Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III & Jehu, Israel’s King

January 9, 2018

Among the many artifacts we photographed today was the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BC). This Assyrian king forced Jehu, King of Israel (r. 841-814 BC) to pay tribute. This is one of those many exciting finds where the Bible and other historical records intersect! The Black Obelisk includes a pictograph/cuneiform record of this very important historical event. The  reads:

The inscription reads: I received the tribute of Jehu of the House of Omri silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden goblet, golden cups, golden buckets, tin, a staff of the king’s hand, (and) javelins (7).”  All 14 of the Israelites pictured are bearded, with long hair and pointed caps. Each wears a belted tunic with fringe at the bottom.  In addition, each of the 13 porters wears a mantle or cloak over the tunic, which extends over the shoulders and is fringed or tasseled down the front on both sides.  Jehu is not wearing the outer garment, possibly as a sign of humiliation before Shalmaneser.  (NIV Arch. Bible).

This is detailed on one of the four sides, second panel down:

Shalmaneser’s Black Obelisk. This panel shows King Jehu paying tribute to the Assyrian King. The year was 841 BC. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

Here is a photo of the 4-sided stone in its entirety, with our facing the side that mentions Jehu:

Shalmaneser’s Prism. The Black Obelisk. British Museum. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

Todd Bolen has an article on the Obelisk here.

You can read of Jehu in the Bible in 2 Kings 9-10.

Click images for larger view.

1 Comment | Bible History and Geography, Bible Study, Israel, Old Testament, photography, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Leon Mauldin

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, London

January 8, 2018

Rosetta Stone. Photo by Leon Mauldin. British Museum.

Today I had opportunity in the British Museum to photograph numerous biblical and historical artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone. The inscriptions on this stone turned out to be the key to deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphics as well as the ancient Egyptians Demotic language.

The Rosetta Stone was discovered by a French officer in 1799 in the western delta of Egypt. It was surrendered to the British during the Napoleonic war and was brought to the British Museum in  1802. The stone is carved on black basalt and is valuable because it contains the same message in two forms of ancient Egyptian writing and one in Greek. The Egyptian writing at the top of the stone is hieroglyphic writing whilst the second section is demotic Egyptian; the third section is in Greek capital letters (know as “uncial). The Greek was translated relatively easily  proved to be part of a citation by Egyptian priests in Memphis to celebrate the first anniversary of the coronation of Ptolemy V in 196 BC The two Egyptian scripts were found to be the equivalent text and, once deciphered,, this helped scholars to understand ancient Egyptian writing (Edwards and Anderson, Through The British Museum–with the Bible, p. 78

1 Comment | Bible History and Geography, Egypt | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Leon Mauldin

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