Re: [cybalist] River names - Quietly Flows the Don to the Sea

----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, 04 May, 2000 1:24 AM
Subject: Re: [cybalist] River names - Quietly Flows the Don to the Sea


> Dennis
>
> An interesting kite, except for one thing
>
> > As a hydronym this now connects Dan/Don etc. with the River of
> Ocean
> at the edge of the world. The Danube was seen by the Egyptians as a
> northern extension of the River of Ocean.
>
> Unfortunately that is not my understanding of Egypt. They thought
> the
> Mediterranean was the edge of the World (The "Great Green"), and they
> thought that Greece, Italy and Crete were islands set in this ocean.
> They had only the haziest idea about Urope and didn't know that the
> Mediterranean was landlocked. On this ground they would not have
> known about the Denube.
>
> The best explanation of Egyptian conceptions of Geography is in
> Pierre
> Montet's "Ancient Egypt". It makes interesting reading.
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>

John,
I'm not familiar with M.Montet's work, but I'm sceptical of any pre-WWII
European's generalisations about Egyptians' thought processes and concepts.
They tend to provide a better insight into their own prejudices than an
objective evaluation of the evidence.
It is known from modern archaeology, analysis of lead isotopes etc. that
Egypt, even in late pre-Dynastic times, was part of a wide-ranging trading
network that extended from Spain in the west, to Afghanistan in the east,
and from the Danube area (Transylvania, Hungary) in the north to tropical
Africa in the south.
Even if Egyptians were not directly involved, although there is no reason to
doubt that they were not, there is every reason to assume that their
knowledge of Europe was not that hazy, and that they were aware of a great
river in the north, i.e. the Danube.
And of course, they were right about Crete being an island.

Cheers
Dennis