Re: Sea People (Just Joined, got lots of questions -help?)

From: Marc Verhaegen
Message: 404
Date: 1999-12-03

Brent: <<Assuming, that the Philistines were from Crete - does that mean they were
remants of the original inhabitants i.e. Minoans or the Achaean/Mycenaen Greeks
who are thought to have invaded and taken over Crete in 1450 BCE and
who were in turn probably invaded circa 1250 BCE?>>

As Diodor (V, 80)  informs us there was one more ethnic component among Crete
inhabitants: Pelasgians. By the way, they were the next after Eteocretians
(sorry, if spelling is wrong) and came there earlier then Dorians (folk # 3). By
the way, the folk # 4 was "a mixture of barbarians".

L.Gindin & V.Tsymburski in their book "Homer and History of the Eastern
Mediterranean" write that
Palaistine (or Palaiste) was the name of a seashore territory in Epirus (Caes.
Bel. civ. 3, 6; Lucan, V,460; Lyd. de mag. III, 46). A variant of the name of
Zeus from Dodona (Illiad, XVI, 233) is Pelastikos instead of Pelasgikos.

A speculation: Palaistine, Pelasgian, Pw-r-s-tj and Philistine are 4 variants of
the same name of a folk (correspondingly - original, Greek, Egyptian and Semitic
versions).

Alexander
Then how about connecting them with the Palaians well known as an Anatolian ethnos?
Piotr
Piotr, I was just thinking about this when your message came!
 
First, there are reasons to believe that Pelasgians were of Hitto-Luwian origin (mainly toponymy).
Second, the name of Pelasgos' son was Lykaon, the ruler of Lykaonia, a place with Luwian ethymology - Luka-wana 'country of Luwians'. There are a lot of Lycian toponyms in both Arkadia and Crete. So please add here all your and Sabine's considerations about Lycians.
 
So, Palaistines (Pelasgians) and Palaians could be cognates.
 
Why should we think in the context of Sea People first of all about the Aegean Palaistines, not Anatolian Palaians? Just because the Bible connects Philistines with Crete.    Alexander
Sasha, Ain't this group an exciting place! Lots of complex problems could be solved at one fell swoop if we were right. I'll have to have another look at Levin's theory about Hebrew being partly IE. Perhaps it isn't just as cranky as it looks and some of the evidence he cites may -- if carefully verified -- be found to represent "Palaic/Palaistinian" substrate influence. I wonder what Sabine, with her archaeo- and philological expertise, thinks of all that. Goliath as an Indo-European warrior...    Piotr
 
Very exciting indeed. I've heard of Sea People, Philistines etc. but don't know much about it. Who could present a simple summary of your (Piotr-Sasha-Brent-Sabine..) current opinion on this (for laymen like me)? Do you think they came from Anatolia to Crete (when?) to Palestina & Egypt, etc.?
 
Who has read Kamal Salibi on the Jews coming from W-Arabia? I have only the Dutch version "Het ware land van Abraham" Elsevier Amsterdam 1985 ("The true land of Abraham", transl. from German, Rowohlt Verlag 1985, but no German title in the book). The author, very convincingly IMO, says that the Jews were transported from W-Arabia to Mesopotamia by the Assyrians or the Persians (I don't recall it well) & when they went "back" to their homeland they went to Palestina instead of W-Arabia. That means all the biblical texts befor ca.500 BC are about a region in W-Arabia, not about Palestina. That could explain a possible IE substrate in Hebrew?
 
Marc