Seal from Sidon

My Traffic Meter told me that my blog address appeared today on a Christian Forum. So I clicked the link and saw that "diamondjoust", who is a Junior Member in this Forum, asked:

Why do Jews use the symbol of a hexagram or Magen David?

and "baraqemet", who is a regular member in this Forum, mentioned in his answer the seal from the seventh century B.C.E. found in Sidon and belonging to one Joshua ben Asayahu which is mentioned in Gershom Sholem’s classical article about the Star of David. baraqemet commented:

All we have is a statement by someone [Gershom Sholem], who is into kabbalah, who did not supply any proof to support their theories. 

I don't want the bother of registering to the above-mentioned Forum but I happen to know the missing source:
David Diringer, Le Iscrizioni Antico-ebraiche Palestinesi, Pub; Icazioni Dell'Universita Di Firenze, Facolta' Di Lettere E Filosofia; 3, Firenze: Le Monnier, 1934, P. 187
Check it out!

Jali

Hexagram surrounded by six hexagons in a grid called Jali (indian term of "mashrabia").
Picture (taken at Humayun Tomb, India) is courtesy of "mattlogelin" who published it on Flickr.

Ten Thousand Years Old Yantra

Picture is courtesy of Suzanne Olsson who published it her Website together with an article about THE STAR OF DAVID where she wrote:

The above yantra was carved nearly 10,000 years ago into a rock near Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka. Adam was thought to have visited there, and Noah was believed to have brought the remains of Adam and Eve on the Ark for reburial. If the star was first associated with Hebrews that far back, then Solomon was not the first priest-king to continue it as a family symbol. This leaves several ways the Star symbol was brought into India and became the yantra.

I sent her an email asking for the sources for this photo and she answered me:

I have lost the source that dated the black rocks in Sri Lanka and India...I recall it was the Department of Antiquities in India....it's been about five years since I first came across the information...I wish I had saved the sources...You might be able to recover them eventually through internet searches...

Six Is the Number of Man, Seven Is the Number of God

"Whtstealth" published a very elegant and ORIGINAL graphic explanation for the meaning of the shape of the Star of David on Youtube.
Here are some interesting excerpts from the debate that was developed after he published the clip:
"upsilone" commented (1 month ago)

The Star of David exists for more than 5000 years ago. It existed even before the ancient Hebrew letters were invented…

whtstealth’s Reply (1 month ago):

So what is your point? We do not live in that time now, furthermore 'Do you actually have proof of the origin of the Star of David?' 

I sent the link to this clip to my friend Craciun Lucian and he commented:

That's not a "seven", that's a Gimmel. Plus the two big Daleths ==> 6*3+2*4 = 18+8 = 26, the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton. Also, six Gimmels + six little Daleths = 6*(3+4) = 6*SEVEN = 42. (Six=man; seven=God).
…Arabic numerals, adopted relatively late in human history by Europeans & Middle-Easterners. [The Jews had one numerical system, the Latins another, and the Greeks had equivalents for both -- but something like ten-base Arabic numerals were inexistent (not that there aren't similarities, but these similarities do not account for the number seven having that particular form {"7"}, neither do they permit a summing of the ciphers of the number, since they {Latins, Greeks, Jews} didn't have ciphers, but reserved different letters for -let's say- 6, 60, 600; or 9, 90, 900)].

Eddie Exodus

Eddie Exodus has a terrific Slam Poetry Video Clip about the Star of David on Youtube. I hope he'll send me the lyrics so I can add them to this posting. The clip is very well done and after playing it few times I noticed that the images delicately fit the meanings.

Beer Glass

What is a six-pointed star emblem doing on a beer glass? The Hexagram was intended to symbolize purity; folklore has it that it  represented the six aspects of brewing: water, hops, grain, malt, yeast, and brewer.
Picture is courtesy of o0karen0o from Flickr.

Treasure of Nimrud

Six pointed Star on a gold seal

Courtesy of Noreen Feeney (c) 2011

I already wrote about a hexagram that was found on the black obelisk in Nimrud in northern Iraq, but it isn't clear if it has six or seven points and it is not made of two equilateral triangles. From the same excavation we have a perfect hexagram in a perfect condition, which nobody can deny, in the Treasure of Nimrud. It is one of 613 items of gold jewelry and precious stones that were dated to the 8th and 9th century B.C. found In 1991 by Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmu. Its six triangles are made of gold dots and they encircle a ring of gold dots which encircles a gold disc.

Treasure of Nimrud exhibition was supposed to arrive to Washington this month including an amazing  gold hexagram. (See picture number 383 by Noreen Feeney from Iraq Museum International).

P.S.

I read the excavators' book

Hussein, Muzahim Mahmoud Nimrud: a city of golden treasures Al-Huriyah Printing House, 2000

All the items appear there except for our hexagram - Guess why...