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| Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
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Editorial
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What Orient and Jerusalem mean - and our future Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons Some of the oldest references to Jerusalem were discovered by chance. Discovered in Egypt's Tel al-Amarna were 300 clay tablets of official correspondence set by scribes in cuneiform script. The find included three decades of official correspondence commenced in 1,380 BC. The correspondence was from sub-rulers in Canaan (and its vicinity) to Pharaoh Akhenaten and other Egyptian heads. Many clay tablets preserve the name URUSALIM. Filtering out chance coincidences To establish links that explain the significance of the name, we must first filter away words spread by modern media, print and electronic. Take for example words in widespread international use such as 'bus', 'bicycle' or 'automobile.' Second, we must avoid a layer of foundational words, which articulation renders common to all children's speech. Take for example the words `Mamma' or `Amma' where a baby closes its lips and then opens them to form a sound. With that simple articulation a baby identifies the very first face it recognises. Between the two layers come the sound combinations that cannot be filtered away by excluding the effect of modern information media or childhood articulation. Meaning of Urusalim After we exclude the coincidences above, we might take up URUSALIM as consisting of UR + SALIM. In the Semitic group of languages SALIM is cognate with Hebrew SHALOM meaning `Peace.' Indeed at 745 metres height the gorge in the Judean hills could be protected better than flat terrain by its settlers from marauding wanderers of those years (cited, for instance, in Deut. 26:5.) Perhaps it is not mere coincidence for linguists to say that SALIM is not a far cry from Pali SARANA or English SERENE. The other component of the name, UR, was a term then popular in the area for `settlement,' 'village' or `city.' Some linguists claim the term travelled from the source of the river Euphrates, carried by barge travellers from the north. Indeed, UR links with the URATU civilisation that thrived in Armenia. Mount ARARAT is a name that derives from the same civilisation. During the flood it was to this mountain that Patriarch Noah steered his legendary ark of livestock and other animals. Ur of the chaldees Barge travellers from the north may have settled in several already developed or cultivated spots on the riverbank. One site of 4500-3500 BC was to achieve fame in history as UR OF THE CHALDEES. The lengthy title arose because the generic name UR had to be followed by a specific designation (as above in UR + SALIM). The people who lived in this particular UR or city from 900 BC were called the Chaldees. That name gave us the word `culture.' It was not just any place. The river settlement had developed into an important river port taking sea cargoes because of its proximity to Basrah. UR OF THE CHALDEES is chronicled as handling (a) copper, gold, elephant hide and ivory, (b) ebony and other tropical hardwoods (c) rubies, sapphires and other gems (d) cinnamon, pepper and other spices. These commodities arrived usually via Dilmun, (classified as modern Bahrain island) an intermediary point between the Indian subcontinent and West Asia. Finds of 3,000 BC traders' seals in Mesopotami a show the exotic goods had been arriving from the Indus Valley civilisation and subsequently from other parts of the ORIENT, including areas of modern India and Sri Lanka (some scriptural authorities denote the latter as Havillah and Ophir.) It is from UR OF THE CHALDEES that patriarch Abraham, who figures in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, went westwards to Canaan. All three names Abraham, Sara (his wife) and Hagar (Sarah's handmaiden)
can be associated with South Asian rivers flowing at that time: the
Brahmaputra (Brahma's offspring), the Saraswati (Brahma's wife) and Hakra (a
sub-river of the Saraswati.) |
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