I Think This Find Belongs in Here.

[Minimalist]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081118071136.htm

Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have discovered an Iron Age chiseled stone slab that provides the first written evidence in the region that people believed the soul was separate from the body.

The finding sheds a striking new light on Iron Age beliefs about the afterlife. In this case, it was the belief that the enduring identity or "soul" of the deceased inhabited the monument on which his image was carved and on which his final words were recorded.

[kbs2244]

I think the key words in the story is "written" and "in the region."

It has been part of oral traditions around the world for thousands of years.

[Ishtar]

It's the central philosophy of the Vedas, official date 1200 BC but true date probably nearer to 3000 BC.

Also what about the inscriptions and pictures on the Egyptian tombs about the passage of the soul after it leaves the mortal coil at death, also dated to around 2,000 BC?

And how ancient would the oral tradition behind The Tibetan Book of the Dead be, given that its sentiments are more Bon than Buddhist?

More ignorant journalism, I guess. Also the fact that the Moslems probably destroyed any ancient literature the Turks ever had.

It's worrying that even the most intelligent and learned of people still view the world through the false lens that religion has imposed on history during the last 2000 years.

[Minimalist]

Follow Up to the Original Find.

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/zincirli/

Read right to left, top to bottom, the text states that Kuttamuwa fashioned the stele during his lifetime, and that at its inauguration in the mortuary chapel offerings were made to various gods, including the storm-god Hadad and the sun-god Shamash. But the part that is causing the greatest stir is a line explaining that one of the offerings was "a ram for my soul that is in this stele."

"That's quite a significant piece of information. It's the first inscription to make really clear what these people understood about the afterlife in terms of the soul," says archaeologist David Schloen, who has been directing the Neubauer Expedition at the site since 2006

Th Egyptians had a concept of the soul but also thought it necessary to save the body for the soul to inhabit. These people apparently thought the soul could be separated from the body permanently.