Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mysterious Vs in the bedrock

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Photo from the City of David website

A week ago, just in time for ABC Wednesday's V-Day, mysterious V-shaped carvings in the limestone beneath present-day Jerusalem were discovered during excavations.
Archaeologists of the dig are puzzled by the cuts in the rock in the City of David.
They are around 3,000 years old.

The Washington Posts says,
"Israeli diggers who uncovered a complex of rooms carved into the bedrock in the oldest section of the city recently found the markings: Three "V'' shapes cut next to each other into the limestone floor of one of the rooms, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) deep and 50 centimeters long. There were no finds to offer any clues pointing to the identity of who made them or what purpose they served."

Now this is where YOU come in!
If you have seen anything similar anywhere in the world, the archaeologists ask you to contribute that knowledge and help solve the mystery.

Go to the City of David site here and click on the photo to leave your answer.

Or if we just want to have fun and think of funny uses, you can write them in my comments section.
Over 20,000 have replied (not to me!).
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For the full story and more photos see
AP article in Washington Post or the Jerusalem Post article.

See ideas about the Vs at Todd Bolen's BiblePlaces Blog, e.g. one of his readers, A.B. Crysler, suggested this:
"The grooves in the limestone were used by the fullers to whiten clothes. II Kings 18:17 - ...they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field. See also Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2."

I had to look up the word "fuller." It means a workman who fulls (cleans and thickens) freshly woven cloth.

OK, good luck!
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UPDATE: More speculation from Tom Powers here in Jerusalem
UPDATE 2: At the City of David archaeology conference last night, Sept. 7, 2012, they said that 75,000 answers or speculations were received from all over the world about the mysterious Vs.
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17 comments:

  1. an embedded boomerang? no, that's not it...
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  2. Hahah I was thinking boomerang too.

    Please come and see the Voyage of the Mermaid. Happy holidays!

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  3. Oh good for you Dinah! I saw them in the newspaper , but you were quick and smart enough to use them for ABC Wednesday. I have already started thinking of what they could mean or be used for. Really, I would be very curious to see what all is around them to put them into some kind of context. But I love puzzles like this. Three thousand years old would put them somewhere around the time of King David, or Solomon's building of the temple, I think. A lot of building was going on around that time in Jerusalem. I will visit the sites you recommended.

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  4. Very interesting. Any more pictures of these I wonder?

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  5. No, I am definitely not clever enough to solve this mystery. But YOU were clever to post these 3000 year-old Vs for ABC Wednesday! Very Vonderful!

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  6. what an interesting mystery...one which I'm sure someone more learned than me will figure out! I will check out your links and learn more!

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  7. Looking at it from this angle I sort of see it as a crying face... eyelids closed, sad mouth, teardrop... But I doubt they used 'smiley' kind of signs back then!!!

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  8. I love a mystery. Hope you'll let us know if and when it's solved. Intriguing post.

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  9. Very strange, I have to think about these mysterious signs...

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  10. Very interesting...I hope someone will figure it out. I saw the Tom Powers post too. My only thought is that some sort of supports could be placed into those slots upon which another object could be rested, off the floor level, though why it would need to be rooted to the floor, so to speak, is a mystery.

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  11. I was thinking of virginity or virgin. ^_^

    ABC Wed

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  12. Hmmm... no big ideas are coming to me yet. I've seen Hawaiian hieroglyphs and couldn't figure them out either. I guess I'm not very creative enough in my thinking.

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  13. They must have been used as support for something standing up.

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  14. What perfect time for these to show up!
    HelenMac
    ABC Team

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  15. hello beautiful Dina,
    well maybe the v stands for the victory of jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.

    just to comment on a few recent posts, thankyou for sharing about the bar mitzvah this beautiful ceremony may the light of peace and strength shine in this boys heart.

    I have been doing advent meditations and it has been enlightening.may the light of advent and the season illuminate your path.

    jews and violins you say, well violins are a passionate instrument.
    I said a prayer meditation for jerusalemhills daily photo while I was celebrating the advent season.

    shalom love and light.
    HUGS

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  16. This reminds me of unsolved mysteries I've seen in the Inca architecture.

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