A creation of man ... Nebuchadnezzar is credited with having the Hanging Gardens of Babylon built for his wife.
My mother asked me to do something similar ;)
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The discovery of an artifact found in the 1920's is causing some excitement and allowing much hyperbole.
The 2600 year old artifact mentions a name found in the old testament.
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Old Testament figure named on 2600-year-old tablet
By Dalya Alberge in London
THE British Museum yesterday hailed a discovery within a clay tablet in its collection as a breakthrough for biblical archeology - proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament.
The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time - revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.
It is rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible.
The tablet names a Babylonian officer called Nebo-Sarsekim who, according to Jeremiah 39 was present in 587BC when Nebuchadnezzar "marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it".
The cuneiform inscription records how Nebo-Sarsekim lavished a gift of gold on the Temple of Esangila in the fabled city of Babylon, where, at least in folk tradition, Nebuchadnezzar is credited with building the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
British Museum staff are excited by the discovery.
Irving Finkel, assistant keeper in the Department of the Middle East, said: "A mundane commercial transaction takes its place as a primary witness to one of the turning points in Old Testament history.
"This is a tablet that deserves to be famous."
The discovery was made by Michael Jursa, associate professor at the University of Vienna, on a research trip to the museum.
"It's very exciting and very surprising," he said.
"Finding something like this tablet, where we see a person mentioned in the Bible making an everyday payment to the temple in Babylon and quoting the exact date, is quite extraordinary."
Since 1991, Dr Jursa has been visiting the museum to study a collection of more than 100,000 inscribed tablets - the world's largest holdings.
Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing. During its 3000-year history, it was used to write about 15 languages, including Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite and Urartian.
There are only a small number of scholars worldwide who can read cuneiform script.
One of them is Dr Jursa, who yesterday said the British Museum tablet was so well preserved that it took him just a couple of minutes to decipher.
This one - which is 5.5cm wide - was acquired by the British Museum in 1920, "but no one realised the connection," Dr Jursa said.
"They didn't really read it."
It was unearthed from the ancient city of Sippar, where there was a huge sun temple, about 2km from Baghdad.
On hearing of the discovery yesterday, Geza Vermes, the eminent emeritus professor of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, said such a discovery revealed that "the Biblical story is not altogether invented".
"This will be interesting for religious people as much as historians," he said.
The Times, London, in The Australian
Vatican calls Roman Catholic religion 'one true faith'
By Richard Owen and Ruth Gledhill
THE Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as "not proper churches" in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope.
Anglican leaders reacted with dismay, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of paradoxical behaviour.
Protestants at the evangelical end of the Anglican spectrum accused the Vatican of a "lust for power" and of using such arguments historically to divide Christians, "persecute them and even put them to death".
They said that the new 16-page document outlining the "defects" of non-Catholic churches constituted a serious obstacle to ecumenism.
The document said the Orthodox Church suffered from a "wound" because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was "still more profound" in Protestant denominations, it added.
It was "difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them", said the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Roman Catholicism was "the one true Church of Christ".
The language echoes earlier statements by the same body, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger until he became Pope.
The statement appears to be at odds with attempts to soften Pope Benedict XVI's image as a doctrinal hardliner and to present him as a more human figure reaching out to other faiths. And it risks undermining his own efforts for Christian unity.
Vatican sources said the document was an attempt to resolve "confusion" caused by the apparent conflict between the Pope's assertion on his election two years ago that Christian unity was a priority and his insistence in Dominus Iesus, issued in 2000 when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, that Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox Christians did not belong to "proper" churches.
Father Augustine Di Noia, a senior doctrinal official at the Vatican, insisted the Catholic Church was not "backtracking on ecumenical commitment. But it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity."
Vatican officials insist the Pope's attachment to bedrock traditional values is compatible with dialogue with other Christians.
Yesterday's document said that such dialogue remained "one of the priorities of the Catholic Church".
The document said that the Second Vatican Council's opening to other faiths -- including "ecclesial communities originating with the Reformation" -- had recognised there were "many elements of sanctification and truth" in other Christian denominations.
But it added that other Christian faiths "lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church".
The Anglicans' disappointment was evident in the response of Canon Gregory Cameron, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams's former chaplain in Wales and a leading canonical scholar who is now ecumenical officer of the Anglican Communion.
Canon Cameron said: "It is paradoxical for leaders of the Roman Catholic Church to indicate to its ecumenical partners that it no longer expects all other Christians merely to return to the true (Roman Catholic) church, but then for Rome to say that it alone has 'full identity' with the Church of Christ, and that all others of us are lacking."
The Reverend David Phillips, General Secretary of the Church Society, went further, saying: "It does clarify the way in which the Vatican has torn apart Christianity because of its lust for power.
"They remind us that in their view, that to be a true church one has to accept the ludicrous idea that the Pope is in some special way the successor of the apostle Peter and the supreme earthly leader of the church.
"These claims cannot be justified, biblically or historically, yet they have been used not only to divide Christians but to persecute them and put them to death.
"We are grateful that the Vatican has once again been honest in declaring their view that the Church of England is not a proper church. Too much dialogue proceeds without such honesty. Therefore, we would wish to be equally open; unity will only be possible when the papacy renounces its errors and pretensions."
The Times
Bronze Age serpent sparks UK road row
By Jeremy Lovell in London
THE discovery of a 4000-year-old stone monument that has lain forgotten for generations under farmland on the English border with Wales has sparked a major row between residents and the local council.
The snake-shaped Bronze Age feature made of fire-cracked stones and dubbed the Rotherwas Ribbon or Dinedor Serpent was discovered as workers began excavations for an already controversial road near Hereford, 193km west of London.
“We were already calling it the 'road to nowhere' - because that is exactly where it goes - and then this magnificent artefact was discovered,” local resident Martin Wyness said.
“It is a wonderful find for Herefordshire and the world.
"Burying it under a road would be a major loss of our heritage,” he added, comparing it in importance to the slightly older World Heritage listed site at Stonehenge.
Residents say the road, meant as a bypass to an industrial estate, is unnecessary.
But Herefordshire Council says the road is needed to relieve congestion and has offered to cover the monument protectively for future generations but then press ahead with building the bypass.
Campaigners claim that the structure, which follows the contours of Dinedor Hill, could be as much as 1000m long and not just the 60m uncovered by the diggers.
The use of burned stones in Bronze Age rituals is well-established, but archaeologists who have visited the site say this finding is unique in Europe because in other cases the stones have been found in mounds not set in a distinct pattern.
They said the closest similar site - albeit 2000 years younger - is the 405m long Serpent Mound in the Ohio River Valley in the US.
Inspectors from English Heritage, which must decide the fate of the Rotherwas Ribbon, visited the site on Monday to begin their investigations.
“English Heritage considers that this is a significant find worthy of being fully recorded for future research and protected in-situ.
“Each part of the find is very fragile and by keeping the remains in their context they can help us understand how people used to live in this landscape setting,” it added.
It said that public access should be controlled while the future of the site was decided.
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