LL-L "History" 2006.05.25 (03) [E]

Fri May 26 00:02:43 UTC 2006

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L O W L A N D S - L * 25 May 2006 * Volume 03
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From: "Mark Dreyer" <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2006.05.24 (01) [E]

Dear Thomas, Ron, All:

Subject: LL-L "History"Ron

Tom asked:
> Has anyone looked for (and found) evidence of a Jewish prsence in the
> pagan Hedeby and Birka?  Wonderful trade opportunities and the pagans
> wouldn't have cared what beliefs you had, if any.

Ron commented:
> I have never heard of Jews arriving in the northeast that early.  In those
> early days they seem to have confined there presence in Northern Europe to
> Roman settlements, mostly around the Rhine and its tributaries.  I would
> be very surprised to find out that some had ventured into Saxon and
> Scandinavian territories, since the Roman Empire never managed to occupy
> those areas.

We should also bear in mind earlier phases of Jewish expansion (read
diaspora)

For one, the vacuum left in the Republican Roman Empire's external trade
with the distruction of Carthage (Delenda est Carthago) was not filled by
Romans, but by Jews, whose liturgical language at that time, Hebrew, was an
ace away from the business language of the Carthaginians, Punic. So deeply
entrenched was this that even in St Augustine's time the inhabitants of the
hinterland of Carthage (modern English), Carthago (Latin), K'riath Hadash
(Punic - for New City), called themselves Ca'anani (Caananite).

Jews became the carriers for the late Republic & Early Roman Empire
throughout the Western Mediterranean, the only part of the Classical world
where Punic was still spoken: In the Middle East Aramaic had long before
replaced it: & the Jews also had Aramaic.They were well-placed to take over.
They were deeply entrenched in Spain before the Romans even got embroiled in
it. Incidentally, the Roman name for Spain, Hispania, is derived via
limp-lipped Latinists from the Punic 'I HaShafanim, Cony Island (Hi there,
New Yorkers). By that they meant Hyrax Island.

The Jews were there with the native Iberians to meet the conquering Celts,
the Romans, the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Berbers, the Almohavids (Al
Marabatin), the Castilians, & ultimately to be expelled under Ferdinand &
Ysabella, as aliens!!! Here's another nice one; Toledo is derived from the
Hebrew, K'riath Toldot (The City of Generations {descendants}). To this day
there are dark allegations exchanged of the wealth of the Second Temple
being sneaked off to Spain, where indeed the Temple held many great Estates.

 I will not swallow without question the Romantic assertion that Jesus & his
'kinsman' Joseph of Aramathea visited & traded in Cornwall, but certainly
Jews were there. Cornwall was & remained until Ottoman times the Middle
East's source of the tin necessary not only for bronze but also to plate the
interior of cooking vessels: Raw copper is not wholesome for preparing food.
The British Isles was also the source of murex for purple (scarlet) dye for
the priestly garments, & fuller's earth for cleaning the same. The venerable
Bede, as students of Anglo-Saxon will know, mentions the former item of
trade, 'wellocs' .

Martin Gilbert's Jewish History Atlas shows areas of  'widespread Jewish
settlement' between 100 - 300AD include three localities between Dorrestad
on the Rhine & Colonia, itself an area of extensive Jewish settlement.On the
Donou, Regina & three localities around Pannonia including Acquincum & Mursa
further downstream. He also reports that those merchants active in Germany
dealt heavily in the slave trade, mostly Slavs I should imagine. They were
heavily established in Aachen during the Frankish hegemony, & he makes
report of a Persiam authority of 850AD who writes of Jewish traders known as
Radanites, who linked the Chinese & Frankish Kingdoms, by land & sea.

The Jews of Germany, 500 - 1000AD: Principle Jewish settlements & trade
routes,:Up the Rhone from Marseille via Avignon to Metz & Verdun: From Genoa
through the St Gothard Pass to Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Frankfurt, Wurzburg &
Cologne: From Venice through the Brenner Pass to Augsburg, Ratsibon, Prague,
Merseburg & Magdeburg. Of course this is the Germany of about 1000AD.

The next period of note was the time of the Khazars, a major tribe of which
opted for the Jewish Faith. Arthur Koestler in his book 'The Thirteenth
Tribe' makes mention of the fact that the earliest on the list of kings of
Austria are Jewish. Here's a prickly one - I quote the quote. 'Many Polish
silver coins have been found, dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century,
which bear Polish inscriptions in Hebrew lettering (e.g.Leszek Krol Polski -
Leszek King of Poland) {The Thirteenth Tribe: Conversions, p55}. The
argument follows that the alphabet was not an innovation, but selected for
its familiarity.

This may be a bit Slavonik to be pertinent, but a learned Jew told me of a
word that meant the same thing in Russian & Hebrew, & had a Jewish origin,
'Balagala' (ba'al agala) Master Carter.

Be that all as it may, Jews were carriers & merchants throughout Europe
since the violent demise of Carthage, long before the Princes in Christendom
laid this burden on them.

Yrs,
Mark

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