The Mysterious Prehistoric Shark Teeth Found in a Jerusalem Basement

J.Jerusalem is known for many things: the temple mountain, the Mount of Olives, the place where Jesus died and the crucifixion, the dozens of places of pilgrimage for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and now, for the teeth before the history of the shark. In a nearly 3,000-year-old basement in the city of David, scientists have discovered a mysterious memory of the remaining 80-million-year-old teeth. It is unknown at this time how the remains have survived to the present day. The banning of an old Sharknado event probably caused someone to provoke them.

In a presentation at the Goldschmidt Conference, archaeologist Dr. Thomas Tutken of the University of Mainz’s Institute of Geology said the whale’s teeth were found among the collections and discarded material to fill the lowest level of the Iron Age House in the Palestinian village of Silvan (then town of David). As shown in FIG reported by Heritage Daily, teeth with food scraps and pieces of pottery appeared from a period that occurs only after the death of the biblical king Solomon.

At first, archaeologists thought that the teeth had been discarded only from cooking. Only when one analyst forced them to reconsider the evidence did they realize that the remains came from Mel’s ancient whale, which had been extinct for at least 66 million years. Further scientific experiments conducted by the group, Tutken said, showed that “all 29 shark teeth found in the city of David were ancient remnants of the melt – along with dinosaurs.” The strontium isotope composition of teeth suggests an age of about 80 million years.

The question at the time was how did the teeth get there? Tuyetken notes that they were almost transported to the area, where “probably from the Negev, at least 80 km away from where such remains were found.” “The team’s working hypothesis is that the teeth have been collected by collectors … There are no signs of wear and tear,” he said. [had they been present] may indicate that they were used as tools and drill holes to indicate that they may be jewels. We know that even today there is a shark tooth market, so there may be an Iron Age trend to collect such items. The tenth century BC was a period of economic development and prosperity in Judea. The collection is a hobby of a wealthy man: teeth were discovered next to administrative bulls (seals to protect and certify ancient correspondence) further supporting this theory. “We have nothing to prove,” Tutken warned, “putting 2 and 2 to build 5 is very easy. We’ll probably never believe it.”

The teeth in question belong to several extinct species of squalor, or raven whale, a coastal predator and peacock that grows from 2 to 5 meters (for reference a large white whale grows up to 3-6 meters depending on its sex). The presence of whales in the Mediterranean is good documented in archeology, but only from reading ancient literature. In the third century BC, the Greek poet Leonidas described the death of a diver at the hands of a whale, and Aristotle even gave a long account. description of the whale in him Animal history. Admiral and encyclopedist of Rome Pliny notes that sponge divers were often confronted with whales and advised that “the only safe way is to open the sharks and scare them” (Natural history 9.148) Other writers such as Diogenes describe sea ​​monsters that can “swallow both ships and their people.”

It should be noted that the expert here is the second century AD Greek writer Oppian, whose influential poetry in Halieutica uses the sea to describe the order of the universe. As the University of Nottingham Classics Emily Kneebone shows in attraction and was recently released book on the subject, Oppian describes the “horrors of the sea” – the hammerhead, the sawfish, the dogfish and the lone shark – ahead of its terrestrial counterparts, the lion, the tiger, the bear and the wild boar. Oppian writes that the horrors of the sea were so great that the young Dogfish would be the tenant when frightened his “belt” (yes, it was apparently so painful that it sounded). The poem ends with the pursuit of a whale to make Melville jealous: a giant sea creature from the depths – something that Knebon describes as “somewhere between a shark and a whale in a lying form” is hunted and killed.

Although it does not provide a description of anatomy, the Bible does not contain only a fair share of sea monsters. In the book of Jonah, the protagonist is swallowed up by a famous “big fish” as he swallows the call of God’s prophecy. The story sounds absurd, but is reflected in one incident last month when a lobster diver Cape Cod swallowed Michael Packard a short whale and lived to tell the tale. In the 19th century, the story of “Modern Jonah” began viral when a man named James Bartley allegedly ate a sperm whale, only to be cut alive 36 hours after the animal’s belly.

However, the most terrifying biblical creature, Leviathan, is a huge sea creature that is referred to in the Psalms, from the prophets Amos and Isaiah, and in the book of Job. According to some, Leviathan was a sea serpent, but some Jewish customs called it a “dragon” or just a monster. A popular theory of the 19th century guessed that it was a crocodile. According to the rabbinic text Baba Batra 75 Leviathan is killed and eaten at a banquet held at the end of time (the rest of it is hung on the wall). Other Jewish myths about Leviathan, preserved in rabbinic texts, include the idea that it could boil ocean water, smell horrible, and scare away small worms that enter fish shells and kill them.

In the Christian tradition, Leviathan is associated with Satan and envy. His jaws are occasional shown as hell, the gate through which people will fall into hell on the last resurrection. Even serious theologians develop this theme: an outstanding theory of salvation, developed by the famous bishop and saint Gregory of Nice in Great catechism pictures Satan is like a big fish that swallows people when they die. After being crucified, Satan mistakenly consumes Jesus, thinking that he is a different person. This is a trap. Jesus becomes a fisherman, and Satan forces him to “grow up,” that is, to eat all that he has swallowed. If you want it (or its real name.) Call it the emetic theory of salvation Christ Victor theory of salvation). Traces of this idea appeared in Christian writers at an early age second century and show, as Kneebone argues for Oppian, the way of the sea is both a mythical prototype for all evil and a credible candidate for the horrors of the natural world.

Although almost no sharks follow the waters of the Mediterranean today, it is easy to see why the ancient Israelites were gathering their teeth. For centuries, sea monsters have eaten the imagination of ancient peoples, who considered them to be terrifying by nature. What better testimony to the triumph of human intelligence could be found in the collection of their most terrifying traits?