Brit-Am Research Sources (30th September, 2012). Information of potential interest to Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations Research concerning the Lost Ten Tribes.
Contents:
1. Linguistics. Celtic and Hamito-Semitic.
2. Gold Trove in Bronze Age North Germany Originated in Central Asia.
3. Were the Irish Feni (MIlesians) from Tarshish in Spain? Tarshish and the Origins of the Gaelic Language2 by Ian Adamson
1. Linguistics. Celtic and Hamito-Semitic.
Remarks on the Insular Celtic / Hamito-Semitic question by Steve Hewitt (2008?).
http://independent.academia.edu/SteveHewitt/Papers/231805/Remarks_on_the_Insular_Celtic_Hamito-Semitic_question
p. 252 # The existence of striking structural similarities between the Insular Celtic and Hamito-Semitic languages is beyond question... #
2. Gold Trove in Bronze Age North Germany Originated in Central Asia.
'Find of the Century' Massive Gold Trove Sparks Archeological Dispute
By Matthias Schulz
[Forwarded by Craig White.]
DPA
Extracts:
A 3,300-year-old treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical.
The most beautiful find was made in the Gessel district of Lower Saxony, where 117 pieces of gold were found stacked tightly together in a rotten linen cloth. The hidden treasure is about 3,300 years old.
The 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds) of gold, which was found in a field, consists of some jewelry, but primarily spirals of gold wire, which are tied together in chains consisting of 10 spirals each. This isn't jewelry, but an ancient form of gold bullion.
Traveling the Continent
When Johanna Wanka, the Lower Saxony science minister, unveiled the treasure to the press in February, the story became even more surprising. She explained that testing done at the University of Hanover had revealed that the gold had come from a mine in Central Asia.
"Using a mass spectrometer, we examined more than 20 trace elements, allowing us to determine the fingerprint of the metal," explains chemist Robert Lehmann. "The gold vein must have been created deep in the mountains of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan or Uzbekistan over a period of millions of years."
Lower Saxony can now consider itself the owner of what Wanka calls the "find of the century." Merchants trading in luxury goods used to travel across the entire continent, says state archeologist Henning Hassmann. "Trips of 10,000 kilometers were nothing to them."
He suspects that the gold found in Gessel was initially brought in caravans from the mountains to the nearby Indus Valley, where a giant riparian culture flourished until about 1,800 B.C. From there, says Hassmann, the merchandise was sent by ship to Mesopotamia and, after that, somehow reached the northern flatlands.
'Pretty Bold'
But is that really the right explanation? Not everyone has faith in Lehmann's analysis of the gold. Some say that, despite the advanced testing equipment at his disposal, Lehmann is "inexperienced." Ernst Pernicka, an archeologist who studies ancient metallurgical processes in the southwestern city of Tubingen -- known for his groundbreaking metal studies on the famous Nebra sky disk -- calls Lehmann's conclusions "highly speculative."
Because almost nothing is known about ancient mining in Central Asia, Lehmann could only compare the Gessel find with a few Scythian gold coins. To arrive at such ambitious theories on the basis of such scant facts is "pretty bold," says Gregor Borg, an expert on gold deposits at the University of Halle in eastern Germany.
Despite the criticism, Lehmann remains undeterred, noting his use of first-class equipment. With these devices, he says, he can also perform confocal white-light microscopy and laser ablation ICP mass spectrometry. "We're counting individual atoms here," he says.
Who is right?
The Asia Connection
As audacious as the Asia connection seems, it could be true. There is plenty of evidence that human greed led to globalized trade more than 3,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians' folding-chair designs reached Sweden, and magnificent Spondylus shells from the Mediterranean have been found as far away as Bavaria.
Valuable metals such as tin, copper, gold and silver were a favorite among long-distance traders, who dragged them across the continent in rucksacks or on oxcarts. Otzi the Iceman, a natural mummy found in the Alps, probably traded in gold and flint, and was murdered in the process.
But did the merchants' extensive trading networks reach as far as the remote mines in Central Asia as long ago as the 2nd century B.C.? It certainly would have been worthwhile. A massive gold-and-tin belt extends from the Altai Mountains to the Aral Sea. A prehistoric gold mine, the largest in the central Caucasus region, was also recently discovered in Armenia.
This could explain the origins of the myth of the Argonauts, who in the story sail through the Black Sea to steal the Golden Fleece.
3. Were the Irish Feni (MIlesians) from Tarshish in Spain? Tarshish and the Origins of the Gaelic Language: 2
Posted on May 19, 2012 by Ian Adamson
Extracts:
There is general agreement that the core area of Tartessos is around Huelva extending to the valley of the Guadalquivir, while the area under Tartessian influence is much wider
The Tartessian language is the extinct Paleohispanic language of inscriptions in the Southwestern script found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula mainly in the south of Portugal ( Algarve and southern Alentejo), but also in Spain (south of Extramadura and western Andalusia). There are 95 of these inscriptions with the longest having 82 readable signs. Around one-third of them have been found in Early Iron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them from the 7th century BC and consider the southwestern script to be the most ancient paleohispanic script with characters most closely resembling specific Phoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated to c.825 BC.
Tartessian is usually treated as unclassified (Correa 2009, Rodriquez Ramos 2002, de Hoz 2010) though several researchers have tried to relate Tartessian with known families of languages. Koch (2010 and 2011) claims that much of the Tartessian corpus can be interpreted as Celtic, with forms possibly of sufficient density to support the conclusion that Tartessian was a Celtic language, rather than a non-Celtic language containing a relatively small proportion of Celtic names and loanwords. A critical view of Koch's work that considers it is not really convincing and that points out inconsistencies, in form and content, and ad hoc solutions, but recognizes that it is a strong vote for the Celtic hypothesis, can be found at Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.09.57.
The Turdetani of the Roman period are generally considered the heirs of the Tartessian culture.
The legendary Ninth Legion, Legio IX Hispana, the Spanish Legion, was one of the oldest and most feared units in the Roman Army. Put together in Spain by Pompey in 65 BC, it came under the command of Julius Caesar who was Governor of Further Spain in 61 BC, and served in Gaul throughout the Gallic Wars from 58 - 51 BC, the Legion was decisive in ensuring Caesaris control of the Republic.
After Caesar's assassination it remained loyal to his successor Octavian. It fought with distinction against the Cantabrians in Spain from 25 - 13 BC but suffered terribly in the British revolt led by Boadicea ( Boudica) in 60AD, losing as many as 50- 80 per cent of its men . However, several high ranking Officers who could only have served after 117 AD are well known to us, so we can safely assume that the core of the Legion was still extant in the reign of Hadrian, 117 - 138 AD.
The first great leader of the Feni (later 'Gaels') in Ireland, Tuathal (Teuto-valos) Techtmar, was probably a Roman soldier, commanding Q-Celtic speaking auxiliaries from Spain. The earliest known source for the story of Tuathal Techtmar's conquest of Ireland from the Aithech thuatha (Vassal Tribes) is a poem by Mael Mura of Othain AD 885. Mael Mura intimates that about 750 years had elapsed since Tuathal Techtmar had marched on the ancient British or Cruthin ritual centre of Tara to create his kingdom of Meath, which would date the invasion to the early 2nd Century AD. This is probably approximately correct.
The account in the Lebor Gabala Eirenn, which does contain a shadow of history, is probably older and in this we see that Tuathal was born outside Ireland and had not seen the country before he invaded it. We can synchronise his invasion to early in the reign of Hadrian (122 - 138) and his death fighting the Cruthin near Antrim in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138 - 161).This fits with Juvenal (c60 to 127 AD) who wrote 'We have taken our arms beyond the shores of Ireland'. Tuathal may indeed represent the fictitious Mil Espaine, or even the Ninth Legion, the Legio IX Hispana, but that we will probably never know.
The 5th and 6th centuries AD in particular are known to have been a period of unusually rapid development in the Gaelic language, as shown by the contrast between the general language of Ogham inscriptions and the earliest Old Gaelic known from manuscripts. There is little doubt that this was due to the widespread adoption of the Gaelic speech by the original inhabitants and the passage of older words and grammatical forms such as Old British(Welsh) into Gaelic. By this time, therefore, Gaelic had become, according to Heinrich Wagner, 'one of the most bizarre branches of Indo-European' since 'in its syntax and general structure it has many features in common with non-Indo-European languages.' These included Semitic and Hamitic influences, and point to an origin in Southern Spain, with Tarshish as the most obvious candidate.
Celtiberian would therefore appear to be the ultimate parent Celtic tongue of the Gaelic language.
See Also:
Tarshish and the Origins of the Gaelic Language: 1 by Ian Adamson
shows relationship between Tarshish and Phoenicia.
It follows that the Feni were therefore at least partly Phoenician.
Extracts:
Phoenecia was the ancient name of a very small country situated between the 34th and 36th degrees of north latitude on the Eastern Mediterranean Coast to the North of Palestine. The northern boundary is stated by our old friend Ptolemy to be the River Eleutherus and Pliny, Mela and Stephanus place it rather more northward in the island of Aradus, but the confines of the Republic must have varied at different times. On the coast were numerous citie , the most famous were Tyre and Sidon. The climate of that place was agreeable and salubrious, and the soil fertile and productive, so that this Land of Lebanon was a prosperous and pleasant land.
But listen with me to the words of the Prophet Ezekiel in his 27th chapter of the Book of God written about 500 B.C. when the Tyrians had already been trading for centuries: "Say unto Tyre, O Thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, and carry on merchandise with the people of many isles, thus saith the Lord God, 'O Tyre, thou has said, 'I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy shipboards of fir trees of Senir, and have taken cedar trees of Lebanon to make thy masts. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of Asurites have made thine hatches of well worked ivory, brought out of Chittim. It was of fine linen and Phrygian broidered work from Egypt which thou madest thy spreading sails; and thy covering was of the blue and purple of the isles of Elishas. The Sidonains and the men of Arvad were mariners in thy service, and wise men thy Pilots, O Tyre were in thee. The elders of Gabel, and their able workmen were those who caulked the seams of thy vessels, and all the ships of the sea were employed in carrying thy merchandise.
The merchants of Tarshish traded at thy fairs on account of the great variety of all kind of thy riches, and brought silver, iron, tin and lead to thy market. The ships of Tarshish did sing in praise of thy commerce, and thou wert replenished and made glorious in every part of the ocean. Thy rowers brought thee into great waters, the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas. What city is like Tyre, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea. When thy waves went forth out of the seas, thou fillest many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and they merchandise". Where Ezekiel speaks of the rich purple dyes from the Isles of Elishas we may have the first written reference to the British Isles. The purple dyes of our Islands were celebrated among the later Greeks and Romans and were very expensive.
These words of Ezekiel were of a Phoenecia in decline, but they show the magnificence of the great Ships which plied between Tarshish and Tyre in Olden Times. Traditionally Tarshish has been connected with the region of Tartessos in Southern Spain, which is known principally from a Greek logbook, the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC. (Ora Maritima of Festus Avienus), and thought to be in the Guadalquiver valley. But Tarshish stood also for all the lands of the far west with which the Phoenecians traded, for it was the collecting point for produce from West Africa, tin from the mines of North-west Spain, or the richer deposits of Cornwall, as well as the rich mines of silver and other metals to which the navigable rivers of Guadiana and Guadalquiver gave easy access. The tin islands (Casssiterides) were reached from Brittany, and are always distinguished from the British mainland. Strabo dates the settlements west of the straits of Gibraltar soon after the time of Tyre's first expansion which we know from the travelogue of the Egyptian Den-Ameer, written about 1070 B.C. was already in progress.
It was the special trade with Tarshish which made the commercial greatness of the Phoenecians, and led to their colonisation of Spain and the West African coast. This explains why the latter settlements are related to the earliest phase of Tyrian and Sidonian expansion in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C. Thus the farthest points were settled first, and the need for intermediate stations to secure connection was felt later. Josephus has fortunately preserved for us extracts from two Hellenistic historians, Dius and Menander of Ephesus, which supply us with a synopsis of the history of the Golden Age of Tyre. Thus we learn that Hiram 1, son of Abibal, reigned from 980 to 946 B.C. and was the great friend of Solomon, king of the Jews. The relations between Jews and Phoenecians had been generally friendly before this; it appears from Judges V. 17, Genesis XLIX, 13 and 20, that Asher, Zebulon, and Dan acknowledged some dependence on Sidon and had in return a share in its commence.
The two nations grew closer under the kings. Hiram built David's palace (2 Samuel, V, 11), and also gave Solomon cedar and fir trees from Lebanon, as well as workmen for his palace and temple, receiving in exchange large annual payments of oil and wine. With similar commercial interests it was only natural that the two kings should send joint expeditions to King Solomon's Mines on the coast of Aqaba at Ophir, and to the British Isles via Tarshish. What were the names of the two great islands by which they knew them? Our earliest sources are Greet so that we don't really know, though Avienus writing about the year 380 A.D. (Ora Maritima) mentions the voyage of Himilco the Phoenecian to Ireland in the year 510 B.C. and Himilco states our island to be called Sacra, its inhabitants to be mariners navigating in hide-covered barks to the Irish Sea. That these people were not Celts we can see in their matrilinear form of inheritance, the polyandrous nature of their society and their original non-Indo-European speech, which survived latest in Caledonia.