Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 11-18-2008, 10:49 AM

I am not sure of the implications of this

Early monument to the soul

Quote:

In a mountainous kingdom in what is now southeastern Turkey, there lived in the eighth century B.C. a royal official, Kuttamuwa, who oversaw the completion of an inscribed stone monument, or stele, to be erected upon his death. The words instructed mourners to commemorate his life and afterlife with feasts “for my soul that is in this stele.”

University of Chicago archaeologists who made the discovery last summer in ruins of a walled city near the Syrian border said the stele provided the first written evidence that the people in this region held to the religious concept of the soul apart from the body. By contrast, Semitic contemporaries, including the Israelites, believed that the body and soul were inseparable, which for them made cremation unthinkable, as noted in the Bible.

The stele contains writing that appears to be an archaic version of Aramaic, although the official's name is Indo-European.

Pataphysician · 11-20-2008, 02:06 PM

Very bad write up by the NY Times, Zincili is a site of the Sam'al kingdom capitol, which combined West Semitic and Hittite ideas and culture. Cremation was common for Hittites, and Hittites burned the bodies of royal family in the temple, and they believed that part of the soul of that person remained in the temple walls. This stele was actually found in a wall of this site, which is reported to have evidence of "kitchen" functions, which might mean that the home's owner might have been cremated in the room, and in hittite fashion, part of his soul would be believed to be in the room as well.

Egyptians only believed that, for a time, part of the soul could travel away from the body, but never the whole soul, and ultimately the soul would be one and with the body in the underworld. That's why Egyptians were even more fastidious than Jews about caring of the dead body.

Iskander · 11-23-2008, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

I am not sure of the implications of this

Early monument to the soul

Quote:

In a mountainous kingdom in what is now southeastern Turkey, there lived in the eighth century B.C. a royal official, Kuttamuwa, who oversaw the completion of an inscribed stone monument, or stele, to be erected upon his death. The words instructed mourners to commemorate his life and afterlife with feasts “for my soul that is in this stele.”

University of Chicago archaeologists who made the discovery last summer in ruins of a walled city near the Syrian border said the stele provided the first written evidence that the people in this region held to the religious concept of the soul apart from the body. By contrast, Semitic contemporaries, including the Israelites, believed that the body and soul were inseparable, which for them made cremation unthinkable, as noted in the Bible.

The stele contains writing that appears to be an archaic version of Aramaic, although the official's name is Indo-European.

The implication? It is evidence for the existence of Christian hope being then alive in the hearts of people. It is a pity that humans had to wait until the birth of Eusebio to see this thought expanded .

It shows that this culture believed in the resurrection of the dead. The vital essence was capable of locomotion. Alternatively, that it had been transferred there by some spiritual power until a more suitable arrangement was in place. Such as the arrival of the Redeemer..

Quote
“Normally, in the Semitic cultures, the soul of a person, their vital essence, adheres to the bones of the deceased,” said David Schloen, an archaeologist at the university’s Oriental Institute and director of the excavations. “But here we have a culture that believed the soul is not in the corpse but has been transferred to the mortuary stone.”

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11-20-2008, 02:06 PM	#2
Pataphysician Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 38	Very bad write up by the NY Times, Zincili is a site of the Sam'al kingdom capitol, which combined West Semitic and Hittite ideas and culture. Cremation was common for Hittites, and Hittites burned the bodies of royal family in the temple, and they believed that part of the soul of that person remained in the temple walls. This stele was actually found in a wall of this site, which is reported to have evidence of "kitchen" functions, which might mean that the home's owner might have been cremated in the room, and in hittite fashion, part of his soul would be believed to be in the room as well. Egyptians only believed that, for a time, part of the soul could travel away from the body, but never the whole soul, and ultimately the soul would be one and with the body in the underworld. That's why Egyptians were even more fastidious than Jews about caring of the dead body.

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