By Gard Jameson, treasurer, Urantia Foundation, Nevada, United States
In 1973, while living in Berkeley, California, I visited the library at the Pacific School of Religion and observed a display case with archaic pottery from Israel with three concentric circles. There were several pieces with the same design. I was impressed.
In 1985, I took my new wife to Israel for our honeymoon. While there, we befriended a Catholic monk, a Palestinian art dealer, and the curator of the Israeli Museum, Raffi Brown. They were friends with one another—a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew. As an advocate of interfaith relations, I found it delightful to be friends with these wonderful people. Raffi invited us one evening to his home for dinner, where we saw in his dining room about 10 pieces of ancient pottery, from very small to very large. Each piece had a clear design of three concentric circles. My jaw dropped for two reasons—to take the next bite of a delicious meal and to be astounded by what I saw. In visiting the Palestinian art dealer, I discovered a beautiful example of this pottery with three concentric circles and began a collection.
Since those days I have been on the lookout for similar pieces of pottery. And now we have many more such pieces at Urantia Foundation. Importantly, we have in our collection three pieces found in the locations of epochal revelations: Cyprus (the second epochal revelation), Hebron (the third epochal revelation), and Bethlehem (the birthplace of the fourth epochal revelation).
As archaeologists would attest, pottery is one of our prime ways of understanding the culture of the civilization that it is associated with. Knowing what we know from the fifth epochal revelation, we understand how the three concentric circles are significant, and we may even regard this pottery as a profound message from these ancient cultures. I invite you—when it is safe again—to come to 533 Diversey and view the collection. It’s located in what we have named the Life Carrier Hallway, and if you visit, you’ll see how it relates to the Life Carriers. This hallway adjoins the Melchizedek Library (but that’s a longer story for another time).
Pottery with three concentric circles at Urantia Foundation