Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7

Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 98

Magdalenian BIR and English bear (2/6)

BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn
was laid. One can then also bear the baby in a pouch
made of fur, and obtains the verb to bear. By analogy
one gets a word for a pregnant woman: she bears
a child, she gives birth, the child is born, a newborn,
a bairn - the latter word occurs in many variants
including bir meaning son. Parents are the happy
people who can lay a newborn on fur, preferably
a bear fur. She-bears are devoted mothers, which
would have been another reason for the choice of
bear fur: may it make a human mother care as well
for her children as a bear mother for her cubs!
Bears sleep through winter, and then emerge again
in spring, thus they were regarded as symbols of
regeneration. Already Neanderthals buried some
of their deads wrapped in bear fur, which custom
is regarded as evidence for a belief in regeneration
and a life in the beyond. Evidence for the same belief
among Homo sapiens sapiens are words such as
bury, burial, bier German Bahre, and the barrows
in southern England.

Having good fur was essential during the Ice Age.
The best fur was provided by the bear. Judging by
its name, also the boar Latin aper German Eber
provided a good fur. The names of two other furry
animals may go back to a doubling of BIR, PIE
*werwer 'squirrel' and beaver. Ancient Greek
byrsa 'skin, fur' is an obvious derivative of BIR,
borealis 'north wind' a less obvious one meaning
much as: wind from the northern countries where
people wear furs to protect themselves from the
cold. (If you travel to the north country fair /
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
- Bob Dylan, quoted from memory)

(end of part 2, to be continued)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 97

Magdalenian BIR and English bear  (1/6)

BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn
was laid. This particular meaning suggests an ancient
custom, and really, one Porphyrios described a custom
of laying a newborn on a bear fur in the third century AD.
The same custom survived in eastern Slavic regions
until the twentieth century: here it was the grandmother
who laid a newborn on bear fur. A Vinca figurine shows
the divine mother wearing a bear mask and holding her
baby - also wearing a bear mask - in her arms, another
Vinca figurine shows the divine mother or nurse wearing
a bear mask and on her back a pouch for the baby.
(Information on the ancient custom and the Vinca
figurines by Marija Gimbutas. You may also consider
Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, Act 3 Scene 3,
where a bearing-cloth is mentioned. A bearing-cloth
was a rich cloth in which a child was carried to be
christened.)

English bear German Bär Dutch beer are explained as
the Brown One. Relying on my Magdalenian approach
to early language I propose a new etymology: bear
means the Furry One, provider of the best fur, thick,
longhaired, soft and warm. The Ostyak in Siberia call
the bear Fur Man. In Lapp the animal is called Wooly
One. German Zottelbär means 'shaggy bear'. Another
German name or nickname is petz female petze, in
fables Meister Petz. Grimm, in his Wörterbuch, quotes
one Hagedorn: "da sträubet sich der petz" meaning:
here the petz bristles up, stands on end. Petz can only
mean pelt German Pelz. All these words - petz petze
Pelz pelt - may be derivatives of Magdalenian PIS
meaning water in motion (lateral association to PAD
and PAS), also bodies moving in water, wherefrom
pisces fish (and bears like fish). Leonardo da Vinci
observed that hair resembles water. Ice Age hunters
could have made the same observation, and the
connection to water is preserved in the verb to pelt
used for heavy raining.

(end of part 1, to be continued)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 95

Solomon and Ezekiel // possible origin of Sion  (2/2)

Ezekiel was on exile in Upper Mesopotamia.
In his vision he describes an ideal Jerusalem
based on the idea of the Asherah sanctuary
yet expanded in an almost surrealistic way,
combining measures of length with periods
of time as defined by astronomy:

  30 'measures' correspond to one lunation
  64 'measures' correspond to 63 days

The wall surrounding Jerusalem in Ezekiel's vision
has a length of 4 times 4,500 = 18,000 measures
corresponding to 600 lunations, diameter 191
lunations or 5,640 days or 5,730 measures.

The four gates mark the cardinal directions. Connect
them with a square. Transform the square into a circle
of the same area. How long is the diameter? 4,500
measures.

Inscribe a dodecagon in the large circle of the wall.
How long is the periphery? 30 Venus years (roughly
48 solar years).

A vision involving a large circle, the moon and Venus,
the cardinal directions, and wheels turning within
wheels can only refer to the sky, so we may assume
the ideal Jersualem was located in the heavens.

If Greek Seion (Septuaginta) Hebrew Sijjon Latin
Seon (Vulgata) Old English Seon Modern English
Zion goes back to Magdalenian, the original
compound could have been SEI IAN meaning
life (sai) to mark the place of a new camp (ian),
together something like: Let us mark the place
of a new camp where we can live, where life may
flourish.

(end of part 2)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 94

Solomon and Ezekiel // possible origin of Sion  (1/2)

According to Israel Finkelstein, Solomon symbolizes
the united kingdom of Judah and Israel in the Iron Age.
Solomon's 'Molten Sea' may have been another
variant of the Asherah sanctuary, a tree of life
surrounded by a dozen lions carved from wood,
each carrying a bronze vessel. A vessel of the size
reported in the Bible couldn't have been cast. The
circumference measured 30 cubits, the diameter
10 cubits. A slight modification would make sense:
the combination of two cubits of nearly the same
length, a black cubit of 21 parts, and a red cubit
of 22 parts. If the diameter of a circle measures
1 black cubit (21), the circumference measures
3 red cubits (66, 66/21 = 22/7). If the radius of
a circle measures 1 black cubit, the area 1 black
cubit times 3 red cubits. If the diameter of a sphere
measures 2 black cubits, the volume 2 black cubits
times 2 black cubits times 1 red cubit. If the side
of a square measures 20 black cubits, the diagonal
27 red cubits.

(end of part 1, to be continued)
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7
    ... Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8 ... BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn ... of laying a newborn on a bear fur in the third century AD. ... circumference measured 30 cubits, the diameter ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales
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  • Re: Greek Psi
    ... BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn was laid ... he will name it a bear ... ... for the PIE explanation of bear as the brown one, which, in my ... I can easily unite the six *bher- homonyms under BIR, ...
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  • Re: Greek Psi
    ... BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn was laid ... he will name it a bear ... ... for the PIE explanation of bear as the brown one, which, in my ... I can easily unite the six *bher- homonyms under BIR, ...
    (sci.lang)