Translation of the Phrygian language

9/25/2007 Phrygian language, translation showing conjugation and declension patterns and vocabulary.

Midas City is an intriguing site with fifty altars or more. The altars are approached by various numbers of steps. The top of the plateau where the highest altars reach appears to be barren rock. Because the surviving images of the Phrygians include a figure identified as Mater (Cybele), with a Twin Idol with a swastika, the Tree of Life is implied. The Tree of Life is identified in the Bible, as the tree from which Eve stole the apple in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) but it was also described in detail by cultures around the world. It's complex symbol appears in two forms: the labyrinth and the swastika, or Indian sign. The labyrinth is a representation of the mother earth.

Men 30,000 years ago drew magnificent compositions in labyrinths. The Chauvet -Pont-D'Arc cave, the cave of Lascaux, the cave of Altamira, Spain and a recent discovery, of a cave in Britain dating about 12,000 years ago, reveal painted chambers that appear to be more like cathedrals in the womb of the earth than places for shelter. Many of the images in the caves can be accessed only through passages almost too small to crawl through – perhaps symbolizing the passage of a child from the uterus to the outside world. The richly painted figures of people and animals display the artist's love for the environment and a shamanistic hope in affecting their future. Symbolic killing of game assured continued prosperity – supply of the herds upon which they depended – and pregnant females of animals and people assured a continuing, healthy propagation of the species. About 10,000 years ago, with the recession of the Ice Age, the rock art was moved out-of-doors. The Rock Engravings of Gobustan, near the "Iron Gate" on the Caspian Sea, is a good representation of the art. Art like that of Gobustan can be found around the world, in the Americas, Australia, Middle East, Scandinavia, etc. The paintings in these labyrinths show a belief system that presumes an afterlife and also a mystery assuring the propagation of the species, including those of the cave dwellers and their game. Among the statuary from this formative period in human history was a statue of a plump female called the Venus of Willendorf. Other statues of this motherly goddess, from other periods, have also been found, all representing the continuation of the species. The lady has been found usually with large breasts, plump in frame, and in some cases she has a swastika inscribed in her vulva region.

The vulva is representative of rebirth, and the sign of rebirth in nature is shown through Spring's renewal of vegetation. Early men attempted to describe this mystery and discerned that the creation was by a god who whirled around a tree, an antelope or, in the case of the Americas, a thunderbird. All of the animals of creation, including men, were distributed around the world as the god whirled the object in his hand. The thing which he whirled in the air became represented in abstract form, eventually taking the shape of the modern swastika or Indian sign. In general the sign has become know as a symbol of "good luck" but it ultimately represents the creation and eternal life.

Coupled with the swastika is the concept of the flow of eternal waters. The eternal waters are equated in primitive minds, in terms of the creation, in the context of the amniotic fluid produced in childbirth. Early goddesses were pictured seated upon a throne, with lions established on either side, and with a tree directly behind her. Usually the tree was pictured as a palm tree. But another plant, probably from Egypt, became identified with eternal waters flowing beneath the tree, and that plant was the lotus. Its curled leaves, between which a shoot sprang forth, became transformed to architectural designs, often being adopted in the design of capitals of pillars in temples, such as the Greek Corinthian style. The Lotus design became an important nexus in the pediment of Phrygian monuments.

The creation could not be described through the female alone, though she represented the mystery of creation in all of its aspects. Men had a place in it and early civilizations developed a hero, the best known being Gilgamesh, of the Sumero-Akkadian epics, whose exploits were so great the gods got jealous. They decided to create a double who would be just like Gilgamesh in strength and wit, but not with the same heart. The gods hoped that Enki, the double, would murder Gilgamesh so that they would not have to be bothered by Gilgamesh anymore. Unfortunately, when their plan went awry. Enki was so much like Gilgamesh he came to love the double. Rather than attempt to destroy him, Enki became his comrade in arms and adventures. This made the gods even more furious, so they decided to kill Enki. At that time Gilgamesh was one of the most unassuming and innocent men on earth, in spite of his power. But when Enki was killed he realized his own mortality. He began to inquire with the gods, as to how he could get immortality. He was told to go to a character that is called "The Old Man of the Sea" – a person that is like Noah, and he would give him the key to eternal life. So Gilgamesh set off in search of the Old Man of the Sea, who happened to be where the sun rises, somewhere near India.

When he arrived at the Old Man of the Sea's abode, he was told that to obtain immortality he must dive down to the bottom of the sea is such a place and gather the "Branch." When he possesses the "Branch" he will obtain eternal life. So Gilgamesh dived down into the depths, recovered the Branch, and rested upon the shore. He was so tired he fell asleep at the base of a large tree. While he was sleeping a snake came up and stole the "Branch." This is how Gilgamesh lost his immortality.

There are other versions to the story. In the Mycenaean, Cypriote and Minoan rings and seals we see Gilgamesh, or the hero, running away with the "Branch." Guarding the "Branch" would be either a handmaiden, Mater, the mother goddess, or a beast, like a dog. Cereberus, the three-headed dog, guarded Hades, also called the Underworld, for instance. The "Branch" is also mentioned in the context of the Messiah in several places in the Bible, including:

Associated with the "Branch" in ancient art forms is the umbilical cord and parts of the placenta. These are some of the images that connect the promise of eternal life: the labyrinth, the swastika, the Mother Goddess seated upon a throne above ever flowing waters; the concept that the gods live atop the mountains; the identification of stag horns with the branches of a tree (seen as a headdress on shamans and priests/kings); a guard – either a female attendant or a vicious dog or monster – protecting the source of eternal life, symbolized by a fountain or a branch; and the theft of the branch by a semi-divine hero who loses in the attempt to gain immortality. Apart from the story of Gilgamesh we have many examples of the hero who is born of a god and a woman, such as Heracles, Achilles and Aeneas. Aeneas was a Trojan leader and ancestor of the first emperors of Rome. He was the son of Aphrodite by Anchises, a member of the royal line of Dardania. Born on Mt. Ida, he was reared by nymphs and brought to Anchises when he was five years old. Anchises was maimed by Zeus for revealing the name of the child's mother. Among his many exploits, beginning with leading the Dardanian troops in the Trojan War, Aeneas plucked the Golden Bough that grew on a tree near Cumae. On the advice of the Cumaean Sybyl, Aeneas plucked this bough as a sign to Charon and a gift for Proserpina (Gr. Persephone) when he descended into the Underworld. Without it, he would not have gained access there. "The Golden Bough, familiar from Vergil's Aeneïd, won new literary prominence when Sir James Frazer chose it as a peg on which to hang his own Golden Bough. This thirteen-volume work proved a monumental contribution to the study of comparative religion," says Edward Tripp (The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology).

Competing with these demigods in Greek mythology is Theseus who perhaps rivalled Heracles in labors and exploits. Among the many labors performed by Heracles there is his exploit of carrying off Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding Hades, to Eurystheus. Eurystheus told Heracles, from a safe distance, to take him back to Hades. The tenth labor Eurystheus required of Heracles was to carry off the cattle of three-headed Geryon, king of Erytheia, now called Cadiz. Before that, in his eighth labor, Heracles was sent to Thrace to fetch the Mares of Diomedes. The mares were fed human flesh by that savage king.

On his way to fetch the mares Heracles stopped at the palace of Admetus, king of Pherae. The king was in mourning, but, in order that his guest's pleasure should not be lessened, pretended that the dead person was a stranger in the house. After carousing awhile, Heracles learned that it was actually Admetus' wife Alcestis who had died. Heracles, embarrassed at his own seeming callousness, rushed to the queen's tomb, ambushed Thanatos (Death) as he was carrying her off, and took her from him by main force. Other accou9nts say that he went down to the Underworld and fought Hades for her. The second labor that Eurystheus demanded of Heracles was to kill the Hydra. This hideous, many-headed creature, half-sister of the Nemean lion (which Heracles had just killed, as his first labor) through either its father, Typhon, or its mother, Echnida, had been nourished by Hera herself, out of her hatred for Heracles. It lived near the spring Amymone, at Lerna, in company with its devoted friend, a large crab. With his usual boldness Heracles advanced to the Hydra's lair, to drive it into the flight of burning arrows. It emerged, its monstrous body surmounted by nine or more heads. When Heracles grabbed it by one of its necks, it immediately wound itself about one of his feet. Then he discovered that whenever he lopped off a head the head grew back, and aggravating him was the crab who sallied from the swamp and began biting his foot. He called his friend and charioteer, Iolaüs, over to help him. Whenever Heracles lopped off the Hydra's head Iolaüs would cauterize the wound with a burning brand, preventing the head from growing back. The monster had one immortal head that they disposed of by burying it under a stone on the road from Lerna to Elaeüs. Heracles then ripped open the body and dipped his arrows in its deadly gall. The poison was useful in later years against his enemies but in the end he, himself, was accidentally destroyed by it. His arch enemy, the mother of the gods, Hera, is reported to have had a hand in Heracle's death, however.

Theseus is best remembered for having killed the man-eating Minotaur that was half man and half bull, in the Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete. He also descended to the Underworld but was confined there on the Seat of Forgetfulness, along with his friend Peirithoüs. The two had made the mistake of attempting to abduct Helen of Troy and then sought to abduct Persephone, wife of Hades. Theseus might have been confined there through eternity had it not been for Heracles' descent into the Underworld to fetch Cerberus for Eurystheus. While Heracles was able to pry Theseus away from his seat, while he pulled at Peirithoüs the earth quaked and Heracles dared not continue.

Other Greek heros include Jason and the Argonauts, who captured the Golden Fleece from Colchis, assisted by the king's daughter, Medea, a sorceress, and Perseus who is best known for killing the Gorgon, Medusa. No man had ever returned alive from an encounter with the Gorgons, and to kill Medusa Perseus would have to attack invisibly and fly faster than her sisters could fly. Anyone looking upon the face of Medusa – out of her head came innumerable snakes – would be instantly turned to stone. He was able to destroy Medusa by cajoling the Graeae – two hags that had been gray-haired from birth – to reveal how to overcome Medusa and obtaining from the nymphs who kept the weapons the pouch he slung over his shoulder, a pair of winged sandals which enable him to out fly the golden winged Gorgons, and the cap of darkness that made him invisible as soon as he put it on top of his head. Hermes appeared and gave Perseus the last weapon, a sword or sickle of adamant. To avoid looking at the Medusa as he approached by the petrified forms of men and animals that had looked at the Gorgons' faces, Perseus used his highly polished shield as a mirror and approached the lair backwards. Invisible, he soon found the Gorgons, hideous monsters with hands of brass and wings of gold; huge tongues lolled from their mouths between swine's tusks, and their heads were entwined with snakes. Waiting for the Gorgons to fall asleep the invisible Perseus then approached Medusa and lopped off her head, stuffed it into the wallet and flew off.

Gilgamesh, the Sumerian hero of Uruk (the epic dates circa. 1,750 B.C.) sets the standard for these and other heros: [From anceintexts.org]

Examine now the images that incorporate most of the themes discussed so far:

Labyrinths

Swastica on the foot of Buddha, from Keeler

Lotus Lily of birth from a Cyprote vase. Note the petals curved under and swastikas – from Keeler

Villanovan cinerary urn, from Pallottino

Etruscan 6th Cent. vase showing ship prows resembling beasts – from Pallottino

Etruscan vase showing Heracles destroying the Hydra

Phrygian vase from Gordion

Vase from Shengavit. Urartu (Ararat) near Lake Sevan, ~8th-7th Cent. B.C – from Burney/Lang

Etruscan bucchero vases – from Pallottino

Tree of Life and Venus

Chaldean (Gilgamesh?) with the Branch and cords

The god guarding the branch and the placenta

Archaic vase from Athens that shows the Tree of Life guarded by monsters. The vase has four swastikas – from Keeler

Earthmother and serpent from Susa. Note the gush of amniotic fluid from the symbol of her uterus – from kramer

Venus of Lespugue, rear view showing amniotic flow. Aurignacian Period, carved on ivory (40,000 - 25,000 B.C.)

Lead Earthmother votive from Hissarlik (Troy). The pubic triangle represented a garden with the Tree of Life represented as a turning swastika after Schliemann – From Keeler

Venus of Willendorf, 24,000 - 22,000 B.C.

These two frames are Phrygian. The goddess Mater pours a libation, as with the Cretan / Mycennean Lady of the Beasts. She holds a sacred bird, yet unidentified.

Warrior scene on the Gundestrup bowl, showing helmets crested with birds boars and horns

Apollo seated on his sacred omphalos stone which is said to represent the stump of his umbilical cord – from Keeler

Etruscan bronze bowl showing hippocampuses – a Phoenician symbol popular in Etruscan tombs and designs – and a god with antlers similar to the Indus Valley yogi and Celtic Cernunos – from Pallotinno

These bottom two frames are seals from the Indus Valley. The yogi resembles the Celtic Cernunos; the cross is like that found on the Etruscan vase and Phrygian Monuments.

Cylinder seals and rings

Offerings to the Earthmother at the Tree of Life. Note sun, moon and river of heaven, double-headed axe of the Sungod. A child is taking fruit from the Tree of Life. Golden ring from Mycenae, after Efans – from Keeler

Male figure stealing the Tree of Life. Gold ring from Vaphio, after Evans – from Keeler

Male figure stealing the Tree of Life. Gold ring from Mycenae, after Evans – from Keeler

Annana or Astarte / Ishtar standing upon her mountain, being approached by a man with a hunting bird (falcon?) – from Kramer

Gilgamesh bending a tree, possibly to take the "Branch"

Kings of Sumer and Akkad being transported in boats pulled by attendants with a pole

A hero standing on a step altar before a priest/ king in the area of eternal flowing waters

A man approaching the king or god of agriculture

Plowing scene involving worm-like dragon – from Kramer

Gilgamesh pouring the eternal waters that are being drunk by a ram. The ram is another sign of eternal life.

Gilgamesh destroying the bull of heaven. Next to him is the "Branch." He had to destroy the bull on the way to the "Old Man of the Sea"(Utanapishtim, a prototype of Noah) who is here pictured with a bird's head in a boat. His attendant appears to have the son in his hand. In the Gilgamesh story the Old Man of the Sea lived where the sun rises. The Aryans of the Rig Veda believed that their temple was where the sun rose – from Keeler

The sleeping lady of Malta. See art-and-archaeology.com/malta/malta.html

The Lady of Catul Huyuk

The statue of Artemis, of Epheseus. This shows Artemis in another role, beyond that of the "Lady of the Beasts," where she is the Mater, mother goddess, with an abundance.

Comments on the images

1) The spiral decoration shown in the Phrygian and Urartian vases is common from the island of Malta to the British Isles, as in the Newgrange tumulus entrance stone.

Click on image for link to www.ballybegvillage.com

2) The "Double Idol" image has a swastika on one side and what appears to be a furrowed land on the other. The idol probably is of the married pair, Mater and Attis. The swastika would represent the creative power of the pair and the furrowed land would represent their regenerative power.

3) The "Branch" is another sign for the regenerative power of the god(s). A symbol of the "Branch" is the stag antlers. The stag was a popular theme on Scythian goldwork. This jewel is from the Russian Steppes, now in Russia's Hermitage Museum. Note the spiral decorations on the stylized deer.

3) The Apollo of Veii statue, Etruscan, shows him standing over a pillar decorated with the spirals, as a scroll in between which is a tree. Apollo represents in Greek Mythology youth, healing, rebirth, music, prophecy and archery. Attis assumed many of these characteristics in the Phrygian "Mater" religion.

Distribution of the Tumuli and Dolmen Cultures

We cannot presume that the peoples who buried their dead in tumuli, dolmens and long barrows were all Indo-Europeans. But the distribution of their "monuments" coincides with the distribution of Indo-European groups. There are exceptions that would bear further investigation: the dolemens in Korea and Japan. But the Dolmens from India to the Russian Steppes and Europe do seem to be of the same linguistic group: Indo-European. They also share a common set of symbols that express their belief in the Underworld. An old, but useful map on the distribution of pottery in the Indo-European settlement area, dating from Myer's Sather Gate Lectures. Against this map we may place a more recent, specific map of the Black Sea kurgans (tumuli). The tumuli continue across Turkey from the west, being concentrated in abundance near the ancient Lidyan city of Sardes. Sardes was known for its gold and was the first city to produce coins in the ancient world. King Croesus (560-547 B.C.) the last king to reign in Lydia, noted for his riches, surrendered to the 4th Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great (559-530 B.C.). Later Xerxes (485-465 B.C.) the son of Darius I the Great, the 5th Achaemenid king (who followed the son, Cambyses, and brother, Smerdis, of Cyrus), used Sardes as his launching point to wage war across the Hellespont against the Greeks. Xerxes' floating bridge that allowed his enormous army with its wagons to cross the Hellespont is an achievement that amazed the world at the time and still deserves awe in these days. Herodotus describes the building of the bridge and march across it through Thrace in detail. He lost the war, however.

Solutions to the Indo-European homeland, according to Mallory:

Myres (in 1930 A.D.) says, "Tumuli of the same type as the Russian and Romanian 'kurgans' are widely distributed in Thrace and Macedonia. Not all are of early date, but the contents of some of them in the northeast of the region are of a mixed culture including elements derived both from the 'kurgan' folk and from the 'painted-ware' people. Very few skulls from these burials have been examined; but among those from Rustechuk on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube there is a majority of long-headed individuals, mixed with broad-heads of Alpine types.

"There are mounds of similar appearance on both sides of the Dardanelles, and northwest Asia Minor, but most of them have not been examined, and those which have been opened have either been of late date or have yielded no human remains. A very late set of skulls at Hanai Tepe in the Troad, probably buried centuries afterwards in a mound already ancient, registered from 70.2 to 78.0, with an average between 74 and 75. There is clearly considerable mixture here; but as extreme types are absent, this mixture is the result of long fusion. It has produced a moderately long-headed stock quite different from the Armenoid types which are usually dominant in Asia Minor.

"From the only excavated settlement in this region, however, there is ample evidence that this long-headed element is ancient here. In the deeply stratified ruins at Hissarlik, on the traditional site of Troy, the 'first city,' represented by the lowest layer of all, has not yet yielded any human remains. From the 'second city,' which was destroyed by fire about 2,000 B.C. (to judge from its remains..), there is a single skull, of broad type (82.5), female, and therefore probably one of the actual inhabitants. In the 'third city' which was built among the ruins of the second, three skulls have been found, registering 73.8 (male), 71.3 (female) and 68.6 (male). All are of different types and the last of them differs in its genral form from normal 'Mediterranean' and resembles closely the skulls from the early 'kurgans.' Clearly we have here representatives of a fresh mixed population, who brought their own women with them, and may therefore be regarded not merely as raiders who destroyed the 'second city,' but as immigrants who had come to stay.

"Anticipating provisionally the conclusions to which the distribution of early types of culture lead us..it is certain, from the similarity of the culture in the 'second' and the 'third' city, that these newcomers did not bring with them any elements of the contemporary civilization of Crete or the Cycladic islands, but either had, or forthwith adopted, the habits, arts and crafts of the people whom they had attacked. They came therefore either from some other district within the same cultural region or else had moved so far so fast that they had lost any sedentary crafts which they formerly had. As there is no reason to suppose that Asia Minonr has ever contained any long-headed people of its own, the only alternative is that the newcomers came from across the strait... And as it was about this time that the practice of mound burial seems to have spread widely into the northwest of Asia Minor, and far into its interior, the alternative explanation seems preferable, provisionally, that the destruction of the 'second city' was an incident in a tumultuary movement of the mound-burying people who certainly destroyed and superseded the 'painted ware' culture between the Dneiper and the lower Danube, and have been traced through the spread of their burial mounds very widely into central Europe...

"These 'painted-ware' cultures of Thessaly and the neighboring regions, both south, and northeast toward the Lower Danube, pass through three principal phases. In the first, the 'painted' decoration is rectilinear, and resembles that of fabrics widespread around the northern grassland, from Galicia to Anau, Seistan and Mongolia, and remarkably uniform considering their vast range in space. In the second phase, represented in southeastern Thessaly at Dimini, spirals are employed freely; not however in continuous bands, but as fillings and enhancements of interspaces in rectilinear designs, akin to those of the 'painted wares' of Romania and Ukraine. These are sufficiently explained in connection with other elements derived from the neolithic culture of the middle and upper Danube, a marginal and specialized province of which, best exemplified on Bosnian sites, is a near neighbor northwestward from Thessaly.

"That is to say, the spiral design has been borrowed by people who only partly appreciated its decorative value, and used it as a curiosity to supplement their own customary style."

By the time of the 'seventh city' of Hissarlik (~1,200 B.C.) a new pottery had intruded, called the Minyan Gray-ware, which is coincident to the sudden introduction of the Minyan gray-slip ware in Orchomenos, Greece. This ware simulates a metallic effect. Another ware simulating a metallic (iron) look – the black ware of Phrygia – is among the Etruscans identified as bucchero ware. Other intrusions before the 'seventh city' of Hissarlik include a Danubian sourced broad sword. Coupled with these changes was a change from a circular or oval house plan in Orchomenos to a square building style. The circular and oval house plans were also common to the British Isles and Anatolia, especially in Catal Huyuk and the Trans-Caucasus, where it appears that entry to the houses was through the roof. It is believed that a people moving from the Danube invaded Greece and crossed into the Troad about the same time, coincident to the destruction of the 'seventh' city of Hissarlik (Troy).

A "rule" pointed out by the pioneering Cultural Anthropologist, Ruth Benedict, "Patterns of Culture," opines that a culture's most remote point tends to reflect, conservatively, the source more than any other point in the diffusion of a culture. Thus, we can observe how the remotest fringes of the Catholic Roman Empire rooted in Ireland and the Philippines, where the practice of the faith is among the most conservative in the reach of that culture. In like manner we can observe how the remote areas of Phrygia retained the conservative culture of their "source," which appears to be in the Danube area. That source may be traced to the Yamayana cultures about 3,000 B.C.

If we can use the migrations of the Mongolian peoples, beginning with Ghengis Khan, as a measure of what happens in sudden cultural intrusion events, we can expect to find the extremity of the culture to conservatively reflect the source in Mongolia. In like manner we can expect the Huns and Magyar intrusions from the Altai Mountains of Inner Asia to show conservative aspects of their source culture(s). These cultures ended up conquering and occuping more civilized peoples and lacked the bureacrasy and wherewithall to govern them. This necessitated that they adopt the culture of those whom they conquered, including intermarriage and ruling through indigenous authorities. They set themselves up as a ruling, warrior class above those whom they conquered.

In the case of the Troad, there was an existing culture that occupied a strategic point on the Hellespont. The fort of Troy could control shipping and trade there, and from the amount of cylinder whorls found there it has been suggested that the Trojan citadel was an important trading center in wool. While the story of Helen of Troy addresses the revenge and reclamation of an abducted damsel, and her treasures, it may be that the story involves a greater issue: control of trade.

The Greek invasion of Troy described in the Iliad lasted ten years. During that period the Greek armies plundered the coast to reprovision itself. The camps over this period of time grew from simple tent bivouacs in front of their ships to a more permanent fortification(s). The Iliad describes Achilles defending the gate in the dirt and timber ramparts in front of the ships. From the testimony on the duration of the war and the ramparts the Greeks defended, we can conclude that they must have made and gone through a lot of pottery. Also, there would have been vendors who would supply the army with new armor, repairs to the armor, as well as other provisions. Because of the argument made over Agamemnon's captive Trojan woman – whom he took as his concubine – we know that the accomodations of the Greek army would have been relatively permanent. The story on the concubine involves Briseïs, who was Achilles' concubine. He had carried her off from the city of Lyrnessus after killing her husband, parents and three brothers during his sack of their city. When Agamemnon was forced to give up his own concubine, Chryseis, he took Briseïs. Achilles thereupon refused to fight with the Greeks and did not relent until after the death of Patroclus. At this time Briseïs was returned to Achilles.

Following behind armies, from ancient times to as late as the Napoleonic Wars, was a contingent called the "baggage." The baggage consisted of wives, concubines, children, artisans and crafts people to build and repair camp equipment and facilities, cattle and provisions essential to sustaining the army. The extent of an army's baggage can be appreciated by reading the chapters that describe Xerxes' army crossing over the Hellespont, previously cited above.

We can see, if the Iliad reflects a relatively accurate story, that a ten-year occupation of the Troad would leave behind it the archeological affects of a large city. Also, because of the army's intrusion in other communities of the Troad, to trade or raid, the artifacts left behind by the Greeks would be diffused within the area of the occupation. In fact, the people of the Troad would be expected to adopt some of the Greek culture / affects. The presence of Grey Minyan ware in the Troad and its subsequent diffusion – assuming it was from the Greek invasion led by Agamemnon – can perhaps be best explained in this light.

Cultures change according to intrusive behavior. An innovation brought by a technologically superior culture would likely be adopted by the culture that was intruded. Because cultures can adopt new trends, we should not be surprised to see a the innovation in pottery introduced, perhaps beginning with the Grey Minyan war, that is metal-like pottery. The Grey Minyan war simulates pewter. Clay is less expensive and more readily available than pewter. Like the pewter look-alike, another pottery, bucchero among the Etruscans, a bucchero type among the Phrygians, simulates iron pots. Such grey-slip and black-slip pottery fabricated to look like metal pots existed side-by-side other types of pottery. And whereas painted-ware pottery may be the preference of the Near East and Greek Islands, the innovation of a metal-like pottery would probably have been as well received as the introduction of Chinese porcelain to the West, or popularity of glass vases that simulate gold and brass vessels in the modern era. The argument tells us that we cannot assume that the presence of a porcelain factory in Limoges, etc. would not indicate the presence of large communities of Chinese there or in its trading area of the 18th Century.

This being said, archeologists have developed maps describing the diffusion of pottery and other cultural artifacts found in Europe and Asia that tend to describe the presence of Indo-European communities. From these maps and the study of the movements of extant Indo-European populations as well as those, like the Phrygian, that are long gone, various frameworks on the branching of the ten major Indo-European languages have been developed. As new data are gathered pertaining to the lost languages and civilizations / cultures, these maps and frameworks are modified.

Of interest, is the geographic distribution of the Indo-European peoples. Mallory prepared an informative chart that shows the "Center of Gravity" of the language group. Interestingly, the center line passes through the 30th parallel. The groups that fall into the center include Baltic, Slavic, Thracian, Illyrian, Phrygian, Armenia, Greek, Messapic, Italic and Venetic. The two groups that occupy the furthest reach of the Indo-Europeans are the Celtic and Tocharian. If we allow that the groups furthest from the source most conservatively reflect the source, then we can theorize that Celtic and Tocharian would be closer to the *PIE language (original Indo-European tongue) than the others. However, Latin and Celtic are believed to have been one language group. If we make this allowance it leads to the conclusion that the Italic-Celtic language group reflects the source *PIE. If we allow this and conclude that Phrygian and Lydian are close to Latin, knowing that the last place the Phrygians and Lydians (now dead language groups) were seen and recorded was in Anatolia about 500 B.C., the argument for the Indo-European homeland being between Thrace and the Caspian Sea would follow. We can follow the tumuli as it were. For another view on the distribution of the Indo-European languages and a discussion on the Yamnaya Culture see http://www.trypillia.com/articles/eng/re6.shtml. The link of Phrygian and Lydian to Latin affects traditional claims that they are related to the Luwian group of languages, where Hittite resides as its head. The works of Luwian language scholars, such as Vladimir Orel, who claims to have translated Phrygian in his work, "The Language of Phrygians – Description and Analysis," Carvan Books, New York, 1997, produce confusion on the matter, however. It seems that scholars who apply guesswork, manipulate data and call it science have been working on the so-called Luwian language group, in addition to the Etruscan language. They offer no data in translating Etruscan or Phrygian that can be identified as a grammar. Without knowledge of a tongue's grammar such scholars are reduced to a performance that is comparable to that of participants in a charade.

The time period of the Trojan War is still a subject of discussion, if not dispute. A discussion on the problems of identifying the date(s) of the Gray Minyan ware and Hissarlik's various levels of occupation can be seen at varchive.org. What we can say for sure is that the Iliad describes weapons that are bronze. The only reference to iron is with respect to the games held during the funeral of Patroclus (Iliad, Book 23, "The Funeral of Patroclus," : ...Again Achilles brought out a lump of roughcast iron which that mighty man Eetion used to hurl..Next for the archers Achilles brought forward blue steel ten axes and ten half-axes." ). Except for these items all of the weapons and armor described in the Iliad is bronze, some of which is dressed with gold and silver, shields with tinned bosses, etc. Since some iron was in use, we can conclude that the event was on the cusp, the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. I would suggest that the date on the destruction of the Hittite capital of ~1185 B.C., shortly thereafter, but no earlier than 1100 B.C., would reflect the time line as pertaining to the Iliad's observed preference for, and use of, armor and weapons. The fall of the Hittites would have allowed a vacuum that could have encouraged the Greek invasion. When great empires fall there tends to be chaos in the regions that the empire's army abandons. This, in fact, is a discussion of the moment as concerning the US occupation of Iraq. The argument posed is that if the US pulls out of Iraq there will be [more] chaos. Historians flipping the pages of antiquity would probably respond to the problem: "been there, done that." The problem of a weak army occupying lands, where the army is not accepted, is also a lesson previously experienced, drawing a historian's yawn, "been there, done that." For the Greeks to have occupied the Troad for ten years suggests that they had some support from the partisans around the Trojan citadel. The alternative might have happened as well: the Greeks might have depopulated the area and replaced it with their own colonists – something that came about anyway, giving rise to the Ionic territory on that part of the west coast of Anatolia.

Pliny's "Natural History, Book III.56, "Inventions," includes some interesting comments relating to the Lydians, Phrygians, Carians and Tyrhennians." The comments suggest an antiquity to the western Anatolian culture and its influence upon Greek culture. The comments referring to the invention of the four -wheeled wagon and chariot pulled by two horses is interesting from the standpoint that the Yamna culture of southern Russia appears to be the earliest to have used chariots, according to wikipedia.org. They also buried their dead in timber-lined tombs.

First, he says "Weaving was the invention of the Ægyptians: and dying wooll, of the Lydians in Sardis. " This comment sheds light on archeological evidence from nearby Troy that showed an extraordinary number of cylinder whorls which suggested a prosperous enterprise in the wool industry.

Next he says, "Aristotle thinketh, that Lydus the Scythian taught the feat of casting and melting brasse, with the tempering also of the same: howbeit, Theophrastus saith it was Delas the Phyrgian."

Then Pliny makes the interesting comments on the invention of the wagon and chariot: "The Phrygians invented first the waggon and charriot with foure wheeles."

"The Thessalians, called Centaures, inhabiting neere to the montaine Pelius, were the first that fought on horsebacke. The Phrygians devised first to drive and draw a chariot with two horses: Erichthonius, with foure. Palamedes invented (during the Trojane warre) the manner of setting an armie in battaile array: also the giving of signall, the privie watch-word, the corps de guard, the watch and ward. In the time of the same warre, Sinon devised the sentinels and watch-towers, as also the espiall. "

"The Carians devised the grieves, the crests, and pennaches upon helmets. Scythes the sonne of Iupiter, devised bow and arrowes: although some say that Perses, the son of Perseus, invented arrowes. "

"As for the light javelines, and the Partuisanes, Tyrrhenus brought them first into use: and Penthesilea the Amazon-queene, the gleive, bill, battell-axe, and halbard. "

"The engine to batter walls (called sometime the horse, and now is named the ram) was the devise of Epeus at Troy. " "Car, of whom Caria tooke the name, observed first the flight and crie of birds, and thereby gave præsages and fore-tokens. "

"The flute and the single pipe or recorder, were the inventions of Pan, the son of Mercurie. The crooked cornet, Midas in Phrygia devised. And in the same countrey Marsyas invented the double fluit. But Amphion taught first to sing and play to the Lydian measures: Thamyras the Thracian to the Dorian: and Marsyas of Phrygia, to the Phrygian. "

"And Dardanus the Trœzenian began first vocall musicke to the pipe. "

"Gyges the Lydian gave the first proofe of painting and limning, in Ægypt: but in Greece, Euchir a cousin of Dædalus was the first painter, as Aristotle supposeth: "

"Danaus was the first that sailed with a ship, and so hee passed the seas from Ægypt to Greece: for before that time they used but troughs or flat planks, devised by king Erythra to crosse from one Iland to another in the red sea. But we meet with some writers who affirme, that the Trojans and Mysians were the first sailers, and devised navigation before them in Hellespont, when they set out a voyage against the Thracians. "

"Then came Piseus the Tyrrhene, and armed the stemme and beake-head of the ship with sharpe tines and pikes of brasse: "

Notes:

1) Most of the images of the swastikas and labyrinths are from the exceptional work of Clyde E. Keeler, "Apples of Immortality from the Cuna Tree of Life," Exposition Press, NY, 1961. Some of the images from seals and rings are from Samuel Noah Kramer's "Sumerian Mythology," Harper & Brothers, NY, 1961.
2) Images of the Etruscan vases, etc. are from Federica Borrelli and Maria Cristina Targia, "The Etruscans," The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004; Massimo Pallottino, "The Etruscans," Indiana University Press, 1975; Raymond Bloch, "The Etruscans," Frederick A. Praeger, NY, 1956.
3) The vase from Shengavit is from "The People of the Hills, Charles Burney and David Marshall Lang, Phoenix Press, London, 1971.
4) Map of the distribution of pottery is from John Linton Myers, "Who were the Greeks, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1930.
5) Maps on the distribution of tumuli, Yamnaya Culture, and "Center of Indo-Europeans" : J. P. Mallory, "In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Language, Archeology and Myth," Thames and Hudson, 1999.
6) "Who were the Greeks?" by John Linton Myres, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1930., pp. 241ff.

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Copyright © 2007 Mel Copeland. All rights reserved.
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The Phrygian language Translation of Phrygian scripts (continued)

The Phrygian language
Translation of Phrygian scripts (continued)