"Brit-Am Now"-908
Contents:
1.  Sinikka Tarvainen: Tarshish (Tartessos) in Seville (Southern Spain)?
2. Beth Hirschman: Scotch Irish in Appalachians
3. Khazars and Phoenician
Script

####################################################
================================================================
1.  Sinikka Tarvainen: Tarshish (Tartessos) in Seville (Southern Spain)?
FEATURE: Spaniards search for legendary Tartessos in a marsh By Sinikka
Tarvainen, dpa
http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=7993
Madrid (dpa) - Where was the capital of Tartessos, the legendary pre-Roman
civilization which once existed on the Iberian Peninsula?
The culture which flourished from around 800 to 500 BC is believed to have
been located mainly around the present-day cities of Cadiz, Seville and
Huelva in southern Spain, but no traces of a major urban settlement have
been found.
Now, however, scientists have discovered surprising clues to where a major
Tartessian city may have been, the daily El Pais reported.
Its ruins could lie in the subsoil of a marsh area known as the Marisma de
Hinojos in the Donana National Park near Seville, according to the daily.
Chief researcher Sebastian Celestino declined to comment on the report. His
team will give details once the investigation is finished, a representative
of the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) told the
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
For years, satellite and aerial images of the Marisma de Hinojos have
revealed strange circular structures of different sizes - up to 200 metres
in diameter - and rectangular forms.
The area is under water in wintertime, and until now, scientists had thought
it had always been inundated.
That had made most of them skeptical of the possibility that the forms
visible from the air could be remains of a human settlement buried in the
subsoil.
Yet new evidence has now emerged, with electro-magnetic tests indicating
that the area may have experienced long dry periods, according to El Pais.
In the bottom of the marsh, there are layers that appear to contain
concentrated sand, the daily quoted researcher Antonio Rodriguez as saying.
If the area had always been submerged, the subsoil would only contain mud
instead of sand.
Scientists think they stand a fair chance of finding archaeological remains
in the marsh, though the link with Tartessos remains a mere hypothesis for
the time being.
Knowledge about Tartessos had so far been based mainly on Greek and Latin
literary sources, which described it as a civilization on the edge of the
known world.
Often identified with Tarshish mentioned in the Bible, the kingdom traded
profitably with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and may even have
discovered a route to Britain.
Some researchers equate Tartessos with Atlantis, the utopia described by the
Greek philosopher Plato, which is said to have sunk into the sea.
Tartessos disappeared mysteriously around 500 BC. Some believe it was
destroyed by the Carthaginians, but the new geological evidence from the
Marisma de Hinojos makes it look possible that two tsunamis wiped out the
settlement located there, according to El Pais.
Some remains identified with Tartessos have been found, including a
palace-sanctuary near Badajoz and a necropolis in Huelva, but no major urban
settlement.
As the next step, scientists intend to make a hole 7 metres deep into the
marshland to see what - if anything - lies underneath.
If the remains of a Tartessian city were found, that might bring invaluable
information to historians divided over whether Tartessos had an identity of
its own, or whether it was just an extension of the Phoenician civilization.
####################################################

2. Beth Hirschman: Scotch Irish in Appalachians
Stephen Brown (University of Ulster), Pauline Maclaran  (formerly of Queens University, Belfast) and I
just co-authored a book on the  culture and folkways of the Ulster Scots and
Scotch-Irish. It is titled "One  Culture, Two Continents" and is available
at Amazon. We did about 4 years field  work in Northern Ireland, especially
in Belfast and Omagh (were there two weeks  after the bombings in 1998).
Also did field work in Appalachia over the same  time period. The book
examines the historic similarities and differences  between the Ulster Scots
in Northern Ireland and the Scotch Irish in Appalachia.  Lots of photos
showing architecture, farming practices, etc. It is an academic  work, so
don't expect a travel guide! Beth Hirschman
####################################################
3. Khazars and Phoenician Script
See
Jerusalem News-624
It discusses a Szekely-Hungarian alphabet that may have originated with the
Khazars and that is mainly of Ancient Hebrew type.
The alphabet in question is more than 50% Phoenician meaning Ancient Hebrew.
The original alphabet of the Hebrews was of "Phoenician" (Canaanite) type
but under Ezra it was changed to the present one.
Under Bar Kokba there was an attempt to revive the Ancient Hebrew script at
an official level but this did not succeed.
The Khazars used the present Hebrew alphabet but the previous usage by them
of the Ancient Hebrew one would suggest additional evidence to their Hebraic
antecedents even before formally converting to Judaism at a later date.
See also:
Steven Plaut: The Khazar Myth and the New Anti-Semitism
http://www.britam.org/jerusalem/jerusalem601to630.html#Plaut2