Semites and Indo-Europeans
Much has been written about the Indo-Europeans, their origins and their language. One of the issues still debated in this field today is that of contacts between Indo-European and other language families, in particular Semitic. Lexical and phonetic similarities have led some linguists to hypothesize that Indo-Europeans and Semites originally lived in neighboring areas. Others have gone further, suggesting the possibility of a relationship between the two linguistic families.
At first glance, the topic might not seem particularly worthy of attention; however, upon closer inspection it turns out to be decidedly intriguing. The points of contact between Indo-Europeans and Semites, in fact, are not limited to the linguistic field but also concern religion, mythology, literature and more. In short, the contact's point are a bit too many not to suggest an ancient contact between the two lineages. But when, and above all where, would this contact have occurred? The answer to this question, as we will see, can reveal a lot about the unwritten history of the European peoples...
Index
- Shem, Ham and Japheth
- The Phoenicians
- Indo-Europeans in the Bible
- An overview
Shem, Ham and Japheth
The tenth chapter of Genesis reports the descendants of the three sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japheth - each of whom would be the progenitor of a certain number of populations. According to tradition, the Indo-European peoples descended from Japheth, while the Semites and Hamites descended from Shem and Ham respectively (the latter group includes, for example, Egyptians and Ethiopians). It should be noted, first of all, that many of the names that appear on the "table of the people" (especially among the descendants of Shem and Ham) are of uncertain interpretation; therefore, it cannot be excluded that many of the biblical Semites and Hamites have little or nothing to do with those defined as such today. However, it is objective that, just as there is an Indo-European linguistic family, there is also a "Hamito-Semitic" one (or Afro-Asiatic, of which Semitic represents one of the branches).
The efforts of linguists and archaeologists to identify the cradle of the Indo-Europeans are well known. Less known are the attempts to localize the Afro-Asiatic Urheimat, also because to date there is no unanimous consensus on the issue. Most scholars place it in Africa, but there is no shortage of those who hypothesize a Middle Eastern homeland. There is no agreement even on the time in which Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken, although this linguistic family is generally considered to be very ancient (over 10,000 years). But such a dating roughly coincides with the era of Atlantis, which disappeared, according to Plato, 11,600 years ago. And in fact in Atlantis (of which the islet of Rockall represents the last vestige) an Afro-Asiatic language was most likely spoken!
Is it possible therefore that the area of origin of the Afro-Asiatic languages first, and then Semitic, was not Africa or the Levant, but Western Europe? The issue certainly deserves an in-depth study by specialists in the sector; however, we already have some elements that leave this possibility open.
The first clue comes from genetic and anthropological observations. The presence of Caucasoid people in Northern Africa (who before the Islamic expansion spoke Berber languages, also Afro-Asiatic) is in fact traced back to a migration from the Iberian peninsula, which occurred around 20,000 years ago. This European population, probably cromagnoid, would have been at the origin of the Iberomaurusian culture.
Another clue comes from linguistic considerations. The element ber, for example, is found in both the ethnonym of the Iberians and in that of the Berbers, which suggests the existence of an ancient continuum between Western Europe and North Africa. The same thing could be said for toponyms such as the African Mauritania and the Iberian Lusitania, to which we could add the French regions of Aquitaine and Occitania. The suffix -tania, traced back to Basque by some, has also been linked to the Berber term sait "son, belonging to a tribe" and at "people". And returning to ethnonyms, perhaps we can associate the Moors of Mauritania with the Middle Eastern people of the Amorites, of Semitic lineage.
As with Proto-Afroasiatic, it is unclear where Proto-Semitic was spoken. The existence of proto-Semitic words for ice and oak would suggest a relatively northern homeland. However, shared terms for plants such as fig, pistachio and almond (as well as for sea and boat) would direct research around the Mediterranean basin. On the other hand, the presence of a large vocabulary to indicate mountains and hills has led some to place the Semitic Urheimat on the Zagros Mountains.
However, the thesis that Semitic languages originated in the Middle East is problematic. It does not explain, for example, their affinities with Berber, and also contrasts with the absence of “pre-Sumerian” Semitic toponyms in Mesopotamia. This absence led Gelb (1960, https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=gen-001:1960:8::396) to state that “the Semites, like the Sumerians, are clearly newcomers to the Land of the Two Rivers, and have superimposed themselves on another population of unknown origin.” This is even more paradoxical if we hypothesize a Middle Eastern origin not only for Semitic, but for all Afro-Asiatic languages.
But let's go back to Europe. Among linguists, the one who most forcefully supported the ancient presence of Semitic languages in Western Europe is the German Theo Vennemann. A first linguistic stratification, which he called "Atlantic", dates back to the 5th millennium BC and would have acted as a substratum for the Celtic languages, which arrived on site only a few millennia later. The Semitic occupation would have lasted for a long time (approximately until 200 BC), reaching as far as Scandinavia. The Semitic languages (in particular Punic, spoken by the Phoenicians) would also have had a notable influence on Germanic, this time however as a superstrate. Among the German words with a possible Semitic origin, Vennemann also identifies Adel "nobility", suggesting that the name of the first king of Atlantis - Atlas, in fact - may have the same etymology: an interpretation that fits wonderfully with our thesis on language of the disappeared island.
The similarities between Celtic and Semitic languages are well known. Both are languages with VSO (verb, subject, object) syntax; both have inflected prepositions and definite articles, while neither has indefinite articles; and so on. But there are further affinities between the Celtic and "Hamito-Semitic" worlds, which also extend into the fields of art and religion. The Celtic conception of life after death, for example, was more similar to the Egyptian one than to the Indo-European one. Even more significant is the presence of certain symbols in both Egyptian art and ancient European rock carvings. One of them is that of the "solar boat", with which, according to the Egyptians, the god Ra transported the souls of the deceased during the night, and which we also find in Brittany, Ireland and southern Sweden.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the division of the day into hours reported in chapter LXXII of the Book of Enoch is valid at a latitude of 49°, practically that of Normandy. Although the Book of Enoch is dated to the 2nd century BC, it may include much older material, perhaps dating back to the time when the Semites still lived in the "Celtic" lands.
The Phoenicians
As we have seen, according to Vennemann the Semitic influence on the Germanic languages was due to the Phoenicians. Since the Germanic Urheimat must be placed between Denmark and southern Scandinavia, it is questionable whether there is evidence of Phoenician presence in these territories. Well, a short search in this sense does not leave you disappointed…
Let us first examine the archaeological and epigraphic evidence. That the Mediterranean and the Baltic were in contact already in antiquity is clear from the discovery of Baltic amber in Mycenaean tombs, as well as from the presence of copper from the Iberian Peninsula and Sardinia in Swedish weapons dating back to the Bronze Age. As regards to the Phoenicians, some evidence of their presence in southern Sweden has been collected by Mörner and Lind (2015, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=59543). For example, in the 1930s, on the beach of Ravlunda, a local fisherman found a pearl later identified as Phoenician, dated to the Bronze Age. The authors also list several rock inscriptions whose symbols are also found in the eastern Mediterranean. Among them are those of the King's Tomb in Kivik, dated to 1300-1200 BC, and for which the Swedish archaeologist Sven Nilsson, in 1875, hypothesized a Phoenician origin.
The Phoenicians may also have contributed directly (i.e. without the mediation of the Greeks or Etruscans) to the development of the runic alphabet, also known as futhark from the name of the first six signs from which it is composed. Among the elements that suggest a direct lineage of the futhark from the Phoenician alphabet is the fact that in both the name of each sign has an independent meaning (man, day, water, wheel, etc.). This does not occur for example in the Greek alphabet, where alpha, beta, gamma, ... only indicate the individual signs and nothing else. Another coincidence is that the first rune of the futhark is called *fehu “cattle”, while the name of the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, aleph, means “ox”.
Vennemann also highlighted several similarities between the ancient Germanic and Phoenician religions. In particular, the Germanic god Baldr, or Balder, would be none other than the Phoenician Baal. His name in fact derives from Baal Addir (literally "Mighty Lord"), through the form Baldir. Furthermore, like Baal, Baldr is a deity who dies and resurrected.
Some toponyms in southern Sweden may also be attributable to the name of Baal, for example Balsby (“Baal's village”) and Balsberget (“Baal's mountain”). And perhaps even the name of the Baltic Sea could have the same origin. The first to call it this way was Adam of Bremen in the 11th century, but Pliny (Natural History, IV, 95) already spoke of an island in northern Europe called Baltia, a sign that this name certainly has ancient roots.
One might wonder, at this point, whether there are written testimonies that explicitly speak of Phoenicians in Northern Europe starting from the Bronze Age. Here the question becomes more complex, since we have very few sources on the Scandinavian peoples of that era. However, according to Felice Vinci 's hypotheses, the Homeric poems are one of these, and both mention the Phoenicians on several occasions. The Iliad calls them polydaidaloi (“many-talented”), while the Odyssey uses the less flattering polypaipaloi (“many-cheating”). Homer mentions the precious fabrics embroidered by them (Iliad, VI, 289-295) and a silver cup "of exquisite workmanship", which Achilles placed among the prizes up for grabs for the running race in honor of Patroclus (ibid., XXIII, 740-749). Another of their names, Sidonians (i.e., of the city of Sidon), recalls the Sitoni mentioned by Tacitus (Germania, 45), identifiable precisely with a Scandinavian people. Some have argued that their name can be traced back to the modern-day city of Sigtuna, not far from Stockholm, called Situne in medieval documents.
But some allusions to the Phoenicians could also be present in the Vedas. In fact, the name of the Panis, a tribe of rich traders mentioned in the Rigveda, seems to echo that of the Phoenicians/Punics. The Rigveda frowns on them, portraying them as greedy and non-religious; in this it seems to agree with the Odyssey. As the reader may have guessed, such contact is much more likely to have occurred in Bronze Age Scandinavia than in India. However, some may be perplexed about associating the Vedas with Northern Europe. In this regard, it is worth remembering Bal Gangadhar Tilak 's these son the Nordic origin of these texts, which - in addition to perfectly reconciling with those of Felice Vinci - would also make the numerous passages of the Rigveda which referto the sea and navigation more coherent.
In short, the evidence of the Phoenician presence in Northern Europe is not small: this means that the path followed by Vennemann is most likely the right one. But in order to draw an overall picture of the contacts between Indo-Europeans and Semites we still need to consult the most important source: the Bible.
Indo-Europeans in the Bible
The Old Testament, as is known, focuses on the events of the Jewish people, and in particular the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. Apparently, therefore, it is the "Semitic" work par excellence. But why “apparently”? Simple: upon closer analysis, many parallels with the Indo-European world actually emerge.
To begin with, in the First Book of Maccabees (12, 21) we find the statement according to which the Jews and Spartans are "brothers", since both descend from the lineage of Abraham. And in fact various Old Testament episodes and characters closely resemble those of Greek mythology. For example, the episode of the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham recalls the sacrifice of Phrixus by his father Athamas. An angel stops Abraham just as Heracles stops Athamas, and a ram is sacrificed in Isaac's place just as a ram brings Phrixus to safety. The story of Joseph, slandered by Potiphar's wife who fell in love with him but rejected him, recalls that of Bellerophon, slandered for the same reason by Antea, wife of Preto. The newborn Moses is placed in a basket and abandoned on the river, just as little Perseus and his mother are locked in a chest and abandoned in the sea; and so on.
But the affinities with the Hellenic world do not end here. How can we fail to notice the similarity between Dan, son of Jacob and the slave Bilhah, and Danaus, eponym of the Hellenes (or Danai, precisely) and son of Belus? The fact that the tribe of Dan lived "on ships" (Jg 5, 17) makes the analogy with the warlike Homeric Danaans even more evident. And this opens up the possibility that some Israelite tribes were in all respects Indo-European. Recently, a non-Semitic origin has also been hypothesized for the Levites: their name derives from the Mycenaean *ra-wo /*la-wo (from which the Greek laos), which can indicate both, generically, the "people", and, more specifically, the "soldiers". And in fact, several biblical passages (for example Gen 49, 5-7; Ex 32, 27-28; Nm 1, 53) suggest that the original role of the Levites was precisely the military one.
Although the parallels with ancient Greece are the best known, they are certainly not the only ones. Gordon (1958 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23612463) highlighted, for example, various themes in common between the Bible and Indo-European epic literature, not only Greek but also Indian. The Indian story of the Flood is, together with the Sumerian one, one of the most similar to the biblical one. And in the names of the Indian god Brahma and his consort Sarasvati echo those of the patriarch Abraham and his wife Sara. But we could go on for a long time…
Regarding the cultural aspect, the Bible informs us that the body of King Saul, who died in battle, was cremated (1 Sam 31, 12). Here we find ourselves in the presence of a typically Indo-European custom, unusual among Semitic peoples. Gordon recalls that Indo-European is the custom of proposing riddles at weddings, which we also find in the biblical story of Samson. Regarding Samson, we note that he belonged to the tribe of Dan, which, as we have seen above, was probably Indo-European, and he repeatedly had to deal with the Philistines, who were also Indo-European and - perhaps -related to the Mycenaeans (it is no coincidence that the palace where Samson is taken by the Philistines once captured has been compared to the Mycenaean megaron).
What then about the fact that the promised land is defined as “a land flowing with milk and honey”? The consumers of milk par excellence, today as in ancient times, are the Indo-European peoples, among the few capable of digesting lactose. Not only that: the mention of honey together with milk brings to mind sura, an alcoholic drink mentioned in the Vedas, which consisted of mare's milk fermented with honey (Parpola, 2004-2005). It is strange that for a Semitic people the symbols par excellence of abundance and prosperity are typically Indo-European foods and drinks...
Finally, we note that there are various biblical terms for which an Indo-European etymology has been proposed. Among the toponyms, we can mention none other than the Jordan River. It is usually traced back to the Semitic root yrd, which has the meaning of "to descend"; however, the presence of other rivers with similar names scattered throughout Europe (the Eridanus of Greek mythology, the Homeric Gardenan, the French Rhone and so on) also makes other interpretations possible. One of them links the name to the Persian terms yor "year" and don "river", which together would have designated a river with a constant flow throughout the year. Even taking Proto-Iranian into consideration (where we would have *yahr and *danu ), the substance does not change. Indeed, the phonemes DN alone, which we find in other Indo-European hydronyms such as the Don and the Danube, would lead us to suspect the same origin for the Jordan.
Among personal names, Goliath has been compared to the Lydian name Alyattes and the Carian name Wljat/Wliat (Vernet Pons, 2012 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/kadmos-2012-0009/html). The latter, in particular, would derive from the Indo-European root *welh-, connected to the meaning of strength and power (from which for example the Latin valeo "to be strong" and the Tocharian B walo "king"), and would therefore fit perfectly with Philistine giant. But even names of Jewish characters, with an apparently Semitic etymology, could be explained differently. Tamar's name, for example, literally means "date" or "date palm" in Hebrew, but also recalls the Hittite dammara "priestess of the cult" and the Ancient Greek damar "wife, bride". These meanings appear decidedly more plausible if we examine the story of Tamar (Gen 38, 6 ff.). Already the wife of Er, firstborn of Judah, and then of her brother Onan, since both husbands died without leaving heirs, she disguised herself as a prostitute in order to conceive from her father-in-law (in ancient times prostitution was also the prerogative of priestesses).
Among the words attributable to Indo-European borrowings we can mention debir, which designated the most sacred part (the so-called "Holy of Holies") of Solomon's Temple. The word derives from the Mycenaean da-po-ri-to-ju, predecessor of the Greek labyrinthos: the original meaning of the term (as deduced from the suffix -inthos, typical of toponyms) would in fact have been that of "sacred place". Other Hebrew words of probably Indo-European (particularly Greek) etymology are pilegesh “concubine” (Greek pallakis, idem); lishkah “hall” (Greek leskha “bed, tomb” but also “gathering place”); mekerah “sword, knife” (Greek makaira “sword”); parbar “structure adjacent to the temple” (Greek peribolos “enclosed garden”; Persian parvar “pathway, vestibule”); and others still.
In light of all this, the hypothesis that the biblical Israelites lived in an Indo-Europeanized environment, or that they were even – at least in part –Indo-European themselves, is decidedly more than a mere supposition.
An overview
Let us therefore try to bring some order to the material we have collected so far. We have seen that Indo-Europeans and Semites must have lived in close contact: this certainly happened during different eras, and – consequently – also in different places. Here is a possible reconstruction of events:
- Before 10,000 BC, Afro-Asiatic languages were spoken in Western Europe (including Atlantis), while "pre-Indo-European" languages were spoken in the rest of Europe; Indo-European had not yet differentiated. A few millennia later, the Afro-Asiatic family had split into several branches: one of them, the one that Vennemann calls "Atlantic", may have remained in the West, giving rise there to the Semitic languages which only later arrived in the Middle East, and serving (perhaps between the 2nd and 1st millennium BC) as a substrate for Celtic.
- Meanwhile, Indo-European was beginning to develop in Northern Europe, which still undivided may have adopted Semitic terms such as those to indicate wine (proto-Western Semitic *wayn, proto-Indo-European *weyhnom) and the bull (proto-Semitic *tawr, Proto-Indo-European *tawros). The transmission of some stories and topoi that we find both in the Bible and in Indo-European literature could also date back to this period.
- The elements that suggest contact between Israelites and Indo-Europeans can have different explanations, not entirely irreconcilable with each other. It is certainly possible that the two lineages came into contact in the Levant of the Bronze Age; but it is also possible, as argued by Cinzia Mele, that the Bible tells of events that took place in Northern Europe starting from the 4th millennium BC, which had the Indo-Europeans as protagonists and which were appropriated by the Middle Eastern Semitic peoples only after the deportation to Babylon, which in reality it concerned precisely the "Nordics". Personally, while I remain of the opinion that the Old Testament is a Semitic work, I also believe that the amount of Indo-European material it contains is sufficient to call into question the geographical location of the events described.
- As intuited by Theo Vennemann and confirmed by archaeological, linguistic and mythological observations, northern Europe was subject to a Phoenician colonization which probably lasted from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC until around 200 BC, when Carthage lost its dominance over the Mediterranean.
In short, it should now be clear that European history is much more intricate than we thought. Clearly, a lot of work will still be needed to unravel this mess; however, the plan that can already be glimpsed, although still incomplete, undoubtedly encourages us to continue the research.
Note
This article is the english translation of the italian article "Semiti e Indoeuropei" by Merlo Bianco. You can find the original article here: https://merlobianco.altervista.org/semiti-e-indoeuropei/
