In the footsteps of the Bronze Men [ the Carians in Egypt ]

When Herodotus toured the known world during the fifth century BC to compile his international history, he did not forget his hometown Caria, now Bodrum in Turkey.

Caria (the name means "the steep country") stood in the western part of Anatolia, whose coast, according to the ancient world map, stretched from mid-Ionia to Lycia and east to Phrygia. Mountains and valleys were the main features of the country's scenery, and it was poor in agriculture in comparison with its counterparts at the time: Egypt and Babylonia. Its hilltops were fortified, while villages were scattered in valleys and it was hard to find a city of any size. There was thus little similarity between the inhabitants, the Carians, as each village had its own version of the Phoenician alphabet, its own customs and tradition. The only thing in common among all Carians was their religion. One of the ritual centres was Mylasa, where their supreme deity the Carian Zeus. They also had other deities such as Hecate, the goddess responsible for, among other things, magic and road crossings.

The first mention in history of Caria and its inhabitants was in the cuneiform texts of the Old Assyrian and Hittite Empires, who called the area Karkissa. History forgot about it for almost four centuries until the second citation by the legendary Greek poet Homer in his catalogue of ships.

The Carian language belonged to the Hittite- Luwian subfamily of Indo-European languages, and was related to Lycian and Lydian. Those who lived in the west of the country spoke a language closer to Greek.

The Assyrian Conquest: The First Greeks in Egypt
by Immanuel Velikovsky
When upon the death of Necho Assurbanipal reconquered Egypt he re-established the system of numerous vice-kings, who "came to meet me and kissed my feet." We are informed by Assurbanipal that this governmental organization was discontinued a few years later, when one of the vice-kings took all the power to himself, accomplishing this with the help of the soldiers who arrived in Egypt from Sardis on the Aegean shore of Asia Minor. Gyges was at that time king of Sardis in Lydia. At first Gyges sent messengers to Assurbanipal: "Guggu (Gyges), king of Lydia, a district of the other side of the sea, a distant place, whose name the kings, my fathers, had not heard, he dispatched his messengers to bring greetings to me." But after a few years, Gyges ceased to ally himself with Assurbanipal. "His messengers, whom he kept sending to me to bring greetings, he discontinued." According to Assurbanipal, Gyges sent his forces to the aid of the king of Egypt,(2) "who had thrown off the yoke of my sovereignty." Herodotus wrote that Psammetichos, one of the twelve vice-kings, deposed his eleven co-rulers, and he did it with the help of Ionian and Carian mercenaries. According to Herodotus, the Greek and Carian mercenaries arrived in Egypt in the days of Psammetichos, brought by a gale...

Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century, wrote that in the days of Psammetichos, only two hundred years before, Greeks for the first time came to live in Egypt. He must have been well informed, for not merely the history of Egypt was involved but that of his own people likewise: his birthplace was Halicarnassus in Ionia-Caria. Also, in Beth-Shan in Palestine, where the excavators were able to determine the successive layers of the tell (mound), tombs of mercenaries from the Aegean-Anatolian region have been unearthed. "Doubtless among all these troops [of Seti] were many Mediterranean (Aegean-Anatolian) mercenaries, including the redoubtable Sherdenen [Shardana]; these must have formed the major part of the garrison left at Beth-shan by Seti. " Thus wrote the archaeologist of that place.

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Wow! It's been ages since a topic (or even a news story) about the Carians! I love it! A keyword? Of course there's a keyword. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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“The only thing really left to us is a choice about our death. And mine will be...glorious.” Knievel

He missed that one by a little.

So are those old war helmets with the crest that looks like a horse’s mane just for decoration or what? The remind me of the martian from the bugs bunny cartoons.

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