BHR-36
Brit-Am Historical Reports
20 April 2010 6 Iyar 5770
Contents:
1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of Explorator 12.50
2. "Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World" by Jeffrey Herf Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
3. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of Explorator 12.52
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1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of Explorator 12.50
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@GMAIL.COM>
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explorator 12.50 April 4, 2010
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ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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On "global warming" and biblical plagues:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7530678/Biblical-plagues-really-happened-say-scientists.html
http://sify.com/news/biblical-plagues-happened-in-reality-say-scientists-news-international-kd4nOcfdded.html
Interesting piece on the conflict between burials and archaeology
in Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160495.html
Dr Leen Ritmeyer's Blog:
http://blog.ritmeyer.com/
Paleojudaica:
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
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Very interesting non-elite burials from Mycenae:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/mycenaean-tombs-discovered-might-be-evidence-of-classless-society-1930489.html
Guernsey as Roman trading post:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/guernsey/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8594000/8594661.stm
Feature on the 'Bronze Men' from Caria:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/992/he1.htm
Alexander the Great as 'father of civilization':
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1260702/The-father-civilisation-Alexander-Greats-hunger-knowledge-gave-Old-Testament-algebra-robots.html
Interesting feature on Pontius Pilate:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/passion-and-power-the-many-portraits-of-pontius-pilate-20100401-rhq6.html
There's a Ben Hur miniseries on tonight (in Canada, anyway):
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Morgan+gets+physical+epic+redone+miniseries/2761651/story.html
Review of Richard Miles, *Carthage Must Be Destroyed*:
http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm"story_id=15767411
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
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Pondering the engravings on the 'Pictish Stones':
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/ancient-scotland-written-language.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm"id=information-age-math-finds-code-in-2010-03-31
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36117732/ns/technology_and_science-science/
cf:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/"p=2227
4000 years b.p. Scandinavians were lactose intolerant, apparently:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uu-sas040110.php
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NORTH AMERICA
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Review(ish) of Michael Trinklein, *Lost States*:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php"storyId=125142955
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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... and cows are really important for human success (in a circular argument
sort of way):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/04/milk-european-social-history
... while this week's DNA story tells us about Native Americans'
horticultural practices with sunflowers:
http://www.physorg.com/news189422012.html
Interesting item on medieval medicine:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,685432,00.html
Features/section on assorted threatened languages:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160499 (intro)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160488
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160487
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160486
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160485
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml"itemNo=1160484
Searching for the origins of the Koran:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/28/the_origins_of_a_holy_book/
Interview with Nell Painter on *The History of White People*:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/history-white-people-author-nell-painter-talks-diane/story"id=10260769
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TOURISTY THINGS
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Sardinia:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/travel/28explorer-1.html
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BLOGS AND PODCASTS
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GENERAL MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS
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American Journal of Archaeology 114.2:
http://www.ajaonline.org/index.php"ptype=toc
2. Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World
http://www.danielpipes.org/8257/nazi-propaganda-for-the-arab-world
by Jeffrey Herf
Yale University Press, 2009, 352 pages
Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
Extracts:
The impact of National Socialism in the Middle East used to appear brief and superficial. Unlike with Communism, whose local parties and outside influence through the Soviet bloc lasted over many decades, the Nazis' moment lasted about six years, 1939-45, and they had little regional presence beyond Rommel's armies in North Africa and a fleeting pro-Nazi regime in Iraq.
But two powerful, important books have set the record straight. Djihad und Judenhass (2002) by Matthias Kuntzel, translated into English in 2007 as Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11, shows the continuing influence of Nazi ideas on Islamists. Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World by Jeffrey Herf focuses on an earlier time, the 1930s-40s, and the major effort by Hitler and his minions to transmit their ideas to the Middle East. After reading Kuntzel and Herf, I realize that my education about the modern Middle East was lacking a vital ingredient, the Nazi one.
Nazi propaganda in Arabic portrayed World War II, history's largest and most destructive war, as focused primarily on the sliver of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. This interpretation both flattered Arabs and extended Hitler's grand theory that Jews wanted to take over the Arab countries and eventually the whole world, that the Allied powers were but pawns in this Zionist conspiracy, and that Germany was leading the resistance to them.
Palestine was the key, according to these broadcasts. If Zionists took it over, they would "control the three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Thus they will be able to rule the whole world and spread Jewish capitalism." Such an eventuality would lead to Arabs oppressed and Islam defunct. "Should Bolshevism and Democracy be victorious," announced Nazi radio, "the Arabs will be dominated forever and all traces of Islam will be wiped out." To avoid this fate, Arabs had to join with the Axis.
As the war progressed, Berlin's incitement became ever more furious. "You must kill the Jews before they open fire on you. Kill the Jews" went a July 1942 broadcast. Herf notes the bitter irony: "At this moment of complete Jewish powerlessness, the Arabic broadcasts from Berlin skillfully adapted the general Nazi propaganda line about Jewish domination of the anti-Hitler coalition to a radical Arab and Islamic view."
Hitler's propagandists assured Muslims, first, that Axis countries "respect the Koran, sanctify the mosques, and glorify the prophet of Islam." It cited the respectful work of German Orientalists as an important sign of goodwill. Second, it argued for what Heinrich Himmler called the "shared goals and shared ideals" of Islam and National Socialism. These included monotheism, piety, obedience, discipline, self-sacrifice, courage, honor, generosity, community, unity, anti-capitalism, and a celebration of labor and warfare.
In addition, Muslims were told that they and the Nazis were purportedly both fighting a "great struggle for freedom" against the British, the most important colonial power in the Middle East. The regime drew a parallel between Muhammad and Hitler and presented the umma as roughly analogous to its own notion of a totalitarian Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community").
...Specifically for Shi'ites, the Nazis hinted at Hitler being the awaited Twelfth Imam or the Muslim eschatological figure of Jesus, who will fight the anti-Christ (namely, the Jews) and bring on the end of days.
The Nazis noted the parallel between sayings from the Koran (Sura 5:82, "You will meet no greater enemy of the believers than the Jews") and the words of Hitler ("By resisting the Jews everywhere, I am fighting for the Lord's work") and turned the Koran into an anti-Semitic tract whose primary purpose was to call for eternal hatred of Jews. They even falsely claimed that Muhammad ordered Muslims to fight the Jews "until they are extinct."
Herf emphasizes the remarkable symbiosis of German and Middle Eastern elements: "As a result of their shared passions and interests, they produced texts and broadcasts that each group could not have produced on its own." Specifically, Arabs learned "the finer points of anti-Semitic conspiracy thinking," while Nazis learned the value of focusing on Palestine. He describes the coming together of Nazi and Islamic themes in Berlin as "one of the most important cultural exchanges of the twentieth century."
Having detailed Nazi propaganda in Arabic, Herf then traces its impact. He begins by documenting the great energy and expense devoted to these messages"the quality of the personnel devoted to it, their high-level Nazi patronage, the thousands of hours of radio transmissions, and the millions of pamphlets.
He then rounds up assessments of the Axis impact, all pointing to its success. Allied estimates from 1942, for example, found that "the people were saturated with Axis talk," that "upwards of three-fourths of the Moslem world are in favor of the Axis" and that "90% of the Egyptians, including their government, believe that the Jews are mainly responsible for shortages and high prices of essentials." A report from 1944 found that "practically all Arabs who have radios " listen to Berlin."
Allied reluctance to contradict Nazi propaganda also points to Axis success. Fearful of alienating Middle Easterners, the Allies stayed humiliatingly silent about the genocide taking place against the Jews; failed to refute allegations about Jews dominating London, Washington, and Moscow; did not dispute the distorted Koranic interpretations; and shied away from endorsing Zionism. Merely to dispute Nazi accusations, the Allies worried, would only confirm Nazi claims about Britain, America, and Russia being stooges of Jewish power. An internal U.S. directive in late 1942 acknowledged that "the subject of Zionist aspirations cannot be mentioned, inasmuch as, [this] would jeopardize our strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean."
The defeat of Nazi General Erwin Rommel's aggressive push into North Africa meant that Nazi ambitions in the Middle East, in particular the Final Solution to annihilate its million or so Jews, were never implemented. But years of hate from radio and pamphlets and the repetitive, grotesque, ambitious, anti-Semitic, and Islam-based message detailed by Herf had taken root. Not only did the Middle East's Nazis emerge nearly invulnerable to prosecution, but they also prospered and were feted. An example: in 1946, Hasan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brethren, lavished praise on Hitler's favorite Arab, Haj Amin el-Husseini, calling him "a hero, a miracle of a man." Banna added for good measure: "Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin el-Husseini will continue the struggle." Acknowledging el-Husseini's exalted status, a British officer in 1948 described him as "the one hero in the Arab world."
Ideas the Nazis spread in the Middle East have had an enduring twofold legacy. First, as in Europe, they built on existing prejudices against Jews to transform that prejudice into something far more paranoid, aggressive, and murderous. One U.S. intelligence report from 1944 estimated that anti-Jewish materials constituted fully half of German propaganda directed to the Middle East. The Nazis saw virtually all developments in the region through the Jewish prism and exported this obsession.
....Islamism took on a Nazi quality.
3. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of Explorator 12.52
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@gmail.com>
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explorator 12.52 April 18, 2010
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ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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Human remains won't get in the way of emergency room construction
in Ashkelon:
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/13/1011543/ashkelon-protected-er-to-remain-on-burial-site
Tower tombs from Palmyra:
http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201004185537/Travel/syrian-archaeologists-tombs-tower-unearthed-in-palmyra.html
An Ugaritic link to Arabic":
http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201004165529/Culture/archaeologists-ancient-texts-show-similarities-between-arabic-and-ugaritic-languages.html
A sort of state-of-the investigation thing from Pasargadae:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx"id=123609§ionid=351020105
A nice radio tribute to Chana Eshel:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/184366
More on those Assyrian treaty tablets mentioned last week:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/04/15/Researchers-study-ancient-Assyrian-tablets/UPI-62201271360476/
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
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Pondering the origins of the marathon:
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x53546719/The-original-marathon-and-its-connection-to-Hopkinton
Interesting Ibero-Celtic helmet from a recent auction:
http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/section.asp"catid=77&docid=2732
Roman lead is going to be used in neutrino research:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100415/full/news.2010.186.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm"id=roman-ingots-to-shield-detector
http://www.physorg.com/news190646406.html
Review of Richard Stoneman, *Alexander the Great*:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/alexander-the-great-a-life-in-legend-by-richard-stoneman-1945731.html
Review of V.D. Hansen (ed.), *Makers of Ancient Strategy*:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/16/book-review-makers-of-ancient-strategy/
Review of David Breeze, *The Antonine Wall*:
http://www.strategypage.com/bookreviews/468.asp
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
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Some 300 years b.p. shoes found during castle wall restoration
in Germany:
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100413-26503.html
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NORTH AMERICA
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Paleoindians adapted to changing climate:
http://www.physorg.com/news190288067.html
http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select"SGWID=0-11001-6-900322-0
... while Native Americans appear to have had a much larger
carbon footprint than previously thought:
http://www.physorg.com/news190561417.html
More on the demise of megafauna:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uoa-amh040910.php
Review of Leo Damrosch, *Tocqueville's Discovery of America*:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/books/review/Reynolds-t.html
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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
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Some revisionism in regards to indigenous Patagonian societies:
http://www.physorg.com/news190373658.html
More on arsenic-laden mummies from Chile:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/100412-chile-oldest-mummies-poison-arsenic/
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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Searching for the 'real' Robin Hood:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/14/robin-hood-russell-crowe
Who won the Pulitzers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/business/media/2010-Arts-Pulitzers.html
With a volcano in the news, folks might be interested in the
predecessor's history:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/magazine/8624791.stm
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TOURISTY THINGS
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Greece:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36318440/ns/travel-active/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ricksteveseurope/2011593930_websteves13.html
Syria:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/middleeast/syria/7590524/Syria-Feet-first-into-history.html
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BLOGS AND PODCASTS
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Robert Cargill's History of Jerusalem course on iTunes:
http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/ucla-public.3421656258.03421656260
Naked Archaeology Podcast:
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/archaeology/
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CRIME BEAT
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A collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts seized by Mexican police
turns out to be primarily fakes:
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp"int_sec=2&int_new=37492
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYdU4_WSJc705nGBAFARRBZi_lxgD9F3RP780
Some diggers were arrested near Beit Shemesh:
http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Entertainment/Article.aspx"id=173094
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EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
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A History of the World (BM)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/
The Lewis Chessmen are going on display in Scotland:
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%2526+heritage/art77720
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