Thread by @WaYeqahelAmo

"jEwS hAVe nO ConNEcTIon TO tHe lAnD"

Don't you get tired from hearing this? Luckily, here's a thread about archaeological and historical evidence for the inherent, endemic, Jewish connection to the land of Israel. 🧵

1/After vanquishing the Great Jewish Revolt in the 70s AD - the Romans issues a coin commemorating the defeat: "IVDEA CAPTA" - "Judea has been vanguished/defeated/captured".
Judea, btw, is the Roman name for Judah, the southern central highlands in the land of Israel

2/A coin by Jewish king, John (Yohanan) Hyrcanus, who was a Hasmonean High Priest and king, ruling 134 -104 BC. The coin reads, in Hebrew, in the ancient Hebrew script: "Yohanan the High Priest, and the Council of Jews". Another coin from the period featuring the Temple Menorah.

3/A coin by Jewish king, son of Hyrcanus, Alexander (Yonathan) Yanai. One one side, written in Greek "Alexander the King", and on the other side, written in ancient Hebrew script: "Alexander the King".

4/Hundreds of pottery shards, on which letters are written in Hebrew, in the ancient Hebrew script, from the Tel Arad citadel used by the Kingdom of Judah c. 600 BC. These are called the Arad Ostraca, and were recently (2020) discovered.

5/A Babylonian tablet describing and allocation the rations given to the prisoner-king Jeconiah (Yehoyakhin, Ya'u-kinu), "King of Judah", by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, c. 580 BC.

6/The priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) found on small silver scrolls in a valley in Jerusalem, written in Hebrew using the ancient Hebrew script, written around 600 BC, in the kingdom of Judah.

7/Samaria ostraca - similar to the writings in Tel Arad ostraca, these were found in King Ahab's palace, king of the Kingdom of Israel, in Samaria (the city), dating to the 800s BC.

8/Khirbet Qeiyafa (Elah Fortress) ostracon: The longest paleo-Canaanite text, written in an archaic form of Hebrew. Dates to around the 10th century BC.

9/First century corner stone from the Temple Mount marking the place from which a Levite would sound a trumpet, in Jerusalem, to announce the beginning of the Sabbath. The "Trumpeting Place inscription". Written in Hebrew in the square Hebrew script.

10/An inscription from the Herodian Second Temple (23 BC - 70 AD) warning gentiles from entering the Temple Mount complex with the threat of death. In Greek. Larger one discovered in 1871 and is housed in Turkey; broken one discovered later and housed in Israel's National Museum.

11/Prism of Assyrian king Sennacherib describing the destruction of Israel, of Lachish, and his siege of Jerusalem and its king, Hezekiah. Around 720 BC.

12/Azekah inscription - describing the Assyrian destruction of the Judean city of Azekah, and the victory over the "King of Judah", Hezekiah. Around 720-700 BC.

13/LMLK stamps - royal Judean stamps affirming an official quality of a certain product. The word that is formed from the consonants LMLK is "[belonging] to the King", meaning they were royally approved. C. 700-800 BC.

14/Lachish relief - a massive Assyrian relief found in the royal palace of Nineveh depicting the Assyrian siege, conquest, and exile of Judeans from Lachish. Mesmerizing and horrifying.

15/In preparation for the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, Hezekiah ordered the people to build a tunnel connecting the reservoir in the city to the Gihon spring, thus creating a reliable source of water. In the end, the workers set up a commemorative plaque, in Hebrew.

16/An 8th century BC stele, written in Old Aramaic, telling of the Aramean king's, Haza'el, conquests in Judah and Israel, naming Jehoram king of Israel, and Ahaziyah king of Judah from "the House of David". It was found in the Golan Heights.

17/The Assyrian Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III depicts several kings coming and pledging their loyalty to the Assyrian King. One of them is Jehu, Israel's king, bowing with his whole body, in front of the Assyrian king, leading an Israelite delegation to Assyria. 824-827 BC.

18/Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III describes the war of a coalition of kings against Assyria. One of the leaders of the coalition was Ahab, king of Israel, in the battle of Qarqar. It's also the first description of an Arab person in history (Gindibu). c. 853 BC

19/Mesha stele (c. 840 BC) describes the Moabite king, Mesha's war against "Omri king of Israel" in trying to drive the Israelites north of the Arnon river. He succeeded, but later reconquered by Ahab, or probably Jeroboam II.

20/Pharaoh Merneptah raised a stele (1208 BC) to commemorate his exploits in Canaan and in Libya. He describes destroying a group called "Israel" and erasing its seed, in line 27. He was mistaken, we're still here.

21/Merneptah tried, as others after him, to delete Jewish history from the face of the earth. This won't work. Our history IS the land. Dig it up and under the thin layer of dirt, you'll find deep Jewish, ethnic and indigenous, history.