-Caveat Lector-
In a message dated 99-10-28 13:23:21 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Going off on a new tangent, picking up on your last point, can we find
>evidence for a *common origin* for the IE and Semitic culture horizons? This
>is not as far-fetched as it might seem, since the presumed homelands for
>both groups are quite close geographically, although probably not
>contiguous. And, once again, where do the Sumerians fit into all of this?
Cyrus Gordon seems to be THE authority on IE and Semitic common denominators,
a subject which has been woefully neglected in print, probably due to its
ramifications for "master race" believers, both Aryan and Judeo-Christian.
There seems no doubt that the proto-Hebrews (Arameans or whatever) of
Abraham's time lived in the same house, so to speak, as Indo-European peoples
like the Hittites during A's sojourn in Haran,
the great cultural crossroads of its time. Later, in King David's time,
around the period when the "first draft" of the Pentateuch (E and J
traditions) was being completed, the
Israelites were companions of the IE Hittites (David's wife Bathsheba was
first married to a Hittite and was possibly a Hittite herself) and had lived
for generations side by side with the "Philistines," who are understood to be
Mycenaean (proto-Greek) mercenaries in the employ of Egypt in Canaan. (A
couple of David's Psalms seem to be plagiarisms of Egyptian hymns, thanks to
the Israelites developing literacy under foreign tutelage.)
So, at least the "Hebrew" wing of Semitic culture undoubtedly owed much to
"Aryan" (Indo-European) influence. However, the contact of the two cultures
produced sharing
in the opposite direction as well -- notably, the invention of the Greek and
SANSKRIT alphabets from the raw material of the SEMITIC (Canaanite-Phoenician
AND Hebrew)
alphabet. Yes, the SANSKRIT alphabet is of SEMITIC origin, dating from a
time when
the IE peoples who would later move southeast into India, during the Vedic
period ca.
1900-1400 BCE (between the lifetimes of Abraham and Moses), came into contact
with the Aramean element dwelling in Haran, southwest of the Caucasus and Mt
Ararat, and not far from Asia Minor, home of the "Trojans" who fought the
Greeks' ancestors.
Most importantly, there seem to have been other common denominators between
these two peoples, IE and Semitic, which involve cultic ritual, i.e., common
denominators in their RELIGIONS. One of these is the centrality of the RAM
in religious symbolism and in their sacrificial rituals. The Hittites,
"Vedic" Hindus, Mycenaeans, and Israelites all
had ram-symbolism that was specific to their ruling classes, which kept
"sacred flocks" as a sign of status. The Greek legend of the Golden Fleece
points to such a tradition among the Mycenaean warlords -- and perhaps the
location of the Fleece, in what was regarded as the ancestral homeland of the
Mycenaeans (or Minyai), to which Jason and the Argonauts journeyed, implies
closer IE-Semitic contact than we have suspected, because the Fleece lay on
the south coast of the Black Sea, not far from Mt. Ararat ...
Then, of course, we have the commingling of IE and Semitic immigrants in the
eastern Mediterranean during the time between the collapse of the Minoan
empire under the Mycenaeans, the fall of Troy (after which some proto-Greeks
migrated to the Nile Delta), and the Hebrew exodus from Egypt -- when ALL
rubbed elbows as "the Sea Peoples."
Consult any of the books of Cyrus Gordon** for greater detail, or read Robert
Graves' commentaries in his two-volume "Greek Myths" for facts PLUS his own
conjectures.
As for where Sumer fits into all this, that's still an open question --
because at the very
beginning of Sumerian records, the ethnic "Sumerians" are already fading out
of the picture and the Akkadians --a SEMITIC people and the approximate
"ancestor" of the
Hebrews-- are coming to dominate the culture. By 2000 BC, before Abraham,
Sumer had already extended its power all the way to Asia Minor and the
Caucasus, where it had "colonies" and military outposts, and Sumer already
seems to have had a cultural influence on the Hittites and neighboring IE
tribes, the eldest of any "Greek" ancestors -- and Sumerian includes many
Hebrew "roots" dating from a period LONG BEFORE the Hebrews EXISTED (long
before Abraham's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather!) , possibly
originating as "loan-words" borrowed from the older Akkadian tongue, close
enough to "proto-Semitic." (But let's not overlook the fact that EGYPTIAN
influences on both the Semitic Hebrew language and culture and IE Greek
language and culture was possibly just as strong, with even stronger the
influence of the PHOENICIANS, those "Egyptianized" Semitic allies of the
Hebrews AND the IE Mycenaeans -- who MAY have originated as a Mediterranean
colony of the "Sumerians" (NEITHER Semitic NOR I-E) and/or the Semitic
Akkadians, earlier inheritors of the culture of Sumer.)
___
**"The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations," WWNorton, 1965
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