Book #3 Back to Sodom and Gomorrha
Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Bible Stories from Archeologists, by Charles Pellegrino
The only non-fiction book on my list. I started it early (it was book 2), because I knew if I didn't, it would demotivate me and derail my whole challenge for the year. This turned out to be a sensible choice. I had to switch to fiction several times while reading it. So Rose Point overtook it, and even now I haven't finished the epilogue but started on the next book. But hey, I am counting it. Epilogues are optional, right? :)
I can't say that I hated it, there were very interesting things described in it that I hadn't heard about. But I also didn't love it. Tbh, I probably would have picked up all those things through internet osmosis at some point. I wonder why people still write books like that, where several anecdotes are just loosely bound together by a common thread (in this case, archeology in the Middle East). It doesn't help that I'm not particularly interested in the bible. Although, to be fair, the quotes from the bible were all from really well-known parts, like the parting of the sea, or the plagues. So at least I knew and recognized those.
So: this book doesn't need spoiler warnings. If you want to read about these things, you can google them, and if you want, you can even read this book.
The most interesting and new parts to me were:
* how oral tradition developed into written tradition in the case of nomadic Hebrew tribes, who wrote the dead sea scrolls and from that developed the bible
* that the biblical plagues in Egypt and the legend of Atlantis both probably originate in the volcanic eruption of the island of Thera
* that there were places in Egypt where animals (I remember birds and cats) were caught (or raised) specifically for the purpose of being embalmed and then sold to grieving relatives to be put into graves with the deceased
* the anecdotes about Israeli archeologists and the unique legal situation there when it comes to selling artifacts
* the way iron weaponry displaced bronze
* the story of Jericho, which was the victim of an earthquake (and the bible story was later made to look like the Israelites caused it)
* that the Nergal-worshipping city of Mashkan-shapir was probably destroyed by a natural oil fire caused by oil rising to the surface - it is unique because the area was never resettled after that
* I also liked Mashkan-shapir because Nergal is a sun god, and in that region the sun is something deadly, and he is also lord of the underworld, so the city was pretty much a death-worshipping place. *g*
What I didn't like about the book was the way the author kept drawing unscientific conclusions from the things he observed. Most of his archeological stuff was reasonable. What annoyed me was his conjecture about common traits of archeologists, about the scientific community in general, that kind of thing. He presented most other scientists as lunatics. I really could have done without that. It gave the book a more personal note, but not one that made me trust him.
All in all, it was interesting, but not worth reading about over 350 pages. But I'm done now, yay!
1 - 5 stars - Brothers In Arms [DW]
2 - 3 stars - Rose Point [DW]
3 - 2 stars - Back to Sodom and Gomorrah [DW]
x-posted from dw (comments:
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