Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling joins Eve to give a tantalizing preview of a soon to be published report on an ancient lead amulet found in pre- Covid days but just laboratory analyzed recently. The unique, small find was discovered in a salvage dig by ‘wet sifting’ dirt from the area of Joshua’s Altar on Mount Eival overlooking Schem. It may contain the Hebrew letter ’Aleph’ and other designs, or even a curse. If so, and it’s dated to the period of Joshua or Judges, the amulet is an extraordinary epigraphical addition to the more common bone and pottery assemblages which are the core of Bronze and Iron Age archaeology. Dr. Stripling, now in Texas, shares with the listeners the excitement of his profession but also the very human side to bringing to light the last days of those who lived in Israel many centuries ago. The enormous responsibility to professionally and gingerly deal with whatever is found is never far from his mind; made all that more difficult by those who seek to destroy the evidence of the past in the Holy Land.
