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of Crete and Cyprus in the east to the borders of India in the west, and especially in the lands of the Fertile Crescent that began in Mesopotamia (nowadays Iraq) and curved to em- brace Canaan (today's Israel), as one ancient site after an- other—many known previously only from the Bible—have been uncovered, texts written on clay tablets or papyrus and inscriptions carved on stone walls or monuments have resur- rected the kingdoms, the kings, the events, the cities listed in the Bible. Moreover, in many instances, such writings found at sites such as Ras Shamra (the Canaanite Ugarit) or more recently at Ebla have shown familiarity with the same sources as those on which the Bible had relied. However, unencumberd by the monotheistic constraints of the Hebrew Bible, the writings of Israel's neighbors in the ancient Near East spelled out the identities and names of the "us" of the biblical Elohim. In doing so, such writings paint a panorama of prehistoric times and raise the curtain on a fascinating record of gods and humans in a series of varied Divine Encounters. Until the start of purposeful archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia, "The Land Between the Rivers" (the Tigris and Euphrates) some 150 years ago, the Old Testament was the sole source of information on the Assyrian and Babylo- nian empires, their great cities and haughty kings. As earlier scholars pondered the veracity of the biblical data concerning the existence of such empires three thousand years ago, their credulity was stretched even more by the biblical assertion that Kingship began even earlier, with a "mighty hunter by the grace of Yaweh" called Nimrod, and that there had been royal capitals (and thus an advanced civilization) in the dis- tant past in "the Land of Shine'ar." This assertion was linked to me even more incredible tale of the Tower of Babel (Gene- sis chapter 11) when Mankind, using clay bricks, embarked on the erection of a ' ‘tower whose head can reach the heav- ens." The place was a plain in the "Land of Shine'ar." That "mythical" land has been found, its cities unearthed by archaeologists, its language and texts deciphered thanks to the knowledge of Hebrew and thus of its parent tongue, Akkadian, its monuments and sculptures and artworks treas- ured in major world museums. Nowadays we call the land DIVINE ENCOUNTERS