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January 31, 2008
The ŠLMT Seal and How We Learn
At blogging speed this is a little late. I think Chris at Higgaion was the first to bring it to the attention of the blogging community. Eilat Mazar, who discovered the subject seal, first read it tmḥ. Peter van der Veen, among others, pointed out that Mazar read the seal backwards (seals are mirror images of their impressions) and that the seal should be read šlmt. Mazar now agrees with this reading. Here is her short statement for the Biblical Archaeological Society.
I accept the suggestion made by Peter van der Veen and followed by many other scholars to read Sh l m t. Actually, I love it. For the time being, this reading is preferable to my reading of t m h or h m t. This is an opportunity also to thank the many scholars who took part in the various blogs contributing their knowledge on the subject.
Mazar's change in position is exactly what one would expect from a scholar when confronted with a higher probability interpretation of the evidence. It is an illustration of how we all learn.
Dawkins loves to tell a different story that points out the same thing.
A formative influence on my undergraduate self was the response of a respected elder statesmen of the Oxford Zoology Department when an American visitor had just publicly disproved his favourite theory. The old man strode to the front of the lecture hall, shook the American warmly by the hand and declared in ringing, emotional tones: "My dear fellow, I wish to thank you. I have been wrong these fifteen years." And we clapped our hands red.
It didn't take Mazar fifteen years to see her error. In part, the greatly reduced timeframe resulted from blogging speed; a fact she graciously acknowledged.
Posted by Duane Smith at January 31, 2008 10:11 AM | Read more on Archaeology |
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Duane, sorry about this, but it appears I have tagged you.
Posted by: Iyov at January 31, 2008 11:58 AM
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
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