--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97@...>
wrote:
> My view is that soma is electrum
> http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/monographs/Electrum.pdf As cited
> at this URL, Joseph Needham also seems to suggest this: assem in
Old
> Egyptian means electrum (in the context of extraction of silver
from
> electrum).
>
> Indian Alchemy: Soma in the Veda: http://www.mrmlbooks.com/cgi-
> bin/bookware.cgi?publisher=f&searching=anywhere
Electrum???
Electrum is a metal, an admixture of silver and gold. The word comes
from Greek ele:ktron.
Now, soma is a "plant" (ancient people often considered mushroom as
plants). It is believed that its name comes from a IE root *su-
meaning "to flow", "to squeeze".
Nothing at all supports the idea that Sanskrit soma < *saumn. was the
name of a metal.
As far I know, in Old Egyptian there is not assem, but s.`m (` being
the `ayin), and the sibilant being enphatic. The meaning is (as far I
know) "pure gold", and it is probably the same root s.rp we find in
Semitic languages "to melt", "to purify metals": Old Egyptian often
shows strange phonetic correspondences with the other Afro-Asiatic
languages (/r/ is very instable).
Marco