A Critical Review and Update of Robert Graves "The White Goddess" - An Investigation (Page 6)

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Summary so far: The date for the events of the Cad Goddeu ('The Battle of the Trees') suggested by Graves seems too early for any supposed event involving replacement of an older alphabet with a newer alphabet in Britain to have taken place. However, the events may have happened earlier. If we explore 1700 BCE as their possible date of occurence, there were several alphabets or collections of sounds that might have been the 13-consonant alphabet that Graves calls the "Beth-Luis-Nion", which Graves suggests was already in use in Britain by some group living there, at the time when what he suggested were the "Celts" arrived. And there may have been was a Semitic language spoken in Britain possibly even before 1700 BCE, by the Picts who were there mining tin.

KEY QUESTION SIX: To establish whether the events described in "The White Goddess" could have occurred around 1700 BCE, we must now examine the other part of the event: the arrival in Britain of a 15-consonant alphabet.

What was happening in the world in 1700 BCE that supports the possibility of the arrival of a new alphabet in Britain, as described in "The White Goddess"?

A language "context" map is at - http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/language/map.html

Good maps of the Middle East and Mediterranean cultures are at:
- http://www.imninalu.net/history.htm
"The Middle East at the dawn of civilisation" shows the Semitic cultures as a small wedge among Indo-European and Mediterranean peoples.
- http://www.viewzone.com/thyia.html

Why so little is known about ca 1700 BC early Bronze Age:
http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/chrono.html
"In general, absolute dates for the Aegean Stone and Bronze Ages are not yet very reliable and many different sets of dates are often in use for one and the same phase or period. A major debate has been raging since 1987 over the absolute date of the great volcanic explosion of the island of Thera/Santorini early in the Late Bronze Age. As a result, absolute dates within the first two-thirds of the second millennium B.C. (ca. 2000-1350 B.C.) are presently in an unusually active state of flux."
Evidently, no one right now wants to set dates for what we do know, until this is resolved.

But a major breakthrough was made from tree-rings found in the lava: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5773/548
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 B.C.

And: Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(2):446-9. Epub 2006 Sep 28.
"Medical papyri describe the effects of the Santorini eruption on human health, and date the eruption to August 1603-March 1601 BC."

There is a book with the start of a revised chronology just out: Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C.
Sturt W. Manning,1,2* Christopher Bronk Ramsey,3 Walter Kutschera,4 Thomas Higham,3 Bernd Kromer,5 Peter Steier,4 Eva M. Wild4
"Radiocarbon (carbon-14) data from the Aegean Bronze Age 1700–1400 B.C. show that the Santorini (Thera) eruption must have occurred in the late 17th century B.C. By using carbon-14 dates from the surrounding region, cultural phases, and Bayesian statistical analysis, we established a chronology for the initial Aegean Late Bronze Age cultural phases (Late Minoan IA, IB, and II)."

Also: Chronology at the Crossroads - Bernard Newgrosh
"At last, a clear model integrating revised Egyptian dates with Assyrian history. Hittite, Hurrian and Assyrian histories are placed in harmony."


What was going on in Europe and the Middle East around 1700 BC?

Some background:
2700 - Mideast: Sumerian historic record opens; syllabic writing starts to develop from early pictograms.
2525 - 525 almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years. Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls.
2500-1700 Mideast: Harappan civilization
2500 Mideast: appearance of Hurrians, who may have had ties to, or origins in, India
2400 The Maritime Bell Beaker - Atlantic facade trade and culture network through which metal-mining and possibly Celtic languages were introduced to the British Atlantic fringe. Maritime Bell Beaker along copper routes spreads Celtic as far as Ireland mines.
2400 - 2200 The beginning of the Irish Bronze Age
2200 Indus Harappa script
22nd - 20th centuries: Egyptian alphabet
2200-2100 There was a drought which is now being connected up with a number of changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2_kiloyear_event
For example, from 2100-1700, population in Sumeria reduced 3/5ths.

2000-1500 - precious metals joined the Neolithic trade routes, with items such as gold lunulae (ornaments in the shape of a crescent moon) moving from Ireland to Cornwall and Brittany. (Oppenheimer, Origins of the British, 273)
1900- Linear A script (Phoenician?)
1800 Wadi el-Hol = Egyptian alphabet
1800 Hittite alphabet - 13 consonants - not agglutinative

Around 1800 B.C. Anittas and his father Pitkhanas of Kussara sacked several Hittite cities, including Hattusas, though Anittas laid a curse upon that city and trade broke off until the founding of the Old Kingdom under King Labarnas around 1680 B.C. He and his descendents greatly expanded the region of Hittite control, crossing the Taurus mountains and waging war on Syria and Assyria.

"ca. 1800 B.C. Goods begin to travel widely between cultures north and south. Spearheads, swords, and imported jewelry appear in European tombs, as do pins with wheel-shaped heads, which may refer to the chariot, a powerful status symbol. Throughout Europe, small groups seek status by controlling metals and other resources and acquiring the outward signs of wealth."

1795 Rim-Sin of Larsa defeats Isin & takes over Sumer & Akkad
1786 - First horse-drawn war chariots rolled into Egypt ( = Hyksos?)
1766 - 1763 - wars between the city-states of Babylon (& code of Hammurabi)
1760 Hammurapi of Babylon defeats Larsa & takes over Sumer & Akkad
1730 - Hyksos establish themselves at Avaris
1720 Shift of Euphrates River & collapse of life at Nippur & some other cities of Sumer
(Some of these are from "Sumerian Timeline" at http://history-world.org/timeline.htm)

CONCLUSION: In 1700 BCE, the Bronze Age was in full swing, Europe, including Britain, and the Middle East were well-connected in trade, and there were several alphabets in existence. And there were disturbances in the Middle East and the Mediterranean that could well have led to dispersion of settled populations. There is no evidence of an influx of new DNA into Ireland or Britain; which is in accord with Oppenheimer's argument in "Origins of the British" that the Celtic language and culture arrived WITHOUT a big influx of population. However, there may have been a big change in who had control of various mining operations, and there could well have been battles over that.

CONTINUE ON TO MORE DISCUSSION OF ROBERT GRAVES' THE WHITE GODDESS