What is Permineralzation?

It is when mineral rich waters enter the void spaces in an organism: plant or animal life. The waters leave mineral deposits behind, which create a cast of the organism or completely permineralize it, meaning it was petrified - turned to stone. For permineralization to occur, the organism has to be rapidly covered in a deep layer of silt shortly after death, or perhaps when it was still alive. This process is extremely rare, as conditions have to be "just right".

A fossilized tree trunk, still rooted in the ground, in Florisant, Colorado. These fossilzed trees are large and do not share the vibrant colours of those in Arizona's Petrified Forest. Here they are shoring up the fossil with bands of iron to keep it from falling apart, from splitting, like shale or slate, as it is pure "stone".

Some perspective on the size of this one - Florisant, Colorado.

New life, a tree, growing out of fossilized tree remains.

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Arizona's Petrified Forest

Two large sections (knee high) of a fossilised tree in the Petrified Forest in Arizona

(click onto all photos to see much larger, clearer images)

Arizona

A fine example of permineralized forest-remains can be found in north-eastern Arizona at the Petrified Forest National Park. The park is quite large and is actually made up of the Painted Desert as well as the Petrified Forest. Flat walking trails make it easy to enjoy. When I was there I was awed at what I saw. Colourful tree trunks lying on their sides in the desert, some whole but many broken into segments, as if they’d been turned to stone whilst standing and then broke into sections when they fell to the ground. These trees were permineralized, petrified – “turned to stone” by the mineral rich waters that at one time covered them.

My first view of the petrified trees, located at the edge of the Painted Desert.

We are told that the trees were toppled over by volcanic eruptions and were swept away by water, to very quickly become deposited in mud and covered with volcanic ash. Later, the area was covered by an ocean and the trees were covered with more silt. Some scientists ("old earth" believers - in opposition to the "young earth" believers in the scientific world) say 60 million years ago the ocean disappeared and flowing rivers appeared. These rivers gradually eroded through 2,600 feet of sediment depth to finally expose the petrified logs we see today. Below the desert’s surface are supposedly more layers of petrified trees. After being buried for millions of years, the logs, from the process of mineralization, were turned into colourful stone. To date, paleaontologists (paleontologists) have found 150 different species of fossilized plant life in Arizona’s Petrified Forest, as well as a variety of fossilized reptiles.

 

Here you can see the red-brown bits of tree trunk scattered in this part of the Painted Desert.

These mineral-rich fossils are made of jasper, quartz and other semi-precious minerals

A beautiful large specimen

This fossilised tree trunk has to be supported by a bridge of cement.

some perspective as to their size

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Forever Shales

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A short excerpt from Forever Shales

I was so distracted by the upcoming holiday that I let my guard down, and I narrowly avoided another incident with the cook. You see, she didn’t have to sharpen her kitchen knives herself. She could have had one of those knife-sharpening contraptions, but she always insisted, “They don’t work as well as an experienced ‘and an’ a whetstone.” Being a servant to a wealthy family, a man stopped by once a week, and with his whetstone he would sharpen all her knives to a soldiers envied perfection. Usually, the kettle went on the hob, and as he sharpened he would relay to Cook and Armstrong the latest gossip, picked up second-hand and third-hand from the kitchens of Hackney’s mansions and houses. He would drink two cups of tea and demolish several biscuits before he would be finished. It was a thirsty job, was gossiping. They called him Mr Finchey.
      “Mr Finchey,” she would say, as she let him in by the tradesman’s entrance, “we’ll ‘ave a nice cup’a tea, an’ thou canst fill us in on wots new.”            
     Mr Finchey was quite tall, and a bit dirty-looking, if you know what I mean. A bit like old Toothless George, though Finchey’s clothes were in better shape. He had an annoying habit of smacking his lips after every sip of tea, and he always dipped his biscuits into his tea first, before taking a bite. I think it was because he didn’t have any teeth at all, but just a large, gaping hole surrounded by loose, wet, flabby lips.
     On this particular knife-sharpening day she had requested that a certain few knives be extra sharp, as she had a “job to do”. When Finchey was all done he said, “E’re you are, Eliza, moy luv. These ‘ere noives are sharp enuff to butcha’ your very o’n cow. ‘Ere, you ain’t finn’ink of doin’ som’ink dodgy, are ya?”
     I didn’t pay much attention to what was being said. I didn’t really understand much of it, and I didn’t take the time to think about what had been said, nor to make sense of it. Besides, it was difficult deciphering Finchey’s words. He was a right cockney! Sometimes I had to think really long and hard to understand just one sentence when people were speaking, let alone a whole slew of sentences, and him speaking cockney made it even more difficult. 
     Finchey left, not wasting an extra minute as he had other houses to visit, and shortly later, when it all was quiet downstairs, I tiptoed below to get a drink.  Thinking Cook had gone into the pantry, I thought that if I nipped down to the kitchen I’d be back up the stairs before she could see me, but instead of silence I heard her footsteps coming quickly across the stone floor. Before I could escape, she was there – large knife in hand.  She waved her favourite knife in the air, the one she used, two-handed, whenever she chopped up large vegetables or joints of meat on the table. After the incident when she had stabbed me in the side of the ribcage, I became more aware of the fact that I could easily go missing for an entire day, and then appear as the main course, served from our best Minton, in the form, of, say, a giblet pie with gravy and vegetables, or a beef curry with rice. Did I have an overactive imagination, or was this an actual possibility? I could just imagine her gloating. A secretive, gleeful expression on her face as Armstrong served up the pie or curry, and someone in the family asking, in an enquiring voice, “What of Shales?  Any news of him? We hear he’s gone over the hedge again. Wonder when he’ll be back?” All the while, Eliza, the cook, would be below in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea, and out of my bones planning soup for the next day. There wouldn’t be anything at all left of me – not one jot of my existence. Nobody would know what had happened to me, or that they had eaten me! My innocent bones to be carted off by the dustman.
     She slowly crept towards me as water dripped from my lips and plopped back into the bowl. Ploppety plop . . . plop.
     “I’ll cook you, I will. I’ll cut you up in li’l pieces o’ meat, and nobody ‘ll know.   I’ll serve you up fow dinner!” 
     Her face told me she meant it and she wasn’t larking about. She came towards me, blocking off my escape route to the stairs. I was terrified and I felt my hackles bristle, and I went into my defensive stance: feet squared evenly on the floor and head slightly lowered, with a slow, deep growl coming from between my bared teeth.  I now knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had to get away from her. I turned quickly and ran to the back of the kitchen, where the door to the trade . . .



 More excerpts, for your reading enjoyment, can be found in past issues of The Sheepdog.


I am currently working on my second novel, which is nearly finished (another year or so!). Illustrations will have to be done, which take time. At about 600 pages or more, this one is a "large" work. For those who love King Arthur, they will truly enjoy reading about him from his pet dog's point of view. Contains no sex and no swearing, just excellent writing. Notes and ideas for my third book are already being taken down.

Forever Shales, written by me, Deborah Berkeley, is a 475 page historical novel. Told from the perspective of a dog, Shales the Boarder Collie will delight you as he “tells all” about his Victorian family. This book is uniquely illustrated in the “old style”, giving the reader the sense that it was written decades ago and not recently, and there is no sex, and there is only one instance of swearing. It can easily be purchased online through Amazon books, or go to the publisher's online store at www.melrosebooks.com

Sheepdog's Facts That Defy The Theory Of Evolution

Most of us were taught in school that the coelacanth was our very earliest ancestor.

Coelacanth

In 1938 a coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae was caught at the mouth of the Chalumna River on the east coast of South Africa, which put evolutionary believers’ brains into a tailspin. No such fish was supposed to exist except in fossil form, and yet one was caught, photographed and examined. Since this find, more Coelacanths have been caught. The second was caught in 1952 off Anjouan Island in the Comores Islands, northwest of Madagascar.

A preserved coelacanth in an Australian museum.

Evolutionists thought these fish were our ancestors. (and so did our school teachers!) They were previously only known from the fossil record, going as far back as 400 million years. Before 1938 they were believed to have become extinct, being last seen in the fossil record about 80 million years ago. We’ve been told that because they had “footy protuberances” that millennia ago they “crawled” out of the ocean and then over more millennia “evolved” into land mammals, which includes us humans (your ancestor is a coelacanth!).

     In 1987 a German naturalist named Hans Fricke observed coelacanths in their habitat off Grand Comoro Island. He photographed the fish as they swam, but they did not crawl, walk, or otherwise move on the ocean’s bottom by using their lobed fins. They swam like fish, which they weren’t supposed to be able to do. Therefore the coelacanth didn’t move up from sea to land, filling the evolutionary gap, as hypothesized.
     Such fish are called “living fossils”, a term actually coined by Charles Darwin to categorize anomalies that don’t “fit” into the evolutionary time chart. To date, other living fossils, such as the redwood tree Metosequoia, have been found other than the coelacanth. Living fossils are evidence that go against the theory of evolution.  

Sources http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~etmcmull/COELAC.htm


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Axel Heiberg Island's Mysterious Remains

located in northern Canada near to Greenland

 Axel Heiberg Island

I’d never heard of Axel Heiberg Island before, not until I accidentally came across it when I was looking for something else on the internet (dinosaur DNA). When I saw the words “fossilized wood can still be burnt or sawn in two”, I was immediately curious enough to find out more about this strange find. You see, if the wood is still ‘wood’, then it isn’t fossilized, well not in my mind.
     The island itself is located in the Canadian Arctic, close to Greenland, and it is Canada’s seventh largest island. According to Statistics Canada, it has an area of 16,671 square miles. In world ranking it comes in at number 31 in size. Today it is a cold and barren place that bears no resemblance to the temperate forested land it once was.

 So what about this “fossilized wood” being found on Axel Heiberg Island? Those scientists who believe in the “old earth” theory and not the “young earth” theory, believe that 40 million years ago, the Arctic was covered by a lush forest of large conifer trees and other fauna, and although it had only six months of daylight each year, the average temperature was mild enough for the forest to thrive, along with a variety of dinosaurs. Then came the flood, or many floods, as some scientists claim, which covered the forest. During this time the silt in the waters covered the trees and other plant life, protecting them from the mineral rich waters which would have normally permineralized them (replaced with silica) and turned them to stone. Then, when the weather in the Arctic changed, the new climate of cold, dry air dried out and desiccated the remains of the trees and plants, causing them to become “mummified”.
     The wood, and other fauna remains, that are reported as being 40 million years old, can be cut in two and burnt on a fire. In fact, scientists say that the wood is so well preserved because it suffered no chemical changes during the time of “preservation”, and also, that its original woodgrain, as well as its bark, has been fully preserved, meaning it has lasted all these millions of years without rotting, eroding, or turning to dust.
     One of the redwood conifer species Metosequoia, found as mummified on this island, was supposed to be extinct. However, in 1944/45 it was discovered to be thriving in central China. Today, one can find living examples of this tree, this “living fossil”, in the Toronto Botanical Gardens as well as in other places.
     There is something nagging me about these ‘facts’. It’s easy for me to accept the flood, the famous one when God told Noah to build his ark. But one internet site mentions there were as many as ten floods that covered this prehistoric forest. By the time the layers of silt built up deep enough to cover the large, fallen tree trunks, wouldn’t the trees have simply rotted away? I mean 40 million years is a very long period of time! In order for this “silt-covered” theory to work, wouldn’t it have had to have happened all at one go? I’m not a scientist. I don’t know the answers, but I know that if I took a fire log from my woodpile and laid it in my back swamp, that in 20 years it wouldn’t exist. In about five years it would be black, soggy, and very heavy, and most definitely rotten. Scientists say that conditions have to be just right. I’ll accept that, but to find leaves and pine cones still as they were after 40 million years doesn’t quite ring true with me, for surely they would have got washed away in said floods, and carried off to some distant land? And surely if these leaves were “desiccated” they would have turned to dust after all these millennia and blown away on the wind. It’s a mystery to me, but the remains do exist. As to how old they are is something that everyone will probably never agree upon.

Images of dried leaves and pine cones from Axel Heiberg Island, reported to be millions of years in age.

My sources were Wikipedia: just search for Alex Heiberg Island; or go to this site: click here hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/forest/eocene14.html

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Sheepdog's Favourite Quote - Richard Dawkins

“Evolution has been observed, it just hasn’t been observed while it’s happening.” - Richard Dawkins

Scientists Against Evolution

Do all scientists believe in evolution? No, many believe in creation. And, not all scientists believe it takes millennia to create fossils but that the process can happen over a much shorter period of time. The following I copied from WISE GEEK regarding the fossil record.   

“People also debate the reasons for sometimes radical leaps in evolution, and some scientists question certain conclusions which have been reached with evidence from the fossil record, suggesting that more information is needed. The fossil record has also been a bone of contention in the debate over evolution and the age of the Earth.”

Victorian Dog Story - Forever Shales

An excerpt from the 480 page novel Forever Shales. This book is well written and Shales is becoming loved by all who read about him. (Shales is a Victorian Border Collie)

It became foggy, and as evening fell the fog became thicker, causing it to fall dark earlier than usual. I trotted upstairs to the second floor to see if I could catch sight of the lamp lighting man as he came round to light the street lamps, to provide light at night up and down the streets of Hackney. There! He was working his way from the direction of Mare Street, just barely visible beyond the flat rooftops of the neighbouring terraced villas. I watched him from the window at the top of the stairs, my front paws against the sill and my nose pressed against the multi-paned window, momentarily entertained as the lamp lighter set his little ladder against a lamppost, and climbed it, reaching upwards with his wand of flame, igniting the gas in the lamppost and creating a sputtering halo of light. When I first came to Darnley Road I had been intrigued by gas, which gave us light instead of the use of candles. Inside the house the gas lighting sputtered and plopped, and I knew it could be dangerous, but we were never in the dark, and candles were unnecessary, except for the servants’ quarters, unlike in the country where gas lighting wasn’t always available and everyone used candles or awful-smelling oil lamps. We didn’t have anything like this at Master Rowland’s, or even at Wayletts in Stanford Rivers, but there we didn’t have streets paved with cobbles and a raised path paved with flagstones for walking on, either. In Hackney, all the streets were lit up at night, but that was because it was a modern place to live, and all the streets were well paved and the houses had water piped in, so the servants only had to turn on a tap, leaving the hauling of numerous heavy pails of hot water from the kitchen to bathrooms an unnecessary task.
     Once the lamp lighter was out of sight I had a job to do. I had to go outside into the back garden, so I searched for Jessie, finding her in her bedroom, and gave her my silent stare. When she asked, “Do you want to go outside?” I did my dance routine in acknowledgement. Willingly she followed me down the stairs to the main, front door, and let me out, and she left it to, just open by a little crack. I did what I had to do, my looing, and then I went over to the holly bush. I didn’t have to sniff a lot to find what I was looking for, because it was quite rank in its smell. I was surprised that it was still there, but other dogs didn’t have access to my garden, but then again, I wondered why the rats hadn’t taken it away. Boys o’ boys, mmn, mmn, mmn. I was overjoyed to find Cook’s missing roast beef, still where I had tossed it. I picked up the rather ripe-smelling, maggoty joint of meat and entered the house by nudging the door open, and I then tiptoed across the hall with my weighty prize, and then ran up the staircase (past my handsome portrait), hoping no one had heard me, and I then headed straight for my master’s bed. I carefully deposited the evil roast upon the middle of the bed, nudging it beneath his dressing gown where it might not be seen straight away. You are now wondering, why do this to your master? I was not intending on insulting Augustus, or wanting to offend him in any way, but was only bringing attention to the fact that a piece of old, cooked meat had never reached our dining-room table, and the very first person who should be questioned would be the cook.
     A short while later, when everyone had retired to their beds, I heard, we all heard, Augustus shout in a most angry voice, “I say, look here! Sakes alive! What on earth is in my bed?”
     I decided to keep my head low and out of sight, but the short and long of it is that it was questioned as to how the roast had found its way upstairs, and I was accused, and naturally so. But also it was questioned: where had I got the piece of meat from? The answer had to be supplied by the cook, Eliza. She was questioned immediately, and she had no intelligent answer. I was held blameless, as it was perceived that it was only natural, that I, being a dog, would find a smelly roast that had been loafing about the property, and would want to jump onto a bed with it. It’s what dogs do. It had not been forgotten that just before we had left for our holidays, beef curry had been served in place of roast beef, vegetables, and gravy, oh, and let’s not forget the Yorkshire puddings. Jessie had remembered the change in fare.

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Nazareth

Sheepdog's Round-up

The Nazareth of Yesterday and Today

 Located in Nazareth Village, this building typifies 1st century dwellings.

 

We’ve all heard of Nazareth, the place where Joseph and Mary raised Jesus, but it seems there are those who like to point out that it never existed, neither before nor during the life of Jesus. I thought this would be an easy article to write, but I came across a lot of negative articles that scoff the validity of the Gospel writers, and some are outright nasty in their comments. I just took it for granted that everyone, like myself, accepted there was a real Nazareth in the time of Jesus. In defence of the ancient town, there has not been one ancient document brought to light where it is written: “Those Christians are untruthful in that the place they call Nazareth does not exist.” So the skeptics are of the modern species. One of these skeptics, Frank Zindler, compares Nazareth to the fictional land of OZ, where Dorothy and Toto skipped down the yellow-brick road! After learning of such skepticism, I decided to do more digging because I believe what it says in the New Testament – no reason to doubt it – so I wanted to see what evidence exists today - you see, you will find Nazareth on every modern day map of Israel, but what connection does this place have to the Nazareth of the first century?
     

View across Nazareth taken in 1910

 John McRay, PH.D, author of Archaeology and the New Testament, is quoted by Lee Strobel in his book The Case for Christ, as saying about Nazareth, “There has been discussion about some sites from the first century, such as exactly where Jesus’ tomb is situated, but among archaeologists there has never really been a big doubt about the location of Nazareth. The burden of proof aught to be on those who dispute its existence.” Even archaeologists seem to be in agreement. Let’s have a look at what is written about Nazareth.

1862 - looking south-east over Nazareth

NAZARETH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Luke 4:16,  He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. (Jesus had been teaching in Galilee and was now returned home)

 John 1:46, Nathanial is quoted as saying to Philip, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” This he said after Philip had said to him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

Indeed, Nathanial makes it sound as if Nazareth was a small and insignificant place on the “wrong side of the tracks”, but what I like is that he sounds so sure of the town’s existence.

Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

Luke 4:39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

(Luke 4:39) When they got home, Jesus was found to be missing, but after returning to Jerusalem his parents found him. Luke 4:51 Then he (Jesus) went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.

Also see Matthew 2:23; 4:13; 21:11; 26:71

               Mark 1:9; 1:24; 10:47; 14:67; 16:6
               Luke 2:4; 2:39; 2:51; 4:34; 18:37; 24:19

               John 1:45; 18:5; 18:7; 19:19                                                

               Acts 2:22; 3:6; 4:10; 6:14; 10:38; 22:80; 26;90
 

According to Wikipedia, you will find Jesus of Nazareth mentioned in English translations of the New Testament seventeen times. There are variances in the translations, so in the original Greek it is “Jesus the Nazarene” or “Jesus the Nazorean”. A standard King James version of the New Testament mentions “Nazareth” twenty-nine times, but in surviving Greek manuscripts it is only mentioned twelve times, where it appears in different forms: Nazora, Nazareth, Nazaret, Nazarath. These differences are a result from the English references being translated from the Greek adjective nazarenes, “of Nazareth”, but they still confirm that Jesus came from the place known as Nazareth. In Strong's Exhaustive Condordance of the Bible, under Nazareth you will find 29 listings, all of which I have included in this article.
     Skeptics use these variations to validate their argument that there was no place during Jesus’ lifetime ever called Nazareth and that the town appeared only after his death, perhaps even a few centuries later. 

OTHER ANCIENT WRITINGS
The earliest non-scriptural reference to Nazareth is a citation by the historian Sextus Julianus Africanus, dated at about A.D. 200. Born c. A.D. 160 - c.240,  Africanus was a Christian traveller and historian.

Eusebius, a Roman historian and Bishop of Caesarea (c. A.D. 263 - 339), wrote in his Onomasticon (directory of place names found in the Scriptures, written A.D. 324 - 339) that Nazareth was about fifteen milestones from Legio, that was an eastern journey from Legio to Tabor, or about fifteen Roman miles.

Jewish historian Josephus (Joseph ben Matthias, born A.D. 37) mentioned Jesus two times in his book Antiquities, but he neglected to mention Nazareth. And Nazareth is neither mentioned in the Talmud nor in any writings by the apostle Paul. Skeptics like to point out that with Nazareth not being mentioned in these other ancient writings, that it couldn’t have existed until well after the first century. Were the Gospel writers wrong in this but correct in everything else they wrote about? We must remember that every single important ancient document ever written, and that includes maps and letters, did not survive the past centuries of fires and warfare, and that only a percentage of them survive to this day.

The pilgrim Arculf recorded in the year 680, in his travels, that Nazareth had two existing churches. One, he recorded, was at Mary’s spring, and the other was on the traditional site of the Annunciation (Mary‘s encounter with the angel Gabriel), where the basilica stands today. Archaeological remains of pre-Christian origin were uncovered beneath the Church of the Annunciation, located on the traditional site of Joseph and Mary’s house, in 1955: evidence that people did dwell there before or least by Jesus’ time.

NAME ORIGIN
What of the origin of the name Nazareth? Does it mean “branch”? Yes, Nazareth’s root word is netser; it means branch, or descendant, and is derived from natsar (see Strong’s Concordance Hebrew 5341/5342). In Isaiah 11, the coming Messiah is prophesied as coming from the branch of Jesse. However, do not confuse Nazareth with Nazarite, or Nazarites, as mentioned in Numbers and Judges (books in the Old Testament), as they differ in meaning.

THE NAZARETH THAT JESUS KNEW
His hometown of Nazareth lay just 1.5 miles north of the road that led to Jerusalem and Egypt. His village was near the Plain of Esdralon and was situated in Galilee, a Roman province set in hills referred to as “the south ridges of Lebanon”. To the east was the Sea of Galilee, and to the west was the Mediterranean Sea. Just one mile south of Nazareth was Japha, which according to the historian Josephus was the “largest village in Galilee”. North of Nazareth was Cana, where Jesus attended a wedding, and due to a shortage of wine there, he turned six pots of water into wine, and not just any wine, but the best wine to be had! (John 2: 6-11)
     How many times did he climb Precipice Mountain? At a distance of about a mile and a half from Nazareth, the steep hill, rising 500 feet above the town, has a steep precipice, where its foot lay the Roman road called the Via Maris (Way of the Sea), which connected the ancient city of Damascus with the Mediterranean seaports in the west. From atop Mount Precipice he would have seen breathtaking views - seeing a good part of Galilee and committing it to memory before he ever began his travelling ministry. Here, according to tradition, he once had a frightening experience (Luke 4:29-30) when Nazareth’s people “thrust” him out of the synagogue and “led him to the brow of the hill” with the intent to kill him. Mary, his mother, greatly frightened for her son’s life, witnessed this violent act from another hill north of Mount Precipice. But there seems to be some confusion over exactly which hill this happened on, because, as you read further down about the chapel Our Lady of Fright near the end of this Nazareth article, there is another hill (one that the ruins of the chapel sit on) that people also say is the very hill where Jesus was led. However, he would have been familiar with both the hills, and they couldn't kill him anyway, regardless of which precipice they tried to shove him over.
     Part of, if not all of Nazareth lay nestled in an oval-shaped basin surrounded by limestone hills, where chiselled into the soft limestone bedrock along its north-west boundary were many Jewish burial tombs. Perhaps these tombs even served the people of Japha, which could account for Nathanial’s poor opinion of the place: a place where the population of the dead possibly exceeded that of the living. Jesus would have been very familiar with the town’s steep northern slope graced by three large cultivated terraces, each one having a watchtower. This farm, of about twelve acres, grew olive trees, and no doubt figs, barley, grapes, wheat, legumes, and leafy vegetables on its “dry” and “wet” terraces. Here also was a large winepress, olive crushing stones, irrigation systems, and nearby was a quarry. Don’t imagine a desert, but see a thriving farm with lush, abundant green crops.
     There was at least one carpenter’s shop in Nazareth (Joseph’s), and there was a public spring-fed well, which served the entire village, although there were other springs which watered the farms. He was very familiar with the synagogue, as we know he went there on the Sabbath (“as his custom was” - Luke 4:16 - 17) when he preached from the Scriptures. 

 Mount Precipice

Mount Precipice with view of Mount Tabor

NAZARETH TODAY
In the book The Case for Christ, written by Lee Strobel (Zondervan 1998), John McRay, PH. D, says, “Dr. James Strange of the University of South Florida is an expert on this area, and he describes Nazareth as being a very small place, about sixty acres, with a maximum population of about four hundred and eighty at the beginning of the first century.” Today Nazareth sprawls beyond the basin and slopes and has become the largest Arab city in Israel with a population of more than 75,000. In Hebrew it is called Nazrat, or Natzeret, and in Arabic it is called Nasira, or Naseriye.  
     Over the centuries Nazareth has become a popular pilgrimage site. Traditional sites associated with Jesus and his family were in past centuries marked by churches, only to be destroyed with the change of Muslim and Christian rule. Churches and monasteries were rebuilt with the return of Christians in the 19th century, and Nazareth now boasts of about thirty churches and monasteries, as well as mosques and synagogues. 

Nazareth Village is an authentically reconstructed first century village and restored ancient farm. Its excavation was begun in 1997 when an ancient winepress was noticed on the grounds of the hospital. This farm is the one that had wet and dry terraces, watchtowers, and a winepress. It is a testament to what life was like for the ancient people of Nazareth. Here they teach the story of Jesus’ life, from his childhood to his ministry, while dressed in the clothing of the times.
                          

A corner of Nazareth Village

                                                                                      
 

Bathhouse - The discovery of a large Roman-style bathhouse beneath a souvenir shop has led to speculation that Nazareth was under a heavy Roman presence; but in which century? This very large bathhouse has not yet been dated to the first century, although in 2003 it made headline news. It may have been built in the second or third century, but without further excavation the origins of this large bathhouse will remain an untold secret. Unfortunately, much of the ground beneath the modern buildings that now occupy “Old Nazareth” has not been thoroughly excavated due to lack of funding and “red tape”.
    
SACRED SITES
Saint Joseph’s Church is a Franciscan church (built in 1914) and stands on what is believed to be the traditional site of Joseph’s carpenter shop, and some traditions say it was also Joseph’s house. Steps lead to a grotto beneath that was used from the first century, where there is a water pit, mosaics, barns, and caves, and tradition says one of the caves was Joseph’s workshop. The site testifies to a violent history where previous churches on the site were demolished due to warfare, going back to Byzantium times. A church was built over the Byzantium church in the 12th century, and this Crusader church was left in ruins during the 13th century after the Arabic occupation.

St Joseph's

Steps leading down to the grotto beneath St Joseph's Church

St Joseph's grotto map

Church of the Annunciation (the Basilica of the Annunciation) is a modern Catholic church that stands on the traditional site of Mary’s house. There was some sort of a church there prior to the 4th century, also in c. A.D. 384 there was mention of an altar, and in c. A.D. 570 there was mention of a church being on the spot. In A.D. 680, the pilgrim Arculf visited Nazareth and recorded a church at Mary’s spring and one at the traditional site of the Annunciation where the basilica stands today. This site has experienced an extremely violent history where invaders tore down the church and others built them back up - only for it to be repeated again and again. The modern basilica was built in 1966 and is divided into the upper church and the lower church. The lower church centres on the grotto (beneath the house) where Mary is said to have encountered the angel Gabriel, and where visible remains of the Byzantine church (which was documented in the Commemoratorium of A.D. 808) and the Crusader (razed in 1263) church can be seen.

According to Roman Catholic tradition, the Chuch of the Annunciation (grey-domed building) stands on the site where the angel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God.

 

Church of the Annunciation

 

 

Grotto (ancient storeroom) beneath the basilica where Mary encountered Gabriel.

St. Mary’s well is a modern public well built over the ancient well that served Nazareth for centuries.

The Jesus Synagogue - Due to the Big Insurrection (A.D. 67) most Jewish holy places were destroyed, but tradition has it that this synagogue is the very one that Jesus preached from, even though it stands a short distance outside the accepted historical boundaries for the village. Christians began worshipping there in the Byzantine times, and then in medieval times they turned the synagogue into a church. Years later it was destroyed and reduced to a shed. The Franciscans began restoration on it during the 18th century, and then it was passed onto the Greek Orthodox who finished it; it is now a chapel.

Inside the small synagogue.

Our Lady of the Fright now sits in ruins. The chapel’s remains are what is left of an earlier Crusader monastery, sitting atop a small hill to the north of Mount Precipice, on the southeast side of Nazareth. Tradition has it that this is where Jesus’ mother, Mary, was standing when she saw him chased out of Nazareth (Luke 4:29-30) and led to Mount Precipice. But in researching this I did wonder why the infuriated people of Nazareth are remembered as taking Jesus to the more distant hill, a mile and a half away, and not this one, which has a steep and precarious path leading up to it and is an ideal place from where to shove someone over the edge, and it is right near Nazareth. Luke 4:29 does not name the hill, but says, “and led him to the brow of the hill whereupon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” I think this hill fits Luke 4:29 better.

Our Lady of Fright chapel

View over the Valley of Jezreel from Our Lady of Fright chapel

Google shot of the hill outside Nazareth where Our Lady of Fright chapel stands. This could be the hill where the Jews led Jesus to instead of Precipice Mountain.

*author's note: all photos are public and came from the web, so any inaccuracies in their desciptions belong with the original source.

Sheepdog's - Did You Know?

The meaning of the word dinosaur is comprised of the Greek “deinos”, which means “fearfully great” or “terrible”, and “sauros”, which means “a lizzard”. Thus the meaning of dinosaur is “fearfully great lizzard”. “Dinosaur” is a relatively new word coined in 1841 by Sir Richard Owen, to identify the fossils of extinct reptiles, which is why you don’t see the word in use before 1841.

Sheepdog's Favourite Quote

“Who would have believed when I was a boy that the laughable arrangement of struts and strings known as a flying machine – seen generally in a field surrounded by an amused crowd of cyclists and horsemen – would within thirty years conquer the air and give birth to the Wellington Bomber?” – H.V. Morton

Dog Boarding in Nova Scotia

Forever Shales Boarding Kennel

Dog Boarding in South Rawdon, Nova Scotia, just a half-hour's drive from Sackville, towards Windsor. Forever Shales is a non-traditional kennel where there are just 3 kennels (containing inside and out areas), so less dogs means less noise, less stress, and more attention for your dog. It's ideal for dogs who don't board well in larger kennels. Daily walks are included in the boarding price, and there is a fenced-yard directly off the kennel room. Kennel room is attached to the house and is not a separate building, and it is partially carpeted and is decorated in bright colours. Call Deborah Berkeley 757-0744 or email me at forevershales@hotmail.ca You can check out photos on Facebook at my Forever Shales Boarding Kennel page.

 

April's Issue

April's issue will show the date March 29th.

              

Sheepdog’s Excerpt from my novel Forever Shales

We arrived later that day, in a somewhat mud-spattered carriage, at 15 Darnley Road. I gazed at the old place, which was set a bit further back from the road than the newer, terraced dwellings, called villas, which lay close to the road.  It looked to be quite large, though the narrow end fronted the road, and the actual front of the house was set a short distance back, somewhat behind the terraced villas. Edmund attached my lead to my collar. We went along the path and up the steps, and there he lifted the heavy knocker – tap-tap . . . tap-tap. The front door opened almost immediately.
     “Oh, Master Edmund! Welcome home. Your father is waiting for you in his study,” said an excited Armstrong.  The housemaid then stooped to fondle my face, and she greeted me thus: “Shales, you lovely dog. Aren’t you handsome . . . the handsomest dog in Hackney?  And Darnley Road, as well as Cassland Road!”
     I jumped on her, and nearly head-butted her on the nose.  I was excited and could hardly contain myself.  After wiping her face with the hem of her apron she unhooked my lead, which she carefully hung next to Edmund’s hat, and without a backward glance I trotted off to explore the new residence. I discovered it had lots of rooms, but best of all, the furniture was familiar, as well as all the ornaments and carpets. It had obviously been fetched from the Cassland Road residence. A short time later, the men who’d driven the removal van began to empty it of its contents and carried the entire lot into the house. Jessie gave orders as to where each large item was to be placed, and Armstrong dashed about with a duster and a pot of polish. The other sisters peered into the straw-filled crates and removed the packed items. There were a lot of silver-framed photos as well as piles of loose ones, stacks of books, boxes of music sheets, and a lot of china, silver, and glass.
      The house was in a happy mood, and so was I.

* * *

I’d only been living in Darnley Road a couple of days, and hadn’t even had the opportunity to leave the confines of the garden and have a proper walk along any of the nearby streets and roads, when news came about Thomas. I’ve already told you that Thomas, Maud, and their baby had returned to their home in Bush Hill Park about a fortnight previously. A telegram of the utmost importance arrived at our new residence concerning him. It was early evening, and the family had just finished their dinner, and we had all withdrawn to retire and let our meal settle. Silly me, I’d had my hopes up that Thomas was summoning me to go and visit with him, seeing that we had moved away from Wayletts. Why I had ever thought that, I do not know. It is what I had hoped the telegram would reveal. Augustus waited for Armstrong, our housemaid, to leave the room and close the door behind her. The telegram was held lightly in his hand. When he opened it, which he did with great solemnity in front of the family, he first read it quietly to himself, and then handed it over to Edmund to read aloud.
     “Oh, dear!” Edmund moaned, angling the paper to get the best light from the ceiling-lamp. “It’s from Maud, and she says here that Thomas has been taken ill and that a doctor has been summoned.”
     He looked at his father, and appearing to be uncomfortable, rubbed the back of his neck. From the tone of his voice, I knew my own disappointment, so I flopped down rather heavily upon a familiar carpet that had resided at the Cassland Road residence, wondering what was to happen next. I feared that Thomas was once again in trouble, and I looked about for someplace to hide.
     Augustus sternly looked at Edmund as if he were in any way responsible for his own brother’s ailment. “Thomas has been working this week while we have been removing ourselves from Stanford Rivers, but you went over to the office today in Stoke Newington to see how things were. Was he not there?”
     He sounded angry, and I cringed inwardly at the harsh tone of his voice. I wondered if I ought to slither away to the next room, or to blend in with the pattern of the carpet and listen to Thomas’s fate.
     Edmund looked guilty as he replied, “No, Father. Well, I mean yes, he had been there up until today, but I understood he was coming in later. I had no idea he was so ill, and I’m as surprised as you are.”
     All eyes, including my own, were upon Edmund, whose handsome face looked rather worried. Poor Edmund had wanted to keep Thomas in his father’s good books . . . Forever Shales is a 472 page historical novel written by me, Deborah Berkeley. Signed copies can be purchased at Our Mother’s Keepers, 85 Water Street, Windsor, or at www.Amazon.ca.. Published by Melrose Books.com

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Sheepdog's Tit-bit

What should we call the ancient Britons?

 

 What should we call the ancient Britons? There is no evidence that the people of ancient Britain or Ireland ever referred to themselves as Celts, like we do today, and there are no ancient writings in existence that refer to them as Celts, although we know that their ancestors migrated to the islands from mainland Europe. Neither the Romans nor the Greeks ever used “Celt” in their descriptions of the islanders. However, the term Celt was used by the Romans to describe the inhabitants of central Gaul. After the downfall of the Roman Empire, “Celt” and “Celtic” became forgotten words and did not come into use again for over a thousand years later, when in the 16th century Scottish scholar George Buchanan described the speech of the inhabitants of ancient Gaul as “Celtic”.
     So what did the Ancient Britons call themselves, and what did they call their island? The oldest recorded name for the island of Britain comes from the sixth century B.C., when an explorer from the Greek colony of Massilia called the island “Albion”. Then, in 400 B.C., Avienus referred to the island of Britain as being “island of the Albions”.
     Around the third century B.C. the Greek explorer Pytheas sailed around the British islands, made several landings, and called the islands “The Pretanic Isles”. However, he didn’t give any specific name to Britain, although he named the inhabitants the “Pretani”, which means “people who paint themselves”. Pretani is possibly derived from the Celtic tongue.
     Did, then, the ancient Britons speak Albion, or Pretani? At the time of the Roman landings (Julius Caesar 54 B.C.) the Romans referred to the language the islanders spoke, a variant on the continental Celtic tongues, as Brythonic, or Brittonic, and they called the people Pretanni, or Brytanni. Julius Caesar and other Roman writers converted the ancient name Pretani into Britanni, and the island became known as Britannia, and later Britain. 

Ancient Briton Warriors

Celt Vercingetorix surrenders to Julius Caesar

Ancient Briton Torque

 Bibliography – Ramon L Jimenez. Caesar Against The Celts: Castle Books, 1996.

Sheepdog's Adventure

Costa Rica

Costa Rica means “Rich Coast”. Although I have never been there, people say Costa Rica is a wonderful place to visit. My brother and his wife were there recently and they loved it, so I felt inspired to do a little research. Also, a Facebook friend of mine says she and her husband are planning on retiring in Cost Rica. Central America seems to be a magnet for Canadians. Many are retiring down there, and I even have friends who have permanently left Canada to retire in Panama. I’ve tried to cram why Costa Rica seems to be so attractive into a very short article:

    

 Costa Rica is a country located in Central America. Its size is 742 miles in length and is no wider than 190 miles, and it is bordered on the north by Nicaragua, on the southeast by Panama, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and to its east is found the Caribbean Ocean. It is a democracy, and has been since 8th November 1949. Many of its people are poor, so don't be shocked at the amount of poverty you will see, but tourism is essential to its economy. Its climate is rated tropical year round, but the country has mountains and deep valleys as well as sandy beaches, so micro-climates cause the weather conditions to vary from one region to the next. Unlike North America, its seasons are restricted to just two each year. Typically, summer lasts from December to April and winter lasts from May to November. 





    

Courtesy of Nat. Geographic

Nat. Geographic photo of Arenal Volcano

In San Jose

Night lights of San Jose

There are lots of things for the active tourist to do. In the capital city of San Jose, one can visit museums that are proud to show off the country’s pre-Columbian heritage, and there are lots of jazz clubs and fabulous restaurants. Then take a trip to Poas Volcano, just over an hour’s drive from San Jose. Peer down into its steaming crater from the observation centre near its summit. There are 5 active volcanoes in Costa Rica out of the 26 found in Central America. At the base of Arenal Volcano, one can hike trails, soak in hot springs, or go horseback riding. For bird watchers, there are over 850 recorded species of birds in Cost Rica, so you might want to visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Also at the reserve are interesting exhibits on bats, frogs and insects. 

Courtesy of Nat. Geographic

For surfers, there are excellent world-class surfing beaches, and for the diver there is world-class diving, where one can swim amongst manta rays and sharks (if you like that sort of thing!). Sports fishermen can catch marlin and sailfish, and although I didn’t read it anywhere, I’m sure the women’s sport of shopping is most excellent.

The sport of navigating through a market 

 

 

Surrounding San Jose

The country’s language is mostly Spanish (Costa Rican Spanish) - it was a Spanish Colony in the past. 

Visit  www.visitcostarica.co. For more photos, check out National Geographic
     My sources were National Geographic Traveller July/August 2009 issue.