Karl
In response to the claims of Mr Stinehart regarding the location of
oaks,and why Abraham supposedly preferredthe Ajulon Valley etc you wrote:
"You have not presented one whit of evidence to back up your claims. You
don?t know deserts. You don?t know shepherding. You don?t know history. You
don?t know Hebrew."
Karl W. Randolph.
You are far more correct than you may realize and I applaud your
reponse.His claims are not only completely undocumented, but refuted by
archeobotanists, and paleobotanists.
If I may, I would like to present what the scientific community has to say
about conditions of the Bronze Age Levant.I do this in the hope it will
benefit future linguistic discussions by providing a solid scientific
foundation.
Fact #1. Nearly the entire ancient Mediterranean was either destroyed or
altered by deforestation, primarily inflicted bythe Romans. There are dozens of
books on this subject. The best example of the destruction caused by
Romandeforestation is North Africa. Once so fertile and forested it was called
the "Granary of Rome". It was home tohundreds of Roman cities, some with a
population over 50,000. Today it is little more than desert and scarcely a
roman city can be found in the sand. The ancient Levant was similarly
destroyed by Roman and Arab deforestation. According to Dr. Nili Liphschitz
of Tel Aviv University:
"The natural arboreal vegetation which existed in this region in ancient
times was almost completely destroyed.....the composition of the original
vegetation cannot be reconstructed in a simple way. Instead, a combination of
palaeoecological,archaeological and historical research should be applied."
So much for high school level assumptions about where Oaks were or weren't
in ancient times.
Dr. Nili Liphschitz concludes a certain species of oak forests dominated
the ancient Levant to points south of both sides of the Dead Sea...
A general view of the conditions of the ancient Levant can be found in S.
Douglas Waterhouseexcellent article "A Land Flowing With Milk and Honey".
I would like to sum up the conclusions of this work.
Fact #2. The Southern Levant, so denigrated by Stinehart , once boasted a layer
of topsoil more than six feet thick.
Fact #3. The ancient southern Levant contained many large rivers and streams
that flowed year round. According to Mr Waterhouse:
"The Merikare texts of the Egyptian Ninth or Tenth Dynasties speak of southern
Palestine as troubled by water and made inaccessible by many trees..."
".Dense woodlands covered districts which are now largely, or even entirely,
bereft of tree growth. Today, meager remnants of these once extensive forests
are found in the Judean and upper Galilean hill country"
The Egyptians, who were actually there, unlike Mr stinehart, complained
the trees and vegetation of the southernLevant were so thick, path ways were
dark even at noon.
Even the Galilee is but a faint shadow of its former self says Waterhouse.
Fact #4. The wildlife of the southern Levant resembled what is only found in
present day Sub- Sahara. The rivers of southern Palestine were
home to Hippopotamus, and crocodiles. Hippo Ivory can be found in abundance at
Megiddo and other sites. The forests were home to lions , bears and a species
of bovine that stood nearly seven feet tall at the shoulders.
Waterhouse writes: "The hippopotamus was once found in the rivers of the
coastal plain, (until at least the fourth century B.C.), possibly in the
Jordan, and as far north as the Orontes River. Luxuriant swamp flora, such as
water lilies and papyrus, served as an ideal habitat for these great beasts.
Remnants of this flora were still surviving as recently as a hundred years ago
along the upper Jordan and the coastal rivers."
"The Jackal, spotted hyena, wart hog, Megaderma-bat and even the rhino, were
surprisingly all part of early, Syro- Palestinian history and represent (with
the animals enumerat-ed above) the last survivors of a fauna which had once
invaded the country from the north and east-before reaching the then Virgin
African territories.
"Syro-Palestine was purportedly clothed with greenery; an abundance of herbage
supported what must have been a veritable parkland teeming with wild life. "
According to the Egyptians , the southern Levant had more lions than
panthers or hyenas.
Fact # 5 Regarding the now virtually barren Central ridge, many archeobotanists
report it was once heavily forested to a point south of the Dead Sea....Mr
Waterhouse writes:
" In the environs of the Judean hill country, there existed a large
coniferous forest of pine and cypress where now there is scarcely a tree
substantial enough to be used for the building of houses or furniture!"
The land of Edom also once boasted a forest, destroyed by deforestation.
Proof of its existence can befound in the analysis of the charcoal used in
the copper smelting slags in the Arabah. The trees used to smelt the copper ore
havebeen identified as largely Oak originating in Edom.They certainly couldn't
haul the trees in trucks from Lebanon. Enough of Edom's forests remained 100
years ago to help build the Hegaz Railway. Mr Stinehart has declared time
and again no oaks grew in Edom, but all any educated person has to do is
readthe record of the building of the railway or the works of dozens of experts
in the field.
Fact #6. The Philistines, invaders who had their choice of any part of the
Levant they wanted, chose the SouthernLevant. The question is, if it was so
undesirable, why did they settle there? The Philistines weren't fools. They
needed land fertile enough to make their population independent , abundant
water and as iron workers, FORESTS to provide coal for smelting. In fact, a
Philistine kiln was recently discovered about 4 miles west of Bethlehem. Kilns
require plentiful timber for charcoal. The Southern Levant provided all the
needs of the Philistines in addition to giving them what they wanted
most,control of the north south-east west trade routes. How could land good
enough for the militaristic Philistines not be good enough for Abraham? If
there were noforests in the area where did they get their wood to smelt iron?
On trucks from the "Beautful Galilee"? Transport of timber was extremely
difficult in ancient times. The wood they used was local.
Conclusion: The Levant of Abraham's time was a spectacular, fertile region
from the south to the Euphrates.There was no difference between the lushness of
the north vs south. That is only in the minds of present day individualsblinded
by Presentism.Abraham's movements weren't dictated by the false assumption the
Ajulon Valley was more desirable than the southernLevant or some non university
level assumptions about the locations of oaks. The 314 trained soldiers under
Abraham indicated his "household" consisted of over a 1,000 people. God may
have promised all of Canaan, but it was to Abraham's descendants, not to him
personally. Canaan was an inhabited land and Abraham was restricted to open
land not claimed by the Canaanite tribes. If Lot's household was of equal size
we're easily looking at 2,000 people or more who couldn't risk angering the
Canaanites by so many people trampling their land and eating their crops.
This was a very real danger. The Book of Jubilees t
ells us the rift between Lot and Abraham was due to Lot allowinghis men to
graze cattle on the fields owned by Canaanites instead of restricting himself
to open land. This practicecaused tension with the Canaanites who complained
angrily to Abraham and is why both Abraham and Lot had to leave. Saddled with
a bad reputation amongst the locals Abraham and Lot had to move a considerable
distance. This is what the Jewish record says...not some fictional rewrite
by Stinehart.
The Amorite tribe, the "superpower" of Canaan in the early 2nd millennium,
dominated northern Canaan at that time according to the Mari Tablets and it is
likely it was the Amorites Lot offended. It is therefore unlikely either would
move deeper into Amorite territory no matter how Beautiful the Galilee. Abraham
was a stranger, he could not dictate his choice of homes.
Arguments based on linguistics is one thing. But these simplistic, unfounded
claims by Stinehart are painful to read.
Rob AcostaColorado
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