Brit-Am Historical Reports
(25 November, 2019, 27 Cheshvan, 5780)
Contents:
1. Ancient Shiloh (diagrams and photos)
2. Problem of Inaccuracies in Ancient Mesopotamian Records
3. Reconstruction of Phoenician Circumnavigation of Africa and Discovery of America
4. German Support for Nazis During WW2
5. Joachim Gans, the First Practicing Jew to Set Foot in North America, Finally Gets His Due
6. German Atrocities in Belgium in WW1
Was Germany as evil as it is portrayed in movies in WWI?
7. Study links ancient Indian visitors to Australia/s first dingoes
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1. Ancient Shiloh (diagrams and photos)
https://www.ritmeyer.com/2019/11/13/shiloh/
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2. Problem of Inaccuracies in Ancient Mesopotamian Records
J. Brinkman, "Babylonia under the Kassites", pp.1-44 in A. Bartelmus et al (eds), Kardunias, Vol.1, 2017, esp. pp.32-3. Brinkman lists various types of late sources relevant to the Kassites, including kinglists (he is not necessarily criticising these), but especially texts purporting to be copies of original Kassite dynasty texts.
"The vexed questions of authorship, authenticity, and reliability are sometimes raised in an atmosphere already influenced by the answer one hopes to receive (as has happened with chronology arguments, which tend to favor a particular position in advance). We need to develop a greater critical sense in working with our materials. 270 . Note 270 adds, This would include asking the questions is/are there any person(s) or institution(s) that would benefit from the action described...
"A particularly interesting group of texts is a corpus of "royal letters" surviving in late Babylonian copies. These letters exist exclusively in later, mostly Babylonian copies, are written often in high poetic language, and deal with major conflicts in Mesopotamian history - the collapse of dynasties, the legitimacy of rival claimants to a throne, or the like. They shed light on key moments or turns of history and are often the only ancient witnesses to such developments. Their lucid detail and human interest 'make for grand theater and are often tempting to use as the basis for historical reconstruction, especially when no other evidence or very little evidence is available. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that letters of this type are actually literary productions, written many centuries after the events described, often with little or no basis in fact (other than the name of a key character or two), ' Such texts need to be used with extreme caution, if they are to be used at all, for historical background; and attempts to use them to construct scientific chronologies or the like should be regarded as wishful thinking. Episodes during the late Kassite dynasty and the early Isin II dynasty are favorite subjects of such tales.272 ' Note 272 adds, 'Within this category should be placed such pieces as the letter of Adad-suma-usur to Assur-narari and Ili-ipadda ' the Babylonian-Elamite interdynastic marriage letter (VAS 24 91, van Dijk 1986), '
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3. Reconstruction of Phoenician Circumnavigation of Africa and Discovery of America
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/11/286022/phoenicia-voyage-history-americas/
Extracts:
Built in 2008, the Phoenicia is an exact replica of a wrecked Phoenician ship found in Marseille. The Phoenicians, an ancient civilization born in the region we now know as Syria nearly 3,000 years ago, were legendary sailors. Rumored to have circumnavigated Africa before the Romans had even imagined Egypt, the Phoenicians held trading posts across Africa.
According to London's 'The Phoenicians: The Greatest Sailors Exhibition,' as early as '600 BC a fleet of Phoenician ships was said to have embarked on an epic journey to circumnavigate Africa. In 2008, the crew of the newly-built Phoenicia set out to prove that the myth was, in fact, history.
After a two year voyage in a copy of a 3,000-year-old ship, the Phoenicia dodged Somalian pirates and extreme weather, sailing into the history books, the epic tale of the Phoenician explorers was no myth. However, not satisfied with one groundbreaking voyage, the crew of the Phoenicia is now on a mission to prove that the Phoenicians sailed to America over 2,000 years before Columbus.
An ancient civilization from the eastern Mediterranean, the Phoenician empire was a group of small states spread along the coastline in what we now know as Lebanon and Syria. Immortalized in epic poetry and by their own inventions, the Phoenicians, predominantly sailors, and merchants gave the modern world the alphabet and insurance.
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4. German Support for Nazis During WW2
How was the Nazi Party viewed by the German public in 1945? Did many Germans still support them even though the end was near?
https://www.quora.com/How-was-the-Nazi-Party-viewed-by-the-German-public-in-1945-Did-many-Germans-still-support-them-even-though-the-end-was-near
by Thierry Etienne Joseph Rotty
Throughout the Third Reich, the Sicherheitsdienst [SD] of the SS held anonymous polls on a wide variety of subjects including party popularity and the popularity of individual Nazi leaders.
The last full set of polls was conducted in February 1945. Support for the Nazi Party remained at a steady 60% while Hitler's approval ratings were still 92%.
Now it should be noted that support for the Nazi Party peaked at 77%. So, if you take into account the war, the rationing, the Allied bombings, etc. 60% is still pretty high.
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5. Joachim Gans, the First Practicing Jew to Set Foot in North America, Finally Gets His Due
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-first-practicing-jew-america-finally-gets-his-due-180973186/#i3ukpzlOI60vHj95.99
By Andrew Lawler
Extracts:
A metallurgist from Prague, Gans played a key role in the first attempt by the English to settle the New World. His accomplishments in the 1580s helped plant the seed for what became the United States.
... England was still a relatively poor and backward European country, desperate for help in extracting copper and tin. Growing tensions with the Spanish Empire would soon would lead to war, and the English needed cannon to arm their merchant ships and navy. Jews had been banned since 1290, but a courtier of Elizabeth I secured Gans a kind of Tudor H-1B visa. Soon after, Sir Walter Raleigh sought a credible scientist to join England's first venture to colonize the Americas on what is now the North Carolina coast. In Gans, Raleigh saw the perfect candidate for the specialized job of sourcing and analyzing metals.
Gans arrived on Roanoke Island in 1585, along with a motley crew of more than 100 men that included French, Portuguese, Belgian, Irish and Scottish men as well as English soldiers and merchants. The Prague Jew, who made no secret of his religious background, quickly constructed a state-of-the-art chemistry lab outfitted with Bavarian crucibles and a high-temperature furnace. He tested metals brought to him by local Algonquian-speaking tribes and tramped through the swamps in search of mineral deposits. Though he failed to find gold, , as Raleigh had hoped, there is evidence he isolated iron, silver, and copper in his experiments. That was promising news for an England eager to access metal deposits.
.... The last known mention of the metallurgist has him facing trial in London for denying Christ was the son of God. Jews would not be officially allowed in England for another generation.
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6. German Atrocities in Belgium in WW1
Was Germany as evil as it is portrayed in movies in WWI?
https://www.quora.com/Was-Germany-as-evil-as-it-is-portrayed-in-movies-in-WWI
Thierry Etienne Joseph Rotty, Senior Controller
Yes, they were, especially in Belgium.
Of the 7.5 million Belgians, 1.5 million were driven from their homes. The chemical and heavy industry was dismantled and shipped to Germany.
I will give you one example: the city of Dinant. On 23 August 1914, on a single day, the Germans burned down 1,100 of the 1,375 houses. They killed 674 people.
The last batch of people that were executed, around 2100 local time, consisted of 90 people - 13 survived but were badly wounded. Of the 77 killed in that last batch, 34 were women and 16 children under 14. Of the 16 children killed, 7 hadn't reached the age of 2.
Women were raped, including nuns. Men were castrated with bayonets, knives, and sabers. The breasts of women were sometimes cut off. People were burned alive. Priests were specifically targetted.
At present, the Belgian Archives on German War Crimes during the First World War count 34.6 million pages.
As the Germans withdrew during the Hundred Day Offensive, they deliberately shelled villages with poison gas shells to kill as many civilians as possible.
Belgians were deported to concentration camps from the very first day of the invasion, 4 August 1914.
A total of 24,000 Belgian civilians were killed by the German troops, 200,000 were deported to Germany.
In the East, similar crimes took place, especially in Russia and Romania.
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7. Study links ancient Indian visitors to Australia's first dingoes
https://theconversation.com/study-links-ancient-indian-visitors-to-australias-first-dingoes-11593#targetText=A%20new%20study%20of%20DNA,first%20appearance%20of%20the%20dingo.&targetText=Although%20dingo%20mtDNA%20appears%20to,dogs%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20researchers%20said.
Extracts:
'We also detect a signal indicative of substantial gene flow between the Indian populations and Australia well before European contact, contrary to the prevailing view that there was no contact between Australia and the rest of the world.
The researchers said that around the time the Indian visitors arrived on Australia's shores, stone tools called microliths began appearing for the first time and new plant processing techniques were used.
'It has been a matter of controversy as to whether these changes occurred in situ or reflect contact with people from outside Australia or some combination of both factors. However, the dingo also first appears in the fossil record at this time and must have come from outside Australia. Although dingo mtDNA appears to have a Southeast Asian origin, morphologically, the dingo most closely resembles Indian dogs,' the researchers said.
'There are some indications of similarities to Indian Subcontinent in marital customs of Aboriginal Australians as well as in their morphology,' said Professor Henneberg, who was not involved in the original paper.