Sumerian bacon

Abu Tbeirah was probably Sumerian, south of Lagash and Ur as it was. I don't know if it was a canal city, but I am pretty sure it had a wharf until 3500 BC. What we do not know, yet, is what these Sumerians named their own city.

The period is 2900–2350 BC, which is called "Early Dynastic". They don't have documents, but they do have a menu. Usually we get some clue from bones - carbon and nitrogen isotopes get skewed for seafood-eaters (which famously annoys carbon-daters); ideal would be coprolites. But marshy lower Iraq tends to be bad at preserving either; and in a city context, likely the honey wagon is taking potential copro's back to the fields. So the scholars're looking at zinc in the teeth. Of course cereals were a big part of their diet, why else live here.

A surprise, to me, is that they didn't eat fish. They ate pork, and imported other meats from the hills. As to why no fish, uh. Maybe the swamps had been drained and the only fishwater was irrigation-water, which got fertilizer-runoff. Whatever fish could survive in what is basically a sewer, I'd not recommend frying up.

Dryas platinum

ScienceDaily was breathlessly boasting they'd "solved" the Younger Dryas. What seems done instead is to rule out an option. The platinum at the time is ruled volcanic. And happened 45 years into the event.

So, no dramatic meteors. No Larcher See, neither - at least for the platinum; this was a low-metal mountain. Iceland has the metals.

The YD proper might have been from a low-metal mountain itself however. Also those Black Mats weren't addressed.

Naboth and Jezebel, at Jezreel

Last December I discussed Jehu "ben Omri", suggesting a power-struggle between the nephew and the queen. Paul Davidson had, beforehand, discussed the queen.

Most of our lore is contested between the traditions of 1 Kings in the MT, 3 Reigns in the "LXX" Greek, and the Chronicler. The Chronicler has no stake in the Jezebel lore. This whole bit in Greek would fall within the 3 Reigns 2:12ff γγ section. This survived the "kaige" revisions, revisions which hit other books at Naḥal Ḥever / R-Text. But not γγ: so our story retains early features, likely preMT. (3 Reigns 22 onward gets KAIGE'd again.)

Jezebel probably did exist. All the royals of the time would have needed strong internal relationships against Shalmaneser. Somebody was getting married to a Lebanese in Psalm 45. 1 Kings 16:31 survives uncontested in the crossover verses MT/LXX. If the Chronicler ignored this, it wouldn't matter.

Paul D is saying that had all that Jezebel / Naboth lore featured in the original, the Chronicler couldn't have ignored it like he could ignore stray 1 Kings 16:31. Somebody was spinning tales during the late Persian era. Paul D notes parallels to the Bathsheba episode... which in Greek falls in Kaige, so we haven't a "second opinion" on that. Nonetheless Paul D thinks the Bathsheba lore be early.

Michinmahuida

In the 9000s BC, Michinmahuida erupted and coated the Chilean side of Patagonia with ash. Prevailing winds pushed that cloud against the Andes so it might not have affected the planet beyond that.

It's in the news now because its ash is the floor - not ceiling - for Chile's Vermont or, in Spanish, Monte Verde. Tom Dillehay had touted this one over the 1990s as the Clovis-killer: it was, he claimed, inhabited long long before the 9000s and the Clovis culture. Proof of human expansion past the Darien Gap.

If the ash is from Michinmahuida, then this isn't true. The artifacts aren't preClovis; they are merely ignorant of Clovis. Maybe they didn't need Clovis tech down there (which has the function of Solutrean tech, famously). Also the artifacts in question are perishables: nets, wooden wall-planks, and the like. The new study claims that to the extent they look lower-tier (older), it's because they were swept down a river and buried in anoxic conditions. Which is fortunate for diggers, since that is how they were preserved from rot.

It does make stratigraphy something of a bad joke however. On any side.

Can the wood be wigglematched? At least to disprove dates around one of those elder Miyake events?

Judges replaced Jashar

As I'm going back in time through Paul Davidson's blog, here he proposes the book of Judges - and maybe Joshua - as Hellenistic-era additions to our Bible. Paul D doesn't see where any text in our Bible refers back to these heroes (who aren't judges) until Ruth. And Ben-Sira.

Some are warlords or, in Deborah's case, war-ladies; Gideon and Abimelech were failed kings. But the roaming justices show up only with Samuel. Samson, and "Shamgar", act more like Conan of Cimmeria; Paul Davidson gives to them about as much historical credence. Those stumbling upon Judges' translation in Greek would immediately think of Heracles.

To be noted, the song of Deborah is I think in ABH, unlike some songs we could note. I don't know if Solomon's song - which the Greek cites from Jashar - is ABH, but it is short and not all the Hebrew survives.

I get the impression however that as Shamgar seems Hurrian / Horite, which language is pretty-much gone from the scene by the time of Josiah; and since Judges 5 is ABH, that a lot of these heroic tales are indeed old. As Judges 4 attempts a narrative of Judges 5; the ancient lays may have sung of Gideon, and of Jephthah and certainly Samson.

"Judges", for Davidson, is - then - a postHellenic answer to Hesiod and, perhaps more-so, Alexandrene summarisers of ancient myths (think, Robert Graves).

The song of Sihon

Last month I looked at some Archaic Hebrew songs in the Classical era. Among those songs quoted in our "Numbers" not in ABH is 21:27-30... which is also cited in MT Jeremiah 48. Looks like it might refer to the king "Amon", who preceded Josiah.

When I saw the name "Amon" I'd thought this was some Egyptian motif. Paul D, however, notes that it is spelt "Ammon" in Greek and by Josephus. Based on this and on certain other motifs, Giovanni Garbini concluded that this wasn't a king at all, but a kingdom: that of Ammon. The real king then would have been he whom the song names: Sihon.

Sihon cast rather a shadow on Josiah-era Hebrew literature, such as the Psalms and the Prophets. He might also be mentioned in Deuteronomy and in that paraDeuteronomy. Also one must consider times when Judah was a vassal to the northern kingdom, or to Gath, or to Hazael of Damascus who destroyed Gath. Why not Ammon?

BACKDATE 2/23

The Talmud versus the MT

What we call "Judaism" is associated with a Biblical text which descends from the pre-Revolt era. This text supplied all translations of the Middle Ages except for the Greeks', and a few Greek-based translations like the Sahidic and some Syriac. Tradition claims the Masoretes, for this. It was the primary source for the Qaraiya sect of the Jews.

Mainline Jews, famously, use besides their Bible (which is MT) another text: "The Talmud" - specifically, that of Babylonia. This is a difficult text to pin down. It might not have been intended as a final compilation, although it has become one.

The Talmud is aware of the MT but perhaps only as the default Bible. A Karaite would refuse Ben Sira out of hand; the Talmud cites it, and arguably treats it with more respect than (say) Clement was treating "The Gospel Of Thomas". The Talmud is aware of variants in the accepted canon as well, usually ascribed to those pesty Septuagints (in east-Aramaic?) but TheTorah.com cannot rule out old Tanakh scrolls from the Seleucid era. Variants lingered in the Rabbinic tradition even after the Talmud.

It may be that the MT attracted errors which later copyists had to ratchet back - which could end up canonising some errors, rather than fixing them. Similar has happened to the Peshitta which is why Syriac scholars are looking into the earliest Arabic translations.

The Peshitta is, mind, a Christian translation - or has become one. Naturally Jews desired their own Arabic translations. Saadya Gaon created a quick-n'-dirty translation using some Jewish Aramaic lore, which strikes me as creating a Jewish Arabic Peshitta himself. Naturally the Karaites hated it, so redid their own Bible from Ebrea Sola - if I may.