Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence

by: Bernal, M.

Price: 39,00 EURO

1 copy in stock

What is classical about Classical civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the foundation of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed since the eighteenth century—chiefly for racist reasons.

The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers—Aryans—from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this “Aryan model.” They did not see their institutions as original, but as derived from the East and from Egypt in particular.

In an unprecedented tour de force, Bernal links a wide range of areas and disciplines—drama, poetry, myth, theological controversy, esoteric religion, philosophy, biography, language, historical narrative, and the emergence of “modern scholarship.”

This volume is the second in a three-part series concerned with the competition between two historical models for the origins of Greek civilization. Volume II is concerned with the archaeological and documentary evidence for contacts between Egypt and the Levant on the one hand, and the Aegean on the other, during the Bronze Age from c. 34000 BC to c. 1100 BC. These approaches are supplemented by information from later Greek myths, legends, religious cults, and language. The author concludes that contact between the two regions was far more extensive and influential than is generally believed. In the introduction to this volume, Bernal also responds to some reviews and criticism of Volume I of Black Athena.

Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgements
Transcription and Phonetics
Chronological Tables
Introduction
Intrinsic reasons for preferring the Revised Ancient Model to the Aryan one
Some theoretical considerations
A summary of the argument
Chapter I Crete before the palaces, 7000–2100 bc
The ?diffusionist? and ?isolationist? debate
Crete before the 21st century bc
Cretan religion in the Early Bronze Age
Conclusion
Chapter II Egypt?s influence on Boiotia and the
peloponnese in the 3rd millennium, I
The cultic, mythical and legendary evidence
Semelē and Alkmēnē
Athena and Athens in Boiotia: The cults of Athena
Itōnia and Athena Alalkomena
Nēit, the controller of water
The battles between Nēit and Seth, Athena and Poseidon
Poseidon / Seth
Nēit / Athena and Nephthys / Erinys
Herakles
Conclusion
Chapter III Egypt?s influence on Boiotia and the
peloponnese in the 3rd millennium, II
The archaeological evidence
Spartan archaeology: the tomb of Alkmēnē
The tomb of Amphion and Zēthos
The draining of the Kopais
Granaries
Irrigation and settlement in the Argolid
Drainage and irrigation in Arkadia
Parallels between Boiotian and Arkadian place names
Social and political structures in Early Helladic Greece
Other archaeological traces of Old Kingdom Egypt in
the Aegean
The end of Early Bronze Age ?high? civilization
Conclusion
Chapter IV The Old Palace Period in Crete and the
Egyptian Middle Kingdom, 2100 to 1730 bc
Early Minoan III – the Prepalatial Period
Lead and spirals
The Cretan palaces
Crètan writing systems
Cultic symbols in Early Palatial Crete
Possible Anatolian origins of the bull cult
Thunder and sex: Min, Pan and Bwäzä
Min and Minos
The case against Egyptian influence
Mont and Rhadamanthys
The survival of the bull cult — Cretan conservatism
Conclusion
Chapter V Sesōstris, I
The archaeological and documentary evidence for the
Greek accounts of his conquest
The discovery of the Mit Rahina inscription
The significance of the inscription as evidence for an
Egyptian empire in Asia during the Middle Kingdom
Senwosre and Sesōstris
The real and the fantastic in the Sesōstris stories
Middle Kingdom Egypt?s military capability
The background
Archaeological evidence for the campaigns
Was Sesōstris the destroyer?
Sesōstris in Thrace and Scythia?
Sesōstris in Colchis?
The evidence for Sesōstris? ?conquests? from the Mit Rahina inscription
Conclusion
Chapter VI Sesōstris, II
The cultic, mythical and legendary evidence
The Egyptian tradition
The traditions of the Levant and Anatolia
Thrace and Scythia
Colchis: an Egyptian colony?
Mesopotamia and Iran
The Greek legends of Memnōn and his conquests of Anatolia
The case for an Egyptian conquest of Troy c. 1900 bc
Sesōstris / Senwosre and Amenemḥ?s conquests:
a summary of the evidence
Chapter VII The Thera eruption: from the Aegean to China
The controversy over dating
The eruption re-dated
The implications of the re-dating
Thera and Kalliste
Volcanic allusions in the Exodus story
Membliaros and the pall of darkness
The myth of Atlantis
The Hekla eruption in Iceland
China: the historiographical impact
The world-wide impact of the Thera eruption
Conclusion
Chapter VIII The Hyksos
The chronology of the 13th Dynasty: chaos in Egypt
The chronology of the 15th Dynasty: the beginnings of Hyksos rule
The Hyksos capital at Tell el Daba?a
The 400-year stela and the Temple of Seth
A chronological summary
Who were the Hyksos?
Different views on the origin and the arrival of the Hyksos
The Hyksos as a multinational corporation
Horses and chariots: Hurrians and Aryans
Hurrians and Hyksos
Hyksos material culture
The Hyksos and the biblical captivity or sojourn in Egypt
Conclusion
Chapter IX Crete, Thera and the birth of Mycenaean
culture in the i8th and 17th centuries bc
A Hyksos invasion?
The Cretan new palaces
The weapons of Crete in MMIII
The flying gallop, the sphinx and the griffin
Was there a Hyksos invasion of Crete c. 1730 bc?
The Hyksos in Thera?
The origins of Mycenaean civilization
The Aryanist Model of invasion
Between Aryan and Ancient: Frank Stubbings
Conclusion: a revision of the Ancient Model
Chapter X Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Levantine contacts with the Aegean
The documentary evidence
Egyptian place names referring to the Aegean
The etymology of Danaan
Documentary evidence for Egyptian relations with the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age
Accuracy and hybridism in Egyptian inscriptions and tomb paintings
Why did Cretan princes bring tribute to Egypt?
Dating the Mycenaean domination of Crete
Crete and Mycenaean missions to Egypt
The statue base of Amenōphis III
Contacts between Egypt and the Aegean in the late 18th and 19th Dynasties
A summary of the evidence from Egyptian documents and paintings
Mesopotamian and Ugaritic documents
Aegean documents
Conclusion
Chapter XI Egyptian and Levantine contacts with the Aegean, 1550–1250 bc
The archaeological evidence
Late Mycenaean Greece
The relative isolation of the Aegean 1550–1470 bc
Egyptian expansion from c. 1520 to 1420
Pelops and the Achaians: evidence from Anatolia
Pelops ?the crown prince??
The Achaians and the Danaans
Archaeological traces of the Achaians
Mycenaeans and Hittites
Ugarit and Cyprus
Mycenaean expansion and the conquests of Tuthmōsis III
The merchants of the Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age?
The Kaş shipwreck: the sailors
The Egyptian Thebes and Mycenae, 1420–1370 bc
The foundation deposit plaques
The vocabulary of trade
The decline of Egyptian influence on the Aegean 1370–1220 bc
Phi and Psi figurines and smiting gods
Canaanite jars
Ivory
Conclusion
Chapter XII The heroic end to the heroic age
The fall of Thebes, Troy and Mycenae 1250–1150 bc
Cylinder seals
The Boiotian Thebes and the Phoenicians? arrival
Ancient chronographies
Kadmos and the alphabet
Kadmos and Danaos: Hyksos rulers
Problems in the writing of Linear B
The treasure of the Kadmeion
The Kassite connection
The destruction of Thebes
A brief survey of Trojan history
The date of the Trojan War
Thebes and Troy
The collapse of Mycenaean civilization
Conclusion
Conclusion
Maps and Charts
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence

by: Bernal, M.

• ISBN-13: 9780813515847 / 978-0-8135-1584-7
• ISBN-03: 081351584X / 0-8135-1584-X
• Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 1991

Price: 39,00 EURO

1 copy in stock