Hello,
Brent you wrote in your very interesting connection to the Bible:
>The timing seems early for Hittite expansion<
I wasn't talking about Hittite expansion, but about contacts of (in the case
of the Minoans: possibly) IE peoples with the Levant. Archaeological records
do give us possibilities for that, look at the well established trade routes
from Mari times through the Ulu Burun shipwreck until times after Ramesses.
As for Abar I don't know - the only thing that just springs to mind is
Avaris - but it's late and I can't think clearly right now for more.
As for sizes, or giants, all is relative:
I'm 162 cm small (I found out: this is small - especially compared to people
as Mark, who doesn't think himself to be particularly tall with six feet ...
Now the average Minoan was at most my size. But sometimes people were
larger, too. The 'priest' who did the sacrifice of a human at Anemospilia
near Knossos around 16?? B.C. was unusually tall- just as tall as Mark. Was
that a reason for choosing him as a priest (may be representatives were just
as large - to give a 'large' impression...). Other people of that time also
were rather my size (cf. archaeological records for that period). I believe
it unscholarly to hypothesize about size in connection with fertilizers,
food etc. - that's just that or getting rid of the subject. The point is:
there were - at that time as always - people more powerful (or just
larger/taller) than others. I think we ought to accept this first without
asking what they r e a l l y meant by that (it's a well known fact of
psychopathology that small/tiny people have to make up for the lack of their
size - like Napoleon Bonaparte, to seem so much the larger ... Mark: that's
not my problem :-)).
I'll think about the 'Abar', Brent, before we publish the whole idea! ;-)
Nichts fuer ungut!
Best wishes from Crete
Sabine