David and Goliath

First we will start with a discussion of chronology for the early emergence of Israel.  The Bible provides a detailed account of this history and it is possible to link it all to contemporary Egypt and also to what we now understand to be contemporary Atlantean culture based at Gibraltar and trading copper and other metals such as tin into the Mediterranean.

We arrive at a consistent narrative that reflects all three individual histories. The astonishing surprise was locating a population of goliaths on the key trade route bringing copper.

The key Egyptian event was the establishment and ultimate failure of Atenism at Amarna under Akhenaton.   This was an attempt to establish a monotheistic state religion.   It failed and was quickly displaced.  His reign lasted from 1352-1334 BCE or just a little less than twenty years.

His daughter was Meritaten which is somewhat reminiscent of Miriam sister of Moses which is somewhat reminiscent of Thutmoses and other Pharonic names.  My real point is that on the face of it and from the text itself, we are dealing with members of the Pharonic family and all that must imply.

After Akhnaten there would exist a large population of people who had become monotheistic in inclination and good prospects for suppression.  The bible tells of a rapidly growing tribe of folk who had come in under the sponsorship of Joseph.  It is not too hard to see this mixed bag of émigrés converting to Atenism and attracting a large pool of like minded folk.  That the Bible makes it all sound like one big family is to be expected.

The answer to the suppression was simply to migrate out of Egypt along the coast.  This plausibly took place during the reign of the short lived Ramses I, 1292 – 1290 which was around forty years after the reign of Akhnaten and just the right amount of time for the two religions to be in full conflict and suppression to become unbearable.  Also Moses would then be in his forties and able to conduct such an operation.

The chronology is hardly fixed, but this generally fits what we think we know.  Also Moses would be a member of the past Dynastic order who may even have had some claim to the Throne at least as strong as Ramses I.  His peoples or following represent a real and present treat to the new Pharaoh and presents an even stronger argument for getting out of town.

In general a group migrated into the region of the Dead Sea and somehow made a living until they were able to grab key towns and farms.  Sooner or later they created a capital or center at Jerusalem and began building a larger polity.  Very possibly this became a center of additional family migration from Egypt at this time.  The bible claims no establishment for forty years which brings us up to 1250 BCE before cities became important.

My surmise then is that the important aspects of the establishment of the political state took place 1250 BCE through perhaps 1000 BCE.  I am not going to tighten it up more than that for now, but the part we are interested in is the interface with the Philistines or as known to the Egyptians the Sea peoples.

During the establishment of a Israelite polity Ramses II ruled for over sixty years from 1279-1213 BCE.  It is noteworthy that he was forced to take action against pirates along his coasts in the second year of his reign.  Otherwise he fought the battle of Kadesh and marched in and out of the Levant many times to impress his authority.  Obviously there was no strong military presence there except his.

Right after his death, the Israelites show up in Egyptian records and are already a presence by 1200 BCE.

His successor Ramses III, 1186-1155 BCE did fight the Sea People in 1175 BCE and essentially prevented them from occupying the Delta itself.  This was fifteen years before the Hekla blast that wiped out Atlantis in 1159 BCE and brought about the collapse of the Bronze Age.  It was enough time to establish large colonies in Gaza known as the Philistines and it was likely done with his agreement once he had subdued them.  After all it provided a strong buffer on that flank just when he was getting hassled from the south and west both.

 So we know that the Atlantean trade confederacy was then able to project enough power to seriously challenge the single biggest power on the Mediterranean.  It is reasonable that by this point they dominated the whole Mediterranean.   The archeological record says just that in the form of a palace culture that was surely a system of trade factories.

The collapse of the Bronze age did not end these establishments but it cut of their supply of copper and metal and put them out of business.  Most were soon overrun.

Shortly before this collapse, the Philistines were confronting the Israelites and desperate fighting took place.  They introduced a giant named Goliath into their battle line who intimidated the Israelites.  Young David came to prominence for using a sling to kill this human giant.  This led to the founding of the Davidic dynasty among the Israelites.

The tale itself was mostly thought to be mythic.  The real problem was a complete lack of any evidence of such a giant human anywhere.  Yet this was not a tame dragon with wings.  There have been other legends of large people but not quite so prosaic.  We seem to have a sorry conscript standing in line with his troop who gets put down with a well aimed stone.

So it stood.  Now we have specific evidence and reports relating to a small population of such giants in the most important single route for moving Lake superior copper to the Levant.  See my recent post.

There are three or four likely routes to the copper fields of Lake Superior which saw millions of pounds removed.  The most difficult is surely coming up the St Lawrence.  It does allow overland portages up the Ottawa but lacks local support easily created.  The easiest is to come up the Hudson and swing west on the Mohawk.  There one can pass directly to Lake Erie or to Lake Ontario and overland by portage route to Georgian Bay.  A last route is to come up the Mississippi.  It is far too long but may well have been heavily used since other sources would also be exploited.

The first choice would be through Lake Erie, unless locals were hostile.  I think that was why the Peterborough route existed.  In any event it was fairly easy to take freight canoes up the Mohawk to a point in reach of Lake Ontario by about twenty mile.  One would then follow the shore to the Niagara Peninsula and portage again there another twenty miles.  The rest was done by following the shores all way up to Lake Superior.

My point is that this takes one directly by and through the country in which the giants were discovered.

It is noteworthy that the sea peoples become visible in the record so late in their rise.  The copper itself was surely shipped in for several centuries.  That they chose to become aggressive must have been the result of simple success.  The destruction of Atlantis by Hekla’s tsunami collapsed the North American mining industry and displaced European Populations southward.  A long dark age ensued.