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It is difficult to get to the bottom of this. Archaeology, frankly, distains to mention Wyatt. The main refutation comes from Christian sites, even fundamentalist ones. Interestingly Fundypedia is thunderously silent on the man.
As usual, wiki, provides a reasonable overview
"Ronald Eldon Wyatt (1933 - August 4, 1999 at Memphis, Tennessee) was an adventurer and former nurse anaesthetist noted for advocating the Durupınar site as the site of Noah's Ark, among other Bible-related pseudoarchaeology.
His claims are dismissed by scientists, historians, biblical scholars, and even by leaders in his own Seventh-day Adventist Church, but he continues to have a strongly motivated, if narrowly-based, following among some fundamentalists and evangelicals.[citation needed (Campbell34, 'Nuff sed)
Wyatt was a nurse-anesthetist when in 1960 he saw a picture in Life Magazine of the Durupınar site, a boat-like shape on a mountain near Mount Ararat. The resulting widespread speculation in evangelical Christian circles that this might be Noah's Ark started Wyatt on his career as an amateur archaeologist. From 1977 until his death in 1999 he made over one hundred trips to the Middle East, his interests widening to take in a wide variety of references from the Old and New Testaments.
While Wyatt won a devoted following from the ranks of fundamentalist Christians seeking tangible evidence of the literal truth of the Bible, his credibility was disputed, often bitterly, by professional archaeologists and biblical scholars. The Garden Tomb Association of Jerusalem state in a letter they issue to visitors on request:
The Council of the Garden Tomb Association (London) totally refute the claim of Mr Wyatt to have discovered the original Ark of the Covenant or any other biblical artifacts within the boundaries of the area known as the Garden Tomb Jerusalem. Though Mr Wyatt was allowed to dig within this privately owned garden on a number of occasions (the last occasion being the summer of 1991) staff members of the Association observed his progress and entered his excavated shaft. As far as we are aware nothing was ever discovered to support his claims nor have we seen any evidence of biblical artifacts or temple treasures.
The Granite Columns of Solomon
Ron Wyatt found this column lying at the edge of the water in 1978. It matches one on the other side of the gulf in Saudi Arabia which had the inscriptions intact. The Hebrew words Mizram (Egypt), death, water, pharaoh, Edom, Yahweh, and Solomon were on that column. Welcome to 6000years.org (A Wyatt promotional site)
The column Mr. Wyatt is standing by is not from the time of Solomon but crafted in the time of Jesus or later. Columns constructed in the time of Solomon were built from square stone blocks and were rectangular columns, not round ones.
No inscription by Solomon or mentioning Solomon has been found til this time. Such a find would be stupendous and I wish this claim were true. It is not. Red Sea Crossing
(Arq comment. I admit that I'd like to know more about that inscription, and assumptions about pillars being round or square may be overturned. Egyptian columns could be cylindrical in 1,000 B.C. However, that hardly proves that it was put up by the famous Solomon or that it commemmorated the crossing or that, if it did, the crossing ever happened even if king Solomon believed it)
Solomon's memorial pillars
WHEN Ron Wyatt first visited Nuweiba in 1978, he found a Phoenician
style column lying in the water. Unfortunately the inscriptions had
been eroded away, hence the column's importance was not understood
until 1984, when a second granite column was found on the Saudi
coastline opposite -- identical to the first, except on this one the
inscription was still intact.
In Phoenician letters (Archaic Hebrew), it contained the words:
Mizraim (Egypt); Solomon; Edom; death; Pharaoh; Moses; and Yahweh,
indicating that King Solomon had set up these columns as a memorial to
the miracle of the crossing of the sea. Saudi Arabia does not admit
tourists, and perhaps fearing unauthorized visitors, the Saudi
Authorities have since removed this column, and replaced it with a
flag marker where it once stood. Google Answers: Will coral grow on gold?
That is an interesting thread to look over. There are claims of discoveries and artefacts recovered, but where are they?
1960 Noah's Ark (the Durupinar site, for which he has been the prime promoter) Stone sea anchors believed to be used by Noah to steer the vessel into the wind
The Ark drogue stones
A geological investigation of samples from the stones, published by geologist L. Collins in co-authorship with their original discoverer David Fasold, suggested that they are formed of local rock and thus unlikely to have been transported to the site from Mesopotamia, the Ark's supposed place of origin.[22] Similar stones are found throughout ancient Armenia, and are recognised to be pagan "holy stones" converted to Christian use (many are found in Christian cemeteries) by the addition of crosses and other Christian symbols
In a similar vein, archaeologist Joe Zias of Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has stated that "Ron Wyatt is neither an archaeologist nor has he ever carried out a legally licensed excavation in Israel or Jerusalem. In order to excavate one must have at least a BA in archaeology which he does not possess despite his claims to the contrary. ... [His claims] fall into the category of trash which one finds in tabloids such as the National Enquirer, Sun etc."[2]
Shalom, if you have stirred up a wasps nest you must be doing something good.
I can be quoted on the following:
A. Ron Wyatt has never received a license from the IAA to excavate here in Jerusalem. If he has then let him produce a license for his digs and surveys in Jerusalem, the Judean Desert, Mt. Sinai etc.
B. Finding a coin at the so called Mt. Sinai. This shows the total ignorance of RW and his public who want to believe rather than to know! Coins were not around at the times of Moses, even an amateur archaeologist should know this simple fact!!! There are so many so called Mt. Sinais that even the Jews do not know where it is located. Personally I believe that it is simply a literary invention which is why it will never be found. (Comment/Correction: The preceding quote about coins has been made without any proof and seems to be absolute . Is he saying there was no coins by this time in history? Joe Zias, Curator of Anthropology/Archaeology, Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, Jerusalem, Tel. 972 2 292624. Added 1/29/06)
C. As for the chariot wheel, a bluff, produce it, on what was the dating made? Saw it in the video, it looks like a hoax. If it exists date it in a C-14 lab. As a amateur arch. which he claims to be he should know of many.
D. The Noah's ark discovery has been discredited. If it is true, and I saw the tape, show lab reports on the C-14 lab report.
E. I personally read the junk about the blood of Christ which is totally absurd. I immediately sent a fax to RW as I knew he was bluffing asking for a) copy and address of the lab report and b) sample for some independent testing which we would do. As of yet we have not received any reply, I sent a colleague who is a professor of NT to Tenn. to see what was up and the person in charge of the museum there said that we in the IAA are a bunch of non-believers and they weren't interested in providing such info. to us.
F. I saw his video which is an embarrassment to the world of arch(aeology). The only people who can believe this junk is one who has never studied arch. As for the impt. archaeologists he mentions in his reports. I have never heard of one of them after 25 yrs in the profession. As for the James Irwin, what are his credentials regarding the world of Biblical Arch. Did he have a BA in the profession, he was conned into believing this as have many others who wish to believe rather than to know.
G. Has RW ever had any of his impt. so called discoveries published in a peer reviewed journal? If so why not?
H. Lastly if RW can supply us with the lab report on the so called blood of Jesus along with a sample for independent testing which shows 24 chromosomes I will then be led along the road to Damascus. Otherwise he is bluffing.
Wyatt's fellow evangelicals have not been any less critical: Answers in Genesis called Wyatt's claims fraudulent,[3] and one Seventh-day Adventist professor of archaeology sums up Wyatt's Noah's Ark and anchor stones claims in these words: "While the Durupinar site is about the right length for Noah's ark, [it is] ... too wide to be Noah's ark. Wyatt has claimed that the "boat-shapedness" of this formation can only be explained by its being Noah's ark, but both Shea and Morris have offered other plausible explanations. Likewise, Wyatt has argued that the standing stones he has found are anchors, while Terian is aware of similar stones outside the Durupinar site area that were pagan cultic stones later converted by Christians for Christian purposes."[4]
Dismissed by the mainstream as a pseudoarchaeologist, Wyatt's official organization, Wyatt Archaeological Research (WAR), claims that the IAA have always been aware of the excavations and issued "verbal permits" for most of them and official permits to all WAR excavations since 2002.[citation needed] Nevertheless, the only evidence of WAR involvement in a legitimate excavation sanctioned by the IAA relates to WAR part-funding of a 2005 dig
This happened in the late 1980's, when I joined Wyatt's digging team in East Jerusalem, expecting he would lead us to the underground cavern in which he had personally seen--so he had assured me--the gold-overlaid holy furniture from Solomon's Temple. It had been hidden there, he said, by the priests during the Babylonian siege in 586 BC.
Our team proceeded to the Garden Tomb, whose custodians were expecting our arrival. Wyatt had negotiated cordially and successfully with them. With an assortment of gardening tools we set to work, moving a large pile of rubble and rock which had accumulated where Wyatt had probed earlier. Over several days we were able to excavate our way down into the same cave system that Wyatt had explored two years before. I'm sorry to report that in the end we came up empty-handed. The connecting channel through which Wyatt had claimed to see the furniture was not there. On the final day of excavation, when we could not see the internal cavern landmarks that Wyatt had predicted, Ron himself finally climbed down into the dim space. After a long time he emerged, looking confused. As we waited respectfully to hear his report, he mumbled a few words like: "It's not the same; it's changed. It's not the way I remember it." There was no opening to be seen, giving a view into an adjacent cavern. There was nothing. In the
process of our digging we had come up with a few interesting little objects from Roman times, but they were irrelevant to our main goal.
To this day I cannot give a rational account for the extreme misguidedness that Wyatt revealed. What was happening in his head? His participation in our group worship times had left all of us in no doubt about his sincerity and his devotion to Scripture. He was a competent Bible scholar. He was a brother. Yet he had misled us terribly, and had offered no words of regret or apology or explanation. I have reviewed the whole story many times since then, and am convinced that the church administrator was right: Wyatt might be mistaken, but he himself believed that what he had originally shared was true. ARCHEOLOGY WITH RON WYATT: a personal account
Arq comment.
So it comes down to, doubtful support, dodgy veracity and methods that would embarrass Indy Jones. It is not archaeology, it is pseudo - science of the most cultish kind. If these discoveries turn out to have any archaological value at all, Wyatt's jumping to Bible - evidence conclusions is still very poor science. I think you do yourself no favours either by supporting this doubtful material so strongly or by ignoring the doubts raised against your own claims and simply posting them somewhere else.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 07-19-2009 at 06:19 AM..
It's funny how some people point to actual places as proof that the miracles in the bible happened. It's like pointing at Louvre and saying that Dan Brown's books are all 100% true and accurate accounts of real historical events.
To address the OP:
-If you are a bible literalistic who believes in a young earth then you should look elsewhere.
-If you believe that miracles happened then you are stuck with philosophy and not history. Archeology does not support your beliefs.
I think it is funny how some people ignore Biblical Archeology. Especially when we see two red granit pillars both set on the opposing shores of the Red Sea that have names chisled in them that read. EGYPT, WATER, DEATH, PHARAOH, MOSES, and YAHWEH.
These pillars help to confirm the history of the Bible. For all these names are found in the Bible, and all are related to the Exodus story. To suggest that Archeology does not support the Bible, is to be one who ignores reality.
I think it is funny how some people ignore Biblical Archeology. Especially when we see two red granit pillars both set on the opposing shores of the Red Sea that have names chisled in them that read. EGYPT, WATER, DEATH, PHARAOH, MOSES, and YAHWEH.
These pillars help to confirm the history of the Bible. For all these names are found in the Bible, and all are related to the Exodus story. To suggest that Archeology does not support the Bible, is to be one who ignores reality.
I know you probably haven't had time to read all these posts raining on Ron Wyatt's parade but it is far to early to jump to conclusions about those pillars.
"I admit that I'd like to know more about that inscription, and assumptions about pillars being round or square may be overturned. Egyptian columns could be cylindrical in 1,000 B.C. However, that hardly proves that it was put up by the famous Solomon or that it commemmorated the crossing or that, if it did, the crossing ever happened even if king Solomon believed it"
I do not trust Wyatt's ability to read the inscription, I note that a few words are mentioned rather than the whole inscription translated which would tend to imply words taken out of context. And, as I say, even if Solomon did decide to commemmorate the old tale of the red sea crossing, it is NO evidence that it ever happened. Surely you must see that you are leaping to conclusions with far too much eagerness. You yourself reject Wyatt's ark, though hardly on archaeologically valid grounds.
The Garden tomb and the ark of the covenant seems to come to nothing. Doesn't that bother you in the least?
It is difficult to get to the bottom of this. Archaeology, frankly, distains to mention Wyatt. The main refutation comes from Christian sites, even fundamentalist ones. Interestingly Fundypedia is thunderously silent on the man.
As usual, wiki, provides a reasonable overview
"Ronald Eldon Wyatt (1933 - August 4, 1999 at Memphis, Tennessee) was an adventurer and former nurse anaesthetist noted for advocating the Durupınar site as the site of Noah's Ark, among other Bible-related pseudoarchaeology.
His claims are dismissed by scientists, historians, biblical scholars, and even by leaders in his own Seventh-day Adventist Church, but he continues to have a strongly motivated, if narrowly-based, following among some fundamentalists and evangelicals.[citation needed (Campbell34, 'Nuff sed)
Wyatt was a nurse-anesthetist when in 1960 he saw a picture in Life Magazine of the Durupınar site, a boat-like shape on a mountain near Mount Ararat. The resulting widespread speculation in evangelical Christian circles that this might be Noah's Ark started Wyatt on his career as an amateur archaeologist. From 1977 until his death in 1999 he made over one hundred trips to the Middle East, his interests widening to take in a wide variety of references from the Old and New Testaments.
While Wyatt won a devoted following from the ranks of fundamentalist Christians seeking tangible evidence of the literal truth of the Bible, his credibility was disputed, often bitterly, by professional archaeologists and biblical scholars. The Garden Tomb Association of Jerusalem state in a letter they issue to visitors on request:
The Council of the Garden Tomb Association (London) totally refute the claim of Mr Wyatt to have discovered the original Ark of the Covenant or any other biblical artifacts within the boundaries of the area known as the Garden Tomb Jerusalem. Though Mr Wyatt was allowed to dig within this privately owned garden on a number of occasions (the last occasion being the summer of 1991) staff members of the Association observed his progress and entered his excavated shaft. As far as we are aware nothing was ever discovered to support his claims nor have we seen any evidence of biblical artifacts or temple treasures.
The Granite Columns of Solomon
Ron Wyatt found this column lying at the edge of the water in 1978. It matches one on the other side of the gulf in Saudi Arabia which had the inscriptions intact. The Hebrew words Mizram (Egypt), death, water, pharaoh, Edom, Yahweh, and Solomon were on that column. Welcome to 6000years.org (A Wyatt promotional site)
The column Mr. Wyatt is standing by is not from the time of Solomon but crafted in the time of Jesus or later. Columns constructed in the time of Solomon were built from square stone blocks and were rectangular columns, not round ones.
No inscription by Solomon or mentioning Solomon has been found til this time. Such a find would be stupendous and I wish this claim were true. It is not. Red Sea Crossing
(Arq comment. I admit that I'd like to know more about that inscription, and assumptions about pillars being round or square may be overturned. Egyptian columns could be cylindrical in 1,000 B.C. However, that hardly proves that it was put up by the famous Solomon or that it commemmorated the crossing or that, if it did, the crossing ever happened even if king Solomon believed it)
Solomon's memorial pillars
WHEN Ron Wyatt first visited Nuweiba in 1978, he found a Phoenician
style column lying in the water. Unfortunately the inscriptions had
been eroded away, hence the column's importance was not understood
until 1984, when a second granite column was found on the Saudi
coastline opposite -- identical to the first, except on this one the
inscription was still intact.
In Phoenician letters (Archaic Hebrew), it contained the words:
Mizraim (Egypt); Solomon; Edom; death; Pharaoh; Moses; and Yahweh,
indicating that King Solomon had set up these columns as a memorial to
the miracle of the crossing of the sea. Saudi Arabia does not admit
tourists, and perhaps fearing unauthorized visitors, the Saudi
Authorities have since removed this column, and replaced it with a
flag marker where it once stood. Google Answers: Will coral grow on gold?
That is an interesting thread to look over. There are claims of discoveries and artefacts recovered, but where are they?
1960 Noah's Ark (the Durupinar site, for which he has been the prime promoter) Stone sea anchors believed to be used by Noah to steer the vessel into the wind
The Ark drogue stones
A geological investigation of samples from the stones, published by geologist L. Collins in co-authorship with their original discoverer David Fasold, suggested that they are formed of local rock and thus unlikely to have been transported to the site from Mesopotamia, the Ark's supposed place of origin.[22] Similar stones are found throughout ancient Armenia, and are recognised to be pagan "holy stones" converted to Christian use (many are found in Christian cemeteries) by the addition of crosses and other Christian symbols
In a similar vein, archaeologist Joe Zias of Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has stated that "Ron Wyatt is neither an archaeologist nor has he ever carried out a legally licensed excavation in Israel or Jerusalem. In order to excavate one must have at least a BA in archaeology which he does not possess despite his claims to the contrary. ... [His claims] fall into the category of trash which one finds in tabloids such as the National Enquirer, Sun etc."[2]
Shalom, if you have stirred up a wasps nest you must be doing something good.
I can be quoted on the following:
A. Ron Wyatt has never received a license from the IAA to excavate here in Jerusalem. If he has then let him produce a license for his digs and surveys in Jerusalem, the Judean Desert, Mt. Sinai etc.
B. Finding a coin at the so called Mt. Sinai. This shows the total ignorance of RW and his public who want to believe rather than to know! Coins were not around at the times of Moses, even an amateur archaeologist should know this simple fact!!! There are so many so called Mt. Sinais that even the Jews do not know where it is located. Personally I believe that it is simply a literary invention which is why it will never be found. (Comment/Correction: The preceding quote about coins has been made without any proof and seems to be absolute . Is he saying there was no coins by this time in history? Joe Zias, Curator of Anthropology/Archaeology, Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, Jerusalem, Tel. 972 2 292624. Added 1/29/06)
C. As for the chariot wheel, a bluff, produce it, on what was the dating made? Saw it in the video, it looks like a hoax. If it exists date it in a C-14 lab. As a amateur arch. which he claims to be he should know of many.
D. The Noah's ark discovery has been discredited. If it is true, and I saw the tape, show lab reports on the C-14 lab report.
E. I personally read the junk about the blood of Christ which is totally absurd. I immediately sent a fax to RW as I knew he was bluffing asking for a) copy and address of the lab report and b) sample for some independent testing which we would do. As of yet we have not received any reply, I sent a colleague who is a professor of NT to Tenn. to see what was up and the person in charge of the museum there said that we in the IAA are a bunch of non-believers and they weren't interested in providing such info. to us.
F. I saw his video which is an embarrassment to the world of arch(aeology). The only people who can believe this junk is one who has never studied arch. As for the impt. archaeologists he mentions in his reports. I have never heard of one of them after 25 yrs in the profession. As for the James Irwin, what are his credentials regarding the world of Biblical Arch. Did he have a BA in the profession, he was conned into believing this as have many others who wish to believe rather than to know.
G. Has RW ever had any of his impt. so called discoveries published in a peer reviewed journal? If so why not?
H. Lastly if RW can supply us with the lab report on the so called blood of Jesus along with a sample for independent testing which shows 24 chromosomes I will then be led along the road to Damascus. Otherwise he is bluffing.
Wyatt's fellow evangelicals have not been any less critical: Answers in Genesis called Wyatt's claims fraudulent,[3] and one Seventh-day Adventist professor of archaeology sums up Wyatt's Noah's Ark and anchor stones claims in these words: "While the Durupinar site is about the right length for Noah's ark, [it is] ... too wide to be Noah's ark. Wyatt has claimed that the "boat-shapedness" of this formation can only be explained by its being Noah's ark, but both Shea and Morris have offered other plausible explanations. Likewise, Wyatt has argued that the standing stones he has found are anchors, while Terian is aware of similar stones outside the Durupinar site area that were pagan cultic stones later converted by Christians for Christian purposes."[4]
Dismissed by the mainstream as a pseudoarchaeologist, Wyatt's official organization, Wyatt Archaeological Research (WAR), claims that the IAA have always been aware of the excavations and issued "verbal permits" for most of them and official permits to all WAR excavations since 2002.[citation needed] Nevertheless, the only evidence of WAR involvement in a legitimate excavation sanctioned by the IAA relates to WAR part-funding of a 2005 dig
This happened in the late 1980's, when I joined Wyatt's digging team in East Jerusalem, expecting he would lead us to the underground cavern in which he had personally seen--so he had assured me--the gold-overlaid holy furniture from Solomon's Temple. It had been hidden there, he said, by the priests during the Babylonian siege in 586 BC.
Our team proceeded to the Garden Tomb, whose custodians were expecting our arrival. Wyatt had negotiated cordially and successfully with them. With an assortment of gardening tools we set to work, moving a large pile of rubble and rock which had accumulated where Wyatt had probed earlier. Over several days we were able to excavate our way down into the same cave system that Wyatt had explored two years before. I'm sorry to report that in the end we came up empty-handed. The connecting channel through which Wyatt had claimed to see the furniture was not there. On the final day of excavation, when we could not see the internal cavern landmarks that Wyatt had predicted, Ron himself finally climbed down into the dim space. After a long time he emerged, looking confused. As we waited respectfully to hear his report, he mumbled a few words like: "It's not the same; it's changed. It's not the way I remember it." There was no opening to be seen, giving a view into an adjacent cavern. There was nothing. In the
process of our digging we had come up with a few interesting little objects from Roman times, but they were irrelevant to our main goal.
To this day I cannot give a rational account for the extreme misguidedness that Wyatt revealed. What was happening in his head? His participation in our group worship times had left all of us in no doubt about his sincerity and his devotion to Scripture. He was a competent Bible scholar. He was a brother. Yet he had misled us terribly, and had offered no words of regret or apology or explanation. I have reviewed the whole story many times since then, and am convinced that the church administrator was right: Wyatt might be mistaken, but he himself believed that what he had originally shared was true. ARCHEOLOGY WITH RON WYATT: a personal account
Arq comment.
So it comes down to, doubtful support, dodgy veracity and methods that would embarrass Indy Jones. It is not archaeology, it is pseudo - science of the most cultish kind. If these discoveries turn out to have any archaological value at all, Wyatt's jumping to Bible - evidence conclusions is still very poor science. I think you do yourself no favours either by supporting this doubtful material so strongly or by ignoring the doubts raised against your own claims and simply posting them somewhere else.
Wyatt was no doubt a man thinking out of the box, especially in his later years. Yet some of your information used against him is dated. And often discovery has more to do with effort then knowledge. Thomas Edison use to say, success is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration. Certainly that shepherd boy back in 1947 did not have a degree in anything. Yet he made the greatest Biblical discovery of all time when he discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now I don't believe Wyatt discovered Noahs Ark, or the Ark of the Covenant either. Yet you cannot ignore the fact that some of his other discoveries have been confirmed by others. Dr. Lennart Moller spent 10 years working the same area discovered by Wyatt, and finished an indepth book called the Exodus case, and produced a three hour documentary of his findings at the Red Sea Crossing site. And I have much more confidence in someone who actually went the extra mile and did the leg work, than I would from armchair observers who never took the time to purchase a plane ticket. And when it comes to Mt. Sinia, it is the distance from the Red Sea crossing site that would be required by the Bible. Not to mention, all the other evidence that would need to be in place around the mountain. The first pictures of the real Mt. Sinai have come back from this place, and were taken by Bob Cornuke and Larry Williams, and at great risk. Consider the links below.
Well the Bible has a great deal of unearth archeology which confirms a number of important stories. As I have stated before, in recent days skeptics who use to say that the Story of King David and Israels two Kingdoms were just Bible myths, have been silenced. Evidence recovered fom a place called Tel Dan now proves that there was a King David, Israel did have two Kingdoms. And king David did fight against the Aramaean king which confirmed the Biblical account. So here again, this is just one more Biblical story that agrees with Archeology. Consider the link below.
Of course, according to the likes of you, it is impossible that someone just recorded an existing tale and its details into your buybull. And of course tailoring it to their own purposes. You know, for political power.
Of course, according to the likes of you, it is impossible that someone just recorded an existing tale and its details into your buybull. And of course tailoring it to their own purposes. You know, for political power.
Well the Aramaic inscription comes to us in the form of a broken commemoration plaque, which they believe was made by the King of Damascus. It was to celebrate a victory over the "house of David." The consensus among archaelologist, and epigrahers is that this plaque is authentic. And it has an obvious reference to the Biblical King David. And this belief has nothing to do with the likes of me.
And why would the King of Damascus make a commemoration plaque to celebrate a victory over a non existant enemy? The Aramaean people would of obviously of known who their enemy was.
That would be like Obama getting on Television and telling the American public. "We have now secured victory over the planet Moolah". LOL
I know you probably haven't had time to read all these posts raining on Ron Wyatt's parade but it is far to early to jump to conclusions about those pillars.
"I admit that I'd like to know more about that inscription, and assumptions about pillars being round or square may be overturned. Egyptian columns could be cylindrical in 1,000 B.C. However, that hardly proves that it was put up by the famous Solomon or that it commemmorated the crossing or that, if it did, the crossing ever happened even if king Solomon believed it"
I do not trust Wyatt's ability to read the inscription, I note that a few words are mentioned rather than the whole inscription translated which would tend to imply words taken out of context. And, as I say, even if Solomon did decide to commemmorate the old tale of the red sea crossing, it is NO evidence that it ever happened. Surely you must see that you are leaping to conclusions with far too much eagerness. You yourself reject Wyatt's ark, though hardly on archaeologically valid grounds.
The Garden tomb and the ark of the covenant seems to come to nothing. Doesn't that bother you in the least?
If you recall, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, so who is to say if the tomb is still intacted. Some believe it is, yet the existance of the tomb is not that important. The Ark of the Covenant I believe does exist, and will be placed in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Christian Ethiopians kept the Ark in St. Mary of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia. It is said that the Ark has been in Ethiopia for over 2,000 years, and was waiting the day when it would be returned to the Jewish people. There is a rather interesting story about where the Ark is today. Consider the link below.
I think it is funny how some people ignore Biblical Archeology. Especially when we see two red granit pillars both set on the opposing shores of the Red Sea that have names chisled in them that read. EGYPT, WATER, DEATH, PHARAOH, MOSES, and YAHWEH.
These pillars help to confirm the history of the Bible. For all these names are found in the Bible, and all are related to the Exodus story. To suggest that Archeology does not support the Bible, is to be one who ignores reality.
"Artifacts" placed well after the bible was written aren't "proof", sorry.
Wyatt was no doubt a man thinking out of the box, especially in his later years. Yet some of your information used against him is dated. And often discovery has more to do with effort then knowledge. Thomas Edison use to say, success is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration. Certainly that shepherd boy back in 1947 did not have a degree in anything. Yet he made the greatest Biblical discovery of all time when he discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now I don't believe Wyatt discovered Noahs Ark, or the Ark of the Covenant either. Yet you cannot ignore the fact that some of his other discoveries have been confirmed by others. Dr. Lennart Moller spent 10 years working the same area discovered by Wyatt, and finished an indepth book called the Exodus case, and produced a three hour documentary of his findings at the Red Sea Crossing site. And I have much more confidence in someone who actually went the extra mile and did the leg work, than I would from armchair observers who never took the time to purchase a plane ticket. And when it comes to Mt. Sinia, it is the distance from the Red Sea crossing site that would be required by the Bible. Not to mention, all the other evidence that would need to be in place around the mountain. The first pictures of the real Mt. Sinai have come back from this place, and were taken by Bob Cornuke and Larry Williams, and at great risk. Consider the links below.
Wyatt didn't have any degrees, education, or training in archeology, nor did his "finds" ever stand up to simple peer review, even among other biblical archeologists.
It isn't a matter of "armchair archeologists", it's a matter of other professionals in the field carefully examining his work, and rejecting each and every "find" competely.
I must say, sir and/or madam, that your fixation on Wyatt's clear fabrications shows a certain desperation to have your religion vindicated.
"Artifacts" placed well after the bible was written aren't "proof", sorry.
So what do you do when the Artifacts were placed there before the written Biblical account? Like the coral encrusted remains of Pharaohs army discovered by divers found between the pillars.
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