Sumerian Lexical Text from Ugarit (1950-1600 B.C.)Originally Posted by Outis
Ugaritic, but what _date_? These little details are kinda important!
Last edited by Bill the Cat; 02-17-2014 at 05:13 PM.
Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals --- Manya the Holy Szin --- The Quintara Marathon ---
I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common --- Stephen R. Donaldson ---
Heide notes that text, but also comes to the conclusion that camels (at least the dromedary) was exploited not before the 12th century. Does he note any reason for this discrepancy between the text and his conclusion?
I'm still reading through the source, but so far it seems that Heide's main point in support of late domestication is that camel artifacts/artwork from earlier dates are inconclusive--it isn't clear that they're actually domesticated dromedaries. However, he does make this concession (pg. 363-364):
http://www.academia.edu/2065314/_The...g_2011_331-384Domesticated Bactrian camels may have been available in Mesopotamia by the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 2nd millennium, which can be deduced from the inscriptional material referred to above. In addition, Bactrian camels are known to have been in use further west than Mesopotamia proper in later times. Already Walz (1956, 196, footnote 27) suggested that at least some of the occurrences in Genesis might imply Bactrian rather than Arabian camels...It has already been pointed out that Gen 12:16 does not imply that domesticated camels were commonly available in Egypt. As a semi-nomad, Abram may have brought these camels with him, which would have been very useful on the long journey from Haran to Canaan. Camels from the more remote areas of Arabia and Mesopotamia must have sporadically reached Egypt at that time (cf.Retsö, 1991, 200), which is also corroborated by some findings of camel remains and camel figurines from Egypt.
ETA: I should clarify that I haven't yet reached* the part where he discusses the Ugarit list; I'm just offering a guess based on what I've read so far.
*or maybe I have, and I accidentally skipped over it. It's late and I'm sleepy; glossing over that part in a long document wouldn't be out of the question.
Last edited by fm93; 02-17-2014 at 11:23 PM.
Don't feel bad - I haven't gotten that far yet!
Side note:When you write a paper that involves notation which can be noted or just written in more than one form, PICK ONE and use it exclusively! It is SOOOOOOO annoying when historians (esp. but not exclusive - looking at you, physicists!
) start in one date notation and switch to another. Either use date notation or century notation - quit switching back and forth!!!!!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote