Hammurabi and new novel Gettysburg Passage

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What does one of history's greatest law givers and a new action and adventure novel, Gettysburg Passage, have in common? Well, I'll get to that in a moment. First, the news.

News out of Haaretz.com in Israel: A small clay tablet has been discovered by archaeologists in Israel while escavating a site called Tel Hazor. The tablet is approximately 3,700 to 3,800 years old and has key words that remind experts of Hammurabi's famous law codex. The tablet uses Akkadian cuneiform, the international language of diplomacy during that ancient time. Here is a link to the Haaretz wire story:

http://bit.ly/94sYgv

Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon, considered the first king of the Babylonian Empire and the ruler of all of Mesopotamia. He is famous as the first law giver and his Hammurabian Code. Many experts believe that key laws and moral principles found in the Jewish Bible were strongly influenced by Hammurabi.


Was Hammurabi the first law giver? The first in recorded history to this date, yes. But what if there were earlier law givers? Maybe not kings, but influential "law clerks",  sojourners -- perhaps people on a quest to save a future Western civilization that had yet to significantly develop. What if these people "planted the seeds" that eventually influenced those who helped create Hammurabi's famous Code? And what if those influencers somehow had an insight into today's modern American society?

Well, I've given enough hints! The new novel, Gettysburg Passage, ISBN 978-0-615-39102-1 by John Callahan, will be published by Amazon in mid August. The plot deals with Americans who confront a series of mysterious events that may have some powerful relation to earlier civilizations, even pre-dating good old Hammurabi.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ancient legal code uncovered (cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com)
• Fragments of ancient legal code found in Israel (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

The Origin of Western Civilization

I think the point of a news story linked to below is that as archaeologists continue to excavate, the origins of Western civilization continues to be pushed back and back into the murky, shadowy past. According to article, much of our civilization did not originate in the "cradle of civilization" in the Fertile Crescent around Babylon, but instead is the result from cultural and technological advances which originated east of modern day Turkey, in Armenia.

Of course, one of the important plot points in my new ebook from Amazon, Gettysburg Passage, is that our civilization was conceived far earlier than even this, from an area to the west where EurAsia comes together as the last Ice Age slowly recedes...

Here is the link details:

Mesopotamia’s civilization originated in Armenia
Published July 2, 2010 by
GMTPanARMENIAN.Net

The article states that excavations at Shengavit (4000-3000 B.C.) in Turkey confirm that Armenia is the innovation source for metallurgy, wine-making and horse breeding.
In the article, Mitchell S. Rothman, a Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology and founder of the Anthropology Department at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, is quoted as claiming that Mesopotamian culture borrowed very heavily from the earlier Shengavit culture.