AN ANCIENT ANSWER TO AN AGE-OLD QUESTION: EVIDENCE OF LOST ISRAEL IN EARLY ANNALS
By
Pastor Jory Steven Brooks, Canada W HERE is lost Israel? Bible readers throughout the Christian centuries have pondered the fate of the ten tribes of the House of Israel who vanished into Assyrian exile in the 7th icentury, B.C. There is no shortage of modern ideas concerning their fate, but the real answer to this historic riddle lies not far beneath the surface of ancient annals found in Europe.
These annals are the Norse sagas, which concern events dating back into prehistory, passed down by word of mouth and embellished with mythological elements overtime.Yet it is not difficultt o see the underlying course of events they describe, even though not written down until over a millennium later.
The book, "Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times" discusses the significance of the ancient sagas. These ancient accounts "tell us of the earliest ages of civilization" and present to us the early "life of the nations, whose home was bounded by the Indian Ocean, the Caspian and Black Seas, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea".We know this area today as the Middle-East, an area identified by scholars as the early homeland of both the Israelites and the Celto-Saxon peoples, including the Norse.
Asgard in Midgard or Media The Norse homeland was a city called Asgard, which was located within a region called by the sagas, Midgard. "TheGods gave them Midgard for a home" says author Sigvart Sorenson, (Norway, pg.20). The suffix "gard" originally meant a region, city, or stronghold. It is found today in the word, "grad" meaning a city, as in Petrograd, or Peter's City. It is also the parent of our English word, "yard" meaning a fenced enclosure. A number of scholars recognize that this Norse word, "Mid-gard" is a thinly veiled reference to the region of "Media" in the Middle East.
For example, "Etymons of English Words" by John Thomson states that "according to Gothic authors, Asgard in Media, the ancient capital of our forefathers...is called Aderkind or Azerkind by the Persians...Kind in the Persian name is the Gothic gard, Russian gorod, an enclosure."(pp.7-8). Thomson also adds, "The Massagetae were so named...from Saxon Maethas, the Medians."(p.9). The Massagetae were one branch of the Gatai or Goths, later known in Europe by other names such as Angles, Saxons, and Norse, and the name indicates their place of origin in Media. Historian Sharon Turner commented that the existence of hundreds of Medo-Persian words in the Saxon language as due to their former residence there, (History of the Anglo-Saxons).
The word, Norse means "northern people" because their final destination was Scandinavia in Northern Europe. As such, it is a later designation for these people. Sir Francis Palgrave comments that the original homeland of the Norse was in "Asgard, the chief city of the Ases, beyond the Tanais." The Tanais was the ancient name of the River Don in southern Russia, located just north of the Caucasus Mountains. A straight line drawn from Scandinavia southeast beyond the Tanais and the Caucasus points directly to the homeland of the Norse in Mid-gard, the Middle East. Rasmus Anderson in "Teutonic Mythology," says that according to theVafthrudnersmal Edda, an early Norse forefather named, "Njord...was sent as a hostage of the gods to Asgard; he had to journey eastwards,"(p.474). Underlying this ancient account seems to be a racial remembrance of their forefathers being taken captive into exile eastward into the Median area of Asgard. The Bible tells a similar story of God's people, Israel being captive exiles also sent eastward into Media; and like the Norse saga, it is God who claims responsibility, (Isaiah 10:5-6). As we will see, the parallel Hebrew-Norse exile accounts in reality constitute the same event.
The Hebrew Connection Links between Israel and the early Norse are pervasive. According to 2 Kings 17, the Israelites were sent into captive exile by God to "the cities of the Medes", Media, the Norse Midgard. Anderson tells us that in the Lokasenna Edda, the Norse god Loki says to Njord: "From here (Aegir's Hall located on the sea) you were sent out esat as a hostage to the gods." Here we learn that Njord, as a representative of the Norse people themselves, had dwelt on the sea before his captive exile. The Israelites also had dwelt on the sea, in Canaan, before being conquered and exiled. Anderson supposes that this sea "known by the Teutons, was the North Sea." However it is not the North Sea, but the Mediterranean Sea from which an eastward journey would lead to both Midgard and Asgard in Media. The Bible's account of Israel's captivity and exile from Canaan to Media. perfectly fits the underlying details given in the sagas.
Anderson also says that "Asgard [was located] not far from the native home of the Vans." Who were they? The sagas simply refer to them as a race of gods. Historians know of no tribe in past ages called the Vans but the name suggests a people who dwelt in the area of Lake Van in northern Medo-Persia, which indeed would have put them in proximity to the area of the exiled Israelites. They may actually have been another group of exiled Israelites themselves, because Halah,one of the places of exile (2 Kings 17: 6) was located near Lake Van; and according to the sagas, the Vans later united with the people of Asgard.
The word Asgard, itself means the "city of the people called Ases, this word "Ases" or "Asen" means the "godmen" or more properly "The people of God", a distinctive term used by the Israelites (Judges 20:2; 2 Samuel 14:13). Asgard, the city of the people of God, was ruled by twelve diar or gods (Sir Francis Palgrave stated, "According to the Northmen, the institution of duodenary courts is coeval with their race."(ibid, p.108) the word, duodenary, again refers to the number twelve. This is very significant, because Semitic people such as the Hebrews used a sexigesimal numbering system based on multiples of the number six.
The Hebrew connection with the Norse or Goths is shown by Boyd Dawkins, in "Early Man in Britain" who states that "we can... trace their western progress over Europe from their Eastern home, from the birthplace of the nations, Asgard...We can prove that they were composed of two distinct elements, the older or the non-Aryan Iberic and the later or the Celtic..."(p4). Since the name Iberic means a descendent of the Hebrew patriarch Eber, Dawkins provides a basis for the Hebrew-Semitic descent of a significant proportion of the peoples of Westem Europe. "The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel" by W. H. Bennett has an important chapter showing the Hebrew descent of the Iberic (or Iberian) peoples.
John Thomson adds, "The Celtic language, including the Hellenic and Latin dialects is supposed to have been general throughout Europe...and its affinity to the Arabic, Hebrew and Phoenician, has been generally admitted...The [Celtic] Druids practised their mysterious devotions in sacred groves like the idolatrous Hebrews".
This Celtic idolatry was itself an important mark of identification. Du Challu, in "The Viking Age" (ii: 44) reveals that "Odin was originally a Jotun [i.e., powerful man] and it would appear from the mythological literature of the North that, for some reason, he wished to found a new religion." The House of Israel was banished from Canaan for this very reason: they had adopted pagan religious practices and were not obeying the commands of God. We read the prophet's denunciation of these Hebrew and Druidic rites in 2 Kings 17:7-10. For a more complete survey of the connection between the religious rites of the Hebrews and Celts, see the article, "Celtic Mythology" on the CBIA website at http://www.israelite.ca.
Norse heroes provides additional evidence of a Hebrew identification. "Helgi, the holy one (German heilige), [was] the son of Halfdan, the half of Father Dan, the judge," (Ruling Races p.96) The word, Dan, means judge in Hebrew and Dan later gave their name to the nation of Denmark or "Dan's Mark" as well as a number of rivers in Eastern Europe, such as Don, Dniester, Dnieper, Danapris, Eridanus and Danube.
We also find that giants play a significant part in the Norse sagas, which may be a remembrance of one of the best-known Bible stories: David's victory over Goliath. .Our English word, colossus, is derived from the word, "Gollius" the Hebrew form of the name Goliath. The sagas even tell us that "Asgard is a place where giants are refused admittance." Did these mythological giants receive life and inspiration from an early Bible story that we still treasure today?
Ancient mythology is far more than just fictional storytelling. It is a cultural remembrance of the remote past as well as the travels and deeds of our ancestors. This study has only scratched the surface of a deeper analysis yet to be completed in book form.
Dan, The Pioneer of Israel
By Colonel J.C. Gawler, Keeper of the Crown Jewels
Chapter I
Dan, the name � History of Dan gathered from the Bible � Intimacy with the Phoenicians � Israelitish and Phoenician enterprise � Prefix Don, or Dan.
The Tribe of Dan by its enterprise and vigour has made itself one of the most conspicuous branches of Jacob�s family. Its ancestor was the son of one of the concubines, and was the firstborn of Rachel�s household. �God hath judged me,� said Rachel, and she called his name �Dan,� which means to judge, to rule. This word, while perhaps on that occasion first started as a surname, has been perpetuated as a title in the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and English. In these languages Din, Dun, Don, and Dan, signify ruler, master. The expression is repeatedly used by Shakespeare, Spenser, Chaucer, Prior, and others. The Spanish, too, from close contact for ages with the Hebrew, have engrafted it in their title of Don. It is in use in our universities to designate a professor or university official. [i]
How often do we see in the Bible that the name of an individual foreshadows the character and career. Dan�s name given by Rachel implies authority and vigour, and Jacob, when bestowing his blessings (Gen. 49:16), repeats and confirms it. �Dan shall judge his people,� said the venerable patriarch, and proceeded to name other characteristics implying great wisdom and astuteness. The serpent is the Scripture symbol of wisdom. (Gen. 3:1; Matt. 10:16) In dealing with foes his plans would be laid with wisdom and secrecy, and his action would be unlooked for and rapid.
�I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord,� is the ejaculation of Jacob as he concluded his blessing to Dan. What was in the patriarch�s mind? Did a vision of Dan�s future career pass in review before him? Did he see the pioneers of Israel by land and sea carrying on their enterprise and explorations, trading among the Grecian Islands into the Black Sea, up the various rivers, crossing Asia Minor, exploring Europe, scouring the Mediterranean, on into the broad Atlantic, meeting the overland parties at the Baltic, settling in Denmark, and making a secret secure little hiding-place and sanctuary for centuries in Ireland, and other settlements in England and Scotland? And did the patriarch still see this Tribe in the van leading back to the Land of Promise to take up their first place, the most Northerly, in the day when the Lord shall beat off �from the channel of the river of Egypt�? in that day when the Lord shall �bind up the breach of His people, and heal the stroke of their wound.�
Shortly after the Israelites left Egypt, the Tribe of Dan numbered of fighting men alone, �from twenty years old and upwards all that were able to go forth to war, 62,700� (Num. 1:38, 39); and their very lot that fell to them in the Promised Land was calculated to stir up the inherent spirit. Their lot was on the coast from Ashkelon to Joppa, and it was in the purposes of God �too little for them� (Josh. 19:40-47), B.C. 1443. So in a very few years (Judges 18), 600 of them with their families and bagage marched off northward to the spurs of Hermon and conquered a corner of Bashan. With a sort of esprit de corps and veneration for their ancestor, which marked the whole career of this Tribe, they called the name of their new conquest �Dan, after the name of Dan their father.� (ver. 29) It bears the impress of their determination to assert themselves, and to verify their name to rule and be masters.
Much was probably done in the following years, but the Scriptures were written with one object, and hence, matter irrelevant to that object finds no place. Yet it came within the purpose of God to tell us that about B.C. 1285 (Judges 5:17) Dan had ships and got on board them when an invasion threatened; and, as for many years previous to this, Israel had been for long intervals under the yoke of Jabin, King of Canaan, of the King of Moab, the King of Mesopotamia, and of the Philistines. Dan must have been paying some attention to nautical matters, and the love of enterprise and freedom had probably considerably reduced the numbers left behind, who, unable then to cope with their enemies, finally thought it more prudent to follow. Certain it is that the Tribe of Dan entirely disappeared from Palestine. In I Chron. 4-6, which were written after the Babylonish captivity, Dan, as well as Zebulun and Asher, also coast Tribes, are omitted from the genealogies. Alford, on Rev. 7, quotes several writers as believing that Dan became �as good as extinct.� Grotius quotes a Jewish tradition that this Tribe was early reduced to one family, named Huss, which is known to have perished in the wars before the time of Ezra. Eldad, a Jewish writer in the 14th or 9th century, writing to the Spanish Jews, saying that �in Jeroboam�s time (B.C. 975) the Tribe of Dan, being unwilling to shed their brethren�s blood, took a resolution of leaving their country.� [ii]
Whatever became of them, therefore, they disappeared from Palestine entirely. But, that it was not an extinction, we know from the fact that it is recorded in Ezek. 48, that in the final division of the land, which has not yet taken place, Dan comes in for his share at the head of the list.
The Old Testament, having put us in this position, gives us one clue where to look for the lost, and then leaves it. The New Testament, to my mind, furnishes another clue as to their whereabouts at a later period, by omitting the Tribe altogether from the sealing of the 144,000. (Rev. 7)
The Old Testament clue is as follows: Ezekiel (27:17-19), writing circ. B.C. 588 against Tyre and pronouncing her doom, says, �Judah and the land of Israel� (not the Israelites themselves who were then in captivity, but such inhabitants as were there) �were thy merchants. � Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs.� Now in three places in Daniel, where Alexander the Great is distinctly indicated, and one in Zechariah, Javan is translated �Greece�; Josephus also (i. Vi. 1) mentions Javan as being Greece. Hence Dan is indicated as in company with Greece trading with Tyre.
The Danites and the men of Tyre were naturally on very intimate terms. It was a very remarkable privilege to be accorded to a foreign nation � if foreign � to be allowed to help in building Solomon�s Temple. The Danites and the people of Tyre intermarried; the cunning craftsman especially sent by Hiram to superintend the work of the Temple was the son of a man of Tyre, and his mother was of the daughters of Dan. (II Chron. 2:14)
Now it is necessary to bear in mind this intimate connection recorded in the Bible of the Phoenicians with Israel, especially with Dan. We must remember the numerical strength of this Tribe alone, 62,700 fighting men (i.e. neither old men nor boys), shortly after their leaving Egypt. (Num. 2:25, 26) We must consider the schooling they had had with the then most advanced nation in the world in literature and science. Moses �was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians� (Acts 7:22); and, beyond all this, we must remember God�s promises concerning Israel. The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not be likely to collapse and wither when in contact with other races! We must bear all this in mind because we find Grecian, Irish, Scandinavian, and English histories teeming with notices of a certain race called Danai, or Dannaans, or Dannonii, who are either called Phoenicians, or mentioned in company with Phoenicians. Almost wherever Phoenicians are said to have traded, there we either hear of these Danai, or we find a river or district stamped with the name of Dan according to the early custom recorded of that Tribe in the Scriptures.
In a lecture delivered to Jewish working men and their families at the Jews� Infant School on May 23rd, 1875, the Rev. A. L. Green stated as follows (Jewish Chronicle, May 28th, 1875):
�Our forefathers in their happiest times, in the golden age of the nation�s glory, were indeed the public carriers of their day, travellers for commercial enterprise to all the then known countries near and far. The ships of Solomon rivalled the Phoenician navy. The ports of Elath and Sziongeber were filled with the ships of Tarshish, which sailed down the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, to Ophir, to Sheba, to Arabia Felix, to India and Ceylon, and through the Pillars of Hercules; brought home copper from Cyprus and tin from Spain, possibly from Cornwall. The Talmud is filled with special regulations bearing on the exceptional wants springing from these various avocations. Synagogues were from earliest times attached to special centres of industry and frequented by special traders, and a workman�s ritual was specially arranged to suit the artisan, the landsman, and the seafarer. The pursuits of commerce, in its various ramifications, were covered by an admirable code of international law. The laws of agency and insurance and hypothecation were codified. Promissory notes and bills of exchange were formulated even in Mishnaic times.�
We may here pause to ask, What has become of this spirit of enterprise and love of adventure, this active, roving, restless spirit? It surely does not exist in the Jews of the present day. What has become of the commercial sailor race which this learned Jewish lecturer describes when speaking of Israel �in the golden age of the nation�s glory�? It assuredly does not describe the Jews of the present day, but all must admit that it is an admirable description of ourselves!
In the Manual of Ancient History (p. 214) I read as follows:
�From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century B.C., several colonies from Egypt, Phoenicia, and Phrygia settled in different parts of Greece, bringing with them the improvements in the arts and sciences that had been made in their respective countries. A Phoenician colony under Cadmus settled in Boeotia; he was the first who introduced the use of letters into Greece � Phoenicians were at this period the undisputed masters of the Aegean.� . 86 � �Cyprus was not only a colony, but a province of the Tyrians. �From Cyprus they extended their settlements to Crete, thence they proceeded to Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia. � The Spanish peninsula � called in Scripture Tarshish � was the country with which the Tyrians had the most lucrative trade; and the colonies they established soon became independent States. Colonies were also planted beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. Trade was extended to the British Islands and to the coasts of the North Sea. It is known that the Phoenicians preceded the Greeks in forming commercial establishments along the coasts of Asia Minor and the shores of the Black Sea. � In the Eastern seas they had establishments on the Persian and Arabian Gulfs.�
Now let us track Dan�s footprints by this Phoenician light, and we shall find that almost wherever the Phoenicians have been, there, or in close proximity, on the name of some place, river, or province, the name of Dan is imprinted, as they did in their earliest independent conquest in Palestine. We have, then, on the Red Sea, Don-gola; [iii] in Greece, Caly-don, a river of Attica (Strabo), the Eri-dan; Make-don; the Danube, Danastris (now Dniester), Danapris (now Dnieper) og Don.
Before speaking of the people of Greece, and of the Colchians in the eastern corner of the Black Sea, we will take the probable route of an exploring overland party up the Danube to its source in the mountains of Switzerland, and there pick up another river, the Rho-dan (now the Rhone), down to the sea to the ancient so-called Phoenician town of Massilia, now Marseilles, and thence across to Sar-din-ia. Back again into Switzerland we pick up the Eri-dan (now the Po), flowing eastward through Venetia to the Adriatic. While in Venetia I would call to your attention to the following: We may infer from Ezek. 28:12-16, that Tyre had as one of her symbols or cognizances some cherubic device. The King of Tyre, in apparently a taunting message, is called �the anointed cherub,� and �the covering cherub,� and we find a winged lion the cognizance of Venice. Again, Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, was the proud merchant city of ancient times, and Venice, the capital of Venetia, held the same grand position in the middle ages. Is there not in addition some clear connection between Venetia and Phoenicia?
From Venetia we will return to the Dan-astris (Dniester), follow it to its source, where we pick up the Vistula, at the mouth of which is Dan-zig on the shores of the Co-dan Gulf (now the Baltic), across to Dannemora, opposite the Gulf of Finland, down the Baltic to Dannemerk, the country of our beloved Princess; across the North Sea to the Humber, where we find the river Don, and go south to Don-caster. Then we find a whole country Dannonia, now Devonshire, and from thence we may cross to that undisputed head-quarters of the Dannaans, the North of Ireland, anciently called Scotia, where we find an immense percentage not only of the names of places, but of the popular surnames with the prefix Don: Dundalk, Donegal and Donaghadee. This last place, if not the earliest, is one of the earliest reputed settlements of the Tuath de Dannan: it had a sound remarkably Hebrew, and transliterated becomes ������ Danhaghedee, �Dan my witness.� From ancient Scotia we pass over to modern Scotia, or Cale-don-ia, whose namesake we had in Greece. Here, among a host of others, we have Dumfries, Dumbarton (in these the letter n becomes m before the labial), Dundee, and Aberdeen (mouth of the Don), and the river Don.
[i] At a conference in Bayswater, in 1875, one of the opposition speakers took exception to these remarks. He believed that the university and Spanish Don was derived from the Latin Dominus; and, as for Dun, in Scotch it meant a hill. I had not an opportunity of replying, but the objector seemed not to know how thoroughly he was confirming what had been asserted. He did not seem to reflect that Rome, who was not even an infant in arms when Rachel said, �God hath judged me,� must have coined her Dominus and damno from the Hebrew or Phoenician. And, as regards Dun; Don, likewise, in the Gothic, means hill as well as master, and in this double signification they merely resemble the word eminence, which in Ireland especially is used as a title. Dun and Don therefore being identical, how come they to mean a hill, and yet often to be the name of a river, unless it be for the same reason that another form of the name was once also imposed on a town-viz., �After the name of Dan their father.� (Judges 18:29) [ii] Sailman. Researches in the East, 1818. [iii] The substance of this paper was delivered as a lecture at Clapham in 1876, when the Rev. Canon Titcomb, now Bishop of Rangoon, very kindly took the chair. Although a staunch Anglo-Israelite and a believer in Dan as an enterprising pioneer, he took exception to my claiming Don-gola as having anything to do with Dan, and thought it was �making Dan ubiquitous� to trace him to Africa. But, in point of fact, it is one of the easiest to defend, for in Dongola and the neighbourhood are at this moment two bodies of people � the Falashas and Karmantas � professing the Jewish faith, calling themselves Israelites, and acknowledged by our English Jews.
Chapter II
Danai of Greece are Dannites of Israel
Reputed Egyptian origin of both - Chronology agrees � Grecian Danai called Argives � Latham�s opinion � Phoenician connection of both � Argive Danai also called Heraclidae � Lacedaemonians are Argives and Heraclidae � Serpent and Eagle symbols common to both � Egyptian monuments in serpent worship refer to both, by Dr. Brugsch � The Macedonians or their ruling families were Argive Danai � Serpent and Eagle symbols of Alexander the Great and his Generals � Lacedaemonians (i.e., Danai Heraclidae) � Their eagle serpent seal � Acknowledged by Jewish High Priest to be their �brethren of the stock of Abraham.�
Having now given a general view of our field of operations, as marked by the names attached to rivers and countries, let us see how history and various marks favour the identification of these footprints as belonging to Dannites of Israel as identical with the Danai of Greece.
In history the renowned Danai of Greece are foremost. Danaus, it tells us, came from Egypt; so did Israel. And Jethro�s daughters, speaking of Moses, told their father �an Egyptian delivered us.� (Exod. 2:19) Strabo, who lived between 40 B.C. and 20 A.D., says (xvi. Ii. 34, 35), �the Egyptians were the ancestors of the modern Jews.� Apion, and Egyptian priest in the first century B.C., calls the Israelites renegade Egyptians. And thus it serves the purpose of identification well that Danaus of Grecian history should be represented as coming from Egypt. The Danai are mentioned by Homer, Pindar, Euripides, Strabo, and others. When we talk of Homer, and the still earlier times of which he sang, we are apt to think that these are so early that we could have no earlier records; but it will be well to refresh our memories with dates. � The siege of Troy, then, whose heroes on both sides Homer has immortalised, is believed to have taken place about 1193 B.C.; but Deborah and Barak taunted Dan with getting his ships nearly 100 years before that, or 1285 B.C.; and the conquest of the Holy Land by Joshua was a century and a half before that again, or about 1443 B.C.! The various dates assigned to the arrival of Danaus in Argos would place that event at from fourteen years to two hundred later than the conquest of the Holy Land.
According to Euripides and Strabo: �Danaus having arrived in Argos made a law that those who had borne the name of Pelasgiotoe throughout Greece should be called Danai.� (Strabo v.ii. 4) Compare this with the act of the people of Dan (Judges 18:29). We learn from Strabo and others that this Argos soon spread its name to the Pelonnesus, and afterwards to all Greece, for he says (viii. 6, 5), �Homer calls the whole of Greece Argos, for he calls all Argives, as he calls them Danai and Achoei.�
�I think,� says Latham (Ethnology of Europe, p. 157), �that the eponymus of the Argive Danai was no other than that of the Israelite Tribe of Dan, only we are so used to confining ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the Israelites, that we treat them as if they were adscripti gleboe, and ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world. The sea ports between Tyre and Ascalon, of Dan, Ephraim, and Ashur, must have followed the history of sea ports in general, and not have stood on the coast for nothing. What a light would be thrown on the origin of the name Peloponnesus and the history of the Pelop-id family if a bona fid nation of Pelopes, with unequivocal affinities and contemporary annals, had existed on the coast of Asia! Who would have hesitated to connect the two? Yet with the Danai and the Tribe of Dan this is the case, and no one connects them!�
To revert to Argos, this head of all Greece, the first city of the Danai, it stood with two others, Mycene and Tiryns, the latter of which, standing as it does close to the city of the Danai, might derive its name from Tyre. There is another instance of this kind, the Danaster (Dniester) is sometimes called the Tyras (Herod. Iv. 51; Strabo vii. i. 1), and the people living there are called Tyritae. It is reasonable to infer that, from the intimate home relations of the people of Tyre with the Dannites of Israel, the names of Tyre and Dan were used indiscriminately.
Argos is said by the Greeks to have been the birthplace of Hercules, but Herodotus, who went to some trouble to find out who Hercules really was, made a special voyage to Tyre (ii. 44) and found an older Temple to Hercules.
The origin of the Grecian Hercules, or rather Heracles as it is in Greek, seems to me to have been in the daring adventures and exploits of the semi-traders and buccaneers of Tyre and Dan, out of which they formed an ideal man suitable to that heroic age, and in apparent conformity with the earliest Divine command (Gen. 1:26, 28) to �subdue� and �have dominion.� In Hebrew rakal means to trade and Heracleem means traders. [i] Those who went forth from Argos and subdued other parts of Greece are spoken of as Heraclidae, or descendants of Heracles. For a while, apparently in the confusion caused by the Trojan War, they were driven northward out of the Peloponnesus, of which some years after they made a re-conquest, which was called �the return of the descendants of Hercules.� (see Muller�s History of the Dorians) From these are the Lacedaemonians, whose capital was Sparta. Thus Agamemnon, who was chosen Commander-in-Chief of all the Greeks proceeding to the siege of Troy, was King of Argos and Mycene, and his brother, Menelaus, was King of Sparta, capital of Lacedaemon.
Herodotus (iv. 147) calls Theras regent of Lacedaemon, a Cadmonean and Phoenician. But, with this confused assignment of Egyptian and Phoenician origin, which admirably suits the Israelites, we have this fact prominent, that a people called Danai arrived in Argos and extended their rule over all Greece, and that the Lacedaemonians, whether as Argives or Heraclidae, were the most notable branch from this place. To this point I shall have to refer again.
But again: We will try to identify these Grecian Danai by their symbols. The serpent is held by various Hebrew and Chaldee writers to have been the cognizance of Dan: �Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path,� said Jacob (Gen. 49:17). The serpent was an emblem of sin as well as of wisdom and subtility (Be ye wise as serpents), and the patriarch may have foreseen that this Tribe would be the first to lapse into idolatry. At any rate, this fact has not escaped Jewish or Gentile writers. As head of three Tribes � i.e., one of the four camps � Dan had also the eagle, one of the four cherubic symbols, and hence the two signs are often combined. �Ancient learned Jewish authorities unanimously assert that Dan bore scorpio under an eagle.� (Mazzaroth 39) �Ancient Hebrew and Chaldee authorities say that Dan bore on his standard a crowned serpent or basilisk held in the claws of an eagle.� (Mazzaroth 41)
Of the four evangelists, St. John�s emblem is the eagle, and in many of the representations of him the serpent also is introduced. His mission was chiefly, if not entirely, among the Greeks. St. John�s symbol also sometimes takes form of a dragon, a compound of the serpent with the eagle and lion; for Dan was also called by his father �a lion�s whelp.�
As regards the employment of these four symbols among the Greeks, I find in Wedgewood�s Book of Remembrance, i. 175: �Cecrops, the founder and first king of Athens (also said to have come from Egypt, and who founded twelve cities), was said to have been half a man and half a serpent. It is said in another account that the first king of Athens was a dragon, which symbol was borrowed by the Romans from Greece.�
In a coin of Athens, a female figure in a chariot is drawn by two serpents. (Calmet�s Dict. V. Athens, 19)
The oracle at Delphi, being consulted by the people of Argos (Herod. vi. 77), speaks of the Argives as �the triple-coiled serpent,� referring probably to the three cities of Argos, Mycene, and Tiryns.
We also find the eagle prominent in Greece:
Woolridge, Drawings from Gems, London, 1868. No. 161 is Jupiter Tonans enthroned with sceptre, the eagle at his side on the ground, from an engraved crustal gem.
Calmet�s Dict. V. Ashtaroth 3, Greek coin with an eagle. The celebrated statue of Zeus, sitting enthroned in the Temple at Olympia, held a sceptre tipped with an eagle. (�Saturday Magazine,� 1840, xvi., 51. Lempriere Jupiter, 382)
The eagle was regarded by the Greeks as the minister or attendant of Jupiter, as if the Dannites, who probably introduced the symbol, might have regarded themselves as God�s executive. Jove�s sceptre, the emblem of authority and rule, was, as Dan might have thought befitted himself, tipped with the eagle.
At Baalbec, which was the limit of Joshua�s conquests (Josh. 11:17), and which, if not occupied by Dan, was not far from his northern portion, in the so-called Phoenician Temple. It is described in University History, vol. ii, 266, and in �Notes of a Clerical Furlough,� Dr. Buchanan, Sunday at Home, 1862, p. 743: �The Temple appears to have been covered and embellished with eagles. On looking up when under the portalm, you see the bottom of the lintel enriched with a piece of sculpture hardly to be equalled. It is a vast eagle carrying in its claws two serpents entwined about a rod.� [ii]
Alexander the Great, of Macedon, represented himself to be the son of Jupiter in the form of a serpent. Ptolemy (a Hebrew name, better recognized when Bar is prefixed) and Seleucus, Alexander�s generals, were also Make-don-ians, and their medals all bear the eagle.
But we find that the Make-don-ians were Argives. One of their princes (Herod. v. 22) wished to take part in the Olympian games, in which only Greeks could compete. His right was first disputed, but he successfully proved before the judges that the Make-don-ians were Argives.
It is here worthy of notice that Alexander the Great showed great respect for the Jews; and, on being met before Jerusalem by the Jewish high priest in his robes, declared that he had seen in a dream his counterpart, by whom he was directed to undertake the expedition. (Josephus� Antiq. xi. viii. 5)
Tracing still further the serpent symbol, we find the antiquities of Egypt yielding their testimony to the identity of the Grecian Danai with Israelitish Dan. It is worthy of note that Danaus, who is recorded as landing in Greece from Egypt, was said to be the son of Belus, sometimes spelt Bela, which strongly resembles Bilhah, the name of Jacob�s concubine and mother of Dan. (Gen. 30:4-6)
Now Dr. Brugsch, writing on the Exodus of the Israelites, gives us this information, which I extracted from the Jewish Chronicle of Jan. 21st, 1876. He discovers �
�a city named Pi-tom, with the addition of the Egyptian monuments �in the district of Succoth,� and that the city is Tanis, or Zoan. The same place is also called Pi-Rameses. Pitom and Rameses, however, are the places where the Israelites were forced to build the treasuries or storehouses for their oppressors.�
Before proceeding, I would remark upon this city, Tanis or Zoan. The Hebrew צ used in the Zoan of the Bible (Psa. 78:12), is convertible into Z, S, D, or T. In the Greek and Latin, for instance, we have Zeus, Deus, and Theos. [iii] So the city may be called Tanis or Doan; and in the Black Sea we have the river Tanais or Don. [iv]
But to continue the quotation:
�As most of the places of this region can only be derived from the Hebrew, just like Succoth, it is clear that in these very regions the land of Gosen must be sought. The name Pi-tom denotes a city of (the god) Tom. Tom, however, add the inscriptions, is also called Ankh, with the surname the Great God. Investigation shows that Ankh denotes �the Living One,� and is nothing else than the Egyptian translation of the Hebrew Jehovah or Jahve. As a symbol of this God a serpent was worshipped in Pitom. This reminds us of the brass serpent of Moses, and of its worship, which only Hezekiah abolished.�
I would rather suggest that the serpent, as the cognizance of Dan, was the symbol of that city, one of whose names was Tanis, and eventually became corrupted as the emblem, or similitude, of the God of Dan. But, be this as it may, the locality ascribed to this Israelitish serpent worship in Egypt is the locality from which the Grecian Danai are said to have come. [v]
Taken in connection with the many common affinities and symbols already described, the crowning proof of the Identity of the Dannites of Israel with the Danai of Greece lies in the claim of relationship with the Jews preferred by the Lacedaemonians, the most important branch of the Argive Danai, which claim was duly admitted by the high priest at Jerusalem.
It is recorded in I Maccabees xii., and Josephus� Antiq. xii. iv. 10, that, about 180 years B.C., the King of the Lacedaemonians sent the following letter to the Jews in Jerusalem:
�Areus, King of the Lacedaemonians, to Onias, the High Priest, sendeth greeting. It is found in writing that the Lacedaemonians and Jews are brethren, and that they are the stock of Abraham. Now, therefore, since this has come to our knowledge, ye shall do well to write unto us of your prosperity.�
They give nu clue or hint as to what the relationship might be, except (recorded by Josephus only) calling attention to the seal: �The letter is four-square, and the seal is an eagle with a dragon in its claws� � the cognizant, in fact, of Dan. Now the Jews are stated by Josephus to have replied thus:
�We have joyfully received the epistle, and were well pleased with Demoteles and Araeus, although we did not need such a demonstration, because we were well satisfied about it from the sacred writings.� (Josephus xiii. v. 8)
Did the Jews allude to Ezek. 17:19, where Dan is represented in company with Greece trading with Tyre?
[i] ארבז Argoz also, fromרבז ragoz, to move, is Hebrew for �a portable chest,� a name which might well symbolize trade or commerce (so Argosy, a merchant ship). And the reputed mother of Heracles, Alcmene (whose name is sometimes applied to Minerva, goddess of Science), seems likely to be the Hebrew חמיכ chymeh, heat or warmth, as a producing or loosening power, with the particle לא al, as in Arabic, Alchymy. This seems the more probable as this Alcmene was said to be the daughter of Electryon, derived from the Greek word for amber, by rubbing which electric sparks are produced; known certainly to Thales, a so-called Phoenician, circ. 600 B.C. But the Greek word elektron seems derived from the Hebrew רטקketer, to fume, to make to smoke; as a noun, vapour, incense (for which amber, which gives a pungent aromatic smoke, was largely used), also with the particle לא al. The foundation of the whole may be, that at Thebes, in Boeotia, the adopted country of Cadmus the Phoenician, was a college in science, Alcmenem, which the aspiring young Dannites, sons of the enterprising traders or Herakleem of Argos, called their mother. [ii] The symbol of Marseilles, the ancient so-called Phoenician Massilia, is a figure resembling Britannia. She holds a trident, and wears a breastplate on which is an eagle surrounded by serpents. [iii] So also: Heb., Tzor; Eng., Tyre; Greek, indifferently, Sor and Turos (see Septuagint Ezek. 27:2, and 28:2); and modern Arabic, Sur. [iv] The oa in Tzoan, and the suggested Doan, may have been pronounced as in loan, moan, or perhaps a little brodder. [v] Dr. Schliemann�s collection in the South Kensington Museum of Antiquities, unearthed at Mycene and Argos, is worthy of notice. Models in pottery of some of his metal vases are sold about London. One of these, said to be a flower vase, is of most elegant shape. The handles are the neck, head, and wings of a winged horse, which, it has been conjectured, signifies migration. There are two or three small well-known Egyptian symbols � the owl and the scarabaeus � but the principal figures are cherubic; on one side two human-headed lions and an eagle-headed man; and on the other side two human-headed lions and an ox-headed man. Could these be relics of the Danai? Ethnologists would probably say that these were a portion of the Egyptian mythology. It might be so, but they might also as readily have been borrowed from the Israelites as the worship of Jehovah under the form of a serpent, suggested Dr. Brugsch.
Dan: The Pioneer of Israel, chap. 3:
Dan in the Black Sea
by Colonel J. C. Gawler, Keeper of the Crown Jewels
Jason's expedition�Thessalians, so-called Phoenicians, who composed it, were also Heraclidae and Argives�i.e., Danai�The Colchians, descendants of the Argonauts, acknowledged as relatives by the Lacedaemonians�Colchians, in Herodotus' time, observed circumcision�Towns of Jason, Median helmet�Divine forethought� " My sanctified ones "�Halor and Habor, Colchians and Iberians�"Elect of the dispersion "�Tumuli and serpent worship�Indian rock records of Dan and other Tribes of Israel, probably in Media, attacked by Cyrus.
It was, as nearly as chronologists can determine, about b.c. 1280 when Jason's expedition, composed of the flower of Thessaly, sailed in the Argo from the port of lolchos. To compare dates : this expedition took place about 160 years later than Joshua's conquest of Canaan, about 150 years later than Danaus' first colony in Argos, and about five years later than when Deborah and Barak taunted Dan with keeping on board ship.
The Thessalians are Heraclidae, for Thessalus was a mythical son of Heracles. Now Thessaly, Strabo tells us (ix. ii. 3), was colonised by Phoenicians (so called). He also tells us (v. ii. 4) that it was Argive. hence we come round again to the Danai. There is an additional tallying proof also of their being genuine Danai, for, many years afterwards, a shipload of the descendants of the Argonauts found their way back to Greece (Strabo viii. iii. 19; Herod, iv. 145), and claimed relationship with the Lacedaemonians, whom they called "their fathers;" and the claim was admitted.
To return to the Argonauts. Their object is shrouded in mythic legend, but it was probably some buccaneering enterprise. Heracles is said to have been on board; and they sailed to the Eastern extremity of the Black Sea, and founded Colchis, the modern Poti.
Herodotus (ii. 104) mentions the important fact that in his time, b.c. 420, the Colchians observed circumcision, 1 He adds:�" I found that the Colchians had more recollection of the Egyptians than the Egyptians had of the Colchians." Israel, indeed, would long retain a very lively recollection of the Egyptians! He also says (ii. 105):�"The Colchians alone, and the Egyptians, manufacture linen in the same manner, and the whole way of living and the language is similar in both nations; but the Colchian linen is called by the Greeks sardonic, 2 though that which comes from Egypt is called Egyptian."
These Argonauts�reinforced, perhaps, by fresh batches of their countrymen�pioneered their way inland, for Strabo (xi. xiv. 12�14, and i. ii. 39) says, "Traces of Jason's expedition still remain, and the Jasonica, or towns of Jason, are everywhere met with in Armenia, Media, and the surrounding countries." The Median helmet, we are told by several writers, was serpent-crested. Might this not have been introduced among the race by these Dannite colonists ? At any rate, even here the Bible does not leave us without a witness to God's providence. In Isa. xiii., which calls the hosts together for the punishment of Babylon, the banner for their assembly is to be lifted " upon the high mountain "�i.e., the mountains of Armenia�whence the scourge came: the first called are "My sanctified ones" (ver. 2, 3); and in the 17th verse, the Medes are mentioned; but who but Israel could be called God's "sanctified ones"? What then ? Why, it shows that, 500 years before Israel's captivity, God, who foresaw Israel's sin and necessary punishment, was still providing for Israel's safety and comfort by having the country�to which as wretched, degraded captives they would eventually be brought�pioneered, opened up for them, and settled by batches of their more adventurous brethren the Dannites; and secondly, that, while using Babylon as a scourge against Judah, who had gone after Babylonish gods, God was secretly fostering in the mountains of Media, North of Babylon, a rod of His own "sanctified ones:" an offshoot of Israel, wherewith to destroy Babylon for her cruelty towards His people. These " sanctified ones" in Media may give us a clue to the ancestry of that remarkable man, Cyrus, whom God calls "Mine anointed" (Isa. xlv. i). (See note, chapter iv.)
Sir Isaac Newton ("Chron. Anct. Hist.," p. 283), and most other writers on the subject, take Halah and Habor (2 Kings xviii. n) to be Colchis and Iberia. Allatius supposes that the Israelites who were placed on the Chaborras also peopled the countries of Iberia and Colchis; and he adduces the authority of Constantine Porphyrogenetes in support of the Israelitish origin of the inhabitants of Iberia. The name Iberia, as well as Bithynia�also on the South Coast of the Black Sea�certainly strike one as of Hebrew origin.
Again, I find in Ezra viii. 17, that, on the return of the seventy years', or Babylonish, captivity, having no Levites, Ezra had to send to " Iddo, the chief of the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of God." And in Dr. Henderson's Russian researches, Casiphia is identified as a district bordering on the Caspian.
In the times of the apostles it was recognized that members of the Ten Tribes were in Asia Minor, for St. Peter's first epistle is addressed, not to the " strangers scattered,'' &c., as in our translation, but "to the elect strangers (in the sense of strangers and pilgrims) of the dispersion" (see the Greek and Alford's notes on this passage); ''the dispersion" being the word used by the Jews denoting the Ten Tribes.
Josephus states (Antiq. xi. v. 2) that when Ezra received permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, " he sent a copy of the epistle to all of his own nation that were in Media;" he adds, "But then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country, wherefore there are but Two Tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, -while the Ten Tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude and not to be estimated by numbers."
Of the region of Colchis, Dr. Clarke mentions the vast number of tumult which he thinks must be placed as marks for guidance across the immense plains, and they continue on to the sea of Azov; "reminding us of the prophet's warning to exiled Israel, 'Set thee up waymarks.'" I have observed the same on the Danube, where tumuli stretch from Widdin in a S.E. direction, apparently towards the Gulf of Burgas: a few are visible on the North bank stretching towards the N.W.
The Russian Archeological Society opened one of these tumuli near Poti. Within was a large arched vault beautifully constructed of white limestone, in which was found a gold serpent with ruby eyes. Now the Beni-Israel of India secretly worship a serpent of this sort, generally of silver (Carpenter, 42).
The rock temples of India give us some additional testimony regarding the existence, in the regions about the Black Sea, of the Dannites and other Tribes of Israel. (The Cyrus mentioned is probably the one who was killed in an expedition against the Massagetae.) From the preface of "Moore's Saxons of the East and West" I extract the following translation of a Hebraic inscription upon the walls of a rock temple in Kanari, twenty miles North of Bombay:�
"Lo, the worship of Saka is the fruit of my lip. His garden, which Cyrus laid low, was glowing red, behold it is blackened. His people being aroused would have their rights, for they were cast down at the cry of the parting of Dan, who being delivered was perfectly free. .... Everyone grew mighty, and Saka's mouth enkindling them brought the princes together of the race of Harari (people of the hill country of Ephraim, so called�2 Sam. xxiii. 9�n). As to Dan, his unloosing was destruction, oppression, and strife. He stoutly turned away, he departed twice. The pre-determined thought is a hand prepared : yea, Gotha (i.e., the opposite or North coast of the Black Sea called Gothland), that watched for the presence of Dan afforded concealment to the exile .... The redeemed of Kasha wandered about like a flock over-driven " (See note, chapter iv).
This name Saka, used in the inscriptions apparently as a title of their God, is one of the titles signifying "the most pure," given to God in the Jewish Passover hymn at the present day. The people who used it were in company with Dan, and as it is Hebraic, and an allusion seems to be made to the princes of Ephraim, they were probably the descendants of the captivity of Samaria (2 Kings xvii, 6), and of Reuben, Gad, and the half Tribe of Manasseh (2 Kings xv. 29) who had had some two centuries to increase and expand. Might they not also be identical with the Sakai or Scythians who about this time possessed those regions? The Persians called all the Scythians Sakai. The Jewish Chronicle, 24th March, 1876, mentions the Zaccai as one of the oldest family names among the Jews of Cochin remaining to this day.
I shall in the next chapter endeavour to show the Israelitish affinities of these Sakai or Scythians, and their connection with the Danai.
In the historical facts which I have brought forward and endeavoured to connect, there is one point which needs explanation before the subject of this chapter is dismissed. It will occur to many to ask, why, assuming the Lacedaemonians, Thessalians, and Colchians to be Danites of Israel, should there be traces of circumcision among the Colchians only ? The answer is, that the Dannite element was probably in many places a comparative handful, more or less, of the clever, enterprising, determined set of spirits, bred in the wilderness under Moses, and inured to war, which imposed its rule 3 and name on inferior and more primitive races. This would seem to account for the "descendants of Heracles" being sometimes compelled to fly their countries, and make a fresh muster ere they could get back again. The colony of Danaus in Argos was avowedly such a handful, reinforced it may be afterwards. The other colonies were probably the same, and, had the Macedonian people generally been Argives, 4 it would have been too well known and admitted for any doubt to have been raised at the Olympian games when one of their princes (Herod, v. 22) was compelled to prove his Argive descent ere he was permitted to enter the lists.
I assume that the Colchians, as descended from the Argonauts, the best blood of Thessaly, were composed chiefly, if not altogether, of this Hebrew stock, and that, while this strengthened their position in Colchis, and favoured the retention of their racial customs in that remote corner, it impoverished the Hebrew blood left in Greece, where those customs which were peculiar to Israelites, and of no apparent general utility or interest, disappeared, as Greece became a centre of attraction for various races in an age of progress. 5 And thus I think it was that the Colchians retained circumcision until the time of Herodotus, while the Lacedaemonians, when claiming relationship with the Jews, could only refer to their ancient writings and their seal.
NOTES
1. Herodotus adds;�The Syrians about Thermodon (a river running Into the Black Sea), and the river Parthenius, with their neighbours the Macrones, confess that they very lately learnt the same custom from the Colchians." Thus there was a genuine colony direct from Syria in these parts. Now Josephus, on this very passage in Herodotus, denies that any inhabitants of Palestine, except Jews, practise circumcision (Joseph, agst. Apion i. 22). Instead of learningit from the Colchians, these emigrants from Syria possibly returned to the covenant at the instigation, or through the example, of the Colchians.
2. [Hebrew] sar (from [Hebrew] to scatter, disperse), one alienated., a stranger "who had been as it were scattered at a distance, or cast away from others (Parkhurst Lex.); in fact, detached, or emigrant. Thus Sar-don-i and Sar-din-i would mean emigrant, dispersed, or detached Dannites; and Sar-don-ik, anything made by, or pertaining to, them.
3. Like the modern British in India and the colonies.
4. The Septuagint (Esther ix. 24) calls "Haman the Agagite," " Haman the Macedonian."
5. See also Herod, ii. 104 :�"The Phoenicians who have any commerce with Greece .... abstain from circumcising their children."
The Azerbaijan Connection Challenging Euro-Centric Theories of Migration
byDr. Thor Heyerdahl
Other articles related to Thor Heyerdahl: (1) Thor Heyerdahl in Azerbaijan: KON-TIKI Man by Betty Blair (AI 3:1, Spring 1995) (2) Azerbaijan's Primal Music Norwegians Find 'The Land We Come From' by Opheim (AI 5.4, Winter 1997) (3) Thor Heyerdahl in Baku (AI 7:3, Autumn 1999) (4) Scandinavian Ancestry: Tracing Roots to Azerbaijan - Thor Heyerdahl (AI 8.2, Summer 2000) (5) Quote: Earlier Civilizations - More Advanced - Thor Heyerdahl (AI 8.3, Autumn 2000) (6) The Kish Church - Digging Up History - An Interview with J. Bjornar Storfjel (AI 8.4, Winter 2000) (7) Adventurer's Death Touches Russia's Soul - Constantine Pleshakov (AI 10.2, Summer 2002) (8) Reflections on Life - Thor Heyerdahl (AI 10.2, Summer 2002) (9) First Encounters in the Soviet Union - Thor Heyerdahl (AI 10.2, Summer 2002) (10) Thor Heyerdahl's Final Projects - Bjornar Storfjell (AI 10.2, Summer 2002) (11) Voices of the Ancients: Rare Caucasus Albanian Text - Dr. Zaza Alexidze (AI 10.2, Summer 2002) (12) Heyerdahl Burns "Tigris" Reed Ship to Protest War - Letter to UN - Bjornar Storfjell, Blair (AI 11.1, Winter 2003)
In late November 1994, Dr. Thor Heyerdahl visited Azerbaijan where, among other things, he wanted another chance to see the boat petroglyphs of the ancient caves of Gobustan not far from Baku.
Here, in the pages of Azerbaijan International, Heyerdahl makes public for the first time his "growing suspicion" that Azerbaijanis may be ancestors of the Scandinavians including his own native countrymen in Norway.
_____
In the global research that I've been involved with for many years, Azerbaijan is beginning to play a rather pivotal role. My growing suspicion is that what today is left as the little Republic of Azerbaijan around the capital Baku is only vestiges of what was once a large and dynamic nation bordering on an inland sea but transmitting merchandise and even colonists to remote outposts in both Asia and Europe.
For a long time, I've been puzzled by the fact that three great civilizations surrounding the Arabian peninsula appeared in about 3,000 B.C. as ready-developed, organized dynasties at the same astonishingly high level and all three were remarkably alike. The definite impression is that related priest-kings at that time came from elsewhere with their respective entourages, and imposed their dynasties on areas formerly occupied by more primitive or, at least, culturally far less advanced, tribes.
Boat Petroglyphs But where could they have come from? Is there a "zero hour for civilized man"? I've been convinced for quite some time that the clues to this mystery, no doubt, lie in the prehistoric boat petroglyphs which are found on widely scattered continental shores and islands all over the world and even near dried-out waterways deep inside the Sahara Desert. Petroglyphs and rock paintings of watercraft represent the earliest known illustrations of human architecture and even predate pictures of dwellings or temples. I've seen such sketches from below the equator in Polynesia to above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway. Everywhere they testify to the fact that boats were of extreme importance to early man as they provided security and transportation millennia before there were roads through the wilderness.
Our lack of knowledge about our own past is appalling. In the course of two million years of human activity, ice has come and gone, and land has emerged and submerged. Forest humus, desert sand, river silt and volcanic eruptions have hidden from view large portions of the former surface of the earth. The sea level has altered; 70% of our planet is now below water, and underwater archaeology has barely begun in coastal areas. We are accustomed to finding sunken ships with old amphora and other cargo beneath the sea, but speculation as to the discovery of other human vestiges on the bottom of the ocean still remains a subject for science fiction writers.
Identical Petroglyphs in Norway and Azerbaijan It may not be pure coincidence that the ship petroglyphs that the early Azeri depicted while navigating on the Caspian Sea and up the Russian rivers are identical to those of the ancestors of the Vikings along the fjords of Norway millennia later. In Scandinavia, there are two different types of boat petroglyphs, both well represented in Norway. One is similar to those at Gobustan and is drawn as a simple sickle-shaped line which forms the base of the ship with vertical lines on deck to illustrate crew or raised oars.
Famous "Foldable Boats" The other ship type probably represents a "skin boat" with a rather short and bulky hull and an interior framework of wood, appearing on the petroglyphs as if viewed from outside. Such a boat is mentioned in early Norwegian sagas written down by the Icelander, Snorre Sturlason, before his death in 1241, (Snorri, The Sagas of the Viking Kings of Norway. English translation: J. M. Stenersens Forlag, Oslo 1987). According to the saga, the Viking kings descended from Odin, an immigrant hierarch who came in a vessel called Skithblathnir (Skidbladner) which could be folded together like a cloth. Odin came from the land of the "Aser", and is, therefore, frequently referred to as "Asa-Odin". The legendary land of the people known as Aser is given a very exact location in Snorre's saga as east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea.
From there, according to the same saga, Odin, owner of the foldable boat migrated with all his people northwestwardly through Russia, Saxland, and Denmark into Sweden where he died and lay buried in a huge funerary mound at Sigtuna. Asa-Odin's saga with his boat and his itinerary has been considered by Nordic historians as a myth concocted in medieval times, although they consider the Nordic people as Caucasians. But, perhaps, Odin's boat may indicate that the land of the Aser really lay by the Caspian Sea east of the Caucasus. In fact, in the 5th century B.C., the Greek historian, Herodotus, described such marvelous foldable boats used precisely in the area referred to in Asa-Odin's saga as the home of th Aser, namely the land of the present day Azeri and Armenians.
In this area, Herodotus wrote, traveling merchants used boats built with a framework of wood and canes covered with skin, and of such great size that they carried one or more donkeys in addition to crew and cargo. They navigated down river to Babylonia where they sold their merchandise and the framework (wood), then they folded the skins and loaded them on the donkeys for their return upstream in preparation for the next voyage.
Oral Tradition or Fairy Tale? I'm personally convinced that Snorre recorded oral history rather than a concocted myth, and I think it's time to look for the land that my Scandinavian ancestors came from and not merely where they subsequently went on their Viking raids and explorations. They certainly did not come out from under the glaciers when the ice-age ended so they must have immigrated from the south. Since their physical type is referred to as Caucasian and their very own descendant preserved an itinerary from south of the Caucasus and north of Turkey, I suspect that the present Azeri people and the Aser of the Norse sagas have common roots and that my ancestry originated there.
The unwritten history of both the Scandinavians and the Azeri doubtlessly began with ships and navigation. Both had access to waterways which permitted them to explore and travel far and wide. The Azeri could easily have sailed across their inland sea to the great centers of civilization in antiquity and up the river Volga which was navigable past present-day Moscow to its sources which are suspiciously close to the sources of the river Dvina which empties into the Baltic Sea at Riga, where the first Christian Norwegian Viking king, Olav Trygvason, was born.
Azerbaijan as Spreading Center of Caucasians, not Europe This would mean that Azerbaijan and not northern Europe was the spreading center of the Caucasian people buried in northwestern China some 4,000 years ago and now discovered by Chinese archaeologists who theorize (probably wrongly) that they came from northern Europe because they were tall, blond, blue-eyed and with Caucasian features. According to modern scholars in Azerbaijan, there used to be a strong blond and fair-skinned element in the aboriginal Azeri population, as illustrated by the stone-age hunters at the Gobustan Museum. Subsequent invasions by Romans and Arabs have somewhat modified the original Azeri type.
As to the remarkably high level of culture evinced by the 4,000 year old mummies in China, no people in Northern Europe had reached a corresponding cultural level at that early time. But the merchants of Azerbaijan could have, due to their long-range trade by skin-boats with Babylonia.
Beyond a Euro-Centric Perspective We must as scientists get beyond the dogmatic medieval view of history printed by us in Europe in which we describe our own ancestors as the discoverers of the rest of the world. There were advanced civilizations with navigators and script in Asia, Africa and Middle America before mariners from Crete brought script and civilization from the Middle East to southern Europe. Before European history began, mariners from Africa had settled the Canary Island, voyagers from America had settled the West Indies, and every inhabitable island in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific had been peopled from Asia and America. Azerbaijan, and not Europe, was part of the fermenting kettle of brewing civilization with navigators that spread early trade and cultural impulses far and wide.
Many clues are still invisible about the human history prior to the sudden cultural bloom in Egypt, Sumer and the Indus valley some five millennia ago. But with advanced technology, some day the answers may be found under the sand and sea. The challenge for scholars is to look deeper into foreign relations in the region of present-day Azerbaijan to determine what those prehistoric roots and linkages were.
