Black Athena Volume 3

MARTIN BERNAL (1937-2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history and a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His celebrated Black Athena trilogy is a controversial series which argues that Ancient Greek civilization and language are Eastern and Egyptian in origin.

• ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsTranscriptions and PhoneticsMaps and ChartsINTRODUCTIONThe previous volumes and their reception“Classics has been misunderstood”Anathema from a G.O.M.Outline of Volume 3Chapter 1 HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND THE IMAGE OF ANCIENT GREEKNineteenth-century romantic linguistics:The tree and the familySaussure and the twentieth-century epigonesof nineteenth-century Indo-European studiesRamification or interlacingChapter 2 THE “NOSTRATIC” AND “EUROASIATIC” HYPERAND SUPER-FAMILIESNostratic and EurasiaticArchaeological evidence for the origin of Nostratic and EuroasiaticGordon Childe and Colin RenfrewLanguage and geneticsConclusionChapter 3 AFROASIATIC, EGYPTIAN AND SEMITICThe origins of African languages and the development of agriculture in AfricaThe origins and spread of AfroasiaticConclusionChapter 4 THE ORIGINS OF INDO-HITTITE AND INDOEUROPEAN AND THEIR CONTACTS WITH OTHER LANGUAGESThe origins and diffusion of Indo-Hittite and Indo-EuropeanLoans from other languages into PIHDevelopment of an Indo-European gender system based on sexConclusionChapter 5 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 1, PHONOLOGYGreek: Result of a linguistic shift or of language contact?The elements of the Greek linguistic amalgamThe phonologies of Indo-Hittite and Indo-EuropeanPhonological developments from PIE to GreekConclusionChapter 6 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 2, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICALDEVELOPMENTSMorphologySyntaxSummary on syntactical changesConclusionChapter 7 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 3, LEXICONIntroductionThe study of lexical borrowingsAncient Greeks’ sense of lexical borrowingLoans from Afroasiatic into Greek and into Albanian orArmenianConclusionChapter 8 PHONETIC DEVELOPMENTS IN EGYPTIAN, WEST SEMITIC AND GREEK OVER THE LAST THREE MILLENNIA BCE, AS REFLECTED IN LEXICAL BORROWINGSIntroductionSemiticEgyptianConclusionChapter 9 GREEK BORROWINGS FROM EGYPTIAN PREFIXES, INCLUDING THE DEFINITE ARTICLESIntroductionGreek Borrowings from Egyptian definite article prefixesThe Egyptian word pr “house, temple, palace”R- “entry” or local prefix(R)dˆt, “causal prefix”Greek borrowings from Egyptian verbs beginning with dˆ(t)-ConclusionChapter 10 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 11. Ntr/KÅ2. OEnΔ3. M(w)dw, mu'qo"4. SbÅ5. Dr, R-dr, drw6. ÷Mwr,MÅOEt, Moi'ra, Meivromai and MmÅOEt, Ma7. ÔprConclusionChapter 11 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 2nfr (w)/msnfr/msConclusionCONTENTSChapter 12 SIXTEEN MINOR ROOTSIntroductionCONCLUSIONChapter 13 SEMITIC SIBILANTSIntroductionLoans of sibilants from Canaanite into GreekLateral fricativesSheltered /s/ sC /s/ before consonantsConclusionChapter 14 MORE SEMITIC LOANS INTO GREEKIntroductionConclusionChapter 15 SOME EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC SEMANTIC CLUSTERS IN GREEKNature and agricultureCookingMedicineConclusionChapter 16 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: WARFARE, HUNTING AND SHIPPINGWeapons, warfare and huntingShippingChapter 17 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: SOCIETY, POLITICS, LAW AND ABSTRACTIONIntroductionSocietyPoliticsLaw and orderAbstractionChapter 18 RELIGIOUS TERMINOLOGYStructuresPersonnelCult objectsRitualsSacrificesIncense, flowers, scentsAuraMysteriesConclusionChapter 19 DIVINE NAMES: GODS, MYTHICAL CREATURES, HEROESIntroduction: GodsÔpr, “become” Ôprr, Apollo, Askle\pios, Python and DelphiApollo the “Aryan”Was Apollo a sun god before the fifth century?Twins, Apollo and ArtemisOther OlympiansZeus NswOther godsHerodotos’ non-Egyptian divine namesDemigodsMythical creaturesSome heroesConclusionChapter 20 GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND PLACE-NAMESIntroductionNatural featuresCity namesConclusionChapter 21 SPARTAIntroductionSparta: *sper and SpÅtAnubis, Hermes and Sparta“Late” borrowings and LykurgosLakonian terminology Egyptian?Sparta and deathSpartans and JewsChapter 22 ATHENA AND ATHENSIntroductionSummary of the chapterArmor and equipmentAthena and her victimsAthens as a colony from Sais?Summary of the cultic evidenceEtymology of namesH˘t ntr (nt) Nt Athe\na(ia)ConclusionCONCLUSIONNotesGlossaryGreek Words and Names with Proposed Afroasiatic EtymologiesLetter CorrespondencesBibliographyIndex

Martin Bernal’s Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. - Molefi Kete Asante (author of The History of Africa,Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University) "In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition." - Perry Anderson (The Guardian) "An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing." - G. W. Bowersock (Journal of Interdisciplinary History) "A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find." - Margaret Drabble (The Observer) "Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince." - Richard Jenkyns (Times Higher Educational Supplement) "A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics." (Christian Science Monitor) "His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him." - R. A. McNeal (Franklin and Marshall College) "Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives." - Robert L. Pounder (American Historical Review) "Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt." (New York Times Book Review) "Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all." (Times Literary Supplement) "A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work." - Stanley M. Burstein, California State University (Classic Philology) "[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology." (Current Anthropology) "A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths." (Toronto Star) "Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt." (Transition) "Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement." (Socialist Review) "A monumental and path-breaking work." - Edward Said "[Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization." (Newsweek) "Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial." (Baltimore Sun) "Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth."- Ama Mazama (Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University) “Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses…. He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers.” - Mary Lefkowitz (New Republic)