Brit-Am Research Sources (4 November 2015, 22 Cheshvan, 5776)
Contents:
1. Germanikeh in Nineveh Capital of Assyria
2. An Assyrian Colony in Central Turkey
3. More on the Israelite-Judaean Seal in Scythian-Sarmatia
How Did a Judean Seal End Up in a 2,000-year-old Russian Warrior Woman's Grave? by Julia Fridman
4. A Philistine Colony in Northern Syria
Riddle of the Ages Solved: Where Did the Philistines Come From? by Julia Fridman
5. Remain of The Temple Discovered on Temple Mount Site and Already Photographed in 1927
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1. Germanikeh in Nineveh Capital of Assyria
Barhebraus wrote that, ~The Germanikeh are a people in Mosul (Nineveh) who came from Persia'...
Arab tradition have the Germanikeh as Assyrians."
(pp.88-90, Israelites und Hyksos by Martin Gemol, Leipzig, 1913, translated from German).
re Germanica in Northern Syria
Germanicopolis in Bithynia, not far from Prusa, present-day Turkey.
Caesarea Germanica in southern Turkey.
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2. An Assyrian Colony in Central Turkey
Karum Kanes (Kultepe)
Subject: Discoveries
The 4000 year old ancient trade tablets of Kultepe have been accepted into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, see the comments on our page for more details. Karum Kanes was an early 2nd millennium BCE Assyrian trade colony in Kayseri Province, Turkey (Anatolia). During the Bronze Age in this region, the Karum was a portion of the city set aside by local officials for the early Assyrian merchants to use without paying taxes, as long as the goods remained inside the karum.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=30468
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3. More on the Israelite-Judaean Seal in Scythian-Sarmatia
How Did a Judean Seal End Up in a 2,000-year-old Russian Warrior Woman's Grave?
by Julia Fridman
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.682980
Oct 29, 2015 10:31 AM
Extracts:
A spectacular find was made near the Black Sea this summer: Excavating the 2,000-year-old grave of a Sarmatian noblewoman, which miraculously hadn't been looted, the archeologists found a wealth of artifacts, including a carnelian seal with ancient Hebrew letters, centuries older than the tomb.
The woman's grave, located at Rostov-on-Don, was replete with burial offerings. The items, dating from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century AD, included wooden dishes and a cup lying by her right hand. By her feet were pieces of a bronze bucket with a floral design and a ladle with the head of the Gorgon, and by her pelvis was a gold vial with a lid and fossilized contents. Four clay vessels were found in the northeast corner of the tomb, as well as knives, over a hundred arrows and a harness, and an unfinished sword with an intricate handle inlay.
But the startling finding was the carved gem resting on her chest, inscribed with letters that were clearly from the ancient Levant.
Unversed in ancient Levantine languages, the archeologists assumed the writing was Phoenician or early Aramaic. But the letters are clearly ancient Hebrew. The unusual artifact was first noticed by archaeology bloggers Jim Davila and Aviv Benedix, who suspected the writing was a form of paleo-Hebrew. Their suspicions were confirmed by Prof. Christopher Rollston of George Washington University, an epigraphy expert.
The discovery was made by a Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology team, led by Roman Mimokhod.
The Sarmatian people originated in Central Asia and migrated northward to the Ural mountains between the 6th-4th centuries BCE. By the 2nd century BCE, they had conquered the Scythians and most of Southern Russia. Their women were known to have fought alongside men: some scholars think that it is they who, even though they kept both breasts intact, inspired the Greek tales of the Amazons.
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4. A Philistine Colony in Northern Syria
Riddle of the Ages Solved: Where Did the Philistines Come From? by Julia Fridman
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.676943
Anomalous discoveries in southern Turkey now explained: The Philistine 'Sea Peoples' didn't invade Kunulua, they lived there.
Extracts:
Back then, the mighty Hittite kingdom spanned much of the territory known today as Turkey and Syria. Then, as the Late Bronze Age graduated into the Iron Age I, around 1177 BCE, the entire civilization of the Mediterranean and the Near East collapsed, and the "Sea Peoples," including the Philistines, ascended.
Until now, the "Sea Peoples Invasion" theory postulated that the Philistines arose and swept over the region from a base in the Aegean. But recent discoveries at a remote archaeological site in southeast Turkey indicate that the Philistines were already there as the great civilizations collapsed. Amidst the thunderous implosion around them, the Philistines somehow thrived, and supplanted the Hittite rule in that area, apparently making it their home base.
This unexpected conclusion is supported by new explanations of anomalies found at Tel Tayinat, an archaeological site in the Amuq plain, which spans the border of modern Syria and Turkey.
Tell Tayinat is located about 25 kilometers inland, not where the capital of the sea-faring Philistines was expected to be located.
Tel Tayinat contains the ruins of a city going back thousands of years. Evidence found at the site proves that its ancient name was Kunulua (or Calno).
Until recently, it was assumed that the site was Hittite because of its location, and that after their empire collapsed its residents evolved into the "neo-Hittite" culture which continued using the ancient names, artistic styles and symbols of the Hittites. Who exactly the "neo-Hittites" of Kunulua were remained a mystery, until now. They were, archaeologists are starting to believe, the Philistines.
The new theory that Tel Tayinat was a Philistine capital arose from anomalous pottery findings and other oddities found in excavations headed by Prof. Timothy Harrison of the Toronto University's Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.
Bichrome pottery, typical of Philistine ware. So much was found at Tell Tayinat that it had to have been made there, not imported. Peter Hagyo-Kovacs
The Philistines were one of many groups referred to in ancient records as the "Sea Peoples". As listed on the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, they included the Danian, Ekwesh, Lukka, Shekelesh, Sherden, Teresh, Tjeker, Weshwesh and the "Peleset" - "Plishtim" in Hebrew, or, the Philistines.
One reason Tel Tayinat had been assumed to be Hittite is its inland location, some 25 kilometers distance from the Mediterranean shore. The Philistines, who had famously plagued the peoples around the Mediterranean basin, had been thought to mainly stick to coastal areas.
The first anomaly that in retrospect argued Kunulua was Philistine city was vast amounts of unique pottery called Late Helladic IIIC ware (or Mycenean IIIC ware), which is one of the markers of the Philistines, and is found in abundance in other Philistine sites, in Israel in particular. The original excavation of Tel Tayinat in the early 1900s had uncovered layers of this stuff, but no one knew what to make of it. Some suggested the Hittite inhabitants had imported it as a luxury good.
Other distinct Philistine markers found in large amounts in Iron Age levels at Tel Tayinat including unperforated cylindrical loom weights.
Mere "international trade" by Hittites couldn't explain the sheer amounts of these items and pottery remains found at Tel Tayinat and its surroundings. Petrographic analyses proved that this pottery was actually locally made and was used for a different way of food preparation by the locals.
More than one inscription found at Tel Tayinat, written in the Luwian language used by the Hittites, referred to a mysterious "King Taita", ruler of "Walistin" or "Patin"; and an earlier find in Hamath, Syria spoke of a King Taita of "Walistin."
No one had ever heard of him. It seemed a new kingdom with a new and powerful king was being uncovered at Tel Tayinat.
A breakthrough came while excavating the temple dedicated to the storm god Adda or Hadad in Aleppo, Syria, in 2003: Kay Kohlmayer, the site's director, found a relief and dedicatory inscription to "Taita, King and hero of Patastini" and another to "Taita, conqueror of Carchemish". Taita had restored this ancient temple and had a dedicatory inscription made of his great achievements.
Based on this new discovery, the reinterpretation of one Luwian hieroglyphic sign and the amassing archaeological evidence John David Hawkins, a Luwian expert, thinks that everybody had been reading these inscriptions wrong, and that the "W" sound should in fact be read as a "P" making Walistin, Palistin, "Patasatini" should be read as "Palasatini" or "Palastin". That would correspond with the ancient Egyptian mention of "Peleset" as one of the ten Sea People groups.
In fact, the Hittitologist Prof. Itamar Singer had long thought the Sea Peoples - or at least some of them, came from western Anatolia. There just wasn't enough evidence to prove him right, until now.
"Around 1100 BCE, there are indications of a larger political integration of north Syria under the rule of King Taitas," says Prof. Gunnar Lehmann of Ben Gurion University, who recently conducted a major survey of coastal sites in Turkey. "The inscriptions and the monuments of this king are all written in Luwian hieroglyphs, his reliefs are neo-Hittite but the pottery is Aegeanizing," meaning shows Aegean influences. "It would be very strange indeed if what we have at Tayinat wasn't [a Philistine hub]."
Rather than the "Sea Peoples Invasion" theory, Toronto's Harrison suspects that over time, Philistines migrated in small numbers to the area, and assimilated with the locals. Their arrival was a complex scenario, he says, not some Hollywood movie-type blitz.
Not only was the homeland of the Philistines found in Tayinat. So, possibly, was evidence of the historic veracity of the Prophet Isaiah.
In 2012, the University of Toronto team uncovered the top half of a buried life-size statue of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma. A Luwian inscription on the statue's back recounts his exploits, linking him with a 'Patinian' king who fought against the onslaught of Assyria's Shalmaneser III in 858 BCE.
It was common for Hittites to have colossal statues guarding the entrances to cities. But when the Assyrians conquered the area in 738 BCE, they would bury sacred items, such as this statue.
Scholars have long suspected that Prophet Isaiah's oracle against Assyria ("Is not Calno as Carchemish?... As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols," Isaiah 10:9-10) alludes to the Assyrian destruction of Kunulua. The buried statue of Suppiluliuma may actually be the physical manifestation of this historic event.
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5. Remain of The Temple Discovered on Temple Mount Site and Already Photographed in 1927
Secrets under the Al-Aqsa Mosque:
A Photographic EssayLenny Ben-David -
See more at:
http://jcpa.org/secrets-under-the-al-aqsa-mosque-a-photographic-essay/#sthash.DqGZoeG6.dpuf
Extracts:
Jews believe that the 'foundation rock' beneath the Dome of the Rock is atop Mt. Moriah, the site of the binding of Isaac. King Solomon built his Temple upon the rock in the tenth century before the Common Era (BCE), but it was destroyed in 587 BCE by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Seventy years later, the second Temple was built by Jews returning from Babylon with King Cyrus's blessing. Years later it was rededicated by the Maccabees in approximately 160 BCE after its defiling by the Seleucids.
...the Al Aqsa Mosque suffered a major collapse during an earthquake in 1927. Renovation took several years, and in that period at least two Christian photographers, including British archeologist Robert Hamilton, ventured into and under the mosque. Hamilton, from the British Archaeological Authority, 'photographed, sketched, excavated and analyzed' what he saw, according to Nadav Shragai, a scholar on Jerusalem, writing in Yisrael HaYom.
..... The photographers documented the mosaics, passageways, cisterns, and lumber that apparently were part of the Temples.
Many of Hamilton's photos may be viewed today on the site of the British Authority's successor, the Israel Antiquities Authority.. Other pictures may be found in the Library of Congress' archives of the American Colony photographers.
- See more at: http://jcpa.org/secrets-under-the-al-aqsa-mosque-a-photographic-essay/#sthash.DqGZoeG6.vGptoFsf.dpuf
Many of these sites and structures may have been destroyed in recent years by the Waqf's (Muslim Council) bulldozers during their construction of subterranean mosques under the Temple Mount. Fortunately, photographs still exist and were digitized by archivists so we can document what were probably parts of the Jewish Temple complex and what the Mufti denies. - See more at: http://jcpa.org/secrets-under-the-al-aqsa-mosque-a-photographic-essay/#sthash.DqGZoeG6.vGptoFsf.dpuf