Shinar and Shineru

[Dr. Pal]

Hi All!Although at first sight this may appear unrelated to Alexander studies, it is not so. The name Shinar in the Bible has been identified with Sumer by all the modern scholars including D.J. Wiseman. This is a linguistic monstrosity and in my opinion a horrible mistake. The nineteenth century dictionaries on the Bible mentioned Shinar as a separate entity. The Buddhist texts refer to an ancient territory named Shineru which I think is the biblical Shinar. This is Seistan where I have placed the ancient garden of Eden. http://www.geocities.com/ranajitdaRegards,Dr. Pal

[Cyrus]

And maybe that is the Tower of Zabol not Babel!The interesting thing is that archaeologists have recently discovered a 5,000 years old gameboard in Shahr-e Soukhteh (Burnt City) in the south of Zabol in Sistan that in shape it is identical to the gameboards excavated from the Sumerian Royal Tombs of Ur.http://www.chn.ir/english/eshownews.asp?no=1280"Another fascinating finding is a wooden game board, similar to those found Ur city, which shows three facts: the city had relations with Ur in 2500 to 2300 B.C., people had good lives and could have leisure time and play mind games, third they were familiar with mathematics which helped them in the game which was similar to Iranian chess or European Domino."Ur Game Board: http://www.goddesschess.com/graphics/ro ... jpgShahr-e Soukhteh Game Board: http://www.goddesschess.com/graphics/sharh1.jpg

[Dr. Pal]

Dear Cyrus,Yes, this exactly what I am trying to say. Modern Jebeil has been identified with ancient Byblos. Apart from the Buddhist texts the Mahabharata refers to Sibi(Seistan)and Usinara which again is the biblical Shinar. It is interesting that the remains of so many buried women are being found. The RgVeda refers to Queen Usinarani which is very significant and shows that the Queen of Sheba was from Seistan. When Woolley identified Ur in Sumer with Abraham's homeland Shahr-i Sokhta was unknown. Are you aware of the debate between Woolley and W.F. Albright on this point? I fully agree with Albright.Thanks for the links. I am looking for an update on the latest archaeological scenario at Shahr-i Sokhta. Can you help? About ten years back I was in touch with M. Toshi, the chief excavator who was then the cultural attache at the Italian embassy in New Delhi but for some time I have not refreshed my knowlege about this very important site. It was larger than contemporary Ur and is only a few kilometres away from Kuh-e Khwaja which in my opinion was the homeland of Abraham.
Regards,
Dr. Pal

[Cyrus]

It is becoming Interesting, Sibi is similar to Spi, Spidezh (Spi Citadel) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Sistan, as I said here ( http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_p ... =1001&PN=1 ) some months ago, archaeologists discovered a design of Sumerian hero Gilgamesh there which is older than the mesopotamian ones.