Again this is contemporaneous with the great Pyramid culture in Egypt
and another successor of large stone construction that can be traced
back another five thousand years as well. This was a wide spaced
tradition that arose where ever populations arose although that is
not often often recognizible by today's population distribution.
It purpose remains uncertain, but that applies to all structures of
this age. One imagines a shaman having a remarkable vision and his
king having a dream and that is as good as it gets. Practical
generally is missing.
At least we have recognized this one and are left to wonder just what
we are really missing.
Massive
5,000-Year-Old Stone Monument Revealed in Israel
by Owen Jarus, Live
Science Contributor
A
lunar-crescent-shaped stone monument that dates back around 5,000
years has been identified in Israel.
Located about 8 miles
(13 kilometers) northwest of the Sea of Galilee, the structure
is massive — its volume is about 14,000 cubic meters (almost
500,000 cubic feet) and it has a length of about 150 meters (492
feet), making it longer than an American football field. Pottery
excavated at the structure indicates the monument dates to between
3050 B.C. and 2650 B.C., meaning it is likely older than the pyramids
of Egypt. It was also built before much of Stonehenge was
constructed.
Archaeologists
previously thought the structure was part of a city wall, but recent
work carried out by Ido Wachtel, a doctoral student at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, indicates there is no city beside it and
that the structure is a standing monument.
"The proposed
interpretation for the site is that it constituted a prominent
landmark in its natural landscape, serving to mark possession and to
assert authority and rights over natural resources by a local rural
or pastoral population," Wachtel wrote in the summary of a
presentation given recently at the International Congress on the
Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. [See Photos of the
Crescent-Shaped Monument]
The structure's
crescent shape stood out in the landscape, Wachtel told Live Science
in an email. The shape may have had symbolic importance, as the lunar
crescent is a symbol of an ancient Mesopotamian moon god named Sin,
Wachtel said.
An ancient town called
Bet Yerah (which translates to "house of the moon god") is
located only a day's walk from the crescent-shaped monument Wachtel
noted. As such, the monument may have helped mark the town's borders.
While the monument is located within walking range of the city it is
too far away to be an effective fortification.
Massive structure
The structure is about
150 meters (492 feet) long and 20 m (66 feet) wide at its base, and
is preserved to a height of 7 m (23 feet), Wachtel's research found.
"The estimation
of working days invested in the construction [of] the site is between
35,000 days in the lower estimate [and] 50,000 in the higher,"
Wachtel said in the email.
If the lower estimate
is correct, it means a team of 200 ancient workers would have needed
more than five months to construct the monument, a task that would be
difficult for people who depended on crops for their livelihood. "We
need to remember that people were [obligated] most of the year to
agriculture," Wachtel said.
Bet Yerah
At the time this
monument was built, the site of Bet Yerah was located only 18 miles
(29 km) away.
Bet Yerah was a large
town with a grid plan and fortification system, according to a study
detailed in 2012 in the Journal of Near Eastern Archaeology. Its
inhabitants traded with the early kings of Egypt, as seen from
several artifacts, including a jug with a hieroglyphic inscription.
The name Bet Yerah
indicates that it was associated with the moon god. However, it's
uncertain whether the town actually bore this name 5,000 years ago.
In the 2012 journal article, researchers said the name "Bet
Yerah" was recorded in 1,500-year-old Jewish rabbinic texts and
may date back much earlier.
Megalithic landscape
Other large rock
structures have been found not far from the crescent-shaped monument.
One structure, called Rujum el-Hiri, isin the Golan Heights (an area
to the east of the Sea of Galilee) and has four circles with a cairn
at its center. The date of this structure is a matter of debate;
recent research by Mike Freikman, an archaeologist with the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, suggests it may predate the crescent-shaped
structure by several centuries.
Another stone
monument, a giant cairn that weighs more than 60,000 tons, was
discovered recently beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Its
date is unknown, but like the crescent-shaped structure, it is
located close to Bet Yerah.
Wachtel's work at the
crescent-shaped monument was conducted as part of his master's
thesis.Today, people living in the area call the monument by its
Arabic name, Rujum en-Nabi Shua'ayb, and it is sometimes referred to
as the "Jethro Cairn," a reference to the Druze prophet
Jethro, who plays an important role in local folklore.
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