INTRODUCTION:
(Ki) Swahili is an agglutinative language which is derived from the immediate family of the Northeast coast Bantu languages in a broader sense. As a language from Afro-Asiatic (AA) group of languages it demonstrates a tendency towards inflection (Myachina 1981:22) Though spoken as a mother tongue in a wide ranges of places in an East African Urheimat; such as South Somalia, North Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya (Pete, Lamu, Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia), Uganda, Congo, Burindi, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Mozambique, Madagascar, and the Comoro Islands – speakers are also found in Oman, included are the United Arab Emirates. It is spoken in many other places as a second language (Myachina, 2). There are some fifty-million (50,000,000) speakers of this language worldwide. As a Southern Cushitic subgroup (Heine 2000: 81,95) of Bantu language the term “Swahili” is derived from the Arabic term “Sahila” meaning “coast” and forms part of the proto-Bantu family of languages. Since it also belongs to the eastern group of Bantu languages which displays Myamweze as a language, and dialects such as those from the Iramba plateau, Pokomo, Taita, Taweta, including the Kilimanjaro Hill Tribes, Djaga, Mishi, Meru, Pare, included Asu from the Sambala dispensation, Bondei, Zigula, Zaramo, Sagra, Gogo, Hehe, Pogoro, Baena, especially Makonde, all form certain distinguishing patterns. Nurse and Spear (1985: 39) see the language though influenced mainly from Arabic through trade and other cultural contacts as one maintaining a technical vocabulary from proto-Bantu times in the Stone Age. A Latin script derived from proto-Sanaitic aleph-bet forms its backbone. MORPHOPHONEMICS FOCUS: SOME SWAHILI NOMINALS AND CONCORDIAL PREFIXES
Present day Swahili is mainly an S V O language. It shares this feature with most Romance Languages like, Latin, French, Italian, Romanian, and many others. This includes Chinese (cf. Hariehausen 1990, cf Dyer 2006:7) and Bulgarian. The example in (1) shows Swahili S V O word order.
(1) Ni - li - kul – a
s v o (ind) (c.f. Deen 2005:187)
“I ate it”
Proto-Swahili /Bantu used traditionally 22 noun clauses. Presently sixteen are in usage.
Some examples used in (2).
Noun classes, (1 & 2) ie. “persons/prefixes/m/mu/wa/ as in m-toto; “child”(sing.); wa-toto (pl.) “children” (3 & 4) “nature” /m/mu/mi/ as in m-to; “river” mi-to “rivers”. (5 & 6) “class” /ji/ma/ as in jitu; “giant”
ma-jitu “giants (7 & 8). “inanimate” /ki/ma/ as in ki-tabu, vi-tabu, “books”
( 9 & 11). Abstract nouns, mass nouns /n/u/as in n-gurumo, “thunder” U-zuri, “beauty” (zuri-beautiful) (15 & 16). “verbal nouns” /ku/pa/s/ in ku-soma “reading” pa-moja “together” ( 16 & 17) /ku/mu/ as in mu-ngu “god creator”.
When Bernstein (2008: 1250) constructs between NP and DP are applied in semantic and
a functional term to his predicate/arguments with regards Swahili lexical heads, nouns and verbs interesting data can be culled. Note Swahili contains no (null) determiners.
Thus determinerless nominals predicate rules the day. For example the following examples in (3):
(a) Omino amewasili leo (Omino has arrived today)
(b) Omino amewasili kuyu sika (Omino has arrived day)
The obvious Np in 3 (a) follows a reasoning of Stowell (1989) and Longobardi c.f
Bernstein 1994: 1251) as a predicate and not DP as an argument. Though mention is made of the DP function and the adjoining clause can assume a predicate as opposed to obvious argument. Whilst 3 (b) contains the recipe of “definitive nominal phrase” using the morpheme as a determiner phrase this day. (Bernstein, 1257) shows true argument.
BIBLIOGRAPHYAnderson, S.R., “Inflectional Morphology” ed. Shopen, Timothy, Language Typology and Syntactic Descriptive: Grammatical Categories and Lexicon, Vol. II, 1985, p. 250 -2001.
Bernstein, Judy B., Reformulating the Determiner Phrase Analysis, Language and Linguistics Compass, Blackwell Publishing, 2008, p. 1246-1270.
Deen, K., The Acquisition of Swahili, J. Benjamin Publishers Co, Aneston Philadelphia,
2005, p.185.
Dyer, M.S. World Order Clause Structure, Language Typology and Syntactic Descriptions, Vol. I, ed. by Shopen, Timothy, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 7.
Haman, E., Early Productivity in Derivation Case Study of Diminutives in Acquisition of Polish, Psychology of Language and Communication, Vol. 7 No. 1, 2003, p. 39.
Heine, B., A, African Languages An Introduction, ed. Nurse, D., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge MA, 2000, p. 81 & 95.
Myachina, E.N., Swahili Language: A Descriptive Grammar, Trans. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1981, 2 & 22.
Nurse, D. &, Spear T.T., Swahili Reconstructing The History and Language of An African Society 800-1500, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1985, p. 39
Y.T. MODEIRE
Saturday, October 24, 2009
APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN BANTU-SWAHILI IN LIGHT OF MARTHA McGINNIS' "APPLICATIVES"
APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN BANTU-SWAHILI IN LIGHT OF MARTHA McGINNIS "APPLICATIVES"
Maria Polinsky(2005) studied theLinguistic phenomena of Applicative Construction and mapped its distribution in the global language order.She believes that this kind of construction is based on what as object arguments the predicate selects in construction. This position might seem flimsy and lacking in buoyancy when McGinnis’s theory (2008, 125) on Applicatives proposes that syntactically extra elements added to a clause, basically (non-core objects) be viewed as applicative constructions. Both of their positions may seem a clearer river measured across the global spectrum of languages landscapes which portray morphemic and agglutinative- rich, affixional, and especially verb medial language elements apt for such constructions. It may not be the whole story though when Polinsky expresses that an applicative marker (usually) takes two objects,especially the theme which she demonstrates in data obtained from (Tukang Besi, 1999, p. 231; cf Polinsky in Hasplemeth et al 2005 sec 109). Note the control between the basic construction or 2-place predicate viewed in A and the supposed applicative construction or 3 place predicate noted in B of 1.
1. a. no-ala te kau
fetch the wood
b. no-ala-ako te ina-su te kau
fetch the mother my the wood
What do applicatives themselves really emphasize and convey? In the free range yet constrained word order of syntactic acquisition noticed in old world language speakers do these applicatives evince convenient morphophemic developments?.Or are they new playthings of overzealous lexicalists and othe theorists? McGinnis whose interest is in the architecture of human languages throughout her paper on Applicatives points out the data rich Bantu languages especially Kinyarwanda thoroughly discoursed (Kimenyi 1980 c.f Mc Ginnis 2008,1225-1229) in context serves not only as sound inflectional examples but as syntactic movement in MLC. In this instance Applicative Morphemes, affix, and especially suffixes as syntactic elements adds especially to the clausecoupled with movement to the sbject position. Applicative Morphemes such as –ir/-er applicative morphemes also –iish,and locative applicative suffix –ho appear as thematic categories to compensate different arguments limited to the verb which need not be replicated here as a demonstration in context (cf McGinnis 1225).
Benefactive Data
In this regard one can note the identification of benefactive/instrumental applicative marker in Bokusu language (2007,7)as four allomorphs example.Note that in 2. Bokusu is a key to only Swahili lexis but syntax,mrhology and all those other linguistic spectrum observed in Bantu-Swahili configuration.
1. a. n-a-lim-il-a luu-saala
1stper-tense-cultivate-APP-FV CL11-stick
"I cultivated with the stick."
b. n-a-keend-el-a omu-xasi
1stpers-tense-walk-APP-FV CL1-woman
"I walked for the woman."
c. n-a-ar-ir-a e-nyuungu luu-saala
1stpers-tense-break-APP-FV CL9-pot CL11-stick
"I broke the pot with the stick."
d. wanjala er-er-er-a en-goxo e-yaywa
wanjala thirdperson-tense-kill-APP-FV CL9-chicken CL9-axe
"Wanjala killed the chicken with the axe."(c.f Peterson,7)
These structures of applicative construction above shows multiple applicatives such as provided in the Kinyawanda data but DOC carefully avoided. Though we must accept McGinnis’s (1226) certitude of such thematic categories of applicatives themselves,reflecting the usual suspects,of benefactors, malefactives, recipients, sources, locatives, including instrumentals and others. Multiple applicatives are not replicated in this instance. But detransitive verbs accompanied by theme and argument form benefactive/instrumental applicatives from a to d of the above required distance of applicative construction unlike references to DOC as quite suited for the argument movenent discoursed. Whence, it is duly noted, that (1227) DOC configuration though involve as "applicative" "lacks overt applicative morphology".It is quite possible that further discussion on lower applicative (would accompanying IO with DO) and constructed high applicatives (McGinnis and Gerdts, 2004, 155-156) require no direct relation between two in semantic interpretation and movenents or bindings in internal documentations will serve to clarify the entire matter. That depth is beyond the scope of the present discussion.
Conclusion
Though polemics of applicative constructions has been conducted by linguists. The certitude that they spring from the constraints to affixes in verb phrases is possible .That they make their appearance in the free range word order language societies. Perhaps the observance is adequate enough. However, when Spanish grammarians became aware of this feature in South America other places for example Austronesia, Western Pacific, Mesoamerica, Salish, Abkhaz, Abaz, Georgia, Russia, Cacos, and also Bantu-Swahili languages they featured prominently to Linguists. McGinnis et al, have gone on to demonstrate benefactive/instrumental applicative serve to portray according to Peterson "symmetrical treatment of their object".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Haspelmath et al, The World Atlas of Language Structure, Dolinsky, cf Haspelmath et al, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, p.109.
McGinnis, Martha and Gerdts, Donna. 2004. A phase theoretic analysis of Kinyarwanda multiple applicatives. Proceedings of the 2003 Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference, ed. by
Sophie Burelle and Stanca Somesfalean, 154-65. Montreal, Canada: Cahiers Linguistiques de L’Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Peterson, David A., Applicative Construction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, p.9.
Y.T. MODEIRE
Maria Polinsky(2005) studied theLinguistic phenomena of Applicative Construction and mapped its distribution in the global language order.She believes that this kind of construction is based on what as object arguments the predicate selects in construction. This position might seem flimsy and lacking in buoyancy when McGinnis’s theory (2008, 125) on Applicatives proposes that syntactically extra elements added to a clause, basically (non-core objects) be viewed as applicative constructions. Both of their positions may seem a clearer river measured across the global spectrum of languages landscapes which portray morphemic and agglutinative- rich, affixional, and especially verb medial language elements apt for such constructions. It may not be the whole story though when Polinsky expresses that an applicative marker (usually) takes two objects,especially the theme which she demonstrates in data obtained from (Tukang Besi, 1999, p. 231; cf Polinsky in Hasplemeth et al 2005 sec 109). Note the control between the basic construction or 2-place predicate viewed in A and the supposed applicative construction or 3 place predicate noted in B of 1.
1. a. no-ala te kau
fetch the wood
b. no-ala-ako te ina-su te kau
fetch the mother my the wood
What do applicatives themselves really emphasize and convey? In the free range yet constrained word order of syntactic acquisition noticed in old world language speakers do these applicatives evince convenient morphophemic developments?.Or are they new playthings of overzealous lexicalists and othe theorists? McGinnis whose interest is in the architecture of human languages throughout her paper on Applicatives points out the data rich Bantu languages especially Kinyarwanda thoroughly discoursed (Kimenyi 1980 c.f Mc Ginnis 2008,1225-1229) in context serves not only as sound inflectional examples but as syntactic movement in MLC. In this instance Applicative Morphemes, affix, and especially suffixes as syntactic elements adds especially to the clausecoupled with movement to the sbject position. Applicative Morphemes such as –ir/-er applicative morphemes also –iish,and locative applicative suffix –ho appear as thematic categories to compensate different arguments limited to the verb which need not be replicated here as a demonstration in context (cf McGinnis 1225).
Benefactive Data
In this regard one can note the identification of benefactive/instrumental applicative marker in Bokusu language (2007,7)as four allomorphs example.Note that in 2. Bokusu is a key to only Swahili lexis but syntax,mrhology and all those other linguistic spectrum observed in Bantu-Swahili configuration.
1. a. n-a-lim-il-a luu-saala
1stper-tense-cultivate-APP-FV CL11-stick
"I cultivated with the stick."
b. n-a-keend-el-a omu-xasi
1stpers-tense-walk-APP-FV CL1-woman
"I walked for the woman."
c. n-a-ar-ir-a e-nyuungu luu-saala
1stpers-tense-break-APP-FV CL9-pot CL11-stick
"I broke the pot with the stick."
d. wanjala er-er-er-a en-goxo e-yaywa
wanjala thirdperson-tense-kill-APP-FV CL9-chicken CL9-axe
"Wanjala killed the chicken with the axe."(c.f Peterson,7)
These structures of applicative construction above shows multiple applicatives such as provided in the Kinyawanda data but DOC carefully avoided. Though we must accept McGinnis’s (1226) certitude of such thematic categories of applicatives themselves,reflecting the usual suspects,of benefactors, malefactives, recipients, sources, locatives, including instrumentals and others. Multiple applicatives are not replicated in this instance. But detransitive verbs accompanied by theme and argument form benefactive/instrumental applicatives from a to d of the above required distance of applicative construction unlike references to DOC as quite suited for the argument movenent discoursed. Whence, it is duly noted, that (1227) DOC configuration though involve as "applicative" "lacks overt applicative morphology".It is quite possible that further discussion on lower applicative (would accompanying IO with DO) and constructed high applicatives (McGinnis and Gerdts, 2004, 155-156) require no direct relation between two in semantic interpretation and movenents or bindings in internal documentations will serve to clarify the entire matter. That depth is beyond the scope of the present discussion.
Conclusion
Though polemics of applicative constructions has been conducted by linguists. The certitude that they spring from the constraints to affixes in verb phrases is possible .That they make their appearance in the free range word order language societies. Perhaps the observance is adequate enough. However, when Spanish grammarians became aware of this feature in South America other places for example Austronesia, Western Pacific, Mesoamerica, Salish, Abkhaz, Abaz, Georgia, Russia, Cacos, and also Bantu-Swahili languages they featured prominently to Linguists. McGinnis et al, have gone on to demonstrate benefactive/instrumental applicative serve to portray according to Peterson "symmetrical treatment of their object".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Haspelmath et al, The World Atlas of Language Structure, Dolinsky, cf Haspelmath et al, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, p.109.
McGinnis, Martha and Gerdts, Donna. 2004. A phase theoretic analysis of Kinyarwanda multiple applicatives. Proceedings of the 2003 Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference, ed. by
Sophie Burelle and Stanca Somesfalean, 154-65. Montreal, Canada: Cahiers Linguistiques de L’Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Peterson, David A., Applicative Construction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, p.9.
Y.T. MODEIRE
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
CERAMIC VIEW TO ANCIENT EGYPT AND LEVANT
CERAMIC LAMPS: EVIDENT SAMPLES OF RITUALISM AND URBANIZATION IN LATE BRONZE AND EARLY IRON I AGE EGYPT AND THE LEVANT
BY Y. T. MODEIRE
INTRODUCTION
The history of pottery’s role in the Levant identifies certain celestial bodies such as Sun, stars, and especially moon which influenced the development of certain cognate terms used for ceramic lamps. This has been attested by solid Semitic linguistic evidence. (Smith 1962: 3). The generic Semitic term [ner] Singular and [neroth] plural meaning lamp or lamps hail from the root *nyr; meaning to flame -finds correlate linguistic evidence in Ugaritc masculine noun nyr. This refers cosmologically to the moon divinity Yarikh. The term [Nrt] the feminine usage refers to the Ugaritic Shapash [Hebrew – shemesh] or shapash. These relates to the supposed divinity Marduk who is called Nuru when applied to the moon, known in Koranic sources as [Nur] according to Sura 17:16 (cf Smith 3). This term makes it possible to preface the use of ceramic lamps in early ritualism and cultic terms. As a representation of celestial lights and as a true precursor to urbanism lamps usage in shattering an early age historical fact that the world was once shrouded in darkness until its invention. Similar to fire Lamps were one of the world’s greatest invention which changed the proto-Neolithic world and was used to spur not only urbanism but also ritualism in the Levant.
BACKGROUND: BRONZE AGE AFFINITIES TO THE CERAMIC LAMP AND ITS CHANGING FORMS
The Ancient Egyptians used lamps as a matter of function and expediency in their construction of early Urban places such as temples and pyramids (Clarke & Englebeck 1999: 201). For households and other places where people gathered at nights or underground constructions the same could be admitted as a matter of need and functionalism. Though depicted in Tomb relief often in the form of open receptacles with flat bases. As the norm dictated in the fancy structured lamp showcased in the Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, which can be viewed as a departure from early typology of ceramic lamps. The simple form as standard was shown (fg.1) in the New Kingdom Ramified Tomb of King Ramses VI: "on the right side wall entrance of the Tomb, the King with sundisc above his head offers a burning lamp to Horus of the Horizon" (Piankoff 1954:10).
The lamp offered by the King is by no means single or four spouted, which are possible two of the earliest crude handmade forms of ceramic lamps known in Egypt and the Levant. The lamp’s design looks closer or similar to the small bowl or container used for drinking which characterized the late chalcolithic and early bronze age pottery vestibule used as light (Douglas 2001:3). Such lamps using olive oil demonstrate also early developments in ritual worship.
Wide spread belief that the temple at Denderah advanced the knowledge of light production beyond the earlier oil and wick sources seems speculative. Further speculation that cylinders of some sort drew energy from a certain natural resource inside the tomb at Denderah to produce light cannot be easily proven. The so-called absence of soot produced from flames remains a continuing debate about the early development of lamps in the temples and tombs of Ancient Egypt (Von Daniken 1989:215). The contradictory findings of soot as the after effects of lamps burning at an earlier time within the walls of the Red Pyramid at Dashur inverts the theory of lamps early function in Egypt. Clark and Englebeck believes:
The Egyptian lamp was of a simplest type; merely a wick floating in oil. It is not infrequently represented in the scenes of the Tombs where it usually takes the form of an open receptacle mounted on a tall foot…smaller example can be grasped in hand. In … pictures, they arise from the receptacle what we may assume to be wicks or flames …lamps in limestone have been found in the Pyramids of El-Lahun and representation of them in stone in the tabrinith at hawara in Egyptian houses small dishes were also used as lamps…they usually have the rim pinched into a spout." (4)
Earliest known examples of simple lamp forms made (fg.2) from dishes with flat bases or pinched spout found in pottery assemblages in the Near East were probably from Early Bronze and Middle Bronze period. An ensuing drought during EBIV to MBI terrible affected the continuing developments of early agriculture. The results were lack of olive oil used in lamps, harsh environments, and various population migrations from Mesopotamia, which uprooted previous settlements. These have been suggested as the varied stimulus for the redesign of the ceramic lamp (Douglas 2001:4) Hence, the possibility that alternative four spouted lamp form in sequence which used different sources of oil like animal fat whether it should be dated earlier remains complicated as an issue. The distinction of quatrefoil or four-spouted lamps discovered in EB IV shaft tombs at Beth Shan casts little light on the chronological diagnostics and origins. The case of the evolution of lamp forms from an Egyptian perspective needs now a serious reexamining. The Syrian examples (from Hama J8) from third and fourth century dynasty Egypt at Bibles could possible clarify the question of origins but still make the matter more obscure (Fugman, Saghieh cited in Helms 1989: 18). The Egyptian stone versions of quatrefoil lamps has been noted in the inscription of Pepi I (ca 200-300 BC) which perhaps complicates the chronological relationship between say Alba 2B1 of the Levant and Egypt around the same period.
Another sample of this type of lamp was noted in the times of Cephren 2,500 BC though other versions has been indicated in EBII period at Tel es-Sa’ideyeh (Helms 1989: 18). The quatrefoil lamps forms can be claimed to have existed in EBII in Trans Jordan and Palestine replaced afterward by evolution of the new type of saucer lamp made by wheel (Douglas 2001:4). Those from Transjordan were being made from stone and pottery in early dynastic period connected to Egypt (Helms 18). Petrie gives example of a three-foil lamp in volcanic stone, also a pottery version, which dates from the fourth dynasty (Brunton & Morant ctd in Hems 18). Other quatrefoil lamp versions have been demonstrated to exist in the tenth dynasty period .The floruit of such Egyptian versions of those lamp forms can be noted between Dynasties II and III made in stone and clay (Helms 18). The absence of these lamps in the archeological records of EB II and III in Trans Jordan and Palestine has been demonstrated (Weinstein cited in Helms 18). It may well be that Egyptian stone types spoken about earlier reached the Southern Levant and became a repetition in most potter’s repertoire. At Um Bighal round base versions and flat-based samples have been found. These were well attested also at Tiwal esh-Sharqi where the flat-based types of lamp dominated (Helms 1983; cited in Helms 1989:17). Round based lamps were the main at Jebel Jofeh. Flat bases known at Qa ‘Aqir, Bab edh- Dra, Sinjil, Ain-Smiyeh, El-Husn, Tell ed-Duweir, Menahemiya, Araq en-Na ‘saneh and at Qedesh identified (Helms 19). Tadmore (1978: 7 ctd in Helms 18) notes the ritualistic or cultic uses of these lamps connected certain caves. Whilst (Epstein 1989: 43 ctd in Helms 18)) claims a single spouted version from the area of Ginonsan. Helms believe that in terms of understanding the panoramic floruit and diagnostic of both form and origin that:
:
…The only suitable conclusion …on lamps that both rounded and flat forms
are contemporary…they may have a regional distribution: flat bases were preferred in the south and round bases in the Amman region and a mixture of both in between…" (18)
Speculation that such earliest uses of lamp forms arose from imitations of shell type examples may be without merit. Though amongst the Mediterranean coast bi-valved shells may have been adapted to being used as lamps, even in Cartage and Mesopotamia in the third Millenium BC conch shells were used as lamps (Smith 1964: 3). Smith further suggest in regards to Early Bronze Age lamp forms:
The saucer lamps actually developed from household bowls…an attempt …to adapt the bowl form to the specific function of a lamp had been made during the centuries of disruption following the Early Bronze Age. When the potters divised a flat bottom bowl with undulating rim formed from an equidilant spout. When the chariot-warriors and city builders of the twenty-first millenium came upon the scene. they fashioned a single lamp by putting a spout by the side of the bowl. The development of saucer lamp through the middle and late Bronze ages consisted mainly of the evolution of the spout into an increasing large feature (4).
Such a development surely would have taken place somewhere between Egypt and the Levant where it must be noted that origins of the type of lamp seen with rounded bases and pinched single spout in central Jordan provide a link to the Egyptian model (Palumbo & Patterman 1993: 30). Dever (1971: 33) has certainly identified such varying examples at the MB I Tomb at Sinjil. There the persistence of four spouted lamps both hand made, and well fired seemed remarkable. One medium pink and the other medium brown in fabric. The same has been suggested for two four spouted lamps found at Bab edh dra but from the EBI period which are indeed unique discoveries but a step backward in typology. These two lamps from Bab edh -Dra even though they have bases are slightly rounded. They are both red slipped and burnished as usual. As crude hand made vessels that are not dissimilar from those found at Aroer Stratum V1a (Schaub 1973: 16). The fact that slightly round bases and flat bases represent the horizon does not harbor a grand new diagnostic analysis of chronological sequences or differences leading up to that period. Besides Ain-es-samiyeh, Jebel, Qa’ir, El-Kum, and other sites Sinjyl provides a model for other quatrefoil lamps which has been showcased from shaft tombs especially from the horizons of MBI, MBIIA, and especially from the CH family forms of lamps. The correction of the weather and climate in this period oppositely increased olive production but brought the deathnell to quatrefoil lamps. Not to forget the influence fast wheel technology (Douglas 2001:4)
CERAMIC LAMPS AS MODELS OF URBANISM AND RITUALISM
It can be inferred vociferously that Egyptian ceramic lamps played a dominant role in its ritualism. The first oil lamps were carved in hollowed-out-stones located in caves circa 12,500 years ago. (Susmann ctd in Douglas 2001;1700) Caves played an early role in magico-religios demonstrated by the snakehead ritual in Kalahari Hill Botswana (Brill 2006) Zivit (2001:82,209) identifies niches, certain stones, placement of lamps, jugs and cooking pots inside these cave used in performance of such rituals. Pyramids and temples especially played a crucial role in establishing use of lamps as part and parcel of religious practices. Those suitable to ancestral worship of a celestial nature. Practices especially pertaining to sun, moon, and stars. Early urban conceptions, of buildings and early architecture from crude to advance artistic level would have depended on lamps not only to celebrate the hosting of these celestial forces but also to simply light up the darkness. This is a factor taken for granted in today’s modern world drowned by modern electricity dependent on natural gas and oil in even the most outmoded places on earth.
The question of dawning urbanism in the Levant, the ebb and flow of peoples, their dependence on units of agriculture serve as a backdrop for pottery industries. The cultural traits introduced by the constant changing of immigrant communities fashioned both style and forms. Their connections to raw materials for functional pottery were depended upon. These forms moved in and out of the Near Eastern theatre. Local and foreign pottery samples were part of trade and circumstance of immigration. Thus, the ceramic lamps located at Al-Umayri amongst the chalices, carinated bowls, jugs and cooking pots and other items of its assemblage suggest ritual practices. For instance the representation of the Eyes of Horus noted in Chert Nodule points to a function of dual ritualism and urbanism in ceramics perhaps still connected to Egypt (Bramlett 2004: 50). Bronze Age (EB1, EBII, and EBIII) witnessed shifting populations from the old fortifications of Tell sites to smaller settlements, which happened at a rapid pace. (Dever 1980: 35). The actual fortified settlements, and changing settlement patterns provide for what already was witnessed throughout Transjordan. Handmade-wheel finished and handmade spouted lamps of red slip burnished fabric were coming into vogue. Ceramic lamp forms of the single spout and especially four spout lamps appeared as part of the floriut of noted assemblages of Middle Bronze and Late Bronze (Amiran 1970; 87,89). Early Iron Bronze favored the one spout lamp in various styles of the period. Whether or not temple ritualism and worship would have been the norm, lamps played an effective role in burial rituals. Most of the grave sites dug up by archeologists in the various horizons of the Levant show lamps as part of burial ceremonies. (Smith 1964: 11). One is tempted to assume night burials as a norm .Its too simplistic an assumption to believe in context. An opposite suggestion is that many people of the Ancient World deposited offerings of food and drink in the Tombs, hoping thereby to revive the dead. Lamps seem to have played an important concomitant of these offerings. Different in no way from household specimens probably brought from the home. They constitute only one-quarter to one-half of the vessels in much Iron I period Tombs. These were far more than necessary to meet the actual lighting needs of the Tomb. It may be also that each person, who brought a dish of two of food for the dead, also brought a lamp and lit it at the tomb. (Smith 12) This may be not so far fetched about the selection of lamps carried by mourners to burial tombs. In India for instance, dias or open flat vessel lamps are sometimes placed in floating vessels in river sides as culmination of cremation rituals. Hence, the symbolic acts in Caananite burial sites where lamps are easily located alongside physical burial entities, with food, drink, and materials of various ilk, speaks volumes. Murray (cited in Schaeffer 1964: 12) observes in Caananite tombs at Ras Shamrah that beside dishes of food at their entrance lamps were also left there. The ritual dedication of urban buildings in most Caanantite cities in the Bronze Age made use of traditional ceremonial lamp rituals. Smith (1964) identifies this as:
A bowl sometimes containing sand, fine dirt, or even ashes placed under an ordinary lamp. A similar bowl so as to form a cone, was placed over the lamp. Sometimes the bowl closely fit together that the lamp was entirely closed. But often, the spout was partially exposed. Lamps in these deposits usually had slight traces of burning or none at all, suggests that the ceremony required new lamp, which was lit for a short while or in some cases not lit at all). Such offerings must have been intended perhaps to ward off evil spirits or to encourage beficient spirits to dwell in the house or both. The ceremony may have been as Petrie suggested with typical inventiveness, a substitution for the more primitive practice of child sacrifice the sealing of the lamp equivalent to the slaying of the child (13).
Some urban dwellings required special designed lamps which were not of the form of the single sprout or the cardinal points quatrefoil type. Some were in fact multi-sprouted according to ritual requirement. These are peculiar to Iron I sites in Palestine. The use of seven sprouts for instance and tubular pedestal bases have been suggested at Ras Shamarah. (Schaeffer cited in Smith 1964: 14). The cultic references of these sorts of lamps are perhaps a primitive version to the Hebrew seven candle lamps. Whether linked to the deity Ball tied to Nimrod worship (Narmer?) which in the old shrines of Palestine have been found not only in the Tombs, but in houses and other urban places remains possible. (Smith 1964: 14). The cup and saucer lamps called sometimes the double bowl have been found in numerous sanctuary tombs and urban domestic scenarios. These so-called saucer lamps identified in Megiddo to Jericho from around the thirteenth to sixth century B.C. may have been intended also for ritualistic purposes. Some had fenestrated bases whilst others were situated in round saucers.
CHANGING CERAMIC LAMPS IN EARLY IRON AGENG FORMS SAME FUNCTIONS
Communities in the urban center required religious rites to appease the powers in the universe when they assumed those did go into disharmony. Such rites when practiced in the household required certain lamps, which functioned in the rituals to assuage the forces. The full spectrum to the extent of such application of logic to cosmological ritual can be found in the Book of Gates and the Book of Nights in Egyptian in context to heavenly light- bodies. The Shaft Tombs of the Levant carried the evidence. Smith (1962) cites the multi-sprouted saucer lamps used in the Iron I and Iron II ages. As one example of the lamps used for this purpose he observes
:
…Lamps of this kind are made of ordinary clay, seven spouts and base…rounded bottoms of tubular pedestals two to nine inches in height…they originated in the region of coastal Syria at Ras Shamrah …900 to 750 BC… lamps seem to have tall pedestal bases. The Palestinian specimens are not yet known earlier than the very end of the late Bronze Age. The variation of the form probably reflects slightly different traditions of various shrines and in some cases…different dates…all lamps from this kind stem from the same cult…(16).
The model at Ras Shamrah of the multi-spouted lamp (fg.3) which existed in context to Sanctuary worship was well known (Shatter ctd in Smith 16). This identifies further with certain deities from which the Hebrew seven spouted flame lamp featured in the Temple of Jerusalem might have come from. Yahweh the divinity at Jerusalem the diety of the Yehudym may not have been Baal, which in Hebrew means literally "husband". Baal refers to Narmer or Nimrod, similar to Osiris as husband to Isis. These cultic practices in the Shrines meant as Baal worship can be inferred as Osiris worship. Smith goes on to cite the cup and saucer or double bowl lamp as discoveries in Palestine from Sanctuaries, Tombs, and domesticated places.
The Potter as a class had used inventive utilitarianism to totally transform what was expected for lamps thus far. By placing in a saucer in an inner container (fg.4) he generated different sizes found as various tomb samples. These vestibules had either a slight hint of a spout or none at all. Some samples had handles or tall pedestal bases. Negev and Gibson (1992) discusses the changing forms of ceramic and terracotta lamps in the practice of ceramic industry of the Iron Age where some basics forms remained unchanged from late Bronze. They suggest:
…The shape of lamps underwent more changes…The iron age lamp is characterized by a broad flat rim…a pronounced wick channel with flat base..the base of some samples were raised…clay lampstands support a single lamp…Some lamps with seven channels. Iron Age lamps have been discovered in Beit-Merseim, Bethshan, Hazor, Meggido, and Tel-el-Farah. (295)
They assumed that as Amiran contends late Bronze Age lamps were becoming deeper and larger, and the walls were becoming sharper with folded falanges. Lamps in the early Iron Age went beyond those experiments. This probably was to do with ritualism in an urban context. Hence the basic Iron Age lamps were well made, casted in deep burnt fires made of buff clay which caused the clay to become buffed. The rims were pinched for wicks and economical usage of oil. They were sometimes made of flat, round bases.
CONCLUSION
Ceramic lamps (Neroth) played a very pivotal role in both ritualism and as a harbinger of early urbanization in the period of Late Bronze and early Iron Age. The examples of such ceramic lamps were numerous and specific in historical order to certain religious rituals which today have long been since forgotten. When re-examined allow for particular social, cultural and archeological conclusions to be drawn. These about ancient peoples, ancient migration and other patterns useful to decoding the Near East and its relationship with a dominant culture like Egypt. Irregardless of what now are deemed primitive practices but were very natural responses to nature such kindling a flame or lighting a lamp in celebration of certain celestial entities such as Sun, Moon or Stars. As these indeed were standard ancient practices. From the few examples discussed here one can conclude that indeed ceramic lamps were possibly the most important items of function in Levant and Egypt during Late Bronze and Early Iron period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Noam, A Comprehensive Catalog of Oil Lamps in the Holy Land from the Adler Collection, (2004), Israel, Old City Press, p.45.
Amiran, Rula, Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land from the Beginning in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age, (1970), New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, p.87.
Bramlett, Kent, A Late Bronze Age Cultic Installation of Tall-Al-Umayri Jordan, (2004), Near Eastern Technology, Vol. 67, p. 50-81.
Brill, Robert Roy, Live Science, www.livescience.com, (2006).
Clarke, Somers, & Englebook, Reginal, Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture, (1990), New York, Courier Dover Publications, p. 52.
Dever, William G., An MBI Tomb from Sinjit, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1971), No. 204, p. 71.
Dever, William G., The Impact of the "New Archeology" on Syro Palestinian Archeology, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, (1981), No. 242,
p. 15-29.
Helms, Svend, An Early Bronze IV Pottery Repertoire at Amman, Jordan, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1989), No. 273, p. 17-36.
Lauer, Jean Phillipe, De Augen der Sphinx, Ullstein, (1989), p. 215.
Negev, Avraham, & Gibson, Shimon, Archaelogical Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, (2001), New York, Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 291
Oren, Eliezer, D., The Early Bronze IV Period in Northern Palestine and Its Cultural and Chronological Settings, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1973), No. 245, p.20-37.
Palumbo, Gaelano & Petera, Glen, Early Bronze Age IV Ceramic Rejolan in Central Jordan, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1995), No. 289, p. 59.
Schuab, Thomas R., Early Bronze IV Tomb from Bats Erth Dhsa, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1973), No. 210, p. 10.
Smith, Thomas Houston, The Household Lamps of Palestine in Old Testament Times, The Biblical Anthropological, (1962), Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 1-31.
BY Y. T. MODEIRE
INTRODUCTION
The history of pottery’s role in the Levant identifies certain celestial bodies such as Sun, stars, and especially moon which influenced the development of certain cognate terms used for ceramic lamps. This has been attested by solid Semitic linguistic evidence. (Smith 1962: 3). The generic Semitic term [ner] Singular and [neroth] plural meaning lamp or lamps hail from the root *nyr; meaning to flame -finds correlate linguistic evidence in Ugaritc masculine noun nyr. This refers cosmologically to the moon divinity Yarikh. The term [Nrt] the feminine usage refers to the Ugaritic Shapash [Hebrew – shemesh] or shapash. These relates to the supposed divinity Marduk who is called Nuru when applied to the moon, known in Koranic sources as [Nur] according to Sura 17:16 (cf Smith 3). This term makes it possible to preface the use of ceramic lamps in early ritualism and cultic terms. As a representation of celestial lights and as a true precursor to urbanism lamps usage in shattering an early age historical fact that the world was once shrouded in darkness until its invention. Similar to fire Lamps were one of the world’s greatest invention which changed the proto-Neolithic world and was used to spur not only urbanism but also ritualism in the Levant.
BACKGROUND: BRONZE AGE AFFINITIES TO THE CERAMIC LAMP AND ITS CHANGING FORMS
The Ancient Egyptians used lamps as a matter of function and expediency in their construction of early Urban places such as temples and pyramids (Clarke & Englebeck 1999: 201). For households and other places where people gathered at nights or underground constructions the same could be admitted as a matter of need and functionalism. Though depicted in Tomb relief often in the form of open receptacles with flat bases. As the norm dictated in the fancy structured lamp showcased in the Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, which can be viewed as a departure from early typology of ceramic lamps. The simple form as standard was shown (fg.1) in the New Kingdom Ramified Tomb of King Ramses VI: "on the right side wall entrance of the Tomb, the King with sundisc above his head offers a burning lamp to Horus of the Horizon" (Piankoff 1954:10).
The lamp offered by the King is by no means single or four spouted, which are possible two of the earliest crude handmade forms of ceramic lamps known in Egypt and the Levant. The lamp’s design looks closer or similar to the small bowl or container used for drinking which characterized the late chalcolithic and early bronze age pottery vestibule used as light (Douglas 2001:3). Such lamps using olive oil demonstrate also early developments in ritual worship.
Wide spread belief that the temple at Denderah advanced the knowledge of light production beyond the earlier oil and wick sources seems speculative. Further speculation that cylinders of some sort drew energy from a certain natural resource inside the tomb at Denderah to produce light cannot be easily proven. The so-called absence of soot produced from flames remains a continuing debate about the early development of lamps in the temples and tombs of Ancient Egypt (Von Daniken 1989:215). The contradictory findings of soot as the after effects of lamps burning at an earlier time within the walls of the Red Pyramid at Dashur inverts the theory of lamps early function in Egypt. Clark and Englebeck believes:
The Egyptian lamp was of a simplest type; merely a wick floating in oil. It is not infrequently represented in the scenes of the Tombs where it usually takes the form of an open receptacle mounted on a tall foot…smaller example can be grasped in hand. In … pictures, they arise from the receptacle what we may assume to be wicks or flames …lamps in limestone have been found in the Pyramids of El-Lahun and representation of them in stone in the tabrinith at hawara in Egyptian houses small dishes were also used as lamps…they usually have the rim pinched into a spout." (4)
Earliest known examples of simple lamp forms made (fg.2) from dishes with flat bases or pinched spout found in pottery assemblages in the Near East were probably from Early Bronze and Middle Bronze period. An ensuing drought during EBIV to MBI terrible affected the continuing developments of early agriculture. The results were lack of olive oil used in lamps, harsh environments, and various population migrations from Mesopotamia, which uprooted previous settlements. These have been suggested as the varied stimulus for the redesign of the ceramic lamp (Douglas 2001:4) Hence, the possibility that alternative four spouted lamp form in sequence which used different sources of oil like animal fat whether it should be dated earlier remains complicated as an issue. The distinction of quatrefoil or four-spouted lamps discovered in EB IV shaft tombs at Beth Shan casts little light on the chronological diagnostics and origins. The case of the evolution of lamp forms from an Egyptian perspective needs now a serious reexamining. The Syrian examples (from Hama J8) from third and fourth century dynasty Egypt at Bibles could possible clarify the question of origins but still make the matter more obscure (Fugman, Saghieh cited in Helms 1989: 18). The Egyptian stone versions of quatrefoil lamps has been noted in the inscription of Pepi I (ca 200-300 BC) which perhaps complicates the chronological relationship between say Alba 2B1 of the Levant and Egypt around the same period.
Another sample of this type of lamp was noted in the times of Cephren 2,500 BC though other versions has been indicated in EBII period at Tel es-Sa’ideyeh (Helms 1989: 18). The quatrefoil lamps forms can be claimed to have existed in EBII in Trans Jordan and Palestine replaced afterward by evolution of the new type of saucer lamp made by wheel (Douglas 2001:4). Those from Transjordan were being made from stone and pottery in early dynastic period connected to Egypt (Helms 18). Petrie gives example of a three-foil lamp in volcanic stone, also a pottery version, which dates from the fourth dynasty (Brunton & Morant ctd in Hems 18). Other quatrefoil lamp versions have been demonstrated to exist in the tenth dynasty period .The floruit of such Egyptian versions of those lamp forms can be noted between Dynasties II and III made in stone and clay (Helms 18). The absence of these lamps in the archeological records of EB II and III in Trans Jordan and Palestine has been demonstrated (Weinstein cited in Helms 18). It may well be that Egyptian stone types spoken about earlier reached the Southern Levant and became a repetition in most potter’s repertoire. At Um Bighal round base versions and flat-based samples have been found. These were well attested also at Tiwal esh-Sharqi where the flat-based types of lamp dominated (Helms 1983; cited in Helms 1989:17). Round based lamps were the main at Jebel Jofeh. Flat bases known at Qa ‘Aqir, Bab edh- Dra, Sinjil, Ain-Smiyeh, El-Husn, Tell ed-Duweir, Menahemiya, Araq en-Na ‘saneh and at Qedesh identified (Helms 19). Tadmore (1978: 7 ctd in Helms 18) notes the ritualistic or cultic uses of these lamps connected certain caves. Whilst (Epstein 1989: 43 ctd in Helms 18)) claims a single spouted version from the area of Ginonsan. Helms believe that in terms of understanding the panoramic floruit and diagnostic of both form and origin that:
:
…The only suitable conclusion …on lamps that both rounded and flat forms
are contemporary…they may have a regional distribution: flat bases were preferred in the south and round bases in the Amman region and a mixture of both in between…" (18)
Speculation that such earliest uses of lamp forms arose from imitations of shell type examples may be without merit. Though amongst the Mediterranean coast bi-valved shells may have been adapted to being used as lamps, even in Cartage and Mesopotamia in the third Millenium BC conch shells were used as lamps (Smith 1964: 3). Smith further suggest in regards to Early Bronze Age lamp forms:
The saucer lamps actually developed from household bowls…an attempt …to adapt the bowl form to the specific function of a lamp had been made during the centuries of disruption following the Early Bronze Age. When the potters divised a flat bottom bowl with undulating rim formed from an equidilant spout. When the chariot-warriors and city builders of the twenty-first millenium came upon the scene. they fashioned a single lamp by putting a spout by the side of the bowl. The development of saucer lamp through the middle and late Bronze ages consisted mainly of the evolution of the spout into an increasing large feature (4).
Such a development surely would have taken place somewhere between Egypt and the Levant where it must be noted that origins of the type of lamp seen with rounded bases and pinched single spout in central Jordan provide a link to the Egyptian model (Palumbo & Patterman 1993: 30). Dever (1971: 33) has certainly identified such varying examples at the MB I Tomb at Sinjil. There the persistence of four spouted lamps both hand made, and well fired seemed remarkable. One medium pink and the other medium brown in fabric. The same has been suggested for two four spouted lamps found at Bab edh dra but from the EBI period which are indeed unique discoveries but a step backward in typology. These two lamps from Bab edh -Dra even though they have bases are slightly rounded. They are both red slipped and burnished as usual. As crude hand made vessels that are not dissimilar from those found at Aroer Stratum V1a (Schaub 1973: 16). The fact that slightly round bases and flat bases represent the horizon does not harbor a grand new diagnostic analysis of chronological sequences or differences leading up to that period. Besides Ain-es-samiyeh, Jebel, Qa’ir, El-Kum, and other sites Sinjyl provides a model for other quatrefoil lamps which has been showcased from shaft tombs especially from the horizons of MBI, MBIIA, and especially from the CH family forms of lamps. The correction of the weather and climate in this period oppositely increased olive production but brought the deathnell to quatrefoil lamps. Not to forget the influence fast wheel technology (Douglas 2001:4)
CERAMIC LAMPS AS MODELS OF URBANISM AND RITUALISM
It can be inferred vociferously that Egyptian ceramic lamps played a dominant role in its ritualism. The first oil lamps were carved in hollowed-out-stones located in caves circa 12,500 years ago. (Susmann ctd in Douglas 2001;1700) Caves played an early role in magico-religios demonstrated by the snakehead ritual in Kalahari Hill Botswana (Brill 2006) Zivit (2001:82,209) identifies niches, certain stones, placement of lamps, jugs and cooking pots inside these cave used in performance of such rituals. Pyramids and temples especially played a crucial role in establishing use of lamps as part and parcel of religious practices. Those suitable to ancestral worship of a celestial nature. Practices especially pertaining to sun, moon, and stars. Early urban conceptions, of buildings and early architecture from crude to advance artistic level would have depended on lamps not only to celebrate the hosting of these celestial forces but also to simply light up the darkness. This is a factor taken for granted in today’s modern world drowned by modern electricity dependent on natural gas and oil in even the most outmoded places on earth.
The question of dawning urbanism in the Levant, the ebb and flow of peoples, their dependence on units of agriculture serve as a backdrop for pottery industries. The cultural traits introduced by the constant changing of immigrant communities fashioned both style and forms. Their connections to raw materials for functional pottery were depended upon. These forms moved in and out of the Near Eastern theatre. Local and foreign pottery samples were part of trade and circumstance of immigration. Thus, the ceramic lamps located at Al-Umayri amongst the chalices, carinated bowls, jugs and cooking pots and other items of its assemblage suggest ritual practices. For instance the representation of the Eyes of Horus noted in Chert Nodule points to a function of dual ritualism and urbanism in ceramics perhaps still connected to Egypt (Bramlett 2004: 50). Bronze Age (EB1, EBII, and EBIII) witnessed shifting populations from the old fortifications of Tell sites to smaller settlements, which happened at a rapid pace. (Dever 1980: 35). The actual fortified settlements, and changing settlement patterns provide for what already was witnessed throughout Transjordan. Handmade-wheel finished and handmade spouted lamps of red slip burnished fabric were coming into vogue. Ceramic lamp forms of the single spout and especially four spout lamps appeared as part of the floriut of noted assemblages of Middle Bronze and Late Bronze (Amiran 1970; 87,89). Early Iron Bronze favored the one spout lamp in various styles of the period. Whether or not temple ritualism and worship would have been the norm, lamps played an effective role in burial rituals. Most of the grave sites dug up by archeologists in the various horizons of the Levant show lamps as part of burial ceremonies. (Smith 1964: 11). One is tempted to assume night burials as a norm .Its too simplistic an assumption to believe in context. An opposite suggestion is that many people of the Ancient World deposited offerings of food and drink in the Tombs, hoping thereby to revive the dead. Lamps seem to have played an important concomitant of these offerings. Different in no way from household specimens probably brought from the home. They constitute only one-quarter to one-half of the vessels in much Iron I period Tombs. These were far more than necessary to meet the actual lighting needs of the Tomb. It may be also that each person, who brought a dish of two of food for the dead, also brought a lamp and lit it at the tomb. (Smith 12) This may be not so far fetched about the selection of lamps carried by mourners to burial tombs. In India for instance, dias or open flat vessel lamps are sometimes placed in floating vessels in river sides as culmination of cremation rituals. Hence, the symbolic acts in Caananite burial sites where lamps are easily located alongside physical burial entities, with food, drink, and materials of various ilk, speaks volumes. Murray (cited in Schaeffer 1964: 12) observes in Caananite tombs at Ras Shamrah that beside dishes of food at their entrance lamps were also left there. The ritual dedication of urban buildings in most Caanantite cities in the Bronze Age made use of traditional ceremonial lamp rituals. Smith (1964) identifies this as:
A bowl sometimes containing sand, fine dirt, or even ashes placed under an ordinary lamp. A similar bowl so as to form a cone, was placed over the lamp. Sometimes the bowl closely fit together that the lamp was entirely closed. But often, the spout was partially exposed. Lamps in these deposits usually had slight traces of burning or none at all, suggests that the ceremony required new lamp, which was lit for a short while or in some cases not lit at all). Such offerings must have been intended perhaps to ward off evil spirits or to encourage beficient spirits to dwell in the house or both. The ceremony may have been as Petrie suggested with typical inventiveness, a substitution for the more primitive practice of child sacrifice the sealing of the lamp equivalent to the slaying of the child (13).
Some urban dwellings required special designed lamps which were not of the form of the single sprout or the cardinal points quatrefoil type. Some were in fact multi-sprouted according to ritual requirement. These are peculiar to Iron I sites in Palestine. The use of seven sprouts for instance and tubular pedestal bases have been suggested at Ras Shamarah. (Schaeffer cited in Smith 1964: 14). The cultic references of these sorts of lamps are perhaps a primitive version to the Hebrew seven candle lamps. Whether linked to the deity Ball tied to Nimrod worship (Narmer?) which in the old shrines of Palestine have been found not only in the Tombs, but in houses and other urban places remains possible. (Smith 1964: 14). The cup and saucer lamps called sometimes the double bowl have been found in numerous sanctuary tombs and urban domestic scenarios. These so-called saucer lamps identified in Megiddo to Jericho from around the thirteenth to sixth century B.C. may have been intended also for ritualistic purposes. Some had fenestrated bases whilst others were situated in round saucers.
CHANGING CERAMIC LAMPS IN EARLY IRON AGENG FORMS SAME FUNCTIONS
Communities in the urban center required religious rites to appease the powers in the universe when they assumed those did go into disharmony. Such rites when practiced in the household required certain lamps, which functioned in the rituals to assuage the forces. The full spectrum to the extent of such application of logic to cosmological ritual can be found in the Book of Gates and the Book of Nights in Egyptian in context to heavenly light- bodies. The Shaft Tombs of the Levant carried the evidence. Smith (1962) cites the multi-sprouted saucer lamps used in the Iron I and Iron II ages. As one example of the lamps used for this purpose he observes
:
…Lamps of this kind are made of ordinary clay, seven spouts and base…rounded bottoms of tubular pedestals two to nine inches in height…they originated in the region of coastal Syria at Ras Shamrah …900 to 750 BC… lamps seem to have tall pedestal bases. The Palestinian specimens are not yet known earlier than the very end of the late Bronze Age. The variation of the form probably reflects slightly different traditions of various shrines and in some cases…different dates…all lamps from this kind stem from the same cult…(16).
The model at Ras Shamrah of the multi-spouted lamp (fg.3) which existed in context to Sanctuary worship was well known (Shatter ctd in Smith 16). This identifies further with certain deities from which the Hebrew seven spouted flame lamp featured in the Temple of Jerusalem might have come from. Yahweh the divinity at Jerusalem the diety of the Yehudym may not have been Baal, which in Hebrew means literally "husband". Baal refers to Narmer or Nimrod, similar to Osiris as husband to Isis. These cultic practices in the Shrines meant as Baal worship can be inferred as Osiris worship. Smith goes on to cite the cup and saucer or double bowl lamp as discoveries in Palestine from Sanctuaries, Tombs, and domesticated places.
The Potter as a class had used inventive utilitarianism to totally transform what was expected for lamps thus far. By placing in a saucer in an inner container (fg.4) he generated different sizes found as various tomb samples. These vestibules had either a slight hint of a spout or none at all. Some samples had handles or tall pedestal bases. Negev and Gibson (1992) discusses the changing forms of ceramic and terracotta lamps in the practice of ceramic industry of the Iron Age where some basics forms remained unchanged from late Bronze. They suggest:
…The shape of lamps underwent more changes…The iron age lamp is characterized by a broad flat rim…a pronounced wick channel with flat base..the base of some samples were raised…clay lampstands support a single lamp…Some lamps with seven channels. Iron Age lamps have been discovered in Beit-Merseim, Bethshan, Hazor, Meggido, and Tel-el-Farah. (295)
They assumed that as Amiran contends late Bronze Age lamps were becoming deeper and larger, and the walls were becoming sharper with folded falanges. Lamps in the early Iron Age went beyond those experiments. This probably was to do with ritualism in an urban context. Hence the basic Iron Age lamps were well made, casted in deep burnt fires made of buff clay which caused the clay to become buffed. The rims were pinched for wicks and economical usage of oil. They were sometimes made of flat, round bases.
CONCLUSION
Ceramic lamps (Neroth) played a very pivotal role in both ritualism and as a harbinger of early urbanization in the period of Late Bronze and early Iron Age. The examples of such ceramic lamps were numerous and specific in historical order to certain religious rituals which today have long been since forgotten. When re-examined allow for particular social, cultural and archeological conclusions to be drawn. These about ancient peoples, ancient migration and other patterns useful to decoding the Near East and its relationship with a dominant culture like Egypt. Irregardless of what now are deemed primitive practices but were very natural responses to nature such kindling a flame or lighting a lamp in celebration of certain celestial entities such as Sun, Moon or Stars. As these indeed were standard ancient practices. From the few examples discussed here one can conclude that indeed ceramic lamps were possibly the most important items of function in Levant and Egypt during Late Bronze and Early Iron period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Noam, A Comprehensive Catalog of Oil Lamps in the Holy Land from the Adler Collection, (2004), Israel, Old City Press, p.45.
Amiran, Rula, Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land from the Beginning in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age, (1970), New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, p.87.
Bramlett, Kent, A Late Bronze Age Cultic Installation of Tall-Al-Umayri Jordan, (2004), Near Eastern Technology, Vol. 67, p. 50-81.
Brill, Robert Roy, Live Science, www.livescience.com, (2006).
Clarke, Somers, & Englebook, Reginal, Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture, (1990), New York, Courier Dover Publications, p. 52.
Dever, William G., An MBI Tomb from Sinjit, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1971), No. 204, p. 71.
Dever, William G., The Impact of the "New Archeology" on Syro Palestinian Archeology, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, (1981), No. 242,
p. 15-29.
Helms, Svend, An Early Bronze IV Pottery Repertoire at Amman, Jordan, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1989), No. 273, p. 17-36.
Lauer, Jean Phillipe, De Augen der Sphinx, Ullstein, (1989), p. 215.
Negev, Avraham, & Gibson, Shimon, Archaelogical Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, (2001), New York, Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 291
Oren, Eliezer, D., The Early Bronze IV Period in Northern Palestine and Its Cultural and Chronological Settings, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1973), No. 245, p.20-37.
Palumbo, Gaelano & Petera, Glen, Early Bronze Age IV Ceramic Rejolan in Central Jordan, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1995), No. 289, p. 59.
Schuab, Thomas R., Early Bronze IV Tomb from Bats Erth Dhsa, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, (1973), No. 210, p. 10.
Smith, Thomas Houston, The Household Lamps of Palestine in Old Testament Times, The Biblical Anthropological, (1962), Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 1-31.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Kush Never Lost in Translation
ANCIENT EGYPT AND KUSH NEVER EVER LOST IN TRANSLATION
Let Bronze be brought from Mizraim; Kush shall stretch forth its hand to Elohym ”. Psalm 68:31
Further Readings and Mizraim and Kush: Gen 10: , Numbers 12:1, 2 Sam 18:32, Judges 3:8-10; Isaiah 19:20 - 23: 6; 18:1; Jer. 36:14, Ezek. 29:10; 38:5, 28:10, Zeph. 1:1; Heb. 3:7E extra- literary readings: The Making Of Egypt by W.M Flinders Petrie.Nouvelles Foule d,Abydos by E .Amelineau.
Responsible translators cannot render /ksh/, Kush automatically as Ethiopia. As done in most eurocentric versions of historical documents in circulation within modern Western European thought. It would be simply ignorant for us to just plain follow suit. Most Afrocentrists who have always been critical of the worst aspects of the traditional eurocentric Aryan model know they ought to hold the line and say no retreat, no surrender (Van Binsbergen 2000). Even though Afrocentrists may well pay better attention to how they present reasonable arguments as facts.
When the Romans finally came to power in the late period they sort dominion over the entire Nile region. Not unlike their predecessors the Greeks, Persians, Assyrians, Hyksos and others who coveted the region as prime real estate in sort of early realpolitik gambit they named the entire region Ethiopia. The area today we know as Ethiopia they called Abyssinia (Ethiopic; Habesh). Yet Ethiopia still remains a Greek origin word, which became part of modern lexicon meaning literally “burnt skin” Snowden (1970). Various discussions on
this word which really was popularized in usage by Greek commentators such as Herodotus and Strabo of the Classicist period. However this was the same route in which the word Egypt was derived. From the Greek word Eaigypto hailing from Greek pronunciation of the old indigenous name for Memphis – HT – KA – PTH, a palatize word initial which the Greeks pronounced in the present manner of Egypt. But since the Egyptian language cannot now be spoken with certainty that seem to some mute point. The name meant temple of the essence of Ptah. Hence when aspects of the Church talk about Peter or Petra one understands the code. The Ancient Egyptians had quite a few other names that accompanied their fecundity to their indigenous land. They named it Kham or Khemet. This has been thoroughly debated back and forth between Afrocentrists and their distracters. On whether it means black, refers to the land and so forth. A few other names used amongst the Egyptians for example Ta-meri, the beloved land, Tawi, the two lands, Ret; meaning men, and the Middle Eastern term Misr, from which the term Mizraim came into being were also used hence the biblical and exraliterary source of the name.
In The Chronicles of Tutmosis the Third Kush and Wawat can be gleaned as major areas of what can now be regarded as part of ancient Nubia or Ta-seti. Both Kush and Kimet (Egypt) formed part of a unitary structure of North and South with the Egyptian power in dominion most of the times. The Egyptian power usually placed Garrisons, Forts and an administrative apparatus replete with a Viceroy in submission to Pi-ti-Re’s (pharaoh) whims. The usual political assumption despite the ever present Nubian population within Egypt was always tension, rivalry and political upheaval with the political power of Ta-seti. The constant mouthing by Eurocentrics of the Egyptian reference as a wretched cannot explain the complex relation of both brother and neighbouring states at that time. For example, many soldiers from Nubia formed part of the Egyptian Army and from the walls of Del-El-Bahari not only as soldiers but also as royal officials conducting exploration into the land of Ta-Netjer or Punt. This in the time not only of Hapshetsut but other rulers. The land of Punt, which encompassed today’s Eritrea and Somalia and surrounding areas close to the Red Sea was seen as a kind of homeland of the Ancient Egyptians since Ta-Netjer means literally land of the Neter (g-d). Keita (1990) believes that both were peopled from the Sahara by Neolithics from the Western (Nubian) desert near the Sudanese border. The peopling of the area dated around seventh century B.C with core cultural traits noted in the Saharan and within Egypt and Nubia in pre-dynastic sites. These encompassed Kush from the First Cataract to present day Khartom and Egypt further to northern lowlands called by various names by Eurocentrists. Whether these and other strands of the peoples can be linked to Nakada period, Thininnite or other Proto-historical peoples Williams (1987) believes that they were all parts of an entire Nubian origined theatre of eventuality. Whence this can be observed in the culmination of cemetery L. At Qustul from where the famous Qustul incense burner depicting Royal Egyptian-like Rulers of Nubian origin.
The question of whether both Kush and Kimet were responsible for the indigenous variations of the many African types which emerged in wooly hair, curly hair, straight hair, dark skin, brown skin, and other types have been a constant legacy of debate
about the Black origins of especially Egypt or not. One must note that even a tendency to blondism exists amongst many Blacks of varying hues of skin as exampled in the Solomon Islands (Mbanta and Supia 2001). The traditional debated beautiful wooly hair, dark skin and broad nose was hence only one of the many standards of the heritage of the Nile which Afrocentrists are now grappling with in their struggle to present Kush to Egypt as factual Nile Valley civilizations and not some creature of Indo-European myths.
J.T. Modeire
Let Bronze be brought from Mizraim; Kush shall stretch forth its hand to Elohym ”. Psalm 68:31
Further Readings and Mizraim and Kush: Gen 10: , Numbers 12:1, 2 Sam 18:32, Judges 3:8-10; Isaiah 19:20 - 23: 6; 18:1; Jer. 36:14, Ezek. 29:10; 38:5, 28:10, Zeph. 1:1; Heb. 3:7E extra- literary readings: The Making Of Egypt by W.M Flinders Petrie.Nouvelles Foule d,Abydos by E .Amelineau.
Responsible translators cannot render /ksh/, Kush automatically as Ethiopia. As done in most eurocentric versions of historical documents in circulation within modern Western European thought. It would be simply ignorant for us to just plain follow suit. Most Afrocentrists who have always been critical of the worst aspects of the traditional eurocentric Aryan model know they ought to hold the line and say no retreat, no surrender (Van Binsbergen 2000). Even though Afrocentrists may well pay better attention to how they present reasonable arguments as facts.
When the Romans finally came to power in the late period they sort dominion over the entire Nile region. Not unlike their predecessors the Greeks, Persians, Assyrians, Hyksos and others who coveted the region as prime real estate in sort of early realpolitik gambit they named the entire region Ethiopia. The area today we know as Ethiopia they called Abyssinia (Ethiopic; Habesh). Yet Ethiopia still remains a Greek origin word, which became part of modern lexicon meaning literally “burnt skin” Snowden (1970). Various discussions on
this word which really was popularized in usage by Greek commentators such as Herodotus and Strabo of the Classicist period. However this was the same route in which the word Egypt was derived. From the Greek word Eaigypto hailing from Greek pronunciation of the old indigenous name for Memphis – HT – KA – PTH, a palatize word initial which the Greeks pronounced in the present manner of Egypt. But since the Egyptian language cannot now be spoken with certainty that seem to some mute point. The name meant temple of the essence of Ptah. Hence when aspects of the Church talk about Peter or Petra one understands the code. The Ancient Egyptians had quite a few other names that accompanied their fecundity to their indigenous land. They named it Kham or Khemet. This has been thoroughly debated back and forth between Afrocentrists and their distracters. On whether it means black, refers to the land and so forth. A few other names used amongst the Egyptians for example Ta-meri, the beloved land, Tawi, the two lands, Ret; meaning men, and the Middle Eastern term Misr, from which the term Mizraim came into being were also used hence the biblical and exraliterary source of the name.
In The Chronicles of Tutmosis the Third Kush and Wawat can be gleaned as major areas of what can now be regarded as part of ancient Nubia or Ta-seti. Both Kush and Kimet (Egypt) formed part of a unitary structure of North and South with the Egyptian power in dominion most of the times. The Egyptian power usually placed Garrisons, Forts and an administrative apparatus replete with a Viceroy in submission to Pi-ti-Re’s (pharaoh) whims. The usual political assumption despite the ever present Nubian population within Egypt was always tension, rivalry and political upheaval with the political power of Ta-seti. The constant mouthing by Eurocentrics of the Egyptian reference as a wretched cannot explain the complex relation of both brother and neighbouring states at that time. For example, many soldiers from Nubia formed part of the Egyptian Army and from the walls of Del-El-Bahari not only as soldiers but also as royal officials conducting exploration into the land of Ta-Netjer or Punt. This in the time not only of Hapshetsut but other rulers. The land of Punt, which encompassed today’s Eritrea and Somalia and surrounding areas close to the Red Sea was seen as a kind of homeland of the Ancient Egyptians since Ta-Netjer means literally land of the Neter (g-d). Keita (1990) believes that both were peopled from the Sahara by Neolithics from the Western (Nubian) desert near the Sudanese border. The peopling of the area dated around seventh century B.C with core cultural traits noted in the Saharan and within Egypt and Nubia in pre-dynastic sites. These encompassed Kush from the First Cataract to present day Khartom and Egypt further to northern lowlands called by various names by Eurocentrists. Whether these and other strands of the peoples can be linked to Nakada period, Thininnite or other Proto-historical peoples Williams (1987) believes that they were all parts of an entire Nubian origined theatre of eventuality. Whence this can be observed in the culmination of cemetery L. At Qustul from where the famous Qustul incense burner depicting Royal Egyptian-like Rulers of Nubian origin.
The question of whether both Kush and Kimet were responsible for the indigenous variations of the many African types which emerged in wooly hair, curly hair, straight hair, dark skin, brown skin, and other types have been a constant legacy of debate
about the Black origins of especially Egypt or not. One must note that even a tendency to blondism exists amongst many Blacks of varying hues of skin as exampled in the Solomon Islands (Mbanta and Supia 2001). The traditional debated beautiful wooly hair, dark skin and broad nose was hence only one of the many standards of the heritage of the Nile which Afrocentrists are now grappling with in their struggle to present Kush to Egypt as factual Nile Valley civilizations and not some creature of Indo-European myths.
J.T. Modeire
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