said the placement of the skulls confirms the worship of ancestors from during that time, practiced by displaying skulls inside houses.

[...]

"The skulls were found plastered – that is to say sculpted – which is a phenomenon that is identified with the New Stone Age," said site director Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily. "The practice included the reconstruction of all of the facial features of the deceased by means of sculpting the skull with a variety of materials such as plaster that was specifically intended for this. On the skulls that were found in the excavation the nose was entirely reconstructed."

[...]
And Arutz Sheva has this aside, which perhaps has some potential for the next Indiana Jones movie:
Some Torah authorities explain that findings which are dated before the Jewish date of creation are remnants from worlds which G-d created and destroyed before this world.
Seriously, this is a very interesting find from a period from which very little evidence survives.