Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)

While preparing a glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 15, Minos and Asherah

Cyrus H. Gordon identified Linear A mi-nu-te (mi-nu-the)
with a region in Syria known as mu-nu-ti-um in Ebla, mnt
in Ugarit, Minnit in the Bible (Ezekiel 27,17). Walther Hinz
read mi-nu-the on the Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95 as
wheat from Minnit, a fertile region belonging to (the empire
of) Ebla.

The first syllable mi of mi-nu-the is represented by the head
of a bull, the second one, nu, by the visual pun of a bull-leaper
on his feet - hands - feet, and the third one, the, by a pole and
three horizontal bars in the upper zone, which I understand
as a Tree of Life (see my thread "Linear A tablet Hagia
Triada 95"). The three signs are similar in hierogylphic
Minoan and in Linear B.

If mi in mi-nu-the (Linear A Minoan) and mu in mu-nu-tium
(Eblaite) have a Magdalenian origin, then it was MUC for
bull, as in Mycenae, hypothetical stronghold of the Zeus bull.

The Magdalenian root of nu would have been NUL for the
empty moon, German Leermond -- 3 or 2 days for the empty
moon NUL, 3 days for the young moon, 6 days for the waxing
moon, 9 days for the full moon LUN, 6 days for the waning
moon, 3 days for the old moon (as explained in the message
on the six permutations of LUN in concordance with the signs
of the bulls in the rotunda of Lascaux).

I have no Magdalenian explanation for the / ti but I can rely
on Cyrus H. Gordon who identified Eblaite ti-ni-tum with the
Linear A Minoan fertility goddess ti-ni-ta and the fig tree,
Arabic tinat. A punic version of Tin(n)it given in Greek was
Thinith.

Now we have three elements: a bull, a bull-leaper as the empty
moon, and a Tree of Life, representation of the feritlity goddess.
The bull, in this context, must be Baal as the golden calf, namely
the morning sun, rising from the Tree of Life. Surprising is the
bull-leaper as symbol of the moon, more precisely of the empty
moon. But consider that the empty moon is close to the sun,
occasionally even covering the sun, then causing a partial or
even a total eclipse of the sun. So the ceremonial Minoan
bull-sports must have been a reference to the celestial dance
of sun and moon. Sun and moon pass each other in the phase
of the empty moon, and this was represented by a daring leap
of an acrobat over a bull. The golden calf (Baal as the morning
sun) emerged from the Tree of Life, and as the empty moon is
close to the sun, also the moon must have emerged from the
Tree of Life. You may also consider the Egyptian sky goddess
Nut in the sycomore tree ...

The year of Ebla had 12 months, plus an intercalary period
of time between the old and the new year. This goes along
with the lunisolar calendar of Goebekli Tepe: a year had 12
months of 30 days each, plus 5 and occasionally 6 days, while
63 continuous periods of 30 days yield 1,890 days and equal
64 lunations. Goebekli Tepe lasted from 11 600 - 9 500 BP.
Later on, the same calendar may have been used in Upper
Mesopotamia and Syria. In the wide river plains with a level
horizon it may have been represented by a Tree of Life in
the center of a circle of 12 poles that marked the four cardinal
directions plus the intermittent 30-degree angles, providing
sighting lines for the observation of the rising and setting sun
on the solstices and equinoxes.

This calendar must have been in general use for a long time.
It became the mysterious Asherah sanctuary of a tree and
poles, involving a fertility goddess and all gods, with an altar
of El and then Baal and then Jahveh; it was encoded on the
lid of the ivory box from Safadi near Beersheba, 5 500 BP;
it was the basis for the visions of Solomon and Ezekiel (as
explained in previous messages); and it was the calendar
of the Minoans, who left Syria for Crete - munutium minuthe
Minos - and kept an old ritual of ceremonial bull-leaping.
Rituals such as this may have been what the Jewish prophets
rejected in later times.

In southern Crete of the Middle Minoan period of time, and
in the Argolis of the Middle Helladic period of time, the above
calendar was modified as follows: a year had 8 long months
of 45 days each, plus 5 and occasionally 6 days, represented
by a rosette of 8 petals and a small circle in the center. A week
had 9 days (according to a suggestion in Homer's Odyssey)
and a month had 5 weeks. Count long months continuously.
21 periods of 45 days yield 985 days and equal 32 lunations.

985 days or 32 lunations are 135 shorter weeks of 7 days.
This may have been the week of Beersheba, a place name
that means The well of the divine Seven (Cyrus H. Gordon),
and not seven wells, or well of the oath, which are biblical
folk etymology.

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch


While preparing a glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 14, a lucky misunderstanding, and why Solomon may
well have been a historical figure

A misunderstanding of the biblical "bath" led me to my fable
of Solomon. I read "bath" in the English way, as the amount
of water required for filling a bathtub, and equalled it with
four cubic cubits, about 578 liters. In a book on measures
I have at home I found a measure "bat," a bucket, 22 liters,
one tenth of a barrel. Now this bat must be the bath in the
Bible. I went completely wrong, but it was a fruitful mistake
as it made me postulate a new measure that I may still call
bath, or bathtub, or tub: four cubic black cubits, 578.8125
liters, while the bucket bath was 3/20 of one cubic black
cubit in my system of measures, 21.7... liters.

The "molten sea" described in I kings and II Chronicles
had a diameter of 10 cubits, a circumference of 30 cubits,
a depth of 5 cubits, the curved form of a lily, and a capacity
of 2,000 bath (Kings) or 3,000 bath (Chronicles). Assuming
two buckets, a larger one in the first case, a smaller one in
the second case, we may just consider a capacity of 2,000
bath of 21.7 liters. The calculation reveals that the vessel
in the given form required a cubit of the length I chose,
52.5 centimeters, the Egyptian royal cubit of the New
Kingdom, whereas the Hebrew cubit measured 45 cm.

The circumference measured 30 cubits, the diameter
10 cubits, yielding 3 for pi, a poor value that made many
a scholar wonder, and many a mathematician make fun
of the Bible. A clever way to explain that poor value is
to say that we have to consider the inner circumference
of the vessel, not the longer outer circumference. Let me
ponder the numbers we can get this way. The walls of
the "molten sea" had a thickness of one handbreadth.
The Hebrew handbreadth measured 7.5 centimers,
one seventh of 52.5 centimerts, one sixth of 45 cm.
The calculation yields:

inner diameter 7 short cubits of 45 cm or 315 cm
thickness of the wall one handbreadth or 7.5 cm
outer diameter wall-void-wall 330 cm
inner circumference 989.6... or practically 990 cm

The resulting vessel is way too small, it would never
contain 2,000 bath.

We must therefore reject that clever explanation,
and the only remaining one is the explanation that
uses two cubits of nearly the same length: a black
cubit of 21 units, measuring 52.5 centimeters, and
a red cubit of 22 units, measuring 55 centimeters.
Diameter of the circle 10 black cubits or 210 cm,
circumference 30 red cubits or 660 cm, yielding
660 / 210 or 22 / 7 for pi.

This method works for the vessel, and yields
a capactiy in the range of the 2,000 bath.

Ezekiel invented an ideal Jersualen on the basis of
two combined measures: a cubit of 63 units, and
a cubit of 64 units. Now the authors of the books of
the Kings and Chronicles may have done the same.
They might have invented an ideal Jerusalem on the
basis of two measures of nearly the same length:
a cubit of 21 units, and a cubit of 22 units.

However, there is a crucial difference between the text
by Ezekiel on the one hand, and the reports in Kings and
Chronicles on the other hand. Ezekiel discerns between
the cubit and a "measure" for the circumference of the
ideal city, while the authors of the books of the Kings and
Chronicles make no such difference, they simply speak
of a cubit. They should have discerned between a cubit
for the diameter, and a "measure" for the circumference.
But no, there is only the cubit. And this crucial difference
between Ezekiel and the reports in Kings and Chronicles
makes me assume that the latter are grossly distorted
commemorations of an early text which was no longer
understood and therefore misinterpreted, yet, as the
original numbers are preserved, we can reconstruct
the vision of the ideal Jerusalem in the hypothetical
poem by "Solomon," whoever he was.



:
While preparing a glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 13, Fable of Solomon

Solomon was a ruler of Judah, a wise man who kept peace
with the surrounding tribes and empires, a good mediator
and judge. He resided at Jerusalem and traveled widely.
always accompanied by twelve horsemen, and thousand
young men would have loved to serve him in that position.
He planted olive trees, pomegranates, sycomores and
cedars. He maintained a dam in the Kidron valley, and
planned a pond with a new and modified version of the
ancient Asherah sanctuary by the well of Gihon: a round
pond, in the center a round islet, on it a circle of 12 poles,
four of them marking the cardinal directions, the eight
remaining ones marking the intermittent 30-degree.angles,
the poles decorated with colored ribbons, in between them
12 lions, each carrying a vessel, and in the center of the
islet a celestial globe. Solomon loved architecture, he
was a fairly good mathematician, and he wrote poems.
In one of his poems he described the ideal city of Jerusalem,
with a temple, a house for the arc of the covenant (a chest
containing writings), the above pond, a garden, a stable
and pasture for the horses - the ones of his horsemen,
and the ones he traded. The calculations involved in this
ideal city of Jerusalem were easy, owing to an ingenious
system of measures:

1 small unit measured 2.5 centimeters
3 small units were one handbreadth and measured 7.5 cm
18 small units were a short cubit and measured 45 cm
21 small units were a black cubit and measured 52.5 cm
22 small units were a red cubit and measured 55 cm

1 cubic black cubit had a volume of 144.73125 liters
4 cubic black cubits were a bath, volume 578.8125 liters
2/3 of a bath were a small bath, volume 385.875 liters
3/2 of a cubic black cubit were one chomer (barrel)
or 10 bat (buckets) or 60 hin (cans) or 720 log (cups)
1 bath equaled 160 cans

Definition of a cubic black cubit in the shape of a cylinder:
height 15 small units, diameter 14 small units, circumference
2 red cubits, volume 144.316... liters. Round bath: height 15
small units, diameter 56 small units, circumference 8 red
cubits, volume 577.267... liters.

The short cubit of 45 centimeters was the ancient Hebrew
cubit, the handbreadth of 7.5 cm was the Hebrew handbreadth,
the black cubit of 52.5 cm was the Egyptian royal cubit of the
New Kingdom, while the method of combining measures of
different lengths goes back to the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

The house of the arc of the covenant measured 20 by 20 by 20
cubits, volume 2,000 bath. If the side of a square measures 20
black cubits, the diagonal measures 27 red cubits (99 / 70 for
the square root of 2). If the edge of a cube measures 20 black
cubits, the diagonal measures 33 red cubits (121 / 70 for the
square root of 3).

Diameter of the round pond 52 black cubits, circumference 156
red cubits. Diameter of the islet 26 black cubits, circumference
78 red cubits. Diameter of the circle of the twelve poles 10 black
cubits, circumference 30 red cubits (22 / 7 for pi). Each of the
twelve lions in between the twelve poles carried a vessel in the
shape of a lily on his back: basis of a vessel one handbreadth,
height 14 small units, upper diameter 7 small units, brim one red
cubit; 12 times 12 vessels filled a bath. Depth of the pond 5 black
cubits, capacity 1,991 or practically 2,000 bath, or 3,000 small bath.

Stable and pasture for the horses 200 by 200 black cubits,
diagonal 270 red cubits, area 40,000 square black cubits.

Only fragments of Solomon's (hypothetical) poem on the ideal
city of Jersualem survived, and were no longer understood by
the authors of the books of the Kings and Chronicles in the Bible.
They turned the pond into a huge vessel nobody could possibly
have cast. The volume of the bath was replaced by the bucket.
The complementary measures of the 'black' and 'red' cubit
collapsed into one single measure, a single cubit, and the ratio
22 / 7 for pi turned into the number 3, causing much fun among
the mathematicians of our time. The area of 40,000 square
cubits of stable and pasture turned into 40,000 stalls of horses.
And the 12 horsemen who accompanied Solomon on his
journeys, and the 1,000 young men who would have loved to
serve him in that position, turned into 12,000 horsemen ...

If Solomon was a historical figure it might have been about
like this.

Early mathematics and geometry were different from our ways
of calculating and measuring. Early writing was different from
our ways of conveying information. We have to understand an
early text properly before deciding whether it might have had
a basis in reality or was mere propaganda.


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