Saturday, November 17, 2007

SILOAM TUNNEL INSCRIPTION UPDATE:
Peres seeks to borrow Siloam Inscription for Israel’s anniversary
Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked President Abdullah Gül to send the Siloam Inscription, a 2,700-year-old tablet exhibited at İstanbul’s Archaeology Museum, to Jerusalem for Israel’s 60th anniversary.

At their meeting in Ankara on Tuesday Peres repeated Israel’s request to receive the biblical tablet. Gül said, “We will do what we can.”

A Turkish official said if conditions are met for the international transfer of archeological artifacts, the government is warm to the idea of displaying the tablet in Jerusalem.
Once again, the seemingly obligatory howler is included:
The Siloam Inscription was found in 1880, when Jerusalem was under Ottoman rule, in what is known today as Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Engraved on the stone is a description of the meeting in A.D. 703 of two groups of hewers who were digging from opposite ends as they sought to provide a reliable water source for Jerusalem’s residents in biblical times.
That should be (more or less) 703 B.C.E., not A.D.

Background here.