Brit-Am Historical Reports
Contents:
1. Ancient Egyptian hoard of counterfeit 'dirty money' unearthed [Canaan - Israel]
2. Nazi indoctrination and anti-Semitic beliefs in Germany
3. European Karaites, Pagan Elements, Venerated Oak Trees!
4. Phoenician Purple
5. Who Were Hitler's Supporters? Who Backed the Fuhrer and Why
6. Phoenicians Sailing to the New World
7. Ancient Sumerians in South America?
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1. Ancient Egyptian hoard of counterfeit 'dirty money' unearthed
By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor 2 days ago
https://www.livescience.com/ancient-egyptian-hoard-counterfeit-dirty-money.html
A shortage of silver caused by the collapse of leading Bronze Age civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean about 1200 B.C. resulted in the original "dirty money" - several hundreds of years before coins had been invented.
The ancient counterfeiting was revealed by archaeologist Tzilla Eshel, then a doctoral student at the University of Haifa, who studied the chemical composition of 35 buried hoards of Bronze Age silver found at archaeological sites around Israel.
In eight of the hoards, dating from the time of the "Late Bronze Age collapse," when the region's most powerful kingdoms suffered often-violent demises, had been deliberately debased, with cheaper alloys of copper substituted for much of the silver and an outer surface that looked like pure silver.
Because the hoards date back to the when the region, then known as Canaan, was ruled by ancient Egypt, the researchers think this deception originated with the Egyptian rulers, possibly to disguise the fact that their supplies of the precious silver widely used as currency were failing.
Canaan had no silver ores of its own, and the precious metal had to be imported. But the silver trade appears to have quickly come to an end when the nearby kingdoms started collapsing between about 1200 and 1150 B.C.
"There was a shortage of silver, probably related to the Late Bronze Age collapse," Eshel told Live Science. "[Counterfeiting] continued after the Egyptians left Canaan, but they were probably the ones who initiated it."
Long before coins were invented, probably in the kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor about the seventh century B.C., silver was widely used as a currency throughout the ancient Mediterranean.
Originally, the precious metal was valued by its weight, either of cut scraps of silver and broken jewelry for small amounts or of entire ingots for larger amounts.
Gold, too, was used as a means of exchange, but it was much rarer and more expensive in most regions, whereas silver was less expensive and much more common.
The research by Eshel and her colleagues, to be published in the January 2021 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, identified two of the earliest debased silver hoards: one from Beit Shean in northern Israel and another from Megiddo, a Canaanite city famed for several ancient battles, that gave its name as Armageddon in the Christian bible to a mythical war at the end of the world.
Both hoards dated from the 12th century B.C., Eshel said, when Egypt's New Kingdom had ruled Canaan by right of conquest for about 300 years.
The Beit Shean hoard of silver, which weighs about 5.5 ounces (157 grams), contained ingots of only 40% silver, which had been alloyed with copper and other cheap metals. The ingots had an enriched silver surface but a copper-rich core that may have been achieved by slowly cooling the ingot after it was melted and poured out.
The Megiddo hoard, which weighed 3.4 ounces (98 grams) had an even lower amount of silver, around 20%. But the debasement had been disguised by the addition of the elemental metal arsenic, which gives a silvery shine to copper.
Both methods of silver debasement would have taken a considerable amount of work and knowledge to achieve, Eshel said. "They are both quite sophisticated methods, but it could have been that the arsenic [method] was easier."
Broken silver jewelry, scraps of silver, and silver ingots were widely used throughout the eastern Mediterranean as a form of currency many centuries before the invention of coins.
Broken silver jewelry, scraps of silver and silver ingots were widely used throughout the eastern Mediterranean as a form of currency many centuries before the invention of coins.
Late Bronze Age collapse
Eshel suspects that the practice of debasing silver used as currency became accepted and then widespread as the shortage of silver continued in Canaan.
"I think it may have started as a forgery or counterfeiting, and then maybe it became a convention over time," she said. "I don't think you can produce silver-copper-arsenic ores for over 250 years and that no one would notice, because it corrodes [by turning green] over time."
The ancient practice of cutting into silver ingots also appears at around the same time, and it may have been a way to check if the ingots were silver all the way through and not copper at their cores, she said.
Almost three centuries later, as new powers like the Neo-Assyrians, Persians and Greek colonies started to take control of the region, the raw silver used as currency regained its purity, according to the study.
From the mid-10th century B.C., "the silver was pure, signaling a previously unrecognized large-scale import of silver," the researchers wrote.
The reasons for the Late Bronze Age collapse about 3,200 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean are hotly debated.
Economic disruptions, droughts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and piracy have all been blamed for the sudden end of many powerful kingdoms in the region, including the collapse of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the end of the ancient Egyptian period of the New Kingdom, and the fall of the Mycenaean culture in Greece.
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Brit-Am Remarks:
Renewed supply of silver - possibly from re-occupation of Tarshish in southwest Spain.
Egyptian occupation mentioned, " Egypt's New Kingdom had ruled Canaan by right of conquest for about 300 years."
This is not supported by the BIBLE but the assertive presence of the Philistines is. The Phiklstines were consdiered offshoots of Egypt, possibly acted as agentso f Egypt and paid tribute to Egypt and so in Egyptian eyes may have been considered as Egypt itself.
cf.
Genesis (ESV) 10:
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan....
13 Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
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2. Nazi indoctrination and anti-Semitic beliefs in Germany
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/26/7931
Nico Voigtlander and Hans-Joachim Voth
PNAS June 30, 2015 112 (26) 7931-7936; first published June 15, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414822112
Abstract
Attempts at modifying public opinions, attitudes, and beliefs range from advertising and schooling to 'brainwashing.' Their effectiveness is highly controversial. In this paper, we use survey data on anti-Semitic beliefs and attitudes in a representative sample of Germans surveyed in 1996 and 2006 to show that Nazi indoctrination, with its singular focus on fostering racial hatred, was highly effective. Between 1933 and 1945, young Germans were exposed to anti-Semitic ideology in schools, in the (extracurricular) Hitler Youth, and through radio, print, and film. As a result, Germans who grew up under the Nazi regime are much more anti-Semitic than those born before or after that period: the share of committed anti-Semites, who answer a host of questions about attitudes toward Jews in an extreme fashion, is 2-3 times higher than in the population as a whole. Results also hold for average beliefs, and not just the share of extremists; average views of Jews are much more negative among those born in the 1920s and 1930s. Nazi indoctrination was most effective where it could tap into preexisting prejudices; those born in districts that supported anti-Semitic parties before 1914 show the greatest increases in anti-Jewish attitudes. These findings demonstrate the extent to which beliefs can be modified through policy intervention. We also identify parameters amplifying the effectiveness of such measures, such as preexisting prejudices.
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3. European Karaites, Pagan Elements, Venerated Oak Trees!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaite_Judaism
Extract:
By the early 20th century, most European Karaites were no longer very knowledgeable about the religion and Seraya Shapshal, a Karaite soldier of fortune[citation needed] who had been the tutor of the last Qajar Shah of Persia, Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar and a Russian spy, managed about 1911 to get himself elected Chief akham of the Karaites in the Russian Empire (by that time, due to Russian regulations, the position had become more of a political one than a spiritual one). Influenced by the Pan-Turkic movement in Turkey, Shapshal made his position into that of an Emperor-priest. He changed the title Hakham to " akhan" (a cross between the Turkic titles khagan and khan), forbade the use of Hebrew, and in the 1930s introduced pagan elements (such as the veneration of sacred oak trees in the cemetery). He recognized both Jesus and Muhammad as prophets (thus appeasing both the Russian Orthodox Tsarist government and the Muslim Turkic peoples).[
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, atheism became official state policy in Soviet territories and Karaite religious schools and places of worship were the very first religious institutions closed by the Soviet government. The authorities allowed only the teaching of Shapshalian doctrines about the Karaites, and the official stance according to Soviet law (carried over from Russian Imperial law) erroneously regarded the Karaites as Turkic descendants of the Khazars and not as Jews.
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4. Phoenician Purple
Purple Reign: A passion for purple built the Phoenicians' vast trading empire
The seafaring Phoenicians controlled the Mediterranean market for a vibrant purple dye crafted from humble sea snails and craved by powerful kings.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2018/05-06/purple-reign-passion-phoenician-dye-built-vast-trading-empire/
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5. Who Were Hitler's Supporters? Who Backed the Fuhrer and Why
https://www.thoughtco.com/who-supported-hitler-and-why-1221371
By
Robert Wilde
Extracts:
Hitler managed to look like someone who would unite Germany rather than push it to extremes: he was praised for stopping a left-wing revolution by crushing the socialists and communists (first in street fights and elections, then by putting them in camps), and praised again after the Night of the Long Knives for stopping his own right (and still some left) wingers from starting their own revolution. Hitler was the unifier, the one who halted chaos and brought everyone together.
Hitler had taken power in 1933 on a wave of discontent caused by the Depression, and luckily for him, the global economy began to improve in the 1930s without Hitler having to do anything except claim the credit, which was freely given to him. Hitler had to do more with foreign policy, and as a great many people in Germany wanted the Treaty of Versailles negated Hitler's early manipulation of European politics to reoccupy German land, unite with Austria, then take Czechoslovakia, and still further the swift and victories wars against Poland and France, won him many admirers.
During the years of elections, Nazi support was far greater in the rural north and east, which was heavily Protestant, than in the south and west (which was mainly Catholic voters of the Centre Party), and in large cities full of urban workers.
Support for Hitler has long been identified among the upper classes, and this is largely believed to be correct. Certainly, large non-Jewish businesses initially supported Hitler to counter their fear of communism, and Hitler received support from wealthy industrialists and large companies: when Germany rearmed and went to war, key sectors of the economy found renewed sales and gave greater support. Nazis like Goering were able to use their backgrounds to please the aristocratic elements in Germany, especially when Hitler's answer to cramped land use was expansion in the east, and not re-settling workers on Junker lands, as Hitler's predecessors had suggested. Young male aristocrats flooded to the SS and Himmler's desire for an elitist medieval system and his faith in the old families.
The middle class was, proportionally speaking, over-represented in early Nazi support, and the parties which usually received middle-class support collapsed as their voters left for the Nazis.
It now seems that Hitler was able to appeal to the workers through their improving economic situation, through new Nazi labor organizations, and through removing the language of class warfare and replacing it with bonds of shared racial society which crossed classes, and although the working class voted in smaller percentages, they made up the bulk of Nazi support. This isn't to say working class support was passionate, but that Hitler convinced a lot of workers that, despite the loss of Weimar rights, they were benefitting and should support him. As the socialists and communists were crushed, and as their opposition was removed, workers turned to Hitler.
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6. Phoenicians Sailing to the New World
Did Phoenicians beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas by thousands of years?
by Jonathan Laden
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/phoenicians-sailing-to-the-new-world/
Extract:
Undaunted by the lack of evidence, the Phoenicians Before Columbus Expedition set out in 2019 to 'prove' that Phoenicians reached the Americas by sailing a traditional Phoenician ship, and blogging their route and experience. The Phoenicia was modeled on a wreck dating to around 600 B.C.E., found in the Mediterranean. It was built using traditional methods and materials that would have been available at the time. The ship had already completed a successful 20,000 mile voyage, circumnavigating Africa in 2010.
The Phoenicia, after 39 days at sea, did in fact reach the Dominican Republic on December 31st, 2019. Even if the actual Phoenicians never reached the Americas, the journey demonstrates their impressive boat-building skills, and their capability to have done so. There is good reason they were famous mariners.
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7. Ancient Sumerians in South America?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-100-historical-fact-that-will-leave-you-baffled
Jim Newgate
Extract:
Located at the Precious Metals Museum in La Paz Bolivia, we find the famous Fuente Magna bowl, a unique piece of ceramic that contains what some believe is one of the biggest secrets of ancient mankind. The Fuente Magna Bowl was discovered near Tiahuanaco. But why is this piece of ceramic so important? Well, written on it you will find Sumerian cuneiform.