Tracing Dan - Part 1
Chapter 1
By Walter Baucum
By
now, so much work has been done on tracing the Israelite tribes that only
stubborn, hard-headed die-hards refuse to see who they are in our modern world
today. The list of names of those who have participated in this endeavor are
legion, perhaps the foremost being E. Raymond Capt and Yair Davidy, the latter
an Australian-born authority on the "lost tribes" now living in
Israel. His three books on the subject, The Tribes, Ephraim, and Lost
Israelite Identity, replete with Bibliography and quoted sources a mile
long, should remove all doubt from the dissenters. In the following study, I
intend to use much of his material and his conclusions, as well as direct
quotes from him, for Part I, and I will use material from Barry Fell and his
three books, America B.C., Saga America, and Bronze Age America,
for Part II. Included in both, of course, will be other sources.
This work, then,
will be divided into two parts, Part I tracing the Israelite tribe of Dan from
its forced slavery in Egypt to its capture and exile by the Assyrians, its
identification with the Cimmerian hosts that moved from the Middle East into
Europe, and some of the specific places Danites themselves settled and/or
became associated with. Part II will take up Dan's crossing of the Atlantic and
settling in America, either alone or in company with the Phoenicians
(Canaanites), North Africans, and Celtic peoples from North Europe and the
Mediterranean areas other than those already mentioned. The evidence that the
countries of West Europe, Britain, and the U.S. are the Israelite tribes is
overwhelming. America (generic term for the U.S.) is not the Tribe of Dan, but
Dan was probably the first Israelite tribe over here thousands of years ago and
today is mixed among us.
In order to make
this claim plausible and acceptable, some basic assumptions must first be made.
Assumption 1 is that I have no vast libraries, nor even access to
any, so that the reader must accept that the authors, works, and references
used in this paper have been studied and accepted as serious works and easily
provable to even the most critical non-believer. In a paper of this length, I
haven't the time, nor have I the inclination, to re-prove what already has been
proved, and by researchers much more able and knowledgeable than I.
Assumption 2 is that Eternal has kept the bloodlines, physical
characteristics, and other cultural peculiarities of the Israelite tribes
virtually intact. That diffusion and mixing of cultural traits, tools and
weapons, and dietary considerations all take place over time, we have no doubt.
That some mixing, or intermarriage, of Israelites, among their own tribes and
among other nations, would inevitably occur must be accepted. Because ETERNAL
has much to say in prophecy about the future of the Israelite tribes, our
assumption must be that in some way known only to Him, He has kept the tribes
as more or less identifiable and unified entities. Else the prophecies and many
of the promises made about the outcome of these Israelite peoples would obviate
the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures with all that they have to say about
them. I personally believe that Yair Davidy has done this with his vast,
in-depth examination of the mythology, ethnic-names, languages, and religious
customs that connect Celtic (Britain, Ireland, and Gaul), North African, and
Scandinavian peoples to these ancient Israelites. He brings evidence from The
Holy Scriptures, Talmud, archaeology, mythology, linguistics, Greek
and Roman authors, and general history. Barry Fell, the world's foremost
authority on ancient languages (until his untimely death), takes up where Yair
Davidy leaves off, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt (to those with open
minds) that Israelites came to America over 3,000 years ago and continued
coming, across both the Atlantic and the Pacific, until about 200 years before
Columbus re-started the trend.
Assumption 3
Another point is that many scriptures indicate a portion of the Israelite
exiles were destined to be taken overseas and re-settled elsewhere. Isaiah
11:11, for example, says:
"The Eternal shall set His hand again the
second time to recover the remnant of His people, that shall be left from
Ashur, and from Mitsrayim, from Patros, and from Cush, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the Isles of the Sea."
Then, if I claim that trans-oceanic voyages took place two to three thousand
years ago, perhaps a third assumption must be that the North American
continent is included in this prophecy as being one of the "isles of the
sea." This point will be discussed in further detail later.
Assumption 4 would be that ships large enough and capable enough
to transport many people over long distances did indeed exist. According to
Yair Davidy, at one stage Carthaginians (Phoenicians) are recorded to have transported
30,000 men and women in 60 ships on a colonizing venture beyond the Pillars of
Hercules (now Gibraltar), apparently to West Africa [Mr. Davidy's words--for my
two cents, it could have been a venture to the "island" beyond the
sunset, well known to the ancient world and what we call America today]. This,
he continues, was in 500-480 B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and shows that at that
time, large-scale migration and colonization by sea were practiced. Previously,
in the era 1100-800 B.C.E., the Phoenicians had had, in a practical sense, a
trade monopoly over the sea trade routes in the Mediterranean area and beyond
it. The Phoenicians established settlements in North Africa, in Sardinia,
Corsica, and Sicily and also had trading emporiums in Spain and Britain.
Maps had to exist
for these Phoenicians (sometimes Egyptian-hired) to traverse the globe.
Stecchini's geodesic studies and the cartographic evidence of Charles Hapgood
prove that our oldest medieval maps are nothing but copies of copies whose lost
originals go far back into antiquity. By modern means, they determined that the
originals had been laid out by means of spherical geometry, just like our own
modern maps. Paul Tesla's work in this same area was later checked and approved
without qualification by top U.S. military cartographers, which would
seem to place its technical aspects beyond dispute.
Checking
further on this, a researcher, Paul Tesla, found that the celebrated Piri Reis
map has a strange feature. It shows Antarctica in unglaciated condition,
a geological event which could have concluded as much as six thousand years
ago. The geodesic center of this map is Cyene, Egypt, Cyene being also the
marker for other maps. Piri Reis traced his map back to Alexander the Great,
thus, by inference, to the scholars of Alexandria (this according to his own
notations on the map). Theoretically, even these early Egyptian map makers
could have been using much older materials they had preserved, simply modifying
them to suit their new geographical circumstances. 1 A footnote in
Lost Israelite Identity deserves comment at this point, so I will copy it
verbatim.
"Steven
M. Collins opines that Phoenicians and Israelites in the service of King
Solomon were probably responsible for the exploitation of copper resources in
North America in the period between 1000-800 B.C.E.! The inspirational source
for this opinion is apparently Barry Fell, Bronze Age America, 1982,
wherein the actual dating for the copper-working is given as 2000-1000 B.C.E.
based on radio-carbon dating. This dating would not make allowance for sun-spot
activity now acknowledged to arrest the process of Carbon-14 disintegration on
which radio-carbon dating is based. An adjustment downwards in the dating is
therefore allowable.
"A
great deal of research has recently been done and several works published to
demonstrate that the Phoenicians and other ancient peoples had sea-contact with
the American Continents. 2
Diodorus of Sicily
(16:20) states that, "the Phoenicians planted many colonies throughout
Libya (i.e., Africa) and not a few as well in western parts of Europe."
Avienus, himself, implied that these Phoenicians (Remember that Dan had dwelt
beside, gone to sea with, and intermarried with these Phoenicians) had
established colonies in Britain. Their monopoly on the British tin made them
rich and powerful; tin and copper are essential in the production of bronze,
which was the basic metal employed by most ancients. Many bronze daggers, axes,
and other figurines and implements have been found in the mounds in the East
and Midwest of the United States. Even Joseph Smith and the people of his day,
believing the mound builders to be red native Americans, would dig into these
mounds seeking evidence for their belief. They found many bronze and copper
tools in them. The American Indians did not make bronze. But more on this
later.
In Genesis 28:14, ETERNAL
told Jacob in his famous dream,
"And thy seed shall be as the dust of the
earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the
north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of
the earth be blessed."
Assumption 5
Perhaps a final assumption must be that those of us in United Hebrew
Congregations are correct in understanding our role today. That role is
telling Israel who they are. Whether it be done now or in our captivity, we see
this as ETERNAL's purpose in calling us at this time in His great plan. That
plan, of course, is to regather Israel to its own land. Genesis 28:15:
"And behold I am with thee, and will keep thee
in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for
I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee
of."
Part I: Dan In Asia, Europe, And
Africa
Dan in Greece
Davidy,
in tracing Irish history, mentions that the "Twathy de Dannan" are
recalled by Irish histories as having come from Greece. Usually referred to as
the "Tuatha de Danaan," the expression means "Tribe of
Dana." There really was, he says, a strong connection between the Greeks
and the Israelite Tribe of Dan. The founder of Greek civilization in Greek eyes
was called Danaus and Classical authors (Manetho, Diodorus of Sicily, et. al.)
identified Danaus with Dan of Israel. The early Greek settlements and later
city-states never were one race or group of people, but rather were an
amalgamation of peoples. In some cases, perhaps these settlers were the same
people but who came at different times, the latter ones often having changed so
much they could not be recognized as the same people who were there earlier.
This is what I believe happened in Greece, particularly with the Tribe of Dan.
Among the earliest settlers in Greece were Danites who left Egypt as soon as
their people began to be enslaved by the Egyptians (Mine and many others'
belief, much evidence supporting this). The greater number, though, left with
the Exodus, and some Danites later went to Greece to found other city-states,
therefore adding to those Danites already there.
Greek tradition
related how Danaus, after coming out of Egypt, came with his daughters to
Greece whereas his brothers went to Jerusalem. These daughters
intermarried with the local aristocracy and their children became rulers (Were
these locals earlier Danites who had come there a hundred years or more
before?). In honor of Danaus, the local Pelasgian Ionian Greeks renamed
themselves Danaioi, by which term the early Greeks are often referred to by
Homer.
"Danaus, the father of fifty daughters on coming to
Argos took up his abode in the city of Inarchos and throughout Hellas (i.e.,
Greece). He laid down the law that all people hitherto named Pelasgians were to
be named Danaans" (Strabo 5.2.40 quoting Euripides). 3
(Diodorus
Siculus (1:28:1 5):"They say that those who set forth with Danaus,
likewise from Egypt, settled what is practically the oldest city of Greece,
Argos, and that the nations of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Jews, which
lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from
their country... 4
The
Philistines are believed to have been of the same stock as the Greek
Pelasgians, and the term "Pelast" (meaning Philistine) in early Greek
inscriptions is considered interchangeable for Pelasgian. As suggested, the
struggle of the Danites with the Philistines within the Land of Israel may be
somehow connected with the coming of the Danaoi to Greece. There is an opinion
that the Danaioi formed a peculiar military class amongst the Mycenean Greeks.
At all events the Greek account may be understood as saying that a small number
of Danites came to Greece, intermarried with local rulers, gave their name to
an early already present segment of the population, and not much more than
that.
Archaeologists now
believe that an offshoot of the Hyksos (the name given the Israelites during
and after the Exodus), about the time when they were expelled from Egypt came
to Greece, conquered it, and laid the basis for Mycenean civilization. They
identify these Hyksos with the Danaioi of Greek tradition.
This
version also infers that the Danaioi were relatively few in numbers though
qualitatively determinative. 5
An interesting
sidelight on the Danites in Greece is the history of Ireland, where the Danites
settled at a later time. Irish history links Israel with its past. First to
come to Ireland was Nin Mac Piel (Irish for Ninus, son of Bel or Belus). Ninus,
or Nimrod, laid claim to Irish soil, but then left. For 300 years, Irish soil
lay generally uninhabited. In 2069 B.C.E. Parthalon and a band of Hebrew
warriors arrived from the Greek world and established a settlement at Inis
Saimer, a small island in the river Erne, at Ballyshannon. In 2019 a plague
befell the settlers and most died. Those who didn't fled, Ireland was desolate
for another 30 years, and then those who had fled returned, continuing to
inhabit it for another 250 years until 1739. The historian Keating records that
another catastrophe befell these Parthalonians, possibly at the hands of the
Phoenician Formorians (Esau). Some of this is speculation, since no historian
professes to know when the Formorians came to Ireland. (Note that some Irish
historians trace their earliest inhabitants to Japheth, not to Shem.)
The second wave of
Hebrew migrants to Ireland came from Scythia. They were called Nemedians, after
Nemedh, their leader. They dwelt there for 217 years, were gradually enslaved
by the Formorians, then fled to Grecian Thrace to escape oppression. They then
returned, this time under the name Fir-Bolgs, a name derived from their
oppression while in Grecian Thrace.
Thirty-six years
after this (1456), the first small migration of the Tuatha-De-Danaan occurred.
This was during the time of the wandering of Israel in the Wilderness after
coming from Egypt. The records, according to Keating, tell us that while the
Tribe of Dan dwelt in Greece, "It happened that a large fleet came from
Syria to make war upon the people of the Athenian territory, in consequence of
which they were engaged in daily battles...as to the Tuatha-de-Danaans, when
they saw the natives of the land thus vanquished by the Syrians, they all fled
out of the country, through fear of those invaders and they stopped not until
they reached the regions of Lochlinn (Scandinavia), where they were welcomed by
the inhabitants, on account of their many sciences and arts...when they had
remained a long time in these cities, they passed over to the North of Alba
(Scotland), where they continued seven years in Dobar and Iardobar."
Keating continues.
"When the Tuatha-De-Danaan had remained seven years in the north of Alba
(Scotland), they passed over to Ireland and landed in the north of this
country."
We know
the Tuatha-De-Danaan to be the Tribe of Dan and the invaders from Syria to be
armies of Jabin, king of Canaan. This segment of Irish history is found in
O'Flaherty's Ogygia, in Keating's History of Ireland, pp. 142-46,
and in Vol. II of Stokvis' Manuel, p. 232. 6
When I attended
college at the University of Southern Mississippi, I found a history of
Ireland, began reading it, and was astounded by its being settled by Dan and
other Israelite and Hebrew peoples. Since then, I have corroborated this in
many other readings. That they settled parts of Greece is found in many
sources, including the above and also Homer's Iliad.
We cannot in this
short paper discuss the cultural, artistic, technological, architectural, or
other contributions the Israelite tribes have made to the world. Ezekiel 27:19,
though, says, "Dan and Javan (Greece) from Uzzal were your
sub-contracting-intermediaries (Hebrew: "Izvon-aich"); they gave iron
manufactured, alloyed, and in bars (Hebrew: "asot kidah ve-kenah").
They were amongst your guarantors" (Hebrew: "ma-arav-aich").
Manetho said the final expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt included that of a
people known as the Danaoi. The Danaoi are identifiable with Danaus, who,
according to Diodorus Siculus (1:28), came to Greece but had left Egypt
together with those who built Jerusalem. "Danaoi" and
"Danaus" are forms of the name Dan.
"That Greeks
and (some of the) Israelites were the same can be attested to also by Josephus,
in his Antiquities of the Jews, 13:5;8.
"Jonathan
the high priest of the Jewish nation...to the ephori and senate and the people
of the Lacedamonians ("Greeks"), send greeting: When in former times
an epistle was brought to Onias, who was then our high priest...concerning the
kindred that was between us and you, a copy of which is here
subjoined....'"
"Herodotus 6:53:
'...in what follows I give the tradition of the Greeks generally. The kings of
the Dorians (they say)--counting up to Perseus, son of Danae,...If we follow
the line of Danae, daughter of Acrisius, and trace her progenitors, we shall
find that the chiefs of the Dorians are really genuine Egyptians....'"
Herodotus means that the chiefs of the Dorians came out of Egypt and
therefore he calls them Egyptian even though they may not have been of Egyptian
stock. Perseus, we know, was a descendant of Danaus. 7
An
interesting comment regarding Danaus' landing in Greece from Egypt says he
(Danaus) was said to be the son of Belus, sometimes spelled "Bela,"
which strongly resembles "Bilhah," the name of Jacob's concubine, and
mother of Dan (Gen. 30:4-6). 8
(E. Raymond Capt, quoting Latham), "...in his Ethnology
of Europe, p. 157, says, 'that the eponymous of the Argive (Greek) Danai
was no other than that of the Israelite Tribe of Dan, only we are so used to
confining ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the
Israelites, that we treat them as if they were "adscripti glebae,"
and ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the
world...what a light would be thrown on the origin of the name Peloponnesus and
the history of the Pelopid family if a bona fide nation of Pelopes, with
unequivocal affinities and contemporary annals, had existed on the coast of
Asia! Who would have hesitated to connect the two? Yet with the Danai and the Tribe
of Dan this is the case, and no one connects them!'" 9
Not
only did many Danites leave Egypt early, but it was Dan, too, more than any
other Tribe, that assimilated itself onto other peoples, integrated more with
others (first with Esau-Phoenicia, then others gradually), and is therefore
spread out more among more nations. Except for Ireland, Wales, and Norway,
and Denmark too (although much less so), Danite blood is mingled among all the
other Israelite tribes. It is (and has been), though, kept intact in these
countries (just listed) more than anywhere else.
We will
not belabor this point much longer. One final thought is that early Greek
history (in its formative period) has it that native groups known in
Greece-proper as Pelasgians and as Ionians on the west coast of Anatolia
(Turkey), together with the Aeolians (a related group), after the coming of the
Danaioi, created Mycenean civilization. Mycenean civilization was destroyed and
its leaders fled to the north to re-establish themselves as Dorians. The
Myceneans were replaced by the Pelopid dynasty from Anatolia and the Achaeans.
After the 1100's, the Dorians returned and re-established their suzerainty. The
Dorians referred to their action as "the return of the Heraclids,"
meaning the return of the sons of followers of Hercules. Hercules was a hero of
the Danaioi. He is based on the figure of Samson, the judge-hero of the Tribe
of Dan, there existing many similarities between the two figures 10
At this juncture, I
would like to tie in the Danite Greeks with their immigration to North Africa,
for it is in North Africa that we continue our study. Plutarch, in his writings
in the second century C.E. (Common Era), says much about "Greeks."
Briefly, Rome was culturally the child of Greece, and it is pointless to
distinguish between specific Hellenistic and Roman influences, for they are blended.
The people have features (in the mosaics) resembling those of North Africans
today. Most people customarily call them Arabs because their modern speech is
Arabic. But their ancestry is a blend of European, Arab (and/or Israelite) and
Berber. Plutarch's Greeks were just such a people, inheriting the maritime
traditions of a varied ancestry, and speaking a dialect of Greek strongly
influenced by North African vocabulary. Even Polybius, who visited North Africa
in the second century C.E., regarded the North African Greeks as a people now
considerably different from the Greeks of Greece. They called themselves
Greeks, but were olive-skinned and represented a fusion of Greek and North
African ("North African" being mainly the mixture of Dan and
Phoenicia). These people called themselves Libyans, which itself was a generic
name for Mediterranean North Africa, and occasionally for all of the continent
of Africa.
A long chain of
ruined cities in present-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in the desert
sands marks the maritime of North Africa where these seafarers once lived.
Their cities were beautiful, and the ruins of them are still beautiful. Their
marble, limestone, and porphyry columns gleaming in the bright desert sun in
stately series along the deserted streets and market places compare remarkably
with Ephesus and Pergamon (which I have toured personally) and other ruins of
great cities of the ancient world.
Phoenician
settlers, who later became independent of the parent cities of Tyre and Sidon
in Phoenicia (Lebanon), and eventually founded the Carthaginian Empire,
introduced a language "similar to ancient Hebrew." Around 650 B.C.E.,
Greeks from Sparta (Tribe of Dan-- "Danaans" in Homer's The Iliad)
established a settlement which superseded the Phoenician village in east Libya
and became the famous city of Cyrene. "Greek" influence spread over
the neighboring region, where eventually five cities rose and comprised the
kingdom of Cyrene. Semitic people that Barry Fell calls Arabs came to North
Africa, probably around 600 B.C.E. (long before Islam, which began over 1,000
years later), so now "Arabic" became a part of the language. Even
today, many North Africans, including the Berbers, still speak Arabic.
Tracing Dan -
Part 1 Chapter 2 Tracing Dan -
Introduction Index Page
Footnotes
1. Tesla, Paul,
"Pre-Columbian Diffusion: New Lights and Old--The General Scene," ESOP
(Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers), p. 165.
2. Davidy, Yair, "The
Western Hemisphere Before 1492: A Historical Outline," Lost Israelite
Identity, Canada, 1975.
3. Ibid., p. 182.
4. bid.
5. Ibid., p. 183.
6. Ibid., pp. 321 and 349.
7. Ibid., p. 202.
8. Gawler, Colonel J.C.,
"Dan The Pioneer of Israel," Thousand Oaks, California, 1984, p. 15.
9. Capt, E. Raymond, Missing
Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, U.S.A., 1985.
10. Davidy, Lost, p.
203.