This page is about the gold artifact that Jacobivici claims is a linear view (that he erroneously claims "only Moses" would have had) of the Ark of the Covenant, the ramp to the Altar, and the Altar.

Aaron was the high priest, not Moses. And Aaron's view would have been seriously hampered by the fact that the Holy of Holies is a heavily enclosed chamber, and another enclosed chamber was between it and the courtyard where the ramp and Altar were.

This is the gold artifact in question. Is it the linear view Moses supposedly had of the Ark, Ramp and Altar, or something else, something else rather common, and amazingly well documented through artwork and archaeology...?

The caption says it is a "Tripartite Shrine". So I did some web-searching on that. While searching I found some corollary info on some of the details, like the birds and the horns.

Ok, so here's the results of an afternoon spent searching:

First, some goddess idols that show the significance of the birds, and the horns. Jacobovici claims the birds are the "cherubs" described in the Bible. With all this evidence of birds being simply birds in all these other religious artifacts, why would he say they are "cherubs" on the gold artifact? The horns are called "horns of consecration" on some websites, but the website with the terra cotta idols calls them "horns of concentration". I think "consecration" is probably correct:

Now the good stuff. A fresco, followed by a coin, both showing a Tripartite Shrine-a shrine with three sections, the center one being a bit taller than the flanking two. Note the horns on top, like the ones on the goddess' head and the ones the birds are perched on in the gold artifact:

An amphora with a Tripartite Shrine, (replete with more of those swirly designs even!) The first pic is the whole amphora, the second is a detail of the center of the artwork, and the third is a drawing of the whole scene, which wraps around the amphora. This drawing of the scene from the amphora screams out "Jacobovici is a fraud!", since this is a well-known structure, and is alomost identical to the Gold artifact. Jacobovici knows what this is, and it is NOT what he claims in his TV show:

This next pic is of a pair of the horns at an archaeological site. The pic after that is a drawing of the Tripartite Shrine from that site. It is a three dimensional rendering of the drawing above from the side of the amphora. Interesting side-note: You can see the way the shrine is designed, so you can't see into it from outside, and the layout of the courtyard area. A friend of mine, Marc, told me about a mutual friend's (Dan Warner-Biblical Archaeologist specializing in Canaanite temples) description of Canaanite temples having a lot in common with the Tabernacle, and this Tripartite Shrine seems similar in some ways also.

It also doesn't need to be pointed out that "bird" is not "cherub".

Conclusion: I had no knowledge of any of this stuff before watching that program. I simply did Google image searches for "Mycenaean" and "Minoan". I instantly came up with scores of images showing the swirl design was very common, and rarely represented water in the art of that period. I also found evidence that the chariot figures are involved in a hunt, and that chariot racing and hunting was a common theme among the 50 stela that Jacobovici picked his three favorite from. I also found that Jacobovici deliberately altered the artwork on the third stele, literally manufacturing evidence to support his claim, and suppressing evidence that directly contradicted his claim.

When I found that gold artifact image, and the caption said "Tripartite Shrine" I then Googled on that term, and immediately had more pictures, more diagrams, more artifacts proving that his claim for this artifact is also demonstrably false.

If I learned all this in one afternoon, with no previous knowledge whatsoever, then he definitely knows this inside and out.

I don't know what his motivation is (probably cash), but now I know he is a liar, and a con man. He's as bad as Ron Wyatt, who claimed he found the Ark of Noah, Sodom & Gomorrah, the site of the Red Sea crossing, a monument built by Moses, Mt Sinai, the Ark of the Covenant, which is below the exact spot Jesus was crucified, and His blood seeped through a crack ONTO the Ark of the Covenant, and DNA testing shows only half the normal number of chromosomes(!!!)

He has a very complete website, Wyatt Archaeological Research, documenting how he alone has solved the great Biblical archaeological mysteries that have confounded archaeologists for 200 years.

Ron Wyatt was a con man with chutzpah out the wazoo, and Simcha Jacobovici seems to be trying to give him a run for his money.

comments? msr-online@romesburg.com