Thoughts On The Lemnos Stele

[Ernest P. Moyer]

[ moderator edited ]

Hello to List Members:

I jumped onto this list yesterday, Jan 31.

To keep everyone informed, I have no formal training in linguistics.  However,
I have an avid interest in our forefathers and how we all got here.  I have
dabbled enough in linguistic problems to understand the basic principles and
some of the squabbles.

The first post I looked at struck my eye. Miguel Carrasquer Vidal had a
paragraph with the word "evistho" -- which I immediately recognized. I had
examined the Lemnos Stele carefully many years back.

As he wrote:

>I'm personally convinced that the name of the deceased is "S'ivai", as
>the central message of the stele seems to be (repeated twice: in the
>front center, and on the side):  S'ivai evistho S'eronaith sialchveis'
>avis' maras'm av[is' ais'] / S'ivai avis' sialchvis' maras'm avis'
>aomai  [approxiamtely: "Sivai, "evistho" in Seruna, of years 60[?]
>and[?] 5[?] years died[?]"].

But what was more curious to me was the word "Naphoth."

Douglas G Kilday  said:

>it's obviously easier to go from <naphoth> to <nefts> than the other way
>around.

Miguel Carrasquer Vidal had said:

>One further thought: if we link the words <toverona[rom]> and
><tavarsio> on the stele to Etruscan <tevarath> "referee, judge", a
>plausible hypothesis would be that the deceased's function (performed
>"for Holaie the Phokaian", whose "naphoth" he was, in a place called
>"Serona")

I don't want to be a big splash in this small pond, but the word Naphoth is
Biblical.

See Josh 11:2, Josh 12:23, Josh 17:11, and 1 Kings 4:11.

It is associated with Dor. Both RSV and NIV always translate the Hebrew word as
a formal noun, as Naphoth-Dor.  Other translations use "heights," "borders,"
and so on of Dor rather than a formal name.

Dor was a town on the coast of Palestine, South of Carmel, about 8 miles North
of Caesarea. It was occupied in the earliest times by the Canaanites and
probably belonged to Phoenicia. It is the modern Nasholim.

Biblical use of the word Naphoth implies that it was a geographical region.

Josh 17:11-- Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh also had Beth Shan, Ibleam and
the people of Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo, together with their surrounding
settlements (the third in the list is Naphoth). (NIV)

Clearly this is a Semitic word, and not Indo-European.  It follows the
inflectional attributes of Semitic forms. Many names, nouns, and verbs ending
in -oth could be cited.

How, then, did a Semitic formal name get on the supposedly IE Lemnos Stele?

I shall now offer comments about my personal history.  This gave me some
insight into how such phenomenon might occur.

I was raised Pennsylvania Dutch, where "Dutch" is a reduced form of the German
"Deutsch."

I did not know until I left home at the age of 16 that "outen the light" was
not correct English.  I still know a lot about "going the hill over."

The lesson I learned was this: When two different cultures and languages mix
intimately they may acquire one another's words, morphology and syntax.  Rigid
linguistic rules break down.  Especially if the mixture is between IE and
Semitic.

Other factors entered into my attempt to understand this puzzle.

We know that many different tribes and people were on the move throughout the
Mediterranean in the mid-first millennium BC.  This included the Semitic
Phoenicians.  The Sea was in ferment.  Highly active commerce and trade was
taking place.  I would be very surprised if there were no intimate mixing of
people in various locations.

The other part of this phenomenon is that the word Naphoth may not have come
onto the Lemnos Stele through the Phoenicians or Carthaginians.  Other Semitic
tribes were on the move.  They are documented historically.

The native name for the Hebrew tribes was Ibri.  It is my understanding that
the Romans called them the Iberi.  Iberi are positively identified in regions
near the Caspian Sea. The Roman general Pompey conquered them. Strabo said that
"... The migration of western Iberians (was) to the region beyond the Pontus
and Colchis."

According to a 17th century English writer named Purchas in a work entitled
"Pilgrimage," published in 1614: "The Iberians: . . . saith Montanus, dwelt
neare to Meotis; certaine Colonies of them inhabited Spaine and called it
Hiberia."

The name still carries today on the Iberian peninsula.  Folk traditions say
they migrated as far as Ireland.  In fact, the name Ireland derives from Iberi.

If this is so, then the Lemnos Stele may reflect Semitic influences from the
Iberi, and not from the Phoenicians.

Any attempt to decipher the Lemnos Stele, (and possible connections with the
Etruscans), must consider this probable Semitic influence.

Ernest Moyer