Brit-Am Research Sources (22 July, 2015, 6 Av, 5775)
Contents:
1. Minoans [i.e. Philistines] in Germany
2. Did Ancient Semites Father the Germanic Languages?
3. Evidence of early Bronze Age migrants in northern Germany.
4. The underrated German genius by Seymour Gris
5. What caused Britain's Bronze Age 'recession'?
6. Unicorn Evidence
7. THE IMPACT OF PHOENICIAN AND GREEK EXPANSION ON THE EARLY IRON AGE SOCIETIES OF SOUTHERN IBERIA AND SOUTHWESTERN GERMANY
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1. Minoans [i.e. Philistines] in Germany
http://dienekes.blogspot.co.il/2008/08/minoans-in-germany.html
Google Translated from the German:
If the really exciting finds so under the late medieval Rungholt?
At least the more surprising. There were apparently several previous settlements from the fourth or third century BC. A Fund has shocked us nigh: We came across remains of Levantine and especially Minoan transport and utility ceramics from the Crete of the 13th and 14th centuries BC. Among them also found shards of two three-.... This suggests that there are already around 1400 BC boats was that headed for the North Frisian coast of Crete from.
Could it not have to be antiques which had a modern-day on board ship?
No. Our findings were below a Bronze Age layer of peat, which has probably been formed in 1200 BC. While these peat soils have been eroded in many places in the settlement in the Middle Ages - but by no means where mounds, so house platforms, were raised. And at precisely such a place, we have discovered the ancient pottery! The vessels that we have not found any commodity that could be reached through intermediaries to North Friesland were also likely. The worthless everyday pottery was almost certainly a ship equipment.
What could the Minoans from Crete who in the 14th century BC in the North Sea Curly?
It was the tin of Cornwall, as recognized as 1000 years later at the time of Pytheas of Massalia. The needed the Mediterranean peoples for the production of bronze. About 1700 BC came because of armed conflicts in the East increasingly tin from Afghanistan to Crete. Instead of through intermediaries, the Minoans were obviously the most direct route - and found him well also. And they were once in the British Isles, it was also not too far from the "amber land" on the North Frisian coast, from the Mycenaean the magical "Sunstone", "tears of the gods," referring.
A related article in Focus.de:
After years of research sets ethnologist Hans Peter Duerr sensational results before: The Minoans discovered Germany/...
In his excavations in the Wadden Duerr and his team came across traces of ancient mariners and traders. Produced in Crete and drinking ... they snatched the silt. For this, a lance tip, frankincense, copal and lapis lazuli. Catching crowned the initial discovery of a Minoan seal outside the Aegean with incised signs of Linear A script.
Duerr was the artifacts for evaluation to experts. The results support his thesis. "The fact that the Minoans went into the North Sea, is very possible - so hard was not," says Walter Burkert, doyen of classical scholars of the University of Zurich....
In this natural integration and the fact that in addition to a few luxury goods especially ordinary household and transport vessels came to light, Duerr sees "clear indicators that a Cretan expedition have arrived in the North Sea about 3300 years ago must". While valuables may have been exchanged from hand to hand perfectly, ruled out this possibility for Nutzgeschirr - it's not worth the effort.
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2. Did Ancient Semites Father the Germanic Languages?
http://pintsofhistory.com/2015/01/09/did-ancient-semites-father-the-germanic-languages/
Was there a Semitic influence on Proto-Germanic?
http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/911/was-there-a-semitic-influence-on-proto-germanic
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3. Evidence of early Bronze Age migrants in northern Germany.
Extract:
For example in Tollensetal (Brandenburg/Mecklenburg), archaeologists have uncovered the oldest battlefield in Europe. It dates to around BC 1300.
Tollensetal was a major battle. Archaeologists think that some 4000 Bronze Age warriors clashed. Interestingly, the two armies were very differently equipped. One side used bronze arrow-heads and presumably other bronze weapons, while the other side used stone arrow-heads and possibly no or only few bronze weapons. Also, some warriors were mounted. Among the recovered weapons are fully preserved wooden clubs.
Importantly, the two armies came from different regions - one local and one from the south. Isotope investigations conducted by Aarhus University show that one group consumed a lot of millet, which does not grow in northern Germany. They could have come from southern Germany, where millet was grown, or even further afield.
Dirk
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4. The underrated German genius by Seymour Gris
http://www.exberliner.com/features/lifestyle/the-underrated-german-genius/
Extracts:
a review by Seymour Gris (2011) of "The German Genius: Europes Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century" by Peter Watson (2015):
#... a voyage through the unsung intellectual achievements of 19th-century Germany. Behind virtually every field from philosophy and music to engineering, biology and modern academia there's a German genius to be uncovered!
# ... think Mozart or Wagner. Actually the modern musical cannon is almost exclusively German. Music is definitely a domain in which anyone would think Germans always excelled the car was really invented by Germans, the pharmaceutical industry, etc. ... thanks to Protestantism, or Pietism in particular... Pietism enabled normal people to excel intellectually, it created a cultural state and it pushed Germany further and further ahead. The values of seriousness and hard work conveyed through Pietism made this life as important as the afterlife, much like in Britain with Puritanism.
Also, in Germany you have a set of nation-states with universities, which created a cultural competitiveness that accounted for the rise of the educated middle class.
The education of the poor created an intellectuality in Germany that accounts for its predominance in the middle of the 19th century.... the 19th century was Germany's heyday.. when Germany created the second scientifically minded revolution, which has inspired the whole world and which people don't know was started by Germans. All this led to modernism, science and the death of God which started in Germany.... Darwin invented the theory of evolution. Well, Darwin himself said he was much more popular in Germany than in Britain, and social Darwinism was a part of that, one of the black parts of history, which led to some of the wilder ideas of Nazis....
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5. What caused Britain's Bronze Age 'recession'?
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-12989605
Extracts:
Druid skull wearing a crown
A large gap in pre-history could signal that Britain underwent an economic downturn over 2,500 years ago.
In history lessons, the three ages of pre-history - Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age - seem to flow together without a gap.
But there is a 300-year period in British history between around 800 BC and 500 BC where experts still struggle to explain what happened, where bronze is in decline and iron was not widely used.
"By 1000 BC the bronze axe had become almost a proto-currency," says historian and presenter Neil Oliver.
"It was wealth that was divorced from its use as a metal. And, a little like economic bubbles that we see today, it spelt danger.
"Attitudes to bronze were about to change, with dramatic consequences not only for Bronze Age elite, but for all British society.
"By 800 BC, Britain - along with the rest of Europe - was heading for an economic meltdown."
The difficult thing for historians and archaeologists alike, is that no-one knows for sure what caused this decline.
What is known is around this time, is that bronze in Britain was beginning to be dumped.
There are a number of archaeological sites around Britain where large amounts of bronze, specifically axeheads, have been recovered, such as the one at Langton Matravers, Dorset. This is important because of the way historians believe bronze was used in ancient society.
"The significance of [copper and bronze] is as much social as it is a tool," says Sue Hamilton, professor of prehistory at University College London.
"It was made into ornaments and smaller objects. Copper was used so people had ways of adorning and distinguishing themselves but it's not until the late Bronze Age until you have a full set of tools."
So if the idea of status was beginning to turn away from bronze without anything to replace it, social upheaval, it is believed, was inevitable.
"This is a time of crisis", says archaeologist Niall Sharples, of Cardiff University.
"Bronze is used for all sorts of things, but primarily it's creating relationships of status within communities.
"When the bronze goes, you have to find social mechanisms to structure that society."
But what caused the value of bronze to lose its value? Could it be the fault of the impending Iron Age?
"There is iron in the Mediterranean by around 1200 BC," says Prof Hamilton.
"It became more evident in Italy around 1000 BC [and] it was cropping up in a variety of places. This is much earlier than we ever imagined."
But because iron rarely appeared in Britain before around 600 BC, many question whether this could have had a trickle-down effect.
"There is a globalisation, if you like, of Europe.
"The acquisition of the efficient riding horse from the East comes slowly, but it really gets under way around 800 BC. It is an item of great prestige. Horse riding takes over as a thing of display in the social structure.
"The other thing that happens in society is that links with the Mediterranean improve.
"Colonies began trading Greek ideas and standards into barbarian Europe."
And scientists have recently discovered something else interesting about the period - evidence of severe climate change.
Weathering the storm
Results suggest that around the time of the bronze being dumped, there was a sharp decline in temperature, all revealed by the midge population.
"Different midge species are happiest at different temperatures, so when it suits them they're going to be extremely abundant," says Stephen Brooks, of the Natural History Museum.
null
The onset of the Iron Age meant stronger, sharper and more versatile tools could be manufactured
"We find there's a big change in the midges in a very short period of time - maybe over 50 years or so.
"And this corresponds to other evidence from pollen and from peat bogs where, similarly, the evidence is temperature declined and rainfall increased."
And without the technology to quite literally weather the storm, it is thought that this had dire consequences.
"As bronze economy was collapsing, Britain's population also fell - possibly for the first time since the Ice Age," says Neil Oliver.
By around 550 BC, it is thought that the decline had ended and the climate had stabilised.
Iron, despite being used across Europe for nearly 1,000 years, began to appear across Britain in increasing quantities. And this created a revolution in farming and food production.
"The time of crisis was becoming a distant memory and the population of Britain grew rapidly," says Neil Oliver.
"Agricultural surplus lay at the heart of a newly emerging economy, and that depended heavily on iron. Unlike bronze, it wasn't the preserve of the elite.
"And that together with its strength and new widespread availability was set to transform society and push us one more step into the modern world."
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6. Unicorn Evidence
http://www.historyinsidepictures.com/Pages/UnicornEvidence.aspx
An Ancient Persian relief repeated on the Processional stairways at Persepolis,
from Sir Robert Ker Porter's "Travels in Georgia, Persia," etc.,
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7. THE IMPACT OF PHOENICIAN AND GREEK EXPANSION ON THE EARLY IRON AGE SOCIETIES OF SOUTHERN IBERIA AND SOUTHWESTERN GERMANY
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349286/3/455901_vol1.pdf
Susan Margaret Frankenstein, London, 1977