"Brit-Am Now"-257
June 17, 2003
1. Brit-Am Server Problems, etc
2. Viking-Phoenician Links
3. On the Brit-Am appeal
4. Biblical Proofs: Isles-2
The Fires in the Isles
1. Brit-Am Server Problems, etc
Several people in the past have noticed that they were not receiving mail
from us due to blocking by their server.
The other day a message to an important supporter of Brit-Am was returned
because the server refused to accept it
Such incidents seem to be increasing. Nevertheless the impression is that
all servers give trouble of various kinds. We have (in a limited capacity
tried other servers) and also heard from those who use them. They all are
liable to create unforeseen problems.
Our present server (despite some reservations of ours) is probably better
for us than any of the alternatives would be.
We will try to obtain an additional server in the USA and any time a
message of ours is blocked we will try to send it out through
the additional server. Just as our present server is probably the best for
us but could do with a supplementary service so too with our set-up in general.
Things are not so bad in principle. We need to expand just a little
to grow from our own base and in several matters we need to expand and
improve using the foundations we have already laid. For these matters, to
keep going, and to continue our researches at several levels we are in
need of funds.
2. Viking-Phoenician Links
An Israeli Naval historian some time ago pointed out that the Phoenician
sailing ship was in terms of its design
identical with the later Viking one.
We also published a new item saying that DNA tests traced the Vikings to
the area of Lebanon and its surroundings.
This finding was apparently too controversial so the tests were checked and
a "mistake" was suddenly discovered.
In the following note Orjan Svensson points to other possible similarities.
In a cultural sense several of the ancient Israelite Tribes could be
considered Phoenician.
From: Orjan Svensson <orjan.svensson@mbox300.swipnet.se>
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-256
Shalom,
In a new work by Fredrik Svanberg (published 2003) I read concerning burial
customs in south-east Scandinavia during the Viking Age
(800-1000 CE):
"Concerning the areas to the east - Blecinga eg, Moere and Eowland
- which according to Wulfstan "belonged to" Sweon, a similar
supra-regional ritual system cannot be suggested to have existed,
although there were similarities between ritual systems here.
It is interesting to note, however, that these areas seem to have been
parts of an "eastern" network of contacts between people of a certain
social standing. This may be demonstrated by the distribution in
registered burials of certain kinds of artefacts deposited in the tenth
century. Most important is perhaps the distribution of burials with certain
types of jewellery - ringed pins of Thunmark Nylen's types IV and
V, small round pendants and equal-armed brooches of Callmer's
"Obbestorp series". In south-east Scandinavia, burials with
weighing equipment also seem to have a markedly eastern distribution
(fig. 20). The occurrence in burials of beads of cornelian or rock
crystal, brought to Scandinavia from the Orient, seems to
correspond well to the indicated view of an "eastern" sphere of
contacts (fig. 21)."
What part of the Orient is meant here I am not certain, but the custom
of burying beads together with the dead certainly occured not only amongst
the Scandinavians, but also for example amongst the Phoenicians (in an earlier
period), which I find of some interest:
"As burials attest, the deceased was provided with all the requirements
for the afterlife.....Items of jewellery - earrings, bracelets, rings,
and beads - formed common elements of personal adonment."
("Phoenicians" by Glenn E. Markoe, page 139.)
Similarly, pottery has also been found both in the Scandinavian graves and
in Phoenician, although the shapes of the Scandinavian pottery was more
simple.
In Viking Age south-east Scandinavia both inhumations and cremations occurred.
In some areas (for example the district of Geri in Scania and in the island
of Bornholm) inhumation dominated, while in other areas (such as Blekinge and
Waerende) cremation dominated in the period 800-1000 CE, which is shown in
Mr. Svanberg's works.
I find it interesting that there was a similar situation in Phoenicia and also
to some extent in coastal "Palestine", i.e. Eretz Israel, i.e. Israel or
Judah or Philistine, in about 800 BCE:
"Among the mainland Phoenicians, the predominant burial practice during the
Late
Bronze Age was inhumation, the interment of the deceased. Some time early
in the
first millenium BC, a new method of burial disposal - cremation -appeared in
the coastal Levant, both along the Phoenician mainland and in the neigbouring
Syria and Palestine.....The succeeding centuries witnessed the contemporary
usage
of both burial practices on the continent."
("Phoenicians" by Glenn E. Markoe, page 139.)
On the web, further, I read:
"CREMATION BURIALS IN IRON I & II: Cremation burial,
unknown in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, appears in Iron I and continues
into Iron II. The earliest form of cremation burial, urn burial, (Azor) occurs
almost exclusively in the coastal region of southern Palestine. (NOTE: only
two
known examples predate the 10th century.) In the tenth-eighth century, these
urn burials (er-Reqeish, 200 cemetery Tell el-Farah S) bear striking
similarity
to contemporary burials in the Phoenician colonies of north Africa. By late
Iron II, it appears that cremation urn burials may be replaced by cremation
pyre burials (see Atlit),
though there is minimal evidence at this time to confirm this observation."
Here it says "coastal region of southern Palestine", so I assume that therefore
the cremation burials were practiced by the Philistines.
However, although cremation is against the Mosaic code, could it not be that
some Israelites also practiced cremation, since the northern tribes had
adopted lots of heathen customs?
Orjan
3. On the Brit-Am appeal
From: C
Subject: Re: Brit-Am appeal
Shalom Yair:
Thank G-d that I am still receiving all your mail. I would be most unhappy
if they ever begin to not let me receive any mail from your Organization.
4. Biblical Proofs: Isles-2
The Fires in the Isles
[Isaiah 24:14] THEY SHALL LIFT UP THEIR VOICE, THEY SHALL SING FOR THE
MAJESTY OF THE LORD, THEY SHALL CRY ALOUD FROM THE SEA.
<<FROM THE SEA>>: In Hebrew, Me-Yam, also meaning from the west. The
Aramaic Translation and Rabbinical Commentators say it means THE EXILES
WILL BE IN THE WEST IN THE LAST DAYS! Then it goes on to speak of Britain.
[Isaiah 24:15] WHEREFORE GLORIFY YE THE LORD IN THE FIRES, EVEN THE NAME
OF THE LORD GOD O ISRAEL IN THE ISLES OF THE SEA.
Piotr Gasiorowski: <<I think the tradition of erecting hilltop cairns and
mounds as orientation marks, and of using beacon fires for long-distance
communication was very strong in Celtic (also Roman) Britain; the landscape
of much of the country is as suitable for this purpose as could be. One
trace of that is the occurrence of the Brythonic element tan- 'fire' (Welsh
tan) in hill names (there are many Tan Hills in England). -- not only in
ancient times but all through history down to the invention of the
telegraph. For example, a network of beacons set up on hilltops was used in
England in 1588 to signal the approach of the Spanish Armada, and once it
was spotted off the Scillies the news reached the English commanders in no
time at all.>>
Adapted from "Lost Israelite Identity", by Yair Davidy
<<"The Chronicles of Eri, being the history of the Gaal Sciot Iber, or the
Irish People, translated from the Phoenician dialect of the Scythian
language", by Roger O' Connor were published in London in two volumes in
1822. It is not certain what sources this work is based upon but internal
evidence indicates that it derived from similar ancient traditions as those
known from elsewhere from Irish sources. The Irish had Oral traditions,
written Chronicles of their own and also were privy to Early Medieval
scholarship that developed from Latin records and much of which was genuine
and most of which has been lost. They also oral traditions and there were
individuals who would consider it a privilege and duty to commit to memory
the traditions of their region. The Chronicles of Eri do not expressly say
that their ancestors were Hebraic but they talk around the subject so that
Hebrew origins are the logical conclusion to be drawn even though such may
not have been the intention of the editor or "translator" who attempts to
date the described events long before the time of Israelite exile.
<<The Chronicle says that the Gaali had been in Armenia, and
the Caucasus. They were traders and metallurgists, and archers. Oppressed
by the Assyrians they fled via Hamath in northern Syria [-Which
incidentally was known later as "Daphne of Antiochia" and was considered
one of three regions through which the Lost Ten Tribes were taken into
exile, according to the M idrash. The Jewish historian Nahum Slouschz
(1909) regarded the Exile of Daphne of Antiochea to represent
those Israelites who were associated with the Phoenicians].
The Chronicles tells how the Gaali sail to Spain which was then ruled by
the Phoenicians who in turn were directed from (Assyrian-controlled?)
Hamath. In Spain at first they are forced to work for Phoenician overseers.
They move from the southern area of Tartessos to Galatia in the northwest
and shake off Phoenician control. Together with the Phoenicians from their
base in Spain they establish mining operations in Cornwall, in Britain.
Some of them move to Aquitaine in Gaul. Due to war and famine, those in
Spanish Galatia all eventually emigrate to Ireland. Though not Phoenicians
they worship God under the form of baal, receive instruction in Phoenician
ways, bear Hebrew-sounding names and seem to have Israelite-values such as
an aversion to images and other characteristics.
These people (the Gaal of Sciot) had the custom of lighting beacon fires on
the coasts.
"All the headlands and promontories belonging to the Gaal of
Sciot on the northwest coast of Spain were called in the Phoenician
language Breoccean, that is, The Land of Flaming Fires, because of the
blaze that was kept up and could be seen at a great distance out to sea.
The same custom was observed on the coast of Cornwall and Devonshire after
the Gaal of Sciot joined with the Phoenicians in their mining operations
there, and that land was called Breotan, Breo meaning Flaming Fire" [cf.
"BIAR" = burn in Hebrew].
<<This practice has been used to explain a verse in Isaiah:
"They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the
majesty of the LORD. They shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore,
glorify the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in
the isles of the sea" (Isaiah 24;14-15).
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