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Theo
Vennemann
and Brit-Am
Contents:
(1. Introduction and Description of Theories.
(2. Extract from Theo Venneman
Home Site concerning Picts
of Scotland and Vanir
of Ancient Scandinavia
(3. Brit-Am Commentary.
(a) Venneman
and Brit-Am.
(b) Recapitulaion
of Venneman
(c) Brit-Am and Venneman
Agreements and Differences. Terry Blodgett.
(1. a) Introduction
Professor Theo Vennemann believes that "Semites" from Canaan and the Middle
East settled in western and northern Europe on at least two occasions. The first
time they introduced Megalithic Monuments and changes in the language. The
second time they brought the Runic Script and additional cultural influences. We
agree in principle with Venneman but say that the two movements were one and the
same. These events involved the Ten Tribes of Israel though entities from the Middle East (e.g.
Canaanites, Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, etc) may also have
participated.
Theo Vennemann was born (1937) in the Ruhr area of West Germany. This region
traditionally always had a strong pro-French element though for better or for
worse they proved loyal to German hegemony.
Venneman is now retired but was the Professor for Germanic and Theoretical
Linguistics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Venneman holds a complex of far-reaching notions concerning the
ethnic and linguistic population of Western and Northern Europe.
In effect he says that at a very early date a group of people who spoke a
Semitic language arrived via the Sea and combined with the locals. These
"Semites" merged with groups that spoke "Vasconic" (Basque-type) dialects and
later adopted "Indo-European" languages.
The "Semities" influenced much of the language and culture of early
Europe and were also responsible for construction of the Megalithic Monuments.
This "Semitic" element was later reinforced by "Carthaginians" who settled in
the north from the 500s to 100s BCE.
Our impression is that his theory is well known of in academic linguistic
circles. It is not conventionally accepted but it is considered a viable
alternative that to some degree may be used to explain certain known anomalies.
Quotation:
(1. b) Summary of the
Venneman
Theories [Brit-Am words of
explanation in square brackets []
].
Theories on
the prehistory of European languages
Vennemann's
controversial claims about the prehistory of European languages include the
following:
A language family [which he calls
"Vasconic"] ancestral to Basque
[Northwest Spain] is a substratum
of European languages, especially Germanic, Celtic, and Italic.
Vennemann
claims this could be evidenced by various loan words,
toponyms
[place-names, etc],
and structural features such as word-initial accent.
The so-called Old European
hydronymy [River-names etc],
traditionally considered as Indo-European, is classified as
Vasconic
[i.e. Basque-type]
by Vennemann.
Vennemann
thinks that numerous toponyms
that are traditionally considered as Indo-European by virtue of their
Indo-European head words are instead names that have been adapted to
Indo-European languages through the addition of a suffix.
Punic, the Semitic language spoken in classical Carthage [Phoenician-Canaanite
settlement in North Africa], is a
superstratum
[additions added on]
of the Germanic languages. According to
Vennemann,
Carthaginians colonized the North Sea region between the 6th and 3rd centuries
BC; this is evidenced by numerous Semitic loan words in the Germanic languages,
as well as structural features such as strong verbs, and similarities between
Norse religion and Semitic religion. This theory replaces his older theory of a
superstratum
of an unknown Semitic language called "Atlantic".
[ In
Vennemans
writings the terms "Atlantic" and "Semitid"
(i.e. Semitic") are interchangeable. This can be confusing.]
Semitic is a substratum of the Celtic languages, as shown by certain structural
features of Celtic, especially their lack of external possessors.[1]
The Runic alphabet is derived directly from the Phoenician alphabet used by the
Carthaginians, without intervention by the Greek alphabet.
The Germanic sound shift is dated to the 6th to 3rd centuries BC, as evidenced
by the fact that some presumed Punic loan words participated in it, while others
did not.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Vennemann
http://www.absoluteastronomy.
com/topics/Theo_Vennemann
(2. from Theo Venneman Home Site concerning the Picts of Scotland and
the Vanir of Ancient Scandinavia
Atlantiker
in Nordwesteuropa:
Pikten
und Vanen
Reference
http://www.lrz.de/~vennemann/
The Picts
of Britannic prehistory and the
Vanir of Germanic mythology
contribute to the theory of an Atlantic, i.e. Hamito-Semitic origin of the
Megalithic culture. The matriliny
of both the Picts
and the Vanir
points neither to an Indo-European nor to a
Vasconic
[Basque]
source but makes an Atlantic
[i.e. Semitic] basis plausible.
This view is supported (1) by the
Pictish
name Nehton
and its phonological correspondent Neptune, god of the sea and, identified with
the Greek Poseidon, according to Plato founder of the Atlantic empires, (2) by
the Old Gaelic word maqq
'son', which is otherwise only attested in Germanic, e.g. as Goth. magus 'son
(of maternal lineage)', (3) by
Pictish art and Northumbrian art
which has been apparently influenced by it, both showing stylistic connections
with the art of the Near East, and (4) by the tale of Tristan, the
Pictish
Drust,
the Welsh Drystan
son of Tallwch,
lover of Essylt,
the wife of his uncle March son of
Meirchiaw,
protagonists of a romance featuring an exceedingly non-Indo-European adulteress.
The Germanic Vanir
are recognized not merely as fertility deities but as a fully functional family
of gods and goddesses. Their maritime (Mediterranean) and Semitic origin is
shown by a number of features, chief among them the following: (1)
Njordr's
residence Noatun
'Ship-Town', (2) Freyr's
ship Skidbladnir,
(3) marriages between sisters and brothers such as
Njordr's
earlier marriage, (4) Freyja's
and Freyr's
incestual
relationship (as insinuated by Loki), (5)
Freyja's
harnessed team of "cats" (i.e. lions), (6) the notion of dying gods (also on the
Aesir
side, where the most Vanir-like
Baldr
resembles the Semitic god Baal, both in function and in the form of his name),
(7) Freyja's
equivalence with the Babylonian goddess
Ishtar
and the Palestinian [i.e. Canaanite] goddess
Astarte
as a goddess both of war and of love and sexual life, (8) the pig as an
attribute both of Freyja
and of Freyr.
The military conflict and subsequent peace of the
Vanir
and the Aesir
is assumed to echo the historical clash of Atlantic and pre-Germanic North
Indo-European populations and cultures and thereby to reflect the Germanic
ethnogenesis.
(3. Brit-Am Commentary.
(a)
Venneman
and Brit-Am.
The ideas of Professor Venneman overlap Brit-Am beliefs and are confirmed by
Brit-Am researches.
We have spoken of Theo Venneman and his ideas before. We also corresponded
with him and received several articles in pamphlet-type format. A search with
the entry Venneman on the Brit-Am On-Line Search Engine
http://www.britam.org/SearchEngines.html
This shows that on 10 previous occasions we have discussed Professor Venneman.
The Theories of Venneman as at present formulated cover a lot of
ground. They are based on linguistics. From what we have seen relatively few
examples seem to be adduced as evidence but those that are receive exhaustive
treatment. The linguistic explanations are supplemented with historical
information which is used quite sparingly.
(b) Recapitulation of
Venneman
To briefly recapitulate his ideas:
Originally Western European spoke "Vasconic"
languages similar to Basque. Along came Indo-Europeans and imposed their
language.
Then came Semitic Sea-Farers from the Middle East and Canaan and imposed their
influence especially in the British Isles and Scandinavia. They also built the
megalithic monuments such as the dolmens.
[This is all much the same as
what Brit-Am says only Venneman
dates it much earlier].
From 500 to the 100s BCE "Punic"
descendants of Canaanites (or
Israelites) from Carthage ruled
over much of Northern Europe especially those regions close to the sea. The Runic
Script of Scandinavia is a direct derivation from the
Punics
of Carthage.
The Picts
of Scotland and the Vanes of Scandinavia spoke a Semitic Language and had a
Canaanite type culture.
Venneman
supposes a linkage between the Vanes and the
Picts.
He assumes both groups to have been Semites from Canaan and/or the Middle East.
[ In Mythology, the forefathers
(the ancient ancestral gods) of the Scandinavians were divided into two groups,
the Vanes and the Aesir.
The Vanes are considered to have been more immoral and to have countenanced
incestuous unions. Odin and Thor belonged to the
Aesir
who at first fought against the Vanes. Eventually the
Aesir
and Vanes united to fight against their common enemy the "Giants".]
The Angles and Saxons from Germany conquered the Celts of Britain but the Celts
exerted a linguistic influence on the English Language. This explains certain
anomalies in English including parallels to Semitic tongues.
(c) Brit-Am and
Venneman
Agreements and Differences.
An important element in the theories of Venneman concerns the Germanic
sound shift whereby certain consonantal letters are given the same value as in
Biblical Hebrew, e.g. a "D" can be sounded like a "th". This occurred on two
occasions. The first time it affected German languages in general and the second
time its influence was felt more in the south.
This has already been discussed by
Terry Marvin Blodgett in 1981 who published a Ph.D. thesis, "Phonological
Similarities in Germanic and Hebrew".
See:
The Hebrew Sources of Northern Tongues.
http://britam.org/tongues.html
Terry Blodgett proved that the linguistic changes in Germanic tongues were due
to the influx into Europe of Hebrews from the Ten Tribes. Blodgett gives
numerous examples and well proves his case. An article derived from the work of
Terry Blodgett appears on our web-site and we (with his permission) published
lengthy extracts from his thesis as an appendix to our book "The Tribes".
http://britam.org/the-Tribes.html
Venneman in effect says the same as Terry Blodgett but he seems to go into less
detail. He also does not identify these newcomers as Hebrews but rather as
simply Semites worshippers of the "Palestinian" (i.e. Canaanite) goddess
Astarte and the god "Bal".
The Israelites were exiled for worshipping Canaanite deities and adopting
Canaanite practices (2-Kings ch.17) so this does not contradict the Brit-Am
explanation. These "Semitic" newcomers were also responsible for building the
megalithic monuments.
Brit-Am also attributes the megaliths on the whole to Israelites.
See:
The Megalithic Page.
http://www.britam.org/megalithic.html
Dolmens and the Bible
http://www.britam.org/Proof/
Attributes/roleDolmen.html
DOLMENS
http://britam.org/dolmen.html
Venneman however, like all conventional researchers, assigns the Megalithic
monuments to a fantastically early date.
He assumes they began at around the close of the Ice Age etc (which would put
them as beginning at ca. 10,000 BCE or earlier!) but continued into the Bronze
Age at ca. 1500 BCE. This is fantastic! It is also fantasy.
There are a vast number of these monuments. They exhibit engineering
sophistication and skill in moving rocks of great weight in some cases (e.g.
Stonehenge) over tens of miles! They also show advanced astronomical knowledge
and mathematical prowess. They did all this, according to conventional accounts,
at a time when they were supposed to live in a nomadic state herding sheep and
cattle over the countryside. People in such a situation are usually struggling
to get by. They lack the leisure, education, and especially the manpower to
produce edifices such as those associated with the Megalithic Age. Knowledge
needs to be accumulated and transmitted.
Is it really credible that a group of shepherds in their spare time could have
have transported "80 sarsen stones, each weighing an average of 30 tons, 20
miles from the Marlborough Downs to Salisbury Plain to construct Stonehenge?" In
watching the sheep at night could they have figured out mathematical equations
our best scientists still struggle with? We are not considering the possible
achievements of an isolated genius with prophetic type abilities but of a whole
civilization encompassing Ireland, Britain, West France, the Netherlands,
Denmark, and Sweden with offshoots elsewhere. It is not a few monuments here and
there that are under considerations but tens of thousands of them!
There also exists quite a bit of solid evidence dating these structures to the
Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages and later, i.e. well after 700 BCE which was
around the time of the Israelite Exile.
See:
"Brit-Am Now"-583
#4. Emmet
Sweeney: A Valuable Source for Dating the "Megaliths"?
http://britam.org/now/583Now.html
Brit-Am Answers to Queries about Archaeology:
http://www.britam.org/Questions/
QuesArchaeology.html
Venneman himself now indirectly testifies to a late dating for the phenomenon he
describes by introducing the Carthaginian element.
This is what is known in literary circles as a "deus ex machina"
literally "a god out of the machine". This is:
#
a plot device
whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with
the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character, ability, or
object. #
Venneman at present holds that the Carthaginians ruled over
Northern Europe from 500 to the 100s BCE.
This is a new aspect of Venneman's world view having not (to my knowledge)
previously been publicized.
It helps resolve certain problems associated with an early dating of the
Megalithic Monuments. The "Semitic" culture that introduced these monuments
was obviously still exerting "fresh" influences recently derived from the Middle
East at a late date in historical terms.
Venneman therefore has resolved these contradictions by introducing the
Carthaginians who "refreshed" the "Semitic" influx first made apparent in
megalithic times.
Very convenient.
There may however in fact be some small justification for this.
Diodorus Siculus says that Hercules planted several colonies in northern Europe
and there may be some connection between the settlements of Hercules and a
Phoenician presence.
Nevertheless the two "Semitic" events described by Venneman took place at the same time and were carried out by the same people
and they all occurred after 700 BCE!
Just to put matters into perspective the Carthaginians were Phoenicians from
Tyre in Lebanon who settled in what was now Tripoli.
They founded Carthage which at one stage had a great maritime Empire of its own
and seriously challenged Rome.
The Phoenicians and Carthaginians identified themselves as of Canaanite stock.
Israelite tribes (e.g. Dan, Asher, Naphtali) were sometimes confused with them.
Stephen Collins identifies the Carthaginians as basically Israelites but we
think otherwise.
We attribute the Phoenician and Middle Eastern influence in Northern Europe in
the period after 700 BCE mainly to Israelites from the Ten Tribes.
The researcher Robert Graves also apparently attributes Semitic influence
to Irish and Welsh and the Picts of Scotland and gives examples. The source
quoted is "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves which we have not read but we
did read other of his works on Mythology and found them useful.
An apparently anonymous (?) review of "The White Goddess" quotes from
Venneman and also from the DNA expert and historian Stephen Oppenheimer author of
"Origins of the British". Oppenhiemer agrees with Venneman and quotes
other sources in his support.
The review in question
http://www.well.com/~mareev/portal/
prehistory/white_goddess_graves_review
/White_Goddess_updated5.html
also quotes from
"Lost Israelite Identity", by Yair Davidy especially our summarization of:
"The Chronicles of Eri, being the history of the Gaal Sciot Iber, or the Irish
People,
See also:
A Critical Review and Update of Robert Graves "The White Goddess" - An
Investigation (Page 4)
http://www.well.com/~mareev/
portal/prehistory/white_goddess_graves_review/White_Goddess_updated4.html
Concerning the Picts we agree with Venneman and Graves, that they were Semitic
specifically Israelite, and we discussed them at some length in our work
Israelite Celts
http://britam.org/Menasseh.html#ISRAELITE
which is part three of
"Lost Israelite Identity.
The Hebrew Origin of Celtic Races"
In Summary, Professor Theo
Venneman proposes scenarios that fit the facts and are the same as those of
Brit-Am in many ways.
His terminology is a little
different: What he calls "Semitic" we refer to as "Hebrew" and "Israelite".
That which he attributes
to the Canaanite Carthaginians we ascribe to Exiles from the Ten Tribes of
Israel.
We too say that there were
two major pathways of Migration: (1) One by way of the Sea and via Spain and the
Atlantic coastal areas and (2) the other overland through Turkish Anatolia and the
Scythian regions of Southern Russia.
Venneman attributes the
Germanic Sound Shift to Semitic influence and so does Terry Marvin Blodgett who
is a supporter of Brit-Am and whose work is promoted by us.
Venneman says that the
Megalthic Monuments were built by Semites who arrived by way of the Sea. This is
true. The so-called "Semites" were Israelites and they arrived in the west after
700 BCE as we have described in detail.
See:
"Sea-Way"
The Movement by Ship of
Exiled Israelite Tribes to the British Isles.
http://www.britam.org/books.html#Sea
Book Two of "Lost Israelite Identity".
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