The following post is in answer to a comment pertaining to the subject of many people writing a plethora of treatises that Moses is a myth in the Coursera course, The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem, taught by Oded Lipschits, et al. Coursera Link: https://www.coursera.org/

 As some of my grown children remind me - on a daily basis, if they believed there is a God they couldn't do a lot of what they want to do. I imagine many people deny the existence of God for the same reason. The problem then becomes the Bible, in their opinion, is rendered moot; including all of the characters contained therein. Even when these people are faced with concrete evidence of one of those characters (such as extra-Biblical evidence of Pontius Pilate) they choose to deny it's existence. [http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/pontius-pilate-faq.htm]

 Of course, being a student of Biblical archaeology, I have read many pro and con papers concerning Moses et al Biblical characters. They are theories! Theories are only ideas. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion (theory). What really bothers me the most is university graduates who cannot understand a theory is NOT a PROVEN (nor often even tested because it's impossible to do so) fact. A theory is NOT empirical evidence.

I imagine how this subject relates to our current course is that all of the theories presented are the individual professor's ideas; however much studied they may be. To our Prof. Lipschits' credit, he presents the opposing theories in the optional readings. That particular find was done by Ron Wyatt originally among many other finds along the Sinai. There is a video on "Youtube" filmed by Ron Wyatt.

Wyatt, now deceased was a nurse and self taught in archaeology and it is said he did take some courses in archaeology while he was in college. He founded a small archaeological institute. Wyatt was attacked and defamed by many world renowned archaeologists and called a 'crackpot' for thinking outside of the box. In reality his theories are no less valid than anyone else's. He presented his conclusions of his findings with no concern about what others thought probably partly because he was dying of cancer. Young students of archaeology in the past decade have been visiting and documenting some of the same sites Wyatt recorded fifty years ago.

The most important part of being a scientist of any kind is to keep an open mind. If I find something and I cannot move it to a museum or university for study then some scientist needs to go observe it him/her self before denouncing it. Students of archaeology learn this in first semester of grad school. However, in the field, the name of the archaeologist is most important in what colleagues decide is valid or not with NO observation. Opposing viewpoints are often not spoken until that great of archaeology has passed on. Cowardice!

I suppose, before someone jumps to an incorrect conclusion, I should tell you what I think about this particular "find". I don't know if it is real or not! I have not seen it up close with my own eyeballs nor have I touched it with my own two hands. I am a skeptic at heart, anyways...just ask my husband! If he says it you can bet I don't buy it; we have been married close to 1/2 century.What I do believe is that we have no right to make a judgement without a great deal of further study.