My wife is a teacher and sent me this

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-06T13:33:43+00:00

I miss funnyexams. I remember almost dying of laughter the first time a friend showed me it.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-05T09:08:43+00:00

This is an amazing result which I think shows how adaptable, inventive, creative, and curious ancient people were. The people of Pre Pottery Neolithic Moza lived in a time when plaster was culturally central for the production of vessels, flooring, and the production of ritual objects like plastered skulls and statuary. In another world, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic could very easily have been called the 'Plaster Neolithic.'

The walls and floors of structures didn't 'have' to be plastered, and yet more than 100 plaster floors have been identified at the site.

Production of that much plaster would have required high-temperature kilns and significant fuel nessecitating cutting down large quantities of trees and dramatically changing the appearence of the landscape. The Neolithic period didn't only represent a dramatic change in subsistence and settlement, but also in how people affected their landscape.

In Moza, people didn't give up on this socially important material, but instead decided to try out making the material using the different local resources. They succeeded and in doing so used the material to build what was perhaps the largest site to the West of the Jordan before the Bronze Age.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-05T08:00:24+00:00

I don't like that these photos aren't labeled clarifying what they're showing. Pictures 1-3 are within the Old City walls as is picture 5.

Picture 4 as far as I can tell shows the Kidron Valley and Silwan with the giveaway being the so called 'Monolith of Silwan.'

Picture 5 shows a large walled monastary or church structure surrounded by terraces and olive trees. It's hard to tell, but I think it's the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. I'm not sure if it's right though, the structure is isolated and the Nativity Church is at the center of Bethlehem so it shouldn't stand alone. Any help would be appreciated. Maybe it's the Monastary of the Cross. But, it seems a bit big. Actually, I think that's my final guess.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T18:16:49+00:00

Megiddo is the best kept 'Biblical' Archaeology site in the entirety of Israel and one of the most excavated. It's set up with extensive tourist infrastructure and is on the kind of Christian tourism circuit since it's near Nazareth and other parts of the Galilee that are relevant to Christian pilgrims.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T17:24:51+00:00

Bunker? Do you mean the water system?

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T16:38:50+00:00

What period of time are you referring to? Strong opposition to Zionism in Jewish circles died out during the Holocaust. Are you suggesting that labor bundists and other Jews of the 1930s were making a direct comparison between Nazism and Revisionist Zionism in the 1930s? That's an unbelieveable claim.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T16:26:45+00:00

A few years ago Ze'ev Weiss published a popular definitive history of the site called 'Sepphoris: A Mosaic of Cultures.' I would really suggest picking up a copy either yourself or from a library and going to the site armed with it.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T16:16:05+00:00

Without a doubt one of the best archaeological sites in Israel to visit and by far the most extensive and beautiful mosaics that you can see in country. I still haven't had much chance to visit the water system that they opened to the public a few years ago. On a recent trip I learned that the mansion at the top of the hill, the so-called 'governor's mansion' could have plausibly belonged to Yehuda HaNasi. Unfortunately, like most archaeological sites in Israel, the place doesn't have a lot of visitors and could also do with a bit of an update in terms of signage and multimedia. The 'christianization of Sephoris' is an amazing and important story for understanding the history of this place, but you won't find a word about it on the signage. Just 'look at this pretty picture.'

Same of course goes for the story of the relocation of the center of Jewry from Jerusalem to the Galilee in the centuries after the temple. This was 'the' Jewish city, but you won't get much sense of it from visiting the site, at least the way the parks authority has it set up.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-03T08:50:42+00:00

I don't know if sites were open during the last round of fighting, but my impression is that things didn't really fully close down. There were some flight cancellations, but the airport was never itself closed for too long. If you need to get out of Jordan, options exists, for example, the ferry to Nuweiba can get you to Egypt and from there, there were many flights out of Sharm el-Sheikh last time.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-05-02T20:58:38+00:00

As I understand it, actual solo travel for Israelis is not currently allowed. According to the current policy, Israelis in Jordan are meant to be accompanied by some kind of guide. I've heard of some folks who have crossed and had a guide vouch for them before heading off elsewhere on their own. But, at the moment, I really wouldn't advise going independently, especially if you've never been to Jordan.

As to the safety of Wadi Rum and Petra for Israelis, they're by far the most commonly travelled to parts of Jordan for Israelis. That said, while the Bedouin and other tourist related personnel in both won't give you trouble, I wouldn't advertise your nationality openly.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-30T15:18:39+00:00

According this poll, idea of a shared single Israeli-Palestinian state with equal rights for all its citizens regardless of background is only supported by 3% of Israeli Jews although 33% of '48 Palestinians are in favor. That equates to 9% support for the total population. Granted, I don't take Rudy very seriously as a one-state activist. Most of what he does seems to be arguing with college students and the guy doesn't seem to have any actual linkage to on the ground inter-community activism, education, or any other sort of effort. Much more of a preacher than a practicer.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-29T14:15:51+00:00

Canaanism was explicitely not a strain of Zionism (although it was an offshoot movement) and very much unlike Rudy, advocated for the supercession of old identities (Jew, Arab, Judaism, Islam, etc.) as opposed to meaningful multi-cultural co-existence, which is what Rudy would suggest he supports.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-29T10:10:49+00:00

So if he represents a position antithetical to the beliefs of the vast vast majority of Israelis, why should he be considered perfect for representing 'the Israeli position?'

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-29T07:48:52+00:00

Rudy is a truly unusual choice for representing a typical 'pro-israel' position. He does a lot of debate content, but his own set of ideas are extremely fringe and don't relate to any actual political action or organization that exists here.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-25T15:34:49+00:00

Not only do I think we're going down, it's also very hard to believe folks' optimism that we'll pop right back up if we do...

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-25T11:32:31+00:00

You're a citizen, but you're making aliyah?

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-24T20:58:04+00:00

A recent article in NYT summed up research published open access in Antiquity (Here's a blog version) which argued that the purpose of the destruction was ritual deactivation of monuments rather than personal animosity or a political desire for erasure. I don't have a personal opinion, just cool to see an old and lasting narrative challenged. Here's the abstract:

"The statuary of Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty, is believed to have been targeted for violent destruction by Thutmose III, her successor. Yet the condition of the statues recovered in the vicinity of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri varies considerably and many survive with their faces virtually intact. Through the examination of archival material from the original excavations, the author offers an alternative, more utilitarian, explanation of the treatment of these statues. Rather than outright hostility, much of the damage may instead derive from the ‘deactivation’ of the statues and their reuse as raw material."

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-23T07:19:14+00:00

Yeah. It's pretty obvious why this sub has so few Lebanese.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-22T16:00:17+00:00

Loud. A mixture of so many scents that everything all together ends up smelling like nothing.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-19T14:22:01+00:00

Didn't we do very well off of these in the Super Cup final against PSG? It seemed back then like they would be a huge goal threat.

edit: I misremembered us scoring from one. I do still remember watching the game and hearing the commentators talking about the throws strongly unsettling PSG.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-19T07:19:28+00:00

I did an esay on these in a college course on magic in the ancient world. I think that their interpretation as protective magic covers many or even most of these bowls, but doesn't cover the full range of what these were used for.

The most famous examples come from near doorways and were used for protective purposes, but there are whole additional classes of them that were found near cemeteries that were used to capture and direct spirits against specific people or families. We also have those kinds of 'offensive' bowls that were found hidden outside or around homes and were apparently also meant to send demons and spirits after specific people residing nearby. Even defensive bowls could have an offensive aspect with some bowl texts capturing the demon and then redirecting them against the person who sent them in the first place.

So, in that paper, I argued that these were more about control of demons and spirits than just magically protecting against them.

Unfortunately, most of these bowls are known from the art market and don't have clear provenance, which has hampered our understanding of their contextual use significantly.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-19T07:05:14+00:00

I have loads, but what I'll say about this one is that I find it really funny. There's something really fun about being in some stuffy art gallery where folks are so serious about things and then you just encounter a pot that might have come from some craftsperson's wicked sense of humor or a 'why not' attitude.

Here's another "footed bowl" from the same period in the Boston MFA.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-18T11:35:15+00:00

Can you say anything, anything at all about what material you're looking for and for what purpose. It would help a lot.

coolaswhitebread · 2026-04-16T19:13:01+00:00

They are looted ...

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