The Cologne Toilet Inscription…

Who knew…

Archaeologists in Cologne, Germany have uncovered a fascinating 13th-century Hebrew inscription on a lintel stone in the basement of a home near the city’s ancient synagogue. The Hebrew inscription reads “This is the window through which the feces are to be taken out.”

The inscription was discovered in December 2011 on the lintel above a walled-up window in the cellar of Lyvermann House, which was built in about 1266 and belonged to a wealthy Jewish family that lived right near the synagogue. Behind the wall was a cesspool, six meters deep.

According to Prof. David Assaf of Tel Aviv University’s Jewish History Department, “Such a serious-amusing inscription has never been found anyw here, not before and not since.”

Anyway, given the inscription, I’m thinking it would be a GREAT header image – and meaningful – for several of the biblioblogs!  With one small change-  instead of reading This is the window through which the feces are to be taken out, it should read This is the window through which the feces are to be seen!

Chris, Joel?  Adopt it today??

Weird News: The Witchcraft Trial in Cologne, Germany Which Begins… Today…

A witchcraft trial is re-opening in Cologne on Monday in the hope that one woman will have her name cleared, centuries after being burned at the stake.  It is thought around 25,000 women were sentenced to death for witchcraft down the centuries in Germany – including Cologne native Katharina Henot. She was arrested and thrown in prison under charges of witchcraft in 1627.

But it is said Henot had nothing to do with the occult; as the head of the city’s post office and a powerful socialite it was more likely that her charges were politically motivated.  After weeks of torture, Henot eventually lost all movement in her right hand, meaning that her final plea for innocence was scrawled, almost illegibly, with her left. But no matter how fiercely she protested, city officials ignored her and she was sentenced to death.

Henot was then paraded around the streets of Cologne in a wagon, until being brought to a large square in the city, where she was tied to a stake and burned to death. To this day, neither Henot nor many of the 25,000 women killed for alleged witchcraft have had their names cleared – in the eyes of the law, they are still guilty of the mystic misdeeds they were convicted of centuries ago.  This could change for Henot on Monday, as her case will be reopened by the same panel at the city council that was responsible for her death nearly 400 years ago.

In the words of lots of people… ‘I just don’t get it’.  I guess they have plenty of extra money in Germany for such silly trials.