Assimilation. Resistance is Futile.

Astarte figurine; Iron Age II; Israel (http://baidun.com/israelite-astarte-holding-a-drum-or-bread/)

All of us are in some way a product of assimilation. Throughout history, as in today's world, humans naturally adapt to their environment, transferring ideas between neighbors, and since just about everyone has a neighbor eventually those ideas make their way up or down or across the globe. 

A couple of weeks ago I was playing the most annoying game I have ever played (I tried to go back and look for it, but it has already been kicked off the ArmorGames list of new games). In the game, it is your duty to advance your culture to the point ... well ... to the point that you win the game. There are several ways to do this. You can build your culture from the ground up, trade with other cultures, or assimilate with other cultures. Of course, it is impossible not to trade or assimilate for when nomads come by and they either have what you need or are more advanced than you are (and you are fighting the clock to win the game!) you find yourself doing whatever you can to advance to the next level! (And ultimately lose the game each time you play because it is impossible to advance as quickly as is required!!! ... but I digress.)

This week I have been reading about the origins of Aphrodite (check out my G+ picture albums (http://goo.gl/EmRwRK) for an Aphrodite idol/stone from Paphos, Cyprus - one of the earliest). There is question as to whether Aphrodite is of Greek origin, Phoenician origin, or maybe even Mesopotamian origin, but the answer is probably none of the above. It is almost impossible to ever trace an idea back to its origin as any idea goes through a process of adaptation through time and space where thoughts are added from this culture or that one, and then another group takes some out and adds additional thoughts. 

The image you see is an image of Astarte (Iron Age II; from Israel) holding what appears to be either a drum or possibly bread. An earlier form of Astarte is what many believe to be a parent idea of the origins of Aphrodite. The problem is that some of the ideas don't match up (e.g., Astarte is known as a huntress, but Aphrodite is not). Now, of interest is the fact that Aphrodite doesn't really appear as a Greek goddess until the Iron Age, but the Phoenicians didn't really begin to settle in areas where they would come into contact with the Greeks until the same period of time - and assimilation takes time.

Did the ideas transfer? Yes, they did, but they did so slowly, mixed with another culture. It was the prehistorical culture of Cyprus that helped to give way to what we now know as Aphrodite. As the story goes, Aphrodite rose up out of the water for the first time on Cyprus' shores (near the big black rock known as Aphrodite that you will see in my G+ picture album: http://goo.gl/EmRwRK), but she was alive and well in an earlier form before this event.

Without getting too deep, in Cypriot figurines we find aboriginal figurines, but we also find these aboriginal figurines mixed with Aegean and even Near Eastern (Astarte) concepts. We are not sure if Aphrodite ever had an aboriginal Greek form, but the old tails of Aphrodite being born on Cyprus most likely hold water. Someone brought a pot of local delicacies, and then said, "Hey, you Greek people, why don't you throw some of your favorite spices in here," and then turning to the Near Easterners said, "and you, Canaanites, why don't you throw some in here, too." ... After a while, we have Aphrodite. ... Of course, the story doesn't end there, as the Romans came and mixed her with their aboriginal goddess to create a new one ... and on and on and on.

Question for you. What happened to our holidays? Today is the evening before All Saints Day, a day that quite a long time ago believers held vigil for the saints who have already gone before us. Somehow, somewhere, we are handing out candy and scaring each other. How? That's debated (read a couple of good articles on the non-pagan origins of Halloween this past week). Why? Because that is what cultures do ... we change, we adapt, and we assimilate. ... Resistance is futile. 

Daily Life

Bronze Age grinding stone and pestle; Photo by Justin Singleton

People don't often think of life in ancient times. How did they live? How did they manage? How do we manage? lol.

Life, in general, was tough. What you see here is a grinding stone and hand grinder. This one has been worn almost all the way through. We walked onto a Bronze Age (prehistory) site in Cyprus to explore a bit, and I found about eight or nine of these. It was quite interesting, really. What would you do with these once they were "finished"? Well, I found two set as seats on a bench against the wall of a house. Several were also used to repair walls.

A friend of mine, Bill Weir (PhD [ABD] from University of Cincinnati) is writing his dissertation on common uses of pottery beyond the norm. When we see things in the archaeological record, we typically think, "Oh, that's a grinding stone; it was used to grind grains so that they could eat," or, "Oh, that's a topper/stopper for a small juglet." What we don't typically think is, "I bet they used this butt shaped grinding stone as a seat in their house," or, "I bet this topper was reused by the kids as a game token," but that is exactly what happens quite frequently.

I don't know about you guys, but when my dish washer went out a couple of years ago, I wasn't ready to buy a new one. The door wouldn't stay closed, so I put a bungee strap on it. The trigger wouldn't press, so I stuck a fork inside to catch the trigger better. ... We do so much "fixing" in our world with duct tape or hot glue guns or whatever, but we have to also imagine that the ancients were the same way. They were normal people. Husbands and wives argued about the finances. The kids would run and scream and beg for things that the neighbor kids had. ... But they survived.

We (humans) have always been very resilient people. We are pushed into corners, and we come out swinging for ourselves and for our families. You can go back archaeologically and find the same thing has always been true. From the Ice Ages (what I would argue is right after the flood) until today, we find people making a way to survive with what little they have. God knew what He was doing when He made us as we are.

Making the leap

Justin Singleton jumping off a cliff; Photo by Justin Singleton

Every once in a while it is fun to just let yourself go ... in this case, I am jumping off a cliff (that's the Mediterranean Sea in the background). No, I was not jumping into the sea fully clothed, but I did walk into the sea fully clothed (boots and all) just for the fun of it ... but I need to get back to the story.

A lot of people are interested in archaeology, and in my case Biblical archaeology, but they don't have how to get started. For me, it started when I was still an undergraduate. I fell in love with the history of the Bible (the culture of that time was like a puzzle to me, and I wanted to solve it). Right before I graduated, I spent a tour of duty in Iraq in combat. While there, I fell in love with the Arab people, the land, and the general culture (it too was a puzzle).

After returning from the war, I finished college and started graduate school toward a Master's in Biblical Cultural Settings. For this degree, I spent six weeks in Jordan digging at Tall Jalul.

Now, I am a late bloomer in the field, having five kids, having gone to war, having to work for a living - all this made it somewhat difficult to become an archaeologist. I have studied archaeology for some time, but I really needed to be in the dirt to be labeled an "archaeologist." This past summer I took the leap and went on another excavation, this time in Cyprus. I met great friends, and I established great connections. What's next? Well, I have finally found a way to make the PhD feasible, and so next year I will (inshallah) be heading either to Jordan again or to Sicily to officially begin PhD work.

How about you? For those of you interested in becoming archaeologists, how can you get started? Is it too late to get started? Nah ... I dug this past season with a woman who was 82 years old, and she outworked anyone there. But what about the training? ... I've got you covered there. I am working on a plan to create an 18 credit cognate in Biblical Cultural and Archaeological Studies with the regionally accredited college where I teach. This means that either someone can add the 18 credit cognate to their BA in Biblical Studies degree program or someone can just take the courses to learn as much as possible about the cultural and archaeological background of the Bible. The best part is that 3 of those credits will be archaeological field work joining me or my partner in the field.

If you are interested in taking any of these courses, contact Mark Bird (513-721-7944) and ask him about any of these courses specifically: Archaeology and the Old Testament, Archaeology and the New Testament, Archaeological Field Work, Religions of the Ancient Near East, People and Literature of the Ancient Near East, and/or Biblical Cultural Settings. Dr. Bird is the director of the Aldersgate Distance Education Program (www.gbs.edu/adep) at the college. ... Now, he will only know about one of these courses, but if you ask him about the others then he will get the point that we need to hurry up and finish them.

Translation of the gods

Horned god found at Enkomi, Cyprus; photo by Justin Singleton

I mentioned before the "translation" of the gods in the ancient world, but I never really explained what that was. The idea is that all over the ancient world, one culture would translate another culture's deities into their own deities. The Egyptians would make a treaty with Hatti, and in the treaty would call on both sides' gods to make the pact (they believed in both sets of gods), and often they would compare their gods (Shemesh the God of the sun is the same as Re in Egypt). Many of these local deities represented international ideas, and therefore when those people clashed with other cultures, they would note that the other culture also worshipped the same kind of deity ... who is obviously the same.

We see the same thing happening in ancient Israel. Whereas God (Yahweh of the Old Testament) specifically said that there are no other gods but Him, the people (in general) didn't fully comprehend this until the time of the Exile. Instead, they would see things from the local deities (like Ba'al) and simply translate those ideas onto Yahweh. It wasn't too long before they started comparing Yahweh to Ba'al in other ways. In fact, we have inscriptions talking about Yahweh and his wife, Asherah (Ba'al's wife).

I have uploaded a picture of one of the two horned gods of Enkomi in Cyprus. Just like Ba'al, this unknown horned god is also Canaanite. The Phoenicians made it a point to not only explore the sea, but to spread their culture every where they went. They were so good at it that Ba'alism lived on outside of Canaan long after it died out inside Canaan. As a matter of fact, and I somewhat doubt the full truth to this, Philo of Byblos claims that the Roman gods who are the Greek gods were originally based on the Phoenician gods. Philo relates Chronos to El in Canaan.

It is easy to see how these gods translate between the different cultures, and it is even easier to see how Israel simply grabbed onto the world around them and made it their own. I wonder how much of this we do today in our own culture. We are, after all, supposed to live in the world but not be of it.

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