historia tunis

7/30/2019 Historia Tunis

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Background of Tunisian history 1

Background of Tunisian history

Background of early Tunisia includes roughly chronological and topical subjects, which illuminate early epochs of

Tunisia, in terms of its Berber natives: both as an independent people in prehistory, and as 'host' to long-term

intruders, Phoenician (there called Punic), over almost a millennium of history.[1]

Prehistoric epochs before the Punic era are reviewed, providing dim light on the pre-Berber situation, and on Berber

origins, and subsequent development. Here, the prehistoric seamlessly enters the earliest historic, as described

mostly by Greek and Roman writers. The territorial range refers to Berbers outside of Tunisia; for example, the

Phoenicians, later founders of Carthage, first learned about the Berbers (known as Libyans) from a dynasty of

Berbers ruling in pharaonic Egypt. Topical subjects include language, and religion. Berber language history provides

a singular perspective: a brief reconstruction of remote millennia of prehistory; and, insight into the ancient

cultural-linguistic relations between Tunisian Berbers and their North African brothers, and to their cousins in Egypt

and the Semitic world.[2]

Ancient Berber religion provides glimpses of the interior life, otherwise largely opaque,

and thus clues as to the character of the Berber neighbors who witnessed the founding of Carthage.

After Carthage, ancient Berber culture persisted as a separate, submerged entity. It formed a background societywithin the civil structures created by the more dominant rulers, and also satellite societies existing on the frontier.

Although a subject people in symbiosis with Carthage, the Berbers continued their own traditions concurrently.

Tunisia remained the leading region of the Berber peoples throughout the Punic era (and Roman, and well into the

Islamic). Modern commentary and reconstructions are presented concerning their ancient livelihood, material

culture, and social organization, including tribal confederacies. Evidence comes from various artifacts, inscriptions,

and historical writings; a view of the remote past is derived by disciplines studying languages and genetics. Perhaps

eight millennia ago, already there were prior peoples established here, among whom the proto-Berbers (coming from

the east) mingled and mixed, and from whom the Berber people would spring, during an era of their

ethno-genesis.[3][4]

Today half or more of modern Tunisians appear to be the descendants of ancient Berber

ancestors.[5][6][7]

People of early North Africa

The early Berbers

The people commonly known today as the Berbers were anciently more often known as Libyans. Yet many

"Berbers" have for long self-identified asImazighen or "free people" (etymology uncertain).[8] Mommsen, a widely

admired historian of the 19th century, wrote:

"They call themselves in the Riff near TangierAmzigh, in the Sahara Imshagh, and the same name

meets us, referred to particular tribes, on several occasions among the Greeks and Romans, thus asMaxyes at the founding of Carthage, as Mazices in the Roman period at different places in the

Mauretanian north coast; the similar designation that has remained with the scattered remnants proves

that this great people has once had a consciousness, and has permanently retained the impression, of the

relationship of its members."

Other names were used by their ancient neighbors: Libyans (by Egyptians and later by Greeks),

Nomades (by Greeks), Numidians (by Romans), and later Berbers (by the Arabs); also the

self-descriptiveMauri in the west; and Gaetulians in the south.[9][10][11]

Berbers together with their relations and descendants have been the major population group to inhabit the North

African regions since about eight kya (thousand years ago).[12][13][14][15]

This region includes terrain from the Nile

to the Atlantic, encompassing the vast Sahara at whose center rise the mountain heights of Ahaggar and Tibesti. In

the west the Mediterranean coastlands are suitable for agriculture and also have for hinterland the Atlas Mountains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabized_Berberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahaggarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlas_Mountainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahaggarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlas_Mountainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlas_Mountainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tibestihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahaggarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nile_riverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabized_Berberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_%28Etymology%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Berbershttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semitic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoeniciahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_people


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This region includes the land now known as the Republic of Tunisia.

Yet the most ancient written records concerning the Berber peoples are those reported by neighboring peoples of the

Mediterranean region. When the Berbers enter history during the first millennium BCE, their own points of view on

situations and events are, unfortunately, not available to us. Due to the impact of Carthage, it is the people of Tunisia

who dominate the early historical writings on the Berbers.[16]

Remote epochs

Evidence of human habitation in the region, however, stretches back one or two million years.[17]

Cavalli-Sforza

includes the Berbers in a much larger genetic group, one which also includes S.W. Asians, Iranians, Europeans,

Sardinians, Indians, S.E. Indians, and Lapps. Cavalli-Sforza also makes two related observations. The Berbers and

those S.W. Asians who speak Semitic idioms together belong to a large and ancient language family (the

Afroasiatic). This large language family incorporates in its ranks members from two different genetic groups, i.e., (a)

some elements of the one listed by Cavalli-Sforza immediately above, and (b) one called by him the Ethiopian

group. This Ethiopian group inhabits lands from the Horn to the Sahel region of Africa.[18][19]

In agreement with

Cavalli-Sforza's work, recent demographic study indicates a common Neolithic origin for both the Berber and

Semitic populations.[20] Very remote epochs often concern physical anthropology. Later millennia disclose more

cultural information.

Saharan cave painting from Tassili n'Ajjer [Berber:Plateau of the Chasms].

Dating to the Mesolithic era, stone blades

and tools, as well as small stone figurines, of

the Capsian culture (named after Gafsa,

Tunisia) are connected to the prehistoric

presence of the Berbers in North Africa.

Also connected are some of the monuments

built of very large rocks (dolmens), found

throughout the western

Mediterranean.[21][22] A commonly held

view of Berber origins is that

Paleo-Mediterranean peoples long

occupying the region combined with several

other largely Mediterranean groups, two

from the east near S.W.Asia and bringing

the Berber languages about eight to ten kya,

(one traveling west along the coast and the

other by way of the Sahel and the Sahara), with a third intermingling earlier from Iberia.[23][24]

"At all events, the

historic peopling of the Maghrib is certainly the result of a merger, in proportions not yet determined, of three

elements: Ibero-Maurusian, Capsian and Neolithic."[25]

A widespread opinion is that the Berbers are a mixed ethnic

group sharing the related and ancient Berber languages.[26][27]

Saharan rock art

Saharan rock art, the inscriptions and the paintings that show various design patterns as well as figures of animals

and of humans, are attributed to the Berbers and also to black Africans from the south. Dating these art works has

proven difficult and unsatisfactory.[28][29]

Egyptian influence is considered very unlikely.[30]

Some images infer a

terrain much better watered. Among the animals depicted, alone or in staged scenes, are large-horned buffalo (the

extinct bubalus antiquus), elephants, donkeys, colts, rams, herds of cattle, a lion and lioness with three cubs,

leopards or cheetahs, hogs, jackles, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hippopotamus, a hunting dog, and various antelope.

Human hunters may wear animal masks and carry their weapons. Herders are shown with elaborate head
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharan_rock_arthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neolithichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iberianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediterranean_racehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dolmenshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gafsahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capsian_culturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mesolithichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AAfrican_cave_paintings.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tassili_n%27Ajjerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Physical_anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semitichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demographics_of_Algeria%23Genetichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horn_of_Africahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethiopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Population_geneticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforza


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ornamentation; a few dance. Other human figures drive chariots, or ride camels.[31][32]

Early Berber society

By five kya (thousand years ago) a neolithic culture was evolving among the Berbers of northwest Africa,

characterized by agriculture and animal domestication, pottery and finely chipped stone implements including

arrowheads.[33]

Wheat and barley were sown, beans and chick peas cultivated. Ceramic bowls and basins, goblets,large plates, as well as dishes raised by a central column, were in daily use; these domestic items were hung up on

the wall. For clothing findings indicates hooded cloaks, and also cloth woven into stripes of different color. Sheep,

goats, and cattle measured wealth.[34]

From physical evidence unearthed in Tunisia archaeologists present the

Berbers as already "farmers with a strong pastoral element in their economy and fairly elaborate cemeteries", well

over a thousand years before the Phoenicians arrived to found Carthage.[35]

Prior to written records about them, sedentary rural Berbers apparently lived in semi-independent farming villages,

composed of small tribal units under a local leader.[36]

Yet seasonally the villagers might have left to find pasture for

their herds and flocks. Modern conjecture is that feuding between neighborhood clans at first impeded organized

political life among these ancient Berber farmers, so that social coordination did not develop beyond the village

level.[37] On the more marginal lands, pastoral Berbers roamed to find grazing for their animals. Tribal authority was

strongest among the latter wandering pastoralists, much weaker among the agricultural villagers, and would later

attenuate with the advent of cities.[38]

By particularly fertile regions, larger villages arose. In the west of the

Maghrib, the Berbers reacted to the growing military threat from colonies started by Phoenician traders. Eventually

Carthage and its sister city-states would inspire Berber villages to join together in order to marshall large-scale

armies, which naturally called forth strong, centralizing leadership. Punic social techniques from the nearby polities

were adopted by the Berbers, to be modified for their own use.[39][40]

To the east, the Berbero-Libyans had interacted

with the Egyptians during the earlier rise of the ancient Nile civilization.

Accounts of the Berbers

Meshwesh

(mw.w)

in hieroglyphs

Here described are Berber peoples in the first light of history, drawn from written records left mainly by Greek and

Roman authors. To the east of Tunisia, a Libyan dynasty ruled in Egypt; their armies marched into Phoenicia a

century before the founding of Carthage. Next is described Berber life and society in Tunisia and to its west, both

before and during the hegemony of Carthage.
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Karnak temple wall with list of cities in

Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, and Philistia

conquered by the Pharaoh Shoshenq I.

Northeast Africa

Egyptian hieroglyphs from early dynasties testify to Libyans, the Berbers of

the "western desert".[41]

First mentioned as the Tehenou during the

pre-dynastic reigns of Scorpion (c. 3050) and of Narmer (on an ivory

cylinder), their appearance is later shown in a bas relief of the Fifth Dynasty

temple of Sahure. Ramses II (r.1279-1213) placed Libyan contingents in his

army.[42]

Tombs of the 13th century contain paintings ofLibu leaders wearing

fine robes, with ostrich feathers in their "dreadlocks", short pointed beards,

and tattoos on their shoulders and arms.[43]

Evidently, Osorkon the Elder (Akheperre setepenamun), a Berber leader of

the Meshwesh tribe, became the first Libyan pharaoh. Several decades later,

his nephew Shoshenq I (r.945-924) became Pharaoh of Egypt, and the

founder of its Twenty-second Dynasty (945-715).[44][45]

In 926 Shoshenq

(Shishak of the Bible) successfully campaigned to Jerusalem then under

Solomon's heir.[46][47]

The Phoenicians, particularly the people of the

city-state of Tyre who in the west would found Carthage during the Meshwesh dynasty, first came to know of the

Berber people through these Libyan pharaohs.

For several centuries Egypt was governed by a decentralized political system based on the Libyan tribal organization

of the Meshwesh. Becoming acculturated, Libyans also eventually served as high priests at centers of Egyptian

religion.[48]

Hence during the classical era of the Mediterranean, all of the Berber peoples of North Africa were often

collectively called Libyans, after the Meshwesh dynasty.[49][50][51]

Northwest Africa

Ancient Numidia.

West of the Meshwesh dynasty of Egypt, later reports of foreigners mention

Berber people living in fertile and accessible coastal regions who were known

as Numidians (located in or near Tunisia), and farther to the west, as the

Mauri or Maurisi (later the Moors), and also in remote mountains and deserts

to the south Berbers called Gaetulians.[52][53][54]

The western Berbers are

mentioned in ancient literature (by Herodotus) regarding specific military

events during the 5th century BC, i.e., c. 480, as mercenaries of Carthage in

Sicily.[55]

Thereafter the Berbers more frequently enter into the early light

provided by various Greek and Roman historical works. Yet unfortunately,

apart from the Punic inscriptions, little Carthaginian literature hassurvived.

[56][57]

During these centuries, Berbers of the western regions actively traded and intermingled most frequently with

Carthage, founded by Phoenicians; the name Libyphoenicians was coined for the cultural and ethnic mix

surrounding the city. Political skills and civic arrangements encountered in Carthage, as well as material culture,

were adopted by the Berbers for their own use.[58][59]

In the 4th century Berber kingdoms are referenced, e.g., the

ancient historian Diodorus Siculus evidently mentions the Libyo-Berber king Aelymas, a neighbor to the south of

Carthage, who dealt with Agathocles (361-289), a Greek ruler in Sicily.[60][61]

A bilingual (Punic and Berber) inscription of the 2nd century BC from urban Numidia, specifically from the ancient

city of Thugga (modern Dougga, Tunisia), indicates a complex city administration, with the Berber title GLD

(cognate to modern Berber Aguellid, or paramount tribal chief) designating the ruling municipal officer. This top

position apparently rotated among the selected members of the leading Berber families. Since the Numidian titles of
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Municipal_governmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tribal_chiefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thuggahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Sicilyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agathocleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diodorus_Siculushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisia%23Berber_relationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisia%23Few_writings_survivehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inscriptionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roman_historiographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greek_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herodotushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaetulihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Numidianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ANumidia.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meshweshhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libyanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_religionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_religionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meshweshhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carthagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tyre%2C_Lebanonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rehoboamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shishakhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twenty-second_dynasty_of_Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pharaohhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shoshenq_Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meshweshhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Berbershttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Osorkon_the_Elderhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ramses_IIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Narmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scorpionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tehenouhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libyanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AKarnak_Tempel_19.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shoshenq_Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philistiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kingdom_of_Israel_%28Samaria%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoeniciahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Syriahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karnak


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the offices mentioned (GLD, MSSKWI, GZBI, GLDGIML) were not translated into Punic but left in Berber, it

suggests an indigenous development.[62][63]

Circa 220 BC, three large kingdoms had arisen among the Berbers (west to east): (1) the Mauri (in modern

Morocco) under king Baga; (2) the Masaesyli (in northern Algeria) under Syphax who ruled from two capitals, Siga

(near modern Oran) and to the east Cirta (modern Constantine); and (3) the Massyli (south of Cirta, west and south

of Carthage) ruled by Gala [Gaia], father of Masinissa. Massyli and eastern Masaesyli later became Numidia, locatedin historic Tunisia. Following the Second Punic War, both Roman and Hellenic states gave its ruler Masinissa the

great honors befitting an admired king.[64]

Berber language history

Afroasiatic language family. Outside Ethiopia, marked here Tigre &

Amharic, Semitic languages were not generally spoken elsewhere in

Africa until the spread of Islam (after 632). Then Arabic supplanted

some Afroasiatic languages, e.g., ancient Egyptian and Berber in

many areas.[65]

In the study of languages, sophisticated techniques

were developed enabling the understanding of how an

idiom evolves over time. Hence, the speech of past

ages may be successively reconstructed in theory by

using only modern speech and the rules of phonetic and

morphological change, and other learning, which may

be augmented by and checked against the literature of

the past, if available. Methods of Comparative

linguistics also assisted in associating related 'sister'

languages, which both stem from an ancient parent

language. Further, such groups of related languages

may form branches of even larger language

families.[66][67]

Afroasiatic family

Taken together the twenty or so Berber languages constitute one of the five branches[68][69][70]

of

Afroasiatic,[71][72][73][74][75][76]

a pivotal world language family, which stretches from Mesopotamia and Arabia

across the Nile river and the Horn of Africa to the Atlas Mountains and Lake Chad. The other four branches of

Afroasiatic are: Ancient Egyptian, Semitic (which includes Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic),

Cushitic (around the Horn and the lower Red Sea),[77]

and Chadic (e.g.,Hausa). The Afroasiatic language family has

great diversity among its member idioms and a corresponding antiquity in time depth,[78][79]

both as to the results of

analyses in historical linguistics and as regards the seniority of its written records, composed using the oldest of

writing systems.[80][81][82]

The combination of linguistic studies with other information about prehistory taken from

archaeology and the biological sciences has been adumbrated.[83][84]

Earlier academic speculation as to the

prehistoric homeland of Afroasiatic and its geographic spread centered on a source in southwest Asia,[85][86][87]

but

more recent work in the various related disciplines has focused on Africa.[88][89][90][91]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southwest_Asiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Writing_systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_writinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chadic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Seahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cushitic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semitic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Chadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlas_Mountainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horn_of_Africahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nile_riverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mesopotamiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparative_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparative_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morphology_%28linguistics%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phonetichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AAfroasiatic_languages-en.svghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabic_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spread_of_Islamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semitic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amharichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tigre_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_Ethiopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Numidiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Masinissahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constantine%2C_Algeriahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cirtahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oranhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Syphaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_kings_of_Roman-era_Tunisia


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Afro-Asiatic[92]

languages, distribution

shown in yellow.

Proposed prehistory

The conjecture proposed by the well-regarded linguist and historian Igor M.

Diakonoff may be summarized. From a prehistoric homeland near Darfur,

which was better watered,[93][94]

the "Egyptians" were the first to break from

the proto Afroasiatic communities, before ten kya (thousand years ago).

These proto Egyptian language speakers headed north. At about the same

time, the Chadic branch left, traveling west. About eight kya the speakers of

the proto Cushitic languages broke off and journeyed east. During the next

millennium or so, the remaining proto Semitic and Berber speakers

("Semito-Libyan") eventually went their divergent ways. The Semites passed

by the then marshlands of the lower Nile and crossed into Asia (evidently the

Semitic speakers anciently present in Ethiopia remained in Africa or later

crossed back to Africa from Arabia). Meanwhile, the peoples who spoke proto Berbero-Libyan spread out westward

across North Africa, along the Mediterranean coast and into a Sahara region then better watered, traveling in a

centuries-long migration until reaching the Atlantic and its offshore islands.[95][96][97][98] Later, Diakonoff revised

his proposed prehistory, moving the Afroasiatic homeland north toward the lower Nile, then a land of lakes and

marshes. This change reflects several linguistic analyses showing that common Semitic then shared very little

"cultural" lexicon with the common Afroasiatic.[99]

Hence the proto Semitic speakers probably left the common

Afroasiatic community earlier, by ten kya (thousand years ago), starting from an area nearby a more fruitful Sinai.

Accordingly, he situates the related Berbero-Libyan speakers of that era by the coast, to the west of the lower

Nile.[100][101][102]

Ancient Berber religion

Medracen, 19 meters. Numidian, c. 3rd century B.C.[103][104]

Respect for the dead

The religion of the ancient Berbers, of

course, is difficult to uncover sufficiently to

satisfy the imagination. Burial sites provide

early indication of religious beliefs; more

than sixty thousand tombs are located in the

Fezzan alone.[105]

The construction of many

tombs indicates their continuing use for

ceremonies and sacrifices.[106]

A grandtomb for a Berber king, traditionally

assigned to Masinissa (238-149) but perhaps rather to his father Gala, still stands: the Medracen in eastern Algeria.

Architecture for the elegant tower tomb of his contemporary Syphax shows some Greek or Punic influence.[107]

Much information about Berber beliefs comes from classical literature. Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425) mentions that

Libyans of the Nasamone tribe, after prayers, slept on the graves of their ancestors in order to induce dreams for

divination. The ancestor chosen being regarded the best in life for uprightness and valor, hence a tomb imbued with

spiritual power. Oaths also were taken on the graves of the just.[108][109]

In this regard, the Numidian king Masinissa

was widely worshipped after his death.[110]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Divinationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carthagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Syphaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Masinissahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tombshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fezzanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_mythologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AImedghasen.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Numidianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sinai_peninsulahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethiopian_Semitic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Darfurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igor_Diakonovhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igor_Diakonovhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AAfro-Asiatic.pnghttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=89997


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Reverence for nature

Early Berbers beliefs and practices are often characterized as a religion of nature. Procreative power was symbolized

by the bull, the lion, the ram. Fish carvings represented the phallus, a sea shell the female sex, which objects could

become charms.[111][112]

The supernatural could reside in the waters, in trees, or come to rest in unusual stones (to

which the Berbers would apply oils); such power might inhabit the winds (the Sirocco being formidable across North

Africa).[113]

Herodotus writes that the Libyans sacrificed to the sun and moon.[114]

The moon (Ayyur) wasconceived as being masculine.

[115][116]

Later many other supernatural entities became identified and personalized as gods, perhaps influenced by Egyptian

or Punic practice; yet the Berbers seemed to be "drawn more to the sacred than to the gods."[117]

Early worship sites

might be in grottoes, on mountains, in clefts and cavities, along roadways, with the "altars casually made of turf, the

vessels used still of clay with the deity himself nowhere", according to the Berber author Apuleius (born c. 125 CE),

commenting on the local worship of earlier times.[118]

Often only a little more than the names of the Berber deities

are known, e.g., Bonchar, a leading god.[119] Julian Baldick, culling literature covering many eras and regions,

provides the names and rles of many Berber deities and spirits.[120][121]

Syncretic developments

The Berbero-Libyans came to adopt elements from ancient Egyptian religion. Herodotus writes of the divine oracle,

sourced in the Egyptian god Ammon, located among the Libyans at the oasis of Siwa.[122]

However, the god of the

Siwa oracle, to the contrary, may be a Libyan deity.[123]

Later, Berber beliefs would influence the religion of Carthage, the city-state founded by Phoenicians.[124]

George

Aaron Barton suggested that the prominent goddess of Carthage Tanit originally was a Berbero-Libyan deity whom

the newly arriving Phoenicians sought to propitiate by their worship.[125][126]

Later archeological finds show a Tanit

from Phoenicia.[127][128][129]

From linguistic evidence Barton concluded that before developing into an agricultural

deity, Tanit probably began as a goddess of fertility, symbolized by a tree bearing fruit.[130]

The Phoenician goddess

Ashtart was supplanted by Tanit at Carthage.

[131][132]

Sea traders from the east

{This section scheduled to be moved to another article}

The historical era opens with the advent of traders coming by sea from the eastern Mediterranean. Eventually they

were followed by a stream of colonists, landing and settling along the coasts of Africa and Iberia, and on the islands

of the western seas.

Technological innovations following economic development in the eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and along

the Nile, increased the demand for various metals not found locally in sufficient quantity. Phoenician traders

recognized the relative abundance and low cost of the needed metals among the goods offered for trade by localmerchants in Hispania, which spurred trade.

[133]In the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, much of this Mediterranean

commerce, as well as the corresponding trading settlements located at coastal stops along the way to the west, were

directed by the kings, e.g., Hiram of Tyre (969-936).[134]

By three thousand years ago the Levant and Hellas had enjoyed remarkable prosperity, resulting in population

growth in excess of their economic base. On the other hand, political instability from time to time caused disruption

of normal business and resulted in short term economic distress. City-states started organizing their youth to migrate

in groups to locations where the land was less densely settled. Importantly, the number of colonists coming from

Greece was much larger than those coming from Phoenicia.[135]

To these migrants, lands in the western Mediterranean presented an opportunity and could be reached relatively

easily by ship, without marching through foreign territory. Colonists sailed westward following in the wake of their

commercial traders. The Greeks arrived later, coming to southern France, southern Italy including Sicily, and eastern
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Greecehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Levanthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hiram_Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ashtarthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thujahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fertilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tanithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religion_in_Carthagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siwa_Oasishttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amunhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_religionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apuleiushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berber_pantheonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ayyurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siroccohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Supernaturalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amulethttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Procreation


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Libya. Earlier the Phoenicians had settled in Sardinia, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sicily, and Tunisia. At Tunisia the

city of Carthage was founded, which would come to rule all the other Phoenician settlements.[136]

This history continues with History of Punic era Tunisia.

Reference notes

[1][1] Much later arrived the Arabs and Islam. Eventually the result was a merger effected by Tunisian Berbers with Muslim Arab civilization.

[2][2] Semitic languages include Arabic, whose arrival later in Tunisia transformed the language spoken there.

[3] Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp. 1114.

[4] Brett and Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 1415..

[5] Gerard et al.: North African Berber and Arab Influences in the Western Mediterranean Revealed by Y-Chromosome DNA Haplotypes 2006

(http://www.bioone. org/doi/full/10. 1353/hub. 2006. 0045).

[6] See also authorities cited here below. This ethic origin is sometimes called Arabized Berber.

[7] See History of Tunisia for information on the Tunisian geography and climate.

[8] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 56.

[9] Theodor Mommsen,Rmanische Geschichte, volume 5 (Leipzig 1885, 5th ed. 1904), translated as The Provinces of the Roman Empire

(London: R. Bentley 1886; London: Macmillan 1909; reprint: Barnes and Noble, New York 1996) at II: 303, 304. By ancient Mauretania

Mommsen here would be refetring to present-day Morocco.

[10][10] Greeks regularly called people whose speech they could not recognize "barbarians".[11] Ancient Egyptians also knew of a Berber tribe calledMeshwesh. See below section entitled, "Accounts of the Berbers".

[12] Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp. 1114, 65. Camps posits a new influx around 6000 B.C. that joined a pre-existing

population (an archeologist, Camps founded theInstitut d'Etudes Berberes at the Univesit de Aix-en-Provence).

[13] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 5, 1213. Brett and Fentress refer to Gabriel Camps at 7, 12, 15-16.

[14] Professor Jamil Abun-Nasr mentions the arrival of theLibou (Libyans) up to 5000 years ago, in his A History of the Maghrib (Cambridge

University 1971) at 7.

[15] McBurney, C. B. M. (1960). The Stone Age in North Africa. Pelican. pp. 84.

[16] Laroui, Abdallah (1970, 1977).L'Histoire du Maghreb: Un essai de synthesis (translated as: The History of the Maghrib). Librairie Franois

Maspero; Princeton Univ.. pp. 326. Professor Laroui here laments that until well into the period of ancient history the story of the indigenous

people was told by their antagonists, because the Berbers themselves then left no writings. Thus the ancient point of view of the Berbers is

little known; rather they appear as "pure object and can be seen only through the eyes of foreign conquerors". Laroui (1970, 1977) at 10. In

this regard, Laroui criticizes several French historians, including Gabriel Camps cited above, not for their research results, but because Laroui

finds they continue to portray the Berbers as marginalized in terms of their history. Ibid., at 15-25, 23-25, 60n43.

[17] L. Balout, "The prehistory of North Africa" 241-250, at 241, in General History of Africa, volume I, Methodology and African Prehistory

Abridged Edition. (University of California/UNESCO 1989).

[18] Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, & Alberto Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton University 1994) at

99. Notwithstanding this genetic distinction, there is overlap. E.g., it is suggested that the Tuareg Berbers are genetically linked to the

"Ethiopian" Beja (ancientBlemmyes) of the Red Sea hills area of the Sudan; in coming west into the central Sahara, the Tuareg may have

adopted Berber speech.Ibid. at 172-173.

[19] See below, "Berber language history" for discussion regardingAfroasiatic.

[20] "Our analyses suggest that contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the

Middle East and that they share a dairying origin with Europeans and Asians, but not with sub-Saharan Africans". Sean Myles, Nourdine

Bouzekri, Eden Haverfield, Mohamed Cherkaoui, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Ryk Ward, "Genetic Evidence in support of a shared

Eurasian-North African dairying origin" inHuman Genetics (Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer 2005) 117/1: 34-42, "Abstract" at 34.

SpringerLink - Journal Article (http://www.springerlink. com/content/x428750458w4080r/)

[21] Brent, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 1013, 1722, map of dolmen regions at 17. The dolmens are found

both north and south of the Mediterranean Sea.

[22] The Capsian culture was preceded by the Ibero-Maurusian in North Africa. J.Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" at 236-245, 236-238, in

General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990), Abridged Edition.

[23] Abdallah Laroui, The History of the Maghrib (Paris 1970; Princeton 1977) at 17, 60 (re S.W.Asians, referencing the earlier work of Gsell).

[24] Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp. 1114, 65. Camps has an influx at eight kya (thousand years ago), with an earlier Iberian

prospering at twelve kya.

[25] J. Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" 236-245, at 237, in General History of Africa, v.II Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990).

[26] Mrio Curtis Giordani,Histria da frica. Anterior aos descobrimentos (Petrpolis, Brasil: Editora Vozes 1985) at 42-43, 77-78. Giordani

references Bousquet,Les Berbres (Paris 1961).

[27] Also see infra, "Berber language history" re Afroasiatic, in particular Diakonoff's discussion about prehistoric populations.

[28] Lloyd Cabot Briggs, Tribes of the Sahara (Harvard Univ. & Oxford Univ. 1960) at 38-40.[29] P. Salama, "The Sahara in Classical Antiquity" at 286-295, 291, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa

(UNESCO 1990), Abridged Edition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prehistoric_Central_North_Africahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ibero-Maurusianhttp://www.springerlink.com/content/x428750458w4080r/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Sudanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beja_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tuareg_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Rome_%28Mommsen%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theodor_Mommsenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Tunisiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabized_Berberhttp://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1353/hub.2006.0045http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoenicia


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[30] Julian Baldick,Black God(Syracuse University 1997) at 67.

[31] C.B.M.McBurney, The Stone Age of Northern Africa (Pelican 1960) at 258-266.

[32] J.Ki-Zerbo, "African prehistoric art" at 284-296, 286, in General History of Africa, volume I, Methodology and African Prehistory


[33] Lloyd Cabot Briggs, Tribes of the Sahara (Harvard Univ. & Oxford Univ. 1960) at 34-36.

[34] J. Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" 236-245, at 241-243, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO

1990), Abridged Edition.

[35] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 16..

[36] Soren, Ben Khader, Slim, Carthage (Simon and Schuster 1990) at 44-45.

[37] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 33-34 (villages and clans), at 135 (semi-pastoral).

[38] Cf., Abdallah Laroui, The History of the Maghrib (Paris 1970; Princeton 1977) at 64.

[39] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 24-25 (adaptation of Punic political skills).

[40] Abdallah Laroui, The History of the Maghrib (Paris 1970; Princeton 1977) at 61-62 (Phoenician pressure).

[41] The Palermo Stone (named for theMuseo Archeologico Regionale in Palermo, where much of it is kept), also called theLibyan Stone,

contains a list of the earliest pharaohs up to the Fifth dynasty of Egypt (2487-2348) as well as about fifty prior rulers. Some consider these

fifty earlier rulers to be Libyan Berbers, from whom the pharaohs derived. Helene F. Hagan, "Book Review" (http://www.tazzla.org/berber.

html) of Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996), at paragraph "a".

[42] J. Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" 236-245, at 238-240, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (University of

California/UNESCO 1990), Abridged Edition.

[43] Brent, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 22, illustration at 23.[44] Erik Hornung, Grunzge der egyptischen Geschichte (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche 1978), translated asHistory of Ancient Egypt(Cornell

Univ. 1999) at xv, 52-54; xvii-xviii, 128-133. In 818 the rulingBubastidhouse split, both of its Berber Meshwesh branches continuing to rule,

one later called the 23rd Dynasty. Hornung (1978, 1999) at 131.

[45] Almost two millennia later a Fatimid Berber army would again occupy Egypt from the west, and establish a dynasty there. See History of

early Islamic Tunisia#Fatimids: Shi'a Caliphate.

[46] 2nd Chronicles 12:2-9.

[47] Erik Hornung,History of Ancient Egypt(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche 1978; Cornell University 1999) at 129.

[48] Erik Hornung,History of Ancient Egypt(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche 1978; Cornell University 1999) at 129, 131

[49] Welch, Galbraith (1949).North African Prelude. Wm. Morrow. pp. 39.

[50] Abun-Nasr (1971).A History of the Maghrib. Cambridge University. pp. 7.

[51] Cf., Herodotus (c.484-c.425), The Histories IV, 167-201 (Penguin 1954, 1972) at 328-337; and per the Garamantes of the Libyan desert (the

Fezzan) at 329, 332.

[52] Strabo (c. 63-A.D. 24). Geographica. pp. XVIII, 3, ii.; cited by Ren Basset,Moorish Literature (Collier 1901) at iii.

[53] Cf., Abdallah Laroui, The History of the Maghrib (Paris 1970; Princeton 1977) at 65.

[54] Yet the namesMauri andMoorhave been used by ancient and medieval authors to designate also black Africans coming from south of the

Sahara. Frank M. Snowden, Jr.,Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Harvard University 1970) at 11-14.

[55] According to Herodotus (c. 490-425), The Histories at VII, 167; translated by Audrey de Selincourt, revised by A.R.Burn (Penguin 1954,

1972) at 499.

[56] B.H.Warmington, "The Carthiginian Period" 246-260, at 246 (no literature of Carthage remains), 248 (Mago of Carthage began to employ

Berbers as mercenaries in the sixth century), in General History of Africa, volume III. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990).

[57] Carthage's long and frequent interaction with the Berber peoples surrounding them, are not known to us from their accounts because we do

not possess the writings of Carthage. Serge Lancel, Carthage. A History (Oxford: Blackwell 1992, 1995) at 358-360.

[58] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 34.

[59] Gabriel Camps,Les Berbres (Edisud 1996) at 19-21.

[60] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 25, 287.[61] Diodorus Siculus (first century B.C.E., historian of Sicily [Siculus]), hisBibliothecae Historicae at xx, 17.1, 18.3; cited by Ilevbare,

Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers (1981) at 14.

[62] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 37-40 (Berber urban offices).

[63] These municipal titles are given using letters that represent only the consonant sounds, i.e., without indicating the vowel sounds, which is

characteristic of the Phoenician and other Semitic scripts (e.g., Aramaic). Hebrew and Arabic modernly indicate the vowel sounds by the

addition of "diacritical points" usually placed above the letters. Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet. An account of the origin and development of

letters (London 1883, reprint Madras 1991) at I: 159-161.

[64] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 24-27 (kingdoms).

[65] Cf., Joseph R. Applegate, "The Berber Languages" at 96-118, 96-97, inAfroasiatic. A Survey (1971).

[66] Robert Lord, Comparative Linguistics (London: English Universities Press 1966) at 67-105 (phonetics), 135-164 (morphology and syntax).

[67] Holgar Pedersen, Sprogvidenskaben i det Nittende Aarhundrede: Metoder og Resultater(Kobenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandel 1924),

translated as The Discovery of Language. Linguistic science in the 19th century (Cambridge: Harvard University 1931, reprint Midland 1962)

at 1-19, 116-124 ("Semitic and Hamitic").
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diodorus_Siculushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herodotushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fezzanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garamanteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Books_of_Chronicleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_early_Islamic_Tunisia%23Fatimids:_Shi%27a_Caliphatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_early_Islamic_Tunisia%23Fatimids:_Shi%27a_Caliphatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fatimidhttp://www.tazzla.org/berber.htmlhttp://www.tazzla.org/berber.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fifth_dynasty_of_Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palermohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palermo_Stone


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[68] Within Afroasiatic, Ehret and Bender each classify the Berber languages with Ancient Egyptian and the Semitic languages in aNorthern

Afroasiatic group; two other linguists, Fleming and Newman, classify it with Chadic; others, e.g., Hetzron, are noncommittal. Merritt Ruhlen,

A Guide to the World's Languages. Volume 1: Classification (Stanford Univ. 1987) at 90-91.

[69] Within Afroasiatic, Diakonoff supports a Berbero-Libyan and Semitic proximity. I. M. Diakonoff, Semito-Hamitic Languages (Moscow:

Nauka 1965) at 102, 104; and his Afrasian Languages (Moscow: Nauka 1988) at 24, but see per Chadic and Egyptian at 20.

[70] Although in some Afroasiatic branches the connections are loose, Semitic and Berber each are "close-knit" branches "whose internal unity

cannot be questioned." Ruhlen,A Guide to the World's Languages (Stanford Univ. 1987) at 89. Of course, Ancient Egyptian is a branch with a

single member language.

[71] Robert Hetzron, "Afroasiatic Languages" at 645-653, in Bernard Comrie, The World's Major Languages (Oxford Univ. 1990). Hetzron

discusses the Berber languages within Afroasiatic at 648.

[72] M. Lionel Bender, "Afrasian Overview" at 1-6, in Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in memory of Igor M.

Diakonoff, edited by M. Lionel Bender, Gabor Takacs, and David L. Appleyard (Muenchen: LINCOM 2003).

[73] Greenberg, Joseph (1966). The Languages of Africa. Indiana University. pp. 42, 50.

[74] Crystal, David (1987). Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. pp. 316.

[75] Carleton T. Hodge, "Afroasiatic: An Overview" at 9-26, in Hodge (ed.),Afroasiatic. A Survey (1971).

[76] Marcel Cohen,Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phontique du chamio-smitique (Paris: Champion 1947).

[77] A new branch has been proposed, Omotic, composed of languages until then considered within the Cushitic branch. M. Lionel Bender,

Omotic. A New Afroasiatic Language Family (Univ. of Southern Illinois 1975).

[78] I. M. Diakonoff,Afrasian Languages (1988) at 16, referencing "the much earlier date of the break-up of the Afrasian proto-language, as

compared with the Proto-Indo-European."[79] Regarding Berber, Cavalli-Sforza refers to possible dates up to seventeen kya for the Berber ancestor's split from Indo-European language

speakers. Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, & Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton Univ. 1994) at 103, apparently citing

A.B. Dolgopolsky, "The Indo-European homeland and lexical contacts of Proto-Indo-European with other languages" in Mediterranean

Language Review 3: 7-31 (Harrassowitz 1988).

[80] Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (c.3000) were probably developed shortly after cuneiform (c.3100), and are the oldest Afroasiatic writings

known. I. J. Gelb,A Study of Writing (Univ.of Chicago 1952, 2nd ed. 1963) at 60.

[81] The inventors of the first writing system, cuneiform, were the Sumerians who spoke a non-Afroasiatic language in Mesopotamia; yet several

centuries later it was adopted there by the Akkadians who spoke a Semitic language. Geoffrey Sampson, Writing Systems. A linguistic

introduction (Stanford Univ. 1985) at 46-47, 56.

[82] Afroasiatic language speakers of the Proto-Canaanite group, with help from a secondary syllabary developed by the Egyptians, are credited

with the invention of the alphabet. John F. Healey, The Early Alphabet(British Museum 1990) at 16-18.

[83] Patrick J. Munson, "Africa's Prehistoric Past" at 62-82, 78-81 (subtitled: 'Correlations of Archaeology and African Languages'), inAfrica,

edited by Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara (Indiana Univ. 1977). Perhaps the cultural antecedents of Afroasiatic may be traced back

twenty kya (thousands of years ago).Ibid., at 81.

[84] Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, & Alberto Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton Univ. 1994), who

compare their research results with population groups connected with language families derived from linguistics (although with the caveatthat

language speakers and genetic groups are distinct categories). "Comparison with linguistic classifications" at 96-105. A brief outline of

Afroasiatic is given at 165. Three book reviews appear inMother Tongue at Issue 24: 9-29 (1995).

[85] Cf., Holger Pedersen, The Discovery of Language. Linguistic Science in the 19th Century (Harvard Univ. 1931, reprint Midland Book 1962)

at 116-124. Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) first proposed the term Semitic; laterHamitic was named after another son of Noah in the tenth

chapter of Genesis.Ibid. (1962) at 118. HenceHamito-Semitic, the prior name for Afroasiatic.

[86] Afroasiatic had been termedHamito-Semitic because of the erroneous view that besides the Semitic branch, the other four groups were

undifferentiated and related, i.e., the so-calledHamitic branch (Ancient Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, and Hausa). Merritt Ruhlen, A Guide to

the World's Languages. Volume 1: Classification (Stanford Univ. 1987) at 85-95, 88.

[87] It had long been suggested that there were linguistically five equal and independent branches of this language family. Eventually this wassufficiently demonstrated by Greenberg, and the termAfroasiatic was coined. Joseph Greenberg, The Languages of Africa (Indiana Univ.

1963, 3rd ed. 1970) at 49-51. Although an obvious advance in language classification, the new name was misleading in that only a small

fraction of Asia and less than half of Africa speaks or spoke anAfroasiatic language. Yet it does straddle the two continents.

[88] Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff,Afrasian Languages (Moscow: Nauka Publishers 1988) at 21-24; and his earlier Semito-Hamitic Languages

(Moscow: Nauka 1965) at 102-105, followed by three Maps. Diakonoff situates the homeland in the southeast Sahara, between Tibesti and

Darfur, when it was well watered during the Mesolithic period, i.e., before nine kya (thousand years ago). Ibid. (1988) at 23. The contraction

Afrasian was invented to avoid the misleading geographical implications ofAfroasiatic.

[89] M. Lionel Bender, Omotic (1975) at 220-225, with Map. Bender discusses and differs with Diakonoff (1965). Bender situates the Afroasiatic

homeland in or around the upper Nile. Ibid. at 220-221, 225. Bender mentions that language homelands are generally proximous to the area of

the most diverse linguistic phenomena.Ibid. at 223. The upper Nile is between the complex branches of Chadic and Cushitic (and the

proposed Omotic), and is also nearby the many ancient varieties of Semitic spoken in Ethiopia. Cf., Bender, "Upside-Down Afrasian" in

Afrikanistisches Arbeitspapiere 50: 19-34 (1997).

[90] Carleton T. Hodge, "Afroasiatic: The Horizon and Beyond", in The Jewish Quarterly Review, LXXIV: 137-158 (1983) at 152. He favors the

Central Nile, citing Diakonoff, "Earliest Semites in Asia" inAOF8: 23-74 (1981), and the Munson article in the bookAfrica (Indiana Univ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_Ethiopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nile_Riverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lionel_Bender_%28linguist%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Darfurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tibestihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saharahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igor_Diakonovhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Greenberghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hamitichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Book_of_Genesishttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gottfried_Leibnizhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforzahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alphabethttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canaanite_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semitic_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Akkadianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mesopotamiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sumerianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cuneiformhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hieroglyphshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marcel_Cohenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Hetzronhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_C._Fleminghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lionel_Bender_%28linguist%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Ehret


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1977).

[91] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp. 1415.

[92] http://www.ethnologue. com/show_family. asp?subid=89997

[93] At about this time the surface water level of Lake Chad to the west was 12 meters higher than it is today. R. Said, "Chronological

framework: African pluvial and glacial epics" at 146-166, 148, in General History of Africa, volume I, Methodology and African Prehistory


[94] A drying out of the Sahara during the fourth and third millennium B.C.E. (6 kya to 4 kya) is accounted for and described by the Sahara

Pump Theory, in its most recent cycle.

[95] I. M. Diakonoff,Afrasian Languages (Moscow: Nauka Publishers 1988) at 23-24.

[96] As opposed to Diakonoff, Alexander Militarev links Afroasiatic with the Natufian culture in prehistoric Levant, and thus also locates the

Afroasiatic homeland there. Cf., Diakonoff (1988) on Militarev at 24-25; and, Gabor Takacs, "Marginal Remarks on the Classification of

Ancient Egyptian within Afro-Asiatic and its Position among African Languages" inFolia Orientalia 35: 175-196 (1999) at 186, discussing

Militarev.

[97] Cf., Stphane Gsell,Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord(Paris: Librairie Hachette 1914-1928), e.g., I: 275-308.

[98] Guanche (said to be extinct), spoken in the Canary Islands is classified as a Berber language. Merritt Ruhlen,A Guide to the World's

Languages (Stanford Univ. 1987) at 92, 93.

[99] I. M. Diakonoff,Journal of Semitic Studies (1998) at v.43: 209, 210, 212, cites a series of studies by Pelio Fronzaroli, Studi sul lessico

comune semitico (Rome 1964-1969), which discusses (1) parts of the body, (2) exterior phenomena, (3) religion and mythology, (4) wild

nature, and (5) domesticated nature; Diakonoff also cites Vladimir E. Orel and Olga V. Stolbova, Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary:

Materials for Reconstruction (Leiden: E.J.Brill 1994), which he warns to use with caution; and, Diakonoff's own "Earliest Semites in Asia:Agricultural and Animal Husbandry, According to Linguistic Data (8th-4th Millennia B.C.)" in Altorientalische Forschunden (Berlin 1981) 8:

23-74. He states, "Of the hundreds of CS [Common Semitic] cultural terms collected... hardly any prove to be Common Afroasiatic!" Journal

of Semitic Studies (1998) at 43: 213.

[100] I. M. Diankonoff, "The Earliest Semitic Community. Linguistic Data" inJournal of Semitic Studies XLIII/2: 209-219 (1998), at 213,

216-219. Diakonoff at 219 mentions the Jericho culture (ten-nine kya) as being Semitic.

[101] This revision by Diakonoff would seem to imply that the varieties of Semitic languages anciently spoken in Ethiopia arrived back in the

Horn of Africa via south Arabia.

[102] The speculation may be entertained that the Semitic-speakers in crossing Sinai encountered in the Natufian (pre-eleven kya) a more

advanced material and spiritual culture, yet that their own Semitic language proved the better able in understanding, communicating, and

negotiating the novel social situations arising (if not also during an aftermath of conquest). The ensuing complexity and protracted merger of

these two prehistoric human groups eventuated in their speaking common Semitic yet with a lexicon derived from Natufian material and

spiritual culture. If such a counter-intuitive syncretism is accepted, Diakonoff's 1988 conjecture might remain viable. The apparent fragility of

the various conjectures illustrates the degree of cognitive fog covering these prehistoric landscapes.

[103] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 127, 129.

[104] Cf. Mohammed Chafik, "Elements lexicaux Berberes pouvant apporter un eclairage dans la recherche des origines prehistoriques des

pyramides" inRevue Tifinagh ##11-12: 89-98 (1997).

[105] Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 23.

[106] Gabriel Camps,Monuments et rites funraires protohistoriques (Paris: Arts & Mtiers Graphiques 1961), cited in Baldick,Black God.

Afroasiatic roots of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions (1997) at 68-69; and generally his chapter 3 "North Africa" at 67-91.

[107] Tomb of Syphax is at Siga near Oran. Brett and Fentress, The Berbers (1996) at 27-31.

[108] Herodotus (c.484-c.425), The Histories IV, 172-174 (Penguin 1954, 1972) at 329 (divination).

[109] J.A.Ilevbare, Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers. A Study of Social Evolution in Ancient North Africa (Ibadan Univ. 1981) at 118, 122-123,

referencing also Tertullian (160-c.230) of Carthage, hisApologia at 5.1.

[110] Masinissa was venerated not so much as divine but "because they recognized his greatness and his merit which had an element of the

divine." Ilevbare, Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers (1981) at 124, citing the third century Roman Christian author (probably of North Africa)Minucius Felix, Octavius at 21.9.

[111] J.Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" at 236-245, 243, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990),

Abridged Edition.

[112] Cf. Baldick,Black God(1997) at 72, 78, 79, 81. Here Baldick mentions instances where a limited sexual license has been allowed annually

on a calendar day determined by the season and the stars or phase of the moon.

[113] Baldick,Black God(1997) at 70, 72, 73.

[114] Herodotus (c.484-c.425),Istoreia, IV 188, translated by Aubrey de Slincourt, revised by A.R.Burn, as The Histories (Penguin 1954, 1972)

at 333-334 (sun and moon).

[115] Julian Baldick,Black God: Afroasiatic Roots of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Religions (London: I.B.Tauris 1997) at 20 (Semitic

moon god, sun goddess), 70 (sun and moon worshipped by Berbers), 74 (another Berber moon god, Ieru), 89-91 (Berber religion within the

Afroasiatic). See belowBerber language history regarding Afroasiatic.

[116] Cf., Brian Doe, Southern Arabia (New York: McGraw-Hill 1971) at 25 (moon god ['LMQH], sun goddess Dhat Hamym).

[117] J.Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" at 236-245, 243-245, 245, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natufianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_Arabian_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerichohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canary_Islandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guanche_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natufianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahara_Pump_Theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahara_Pump_Theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Chadhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=89997


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[118] Ilevbare, Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers (1981) at 121, quoting the Roman-era Berber writer Apuleius, his Apologia 25, 13.

[119] There is a third century AD relief from ancient Vaga (now Bja, Tunisia), with Latin inscription, which shows seven Berber gods (theDii

Mauri or Mauran gods) seated on a bench: Bonchar in the center with a staff (master of the pantheon), to his right sits the goddess Vihina with

an infant at her feet (childbirth?), to her right is Macurgum holding a scroll and a serpent entwined staff (health?), to Bonchar's left is

Varsissima (without attributes), and to her left is Matilam evidently presiding over the sacrifice of a boar; at the ends are Macurtan holding a

bucket and Iunam (possibly the moon). Aicha Ben Abad Ben Khader and David Soren, Carthage: A Mosaid of Ancient Tunisia (American

Museum of Natural History 1987) at 139-140.

[120] Baldick,Black God: Afroasiatic Roots of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Religions (London: I.B.Tauris 1997) at chapter 3, "North

Africa". From Tertullian: Varsutina, chief goddess of Mauri (at 72); from inscriptions: the god Baccax, object of pilgrimages (at 73-74), Ieru,

moon god (74), Lilleu, male personification of rain water (74); from a Byzantine source: Gurzil, bull god with stone idol (74-75), Sinifere, war

god (74), Mastiman, infernal deity, to whom human sacrifices made (74); late medieval Canary Islands: the god Eraoranzan, worshipped by

men (77), the goddess Moneyba, venerated by women (74), Idafe, worshipped as a tall thin rock (77); spirits from modern sources: Imbarken,

Saharan spirits who controlled the winds (79), Tenunbia, female being represented by dolls, used to invoke the rain (79), Anzar, male

personification of rain (89). Also mentioned are Amun-Re of Egypt (67), Tanit of Carthage (at 71, 74, 79), or those given Roman names

(Caelestis at 74, 79), or Arabic names (e.g., the devils Shamarikh at 75).

[121] J.A.Ilevbare from inscriptions gives the Berber names of many gods in his Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers (1981) at 120. At specified

places: Bocax, Auliswa, Mona, Mathamos, Draco, Lilleus, Abaddir; and five gods together near Theveste: Masiden, Thililva, Suggan, Iesdan,

and Masiddica. Sinifere, a war god (compared to Mars). Mastina, who received human sacrifice (compared to Jupiter). Gurzil, personified as a

"magical" bull let loose in battle, hence a war god.

[122] The Libyan oracle was sister to the divine oracle of Dodona in Greece, according to Herodotus (c.484-c.425), in his The Histories II, 55-56(Penguin 1954, 1972) at 153-154.

[123] J.A.Ilevbare in his Carthage, Rome, and the Berbers (Ibadan Univ. 1981) at 117-118, states that there was a Libyan god Ammon concerned

with divination whose oracle was at the Siwa oasis, this god being apart from the Egyptian god of Thebes also called Ammon or Amun. His

sources include Oric Bates, The Eastern Libyans (London: 1914; reprint Cass 1970) at 189-191.

[124] Soren, Ben Khader, Slim, Carthage (New York: Simon and Schuster 1990) at 26-27 (fusion with Tanit), 243-244.

[125] George Aaron Barton, Semitic and Hamitic Origins. Social and Religious (Philadelphia: Univ.of Pennsylvania 1934) at 303-306, 305.

[126] "The name is apparently Libyan" in reference to the goddess Tanit: B.H.Warmington, "The Carthaginian Period" at 246-260, 254, in

General History of Africa, volume II, Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990).

[127] Glenn E. Markoe,Phoenicians (Univ.of California 2000) at 118, where Markoe notes, "The discovery at Sarepta of an inscribed ivory

plaque dedicated to Tanit-Astarte... [affirms] the mainland origin of the former goddess, whose cult achieved enormous popularity at Carthage

and the Punic west, beginning in the fifth century B.C." The Sarepta site (located on the Phoenician coast between Tyre and Sidon) was

explored by archeologists in the 1970s; the plaque is said to date to eighth century B.C. The goddess Astarte was a major deity at Tyre.

[128][128] Cf., Picard, "The Life and Death of Carthage" (1968-1969) at 151-152.

[129] Cf., E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris. The Egyptian Religion of Resurrection (London: P.L.Warner 1911; reprint University Books 1961) at II:

276-277; Budge quotes a text dating to the "New Empire" [Budge's term, the New Kingdom is dated 1550-1070] which praises the Egyptian

goddess Isis: "She of many names. ... She who filleth the Tuat with good things. She who is greatly feared in the Tuat. The great goddess in

the Tuat with Osiris in her name Tanit." Here the Tuat would be the region where "spirits departed after the death of their bodies." Budge,

ibid. at II: 155. It may have a remote relation to the Berber oasis of Tuat (In Salah) located in south central Algeria.

[130] Barton, Semitic and Hamitic Origins (1934) at 305.

[131] See History of Punic era Tunisia#Punic religion.

[132] See also History of early Islamic Tunisia regarding its probable influence on the received Muslim practice.

[133] Cf., B.H.Warmington, "The Cathaginian period" at 246-247, in General History of Africa, vol. II(UNESCO 1990).

[134] Yuri B. Tsirkin, "Phoenician and Greek Colonization" at 347-365, 351, in Igor M. Diakonoff, editor,Early Antiquity (Univ.of Chicago

1991), translated fromRannyaya Drevnost(Moskva: Nauka 1982, 1989).

[135] B.H.Warmington, "The Carthaginian period" at 246-260, 247, in General History of Africa, vol. II(UNESCO 1990), Abr. Ed.[136] Cf., Yuri B. Tsirkin, "Phoenician and Greek Colonization" at 347-365, in Igor M. Diakonoff, editor,Early Antiquity (Univ.of Chicago

1991), translated fromRannyaya Drevnost(Moskva: Nauka 1982, 1989).
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igor_M._Diakonoffhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igor_M._Diakonoffhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_early_Islamic_Tunisiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Punic_era_Tunisia%23Punic_religionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tuathttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isishttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Astartehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sareptahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thebes%2C_Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dodonahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tertullianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=B%C3%A9ja


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Article Sources and Contributors 13

Article Sources and ContributorsBackground of Tunisian history Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=522383265 Contributors: CommonsDelinker, Dr Greg, Elfelix, Iridescent, Jeancey, Woohookitty

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:African cave paintings.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:African_cave_paintings.jpgLicense: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Jiang aten.wikipedia

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File:Afroasiatic_languages-en.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Afroasiatic_languages-en.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors:Miskwito (talk)

File:Afro-Asiatic.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Afro-Asiatic.png License: unknown Contributors: EugeneZelenko, Huhsunqu, Juiced lemon, Mark Dingemanse,Twthmoses, Visite fortuitement prolonge, 2 anonymous edits

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