posted
...Like the confusion over misused terms such as "Nubia," "Tribal/Tribes", "Ethiopia," we also need to include the misuse of the term " Meroë !":
Meroë is a colonial name for Saba/Shaba/Sheba
quote: "SABA, which was a royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterward named MEROE, after the name of his own sister." --Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian
According to the first book of Moses; the sons (or nations) of Cush (Sudan) are named Saba, Sabtecha, Sheba, Dedan, etc...
...C.A. Diop, Diodorus of Sicily, and Strabo the Roman Geographer, etc., make the same argument...
quote: The name Meroë does not seem to derive from an African root. It is probably what foreigners used after Cambyses to designate the capital of Ethiopia (in the Sudan). Quoting Diodorus, Strabo reports that the wife-or sister- of Cambyses was killed in Ethiopia and was buried there when this conqueror tried unsuccessfully to take the country by force. Her name was Meroë. -- African Origin of Civilization, notes, p288 - Chapter VII, #7
quote: Moreover, when Cambyses conquered Egypt, he advanced with the Egyptians as far as Meroë; in fact, it is said, the name was given by him to both the island and the city, because his sister, Meroë (his wife according to some), died there. For this reason therefore he conferred the appellation on the island, and in honour of a woman -The geography of Strabo, Volume 3
quote: ...Cambyses had with him in the camp his youngest sister, whose name was Meroë. Herodotus informs us in what a strange manner his sister became his wife...they had a law which allowed the king of Persia to do what he pleased...This lady he carried with him in all his expeditions, and her name being Meroë, he gave it to an island in the Nile, between Egypt and Ethiopia... -The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians [&c.]. Transl by Charles Rollin
(He ended up killing her...)
Now for some more conclusive words from the Mdu Ntr : (m'.Tah.oo n.tchair)
Town;Village;City
There are at least nine words for these in the Mdu Ntr (osha-t, baki, Dimai-t, Temi, Kot, Karte, Garta, Dimé , Nu-t):
The etymology of the word "nu-t" is (349-50) Nu: they, them Nu/Nun: the primeval waters from where everything originated The following words are written using the "nu-t" glyph (350b,351a): Nuit: the Sky-goddess Nuti: the day sky/the night sky Nu-t: an Egyptian village, hamlet, town, city, community, settlement Nuti: "local" (a so-called "nisbe" from the word "nu-t") Nuti-werti (khast): a district in the Duat (The Other World, hence "khast" and not "nu-t") Nutenehtt (khast): the "everlasting city" in the Duat
Land
There are at least 13 words for land in the Mdu Ntr (Amait, Ikhu-t, Eirit, Oka, Eiten, Adjebu, Adebu, Ndebu, Ha-t, Honbe-t, Ateb, Khast, Ta )
Ateb: Land, region, territory - used as a determinative Khast: Foreign land, region, territory, or place Ta (Ateb): ground, earth, soil, dust Ta-t (Nu): Egyptian land, ground, earth Tawi (ateb-ateb): Two Lands Tawi (nu-nu): Two Egyptian Lands (ie, the "two kingdoms")
Egyptian Colonies
Gorge/Grege: to found, establish, or settle a country In the Mdu Ntr we have; Dimé ateb nu gorge: "towns colonized (founded, settled, or established) by Egypt" (812a)
The Kmt :Dshrt distinction
There are no "Nwt" towns or settlements in either Asia or Libya, only in Egypt, Nubia, and the Sudan. In his book "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs", James P. Allen confirms the correct translation of Dshrt, even though he uses an example which was probably rare in the Mdu Ntr:
Ex: nfr dshrwt: "the red ones are beautiful" (p68)
So we have: Red ones/peoples Dshrwt, Dshrtjw; Dshrtw; and Dshrw and... Black ones/peoples Kmwt; Kmtjw; Kmtw; and Kmemw --Kemut; Kemetiu; Kemetu; and Kememu
From the first cataract to the sixth (almost to Khartoum)
All specifically Nubian towns are written with the "Nwt" determinative, which indicates that Nubia was Egypt's southern most province.
Sudanese locations are written with the "khast" determinative
The Egyptian Frontier
Although, historically the borders of Egypt were constantly changing, the African lands beyond its southern borders were called "Ethaosh("Ethoshi";"Ethaoshu"), and earlier scholars give this term as the etymology of the word "Ethiopia".
It took extreme linguistic gymnastics to come up with "Aithen(?)" + "ops" to get to the Greek "burnt faces", even in light of Martin Bernal's revealing the substantial amount of words of Egyptian origin in the Greek language!
Herodotus, in his histories, only referred to a people's color when he used it to compare the Black Egyptians to the Black Colchians in order to establish what he felt to be a connection, mentioning in passing that there were other Black nations as well. He didn't write other Ethiopian nations. In fact, the only physical comparisons regarding Ethiopians was when he informs us that the Ethiopians of Asia and those of Libya resembled one another, except that the Asian Ethiopians have straight hair while those of Libya had the wooliest hair he'd ever seen. In essence, Herodotus, as well as the other ancient authors, uses the term "Ethiopian" in the same manner the Egyptians used the word "Ethaoshi"...ie, "Frontiersman"...
Note: There is a Merowe, Sudan and there is Meroë --miles apart and NOT the same...
Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic