How About Some Nice Toads for the Afterlife?

[Seahunter]

Decapitated Toads Found in 4,000-Year-Old Caananite Tomb Uncovered in Excavation Near Jerusalem Biblical Zoo

Why were decapitated toads placed in a jar in a 4,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem?

Fascinating findings from an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation near the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo shed light on this and other burial customs that were discovered among artifacts from the Canaanite period (the Middle Bronze Age).

Jar with remains of the decapitated toads.
The archaeological excavation, which took place in 2014 with funding from the Housing Ministry (the Arim Urban Development Company) prior to the expansion of the Mana at neighborhood, yielded the remains of at least nine toads, and evidence of the cultivation of date palms and myrtle in the area.

More at site:
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/isr...ation-near-jerusalem-biblical-zoo/2017/09/25/

 

[Lynne]

Amazing that they could tell these were roads after all that time. I'd think only dust would be left.

 

[Seahunter]

Amazing that they could tell these were roads after all that time. I'd think only dust would be left.

Yes, it is amazing what the particle analysis can add to the big picture now days. The archaeologists rely on all sorts of other disciplines to help analyze the remains at a site, and all the data helps them paint a much better picture of what life was like in the past.

 

[Lynne]

Yes, it is amazing what the particle analysis can add to the big picture now days. The archaeologists rely on all sorts of other disciplines to help analyze the remains at a site, and all the data helps them paint a much better picture of what life was like in the past.

I see they're analyzing the remains! Ok I was picturing little headless frog bodies

 

[Seahunter]

I see they're analyzing the remains! Ok I was picturing little headless frog bodies

Hey, I wasn't sure at first either. A lot of times, creatures do survive by basically becoming mummified under the right conditions. They did find a bunch of little bones though.

 

[Lynne]

Hey, I wasn't sure at first either. A lot of times, creatures do survive by basically becoming mummified under the right conditions. They did find a bunch of little bones though.

Still amazing anything could last that long