Analysis Paper on “the Tower of Babel: an Archaeologically Informed Reinterpretation” by Steve Reimer

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Steve Reimer’s article on the tower of Babel is quite interesting. Steve uses history to explain his idea on Genesis 11. Reimer uses the history of pottery to make his claim on the subject. Genesis 11:8 states, “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.”1 In this bible passage, the people of Babel build a tower to reach the heavens. God didn’t like this, for some reason unknown, and scattered the people of Babel, then learned new languages and cultures. Reimer suggests that, through archaeology, the people of Babel already had different languages and different cultures. He explains five different ceramic time periods, Halaf, Ubaid, Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and Early Dynastic.2 These time periods all have different types of pottery. The Halaf period was named for its “unique and distinct style of pottery.”3 This style of pottery is very detailed and well fired, making hard to break and easy to tell apart from other pottery years later. This type of pottery is only found in Turkey and Syria. The Pottery was found in hills that were most likely used for agriculture. 1. Genesis 11:8, Harper Collins Study Bible, page 19 paragraph 3 Direction Fall 1996 Vol. 29 No. 2 “The Tower of Babel” Steve Reimer, Pages 66-68 Direction Fall 1996 Vol. 29 No.2 “The Tower of Babel” Steve Reimer, page 66, Paragraph 2 2 These villages communicated with other villages, but did not trade too often. The Ubaid period is differnt but similar to the Halaf time period. The pottery was found in the same spot. This type of pottery is not at extravagant when it comes to the detail of design. These villages used more of a dry farm method unlike the Halaf villages who used irrigation systems. The main time period the author focuses on is the Uruk time period. Reimer states,” The Uruk period gets it’s name from the

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