Peter:
> Biblical and Classical material is also very, very much later than
> the PIE period. So what evidence do we actually have for the sacredness
> of seven or six prehistorically?
Quite evidently the very fact that Semitic *sab`- has been borrowed so
extensively into neighbouring languages can only be explained if *sab`-
has some sort of cultural significance. There is nothing about 'seven'
in itself that would explain this amazing pattern of borrowing that had
it spread from Palestine all the way to the Basques in France and Spain!
So what can possibly give such meaning to meaningless things... Why,
religion, of course! :)
That in itself should be the grand tip off that 'seven' is divine for
whatever reason and since *septm necessarily had to have been borrowed
well before history, we are forced to accept that the number was
important well before the Bible, Hebrews, Caananites and Sumerians.
We come to the conclusion that the obsession with 'seven' that is seen
in all these cultures must stem from a common belief system in the
neolithic. Coincidentally, the goddess archetype also appears to be
just as ancient.
= gLeN