Jan. 13

In class on Thursday, we learned about Canaanite Jerusalem, which is pre-Israelite Jerusalem.  There have been 6000 years of continuous settlement in what we now call the City of David, and this is because of a few different factors.  As Professor Cargill has mentioned in class before, water is the key source to a flourishing city.  There is water in Jerusalem from the Gihon Spring and because of this, agriculture has been made possible. Settlements can grow different crops such as olives and they can herd animals.

One thing that I found particularly interesting from lecture on Thursday was the section on the voodoo-esque statues.  Egyptians would write the names of their enemies on these statues in Hieroglyphics and then smash them to the ground, breaking the statue into much smaller pieces.  As Professor Cargill mentioned, the name of God is not written in the Jewish tradition because it is never to be erased or destroyed, but with these statues those names are being destroyed because they are the names of enemies.  On some of these statues, the name Jerusalem was mentioned, as well as a few of the leaders, which means that there was a place called Jerusalem that was powerful enough to be worthy of having enemies in Egypt.

Another thing I found interesting is that there was a wall built near the Gihon seemingly to protect their water source.  If you have a source as important as water, especially when it is as vast as the Gihon, it is important to protect it.