Posted on 04/10/2018 3:50:41 AM PDT by Cronos
The Harappan civilization dominated the Indus River valley beginning about five thousand years ago, many of its massive cities sprawling at the edges of rivers that still flow through Pakistan and India today. But its culture remains a mystery. Why did it leave behind no representations of great leaders, nor of warfare?
Archaeologists have long wondered whether the Harappan civilization could actually have thrived for roughly 2,000 years without any major wars or leadership cults. Obviously people had conflicts, sometimes with deadly results — graves reveal ample skull injuries caused by blows to the head. But there is no evidence that any Harappan city was ever burned, besieged by an army, or taken over by force from within. Sifting through the archaeological layers of these cities, scientists find no layers of ash that would suggest the city had been burned down, and no signs of mass destruction. There are no enormous caches of weapons, and not even any art representing warfare.
That would make the Harappan civilization an historical outlier in any era. But it's especially noteworthy at a time when neighboring civilizations in Mesopotamia were erecting massive war monuments, and using cuneiform writing on clay tablets to chronicle how their leaders slaughtered and enslaved thousands.
What exactly were the Harappans doing instead of focusing their energies on military conquest?
The Indus River flows out of the Himalayas, bringing fresh water to the warm, dry valley where the ancient city of Harappa first began to grow. The Harappan civilization is the namesake of this city, located between two rivers, whose arts, written language, and science spread to several other large, riverside cities in the area. Mohenjo-Daro was the largest of these cities with a population of roughly 80,000 people.
Art from Harappan cities also attests to a very mixed population, with statues showing people who sport a wide variety of clothing and hair styles. So the Harappans appear to have been a very diverse lot. Some traveled far from their cities, probably by boat across the Persian Gulf, to trade with other great civilizations in the region during the 2000s BCE. There was at least one Harappan trade outpost in Mesopotamia, in the city of Eshnunna, which today lies about 30 km northeast of Baghdad. People from other Mesopotamian cities like Ur owned distinctively Harappan luxury goods such as beads and tiny carved bones
Harappans appear to have been traders who welcomed people to their cities from pretty much anywhere. But that doesn't mean they were disorganized or anarchic.
By studying the layers of built environments in Harappa, archaeologists have pieced together a fragmentary history of the civilization's rise. Harappa began as a village, probably about 6,000 years ago. There's evidence of agriculture and very early pottery throughout the 3000s BCE.
It's also during this time that we begin to see markings that look like writing on pottery. Over a period of just a couple of centuries, these crude marks evolved quickly into an alphabet that we still can't decipher. Here you can see a typical example of Harappan writing, on a seal that would have been pressed into soft clay, and was probably used in trade.
Indeed, it seems that writing in Harappa followed soon after the invention of standard weights and measures for commerce. Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of blocks in a variety of standard sizes that conform to the binary weight system favored in the Indus Valley.
This fits with most accounts of how writing emerges in civilizations. Often, it begins with people using numbers and math to determine who owns what, or who has bought what from whom. From there, it develops quickly into a full-blown system of symbols. Writing seems to be one of those technological innovations that evolves very rapidly once people start using it.
It's next to impossible to build an urban civilization without standard measures and writing, but it's rare that we have a chance to look back in history to glimpse a literate culture emerging from a pre-literate one. In the ruins of Harappa, we can track that transition taking place. And the more writing we see in a given layer, the more complicated and advanced the civilization had become.
Advanced Technologies and Civil Engineering
Harappans didn't just create standardized measures — they liked everything to be standardized, right down to the size of the bricks they used to build their homes. Bricks and boards, like weights, came in just a few standard sizes. Echoing this love of order, Harappans built their cities on fairly strict grids.
Though the idea of a street grid seems perfectly ordinary to city-dwellers today, it was unusual at the time. Most great cities in Mesopotamia, for example, had curving streets and a more organic-looking layout
Sometimes archaeologists call the Harappan architectural style "nested" because they loved to build walls within walls. Every city was surrounded by a wall, but once inside, residents would find themselves walking past several more walled enclosures. We're not entirely sure why the Harappans designed their cities this way, but it's possible that these inner walls protected sacred areas or the estates of particularly high-status citizens.
I mentioned earlier that the Harappans left no monuments to their leaders, but their walls and city layouts make it clear that they were hardly egalitarians. Homes ranged from single rooms in dormitory-like buildings, possibly for slaves, to palatial estates with dozens of rooms and multiple outdoor courtyards. Harappans preferred two-story buildings, and semi-public courtyards were part of nearly every home.
There were regions of Harappan cities, often in their northwest corners, that were elevated above the rest. One of these elevated areas — surrounded by walls, of course — has been excavated extensively at Mohenjo-Daro. Dubbed (somewhat incorrectly) "the citadel," it includes what some archaeologists believe is a granary, as well as large, public buildings whose uses remain mysterious. But one structure stands out, partly because its design is tied to one of the greatest technological innovations of the Harappan city.
It is a public bath
You can see it above, along with the grand staircase that would have taken visitors down into its waters. The floor of the bath was built from specially-sized fired bricks, and it was surrounded by many passages and small rooms. Whether or not this particular bath was simply a public bathing site, or perhaps something more ceremonial, it was the largest version of a technology that was common throughout Harappan cities.
Because, you see, Harappans had plumbing. Every home had bathrooms, many had toilets, and drainage ditches throughout their cities carried waste beyond its walls. In fact, one way we know that the Harappans set up outposts in Mesopotamia is that their cities had such sophisticated, distinctive plumbing. Perhaps, instead of making war, the Harappans were devoting their money and energy to city infrastructure planning. Below, you can see an artist's recreation of what a city's plumbing would look like. Clay pipes ran alongside city streets, and past homes.
Harappans were also spending a lot of time perfecting the art of luxury goods. They made bangles, carved decorative bones, worked copper and other metals. Most of all, they crafted beads that must have been famous for thousands of kilometers, given that archaeologists have found them in far-flung Mesopotamian cities.
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No the Samaritans were not Hebrew, they were transplants brought in by Shalmanesser to tend the land. You apparently do not believe the word of Yehova.
You are right. I believe I confused Phoenicians and philistines and was meaning Phoenicians. The link below is a very long and fascinating account of the Phoenician history and role in the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean. One thing I had not known was that Phoenicia served as Persia’s navy in a number of ways including wars with Greece.
https://phoenicia.org/history.html
I would expect that aside from building and furnishings that wood was essential for cooking, warm bathing, and if there was a cool season, for house warming. Even brick or adobe houses often use timber as cross pieces in the roof. Looking at images for Harappa, the roofs are long since fallen away, but looking at mud construction for north African cities like Timbuctu, wooden cross beams are evident.
. the Samaritans were closely related to Cohanim.GEnetics and the Samaritans - Rosenberg
This result supports the position of the Samaritans that they are descendants from the tribes of Israel dating to before the Assyrian exile in 722-720 BCE.
The book of Chronicles compounds the difference in interpretation of Samaritan history. Recalling that Hezekiah ruled the southern kingdom of Judea from 715 BCE, after the Assyrian victory, the following passage seems to contradict the above statement from II Kings:
And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the home of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover.” (II Chronicles 30: 1)
this verse of Chronicles actually implies that King Hezekiah was trying to contact Israelites from Samaria, and that some Samaritans remained in that area after the Assyrian conquest
In fact, II Chronicles 30: 1 may be interpreted as conÀ rming that a large fraction of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (i.e., Samaritans) remained in Israel after the Assyrian exile.
If memory serves, the Aryans' arrival in the Harappan cities was that of a people on the move, and everywhere they went they found empty habitations or whole populations lying dead.
During Alexander the Great's siege of Tyre the Tyrians were out on their island, and basically told him to sod off. He set his engineers to work building two big breakwaters and then filling the center area in, then attacked the city on dry land. The reason the island isn't obvious today is, it hasn't been an island since that siege. The Phoenicians hit their maritime height after the foundation of Carthage; the all-season port had a military core where their considerable fleet of warships could be launched one after the other, one ship every few seconds. As part of the expansion into the Med, Africa had been circumnavigated and colonies planted along the Atlantic coast at least as far south as Cameroon (Mt Cameroon is the only recent active volcano, and its eruption is clearly described in the Pariplus of Hanno). The 'history' given on Phoenicia.org is a scrambled mess, thanks to reliance on the conventional pseudochronology. :^)
2Kings 17:
[20] And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
[21] For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
[22] For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
[23] Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
[24] And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
[25] And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
[26] Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
[27] Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
[28] Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
[29] Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
[30] And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
[31] And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
[32] So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
[33] They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
[34] Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
[35] With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
[36] But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
[37] And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
[38] And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
[39] But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
[40] Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
[41] So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
Thank you, Cronos, for that explanation about the Sea Peoples. Very informative.
Verse 23 -- "until this day" meaning until 550 BC
verse 24: again, talking of 550 BC, not later
verse 27 talking of 550 BC - and those people are not only the ancestors of the Samaritans -- they very well may be, but the Samaritans also have Cohanim blood
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No it would be impossible for non-hebrews to have Cohenim blood.
The only connection they had was that they had been transplanted to the land.
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Josephus also makes it fairly clear in Antiquities 12.261.
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And yet the present day Samaritans HAVE Cohenim blood - genes, haplogroups.
Though josephus' account is contradicted by Chronicles as I said about where King Hezekiah invites aid from "the remnants of Israel included Mannasseh and Ephraim"
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There exists today no pure sample from which to determine what is “Cohenim blood.”
The word has always called for the intermingling of all who accept the covenant to be called Israel. That is the Bride.
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