Ancient World Review

The Isle Of The Dragon's Blood Trees

"Socotra Archipelago, in the northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden, is 250 km long and comprises four islands and two rocky islets which appear as a prolongation of the Horn of Africa. The site is of universal importance because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna..." Source: UNESCO.

Socotra was called Dioskouridou ('of the Dioscurides') or Dioscorida in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a first century AD shipping manual. According to the author of the Periplus, "Dioscorida ... is very large but desert and marshy, having rivers in it and crocodiles and many snakes and great lizards, of which the flesh is eaten and the fat melted and used instead of olive oil." Source: Fordham University Internet History Sourcebooks (paragraph 30).

Note: I'm not sure about this, but I think the Erythraean Sea is the old name for the Red Sea and at least part (?) of the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean. A map of the Erythraean Sea drawn in 169 BC by the Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides of Cnidus, can be found here. Socotra (lower right at the bottom of the map) was ideally located to be a jumping-off point for voyages to India.

Socotra has been called "the world's strangest place" with good reason. The plants on Socotra are truly bizarre, as can be seen in these pictures. The island's spectacular and alien landscape looks like something out of a science-fiction movie.

The ancient history of Socotra is obscure, but its inhabitants traded spices and the sap of their Dragon's Blood trees to Egypt and Rome. Its location near the mouth of the Red Sea made it an important stopover for cargo ships involved in the thriving maritime trade with the far east.

"The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all tapped the treasures of Socotra’s natural world: aromatic resins such as frankincense, medicinal aloe extract, and the dark red sap of the dragon’s blood tree, used for healing and as an artist’s color. Adventurers came to harvest the island’s wealth, despite stories that it was guarded by giant snakes living in its caves. The Queen of Sheba, Alexander the Great, and Marco Polo were among those who coveted Socotra’s riches." Source: National Geographic.

"The value of incense and dragon’s blood peaked during the time of the Roman Empire. Afterward, the island served mostly as a way station for traders, passing centuries in relative cultural isolation. Socotra’s residents lived generation after generation as their ancestors had: the mountain Bedouin minding their goats, the coastal residents fishing, and everyone harvesting dates. Island history was passed down through poetry, recited in the Socotri language."

According to Socotra Eco-Tours, Aristotle, Alexander the Great's tutor, selected a group of colonists to settle on Socotra. The idea was to harvest its myrhh, valued for its medicinal properties, and turn the island into a base for Alexander's invasion of India. The Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily (1st cent BC) mentions Socotra as a major source of myrhh, ladanum and various aromatic plants. The island was an important way station where "[s]ailors and tradesmen not only bought precious resins and medical herbs...which they later on sold at markets in the Roman empire or the Indian kingdoms, but also gained strength and supplies necessary for their long journeys to the African coast, Madagascar or to Persia." Inscriptions in various languages have been found inside Hoq cave on the island. (See video below)

Considering the island's strategic location and valuable resources, I imagine it was fought over repeatedly by various empires in the ancient world. Most of this history, unfortunately, has been lost forever. 

Note: "In 1834, the East India Company, in the expectation that the Mahra sultan of Qishn and Socotra, who resided at Qishn on the mainland [southern coast of modern Yemen], would accept an offer to sell the island, stationed a garrison on Socotra. Faced with the unexpected firm refusal of the sultan to sell, however, as well as the lack of good anchorages for a coaling station to be used by the new steamship line being put into service on the Suez-Bombay route, the British left in 1835." (Wikipedia)

Is The Real Mount Sinai In Saudi Arabia?

"'Yahweh came from Sinai' (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 68:18). It is in Sinai that Moses first encounters Yahweh; it is back to Sinai that Moses leads Yahweh’s people from Egypt; and it is from Sinai that, two years later, on Yahweh’s order again, Moses sets off with them to conquer a piece of the Fertile Crescent.

"But where is Sinai, with its Mount Horeb [the mountain where God gave Moses the 10 commandments]? Exodus unequivocally places it in the land of Midian ...

"And where is Midian? Greek authors unanimously place it in northwestern Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba [see map]. Even Paul the Apostle, who spent three years in Arabia, knew that 'Sinai is a mountain in Arabia' (Galatians 4:25). It was not before the 4^th century that the biblical Sinai was misplaced in the Egyptian peninsula, probably for geopolitical reasons (Egypt was within the control of the Roman Empire, unlike Arabia, under Persian influence). But placing the biblical Sinai west of the Gulf of Aqaba didn’t make any sense, since that region had always belonged to Egypt (archeology has confirmed it). Why would the Israelites have settled there when chased by the Egyptian army?" Source: "The Arabian Cradle of Zion," by French historian Laurent Guyenot, The Unz Review. Image from World Atlas.

Comment: Whether you agree with Laurent Guyenot in general, he's right about one thing, at least. The idea that the biblical Mount Sinai / Mount Horeb is located on the Sinai peninsula doesn't make any sense at all. If the Jews were fleeing Egypt, why would they settle on Egyptian territory? Assuming this is actual history we're talking about here -- a very big assumption -- they would have left Egypt altogether and crossing the Gulf of Aqaba into Arabia would have been a good way to put some distance between them and the pharaoh. If that's what actually happened -- if the real Mount Sinai is in Arabia and not on the Sinai peninsula -- it would overturn centuries of accepted religious doctrine:

"The biblical Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. The summit [in Egypt] has a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is 'Moses' cave', where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments." (Wikipedia)

The supposed Mount Sinai in Egypt. Is this just a pile of rocks in the middle of the desert?

I'm not sure how many Christians, Jews and Muslims still accept the idea that Mount Sinai is in Egypt. Some Christians, at least, have come around to the belief that the mountain is in Saudi Arabia and the idea seems to be gaining in popularity.  The UNZ Review article quoted above points out the effect this is having on Middle Eastern politics:

"The growing popularization of the Arabian Sinai cannot be unrelated to the NEOM project announced in October 2017 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman: a high-tech, ultra-connected, transnational mega city and economic zone, covering 10,230 square-miles (about the size of Massachusetts), which happens to correspond roughly to ancient Midian."

There's a lot that could be said about the Saudis, the NEOM project and the war in Yemen, among other things, but never mind all that. The UNZ Review article is as much about the current politics of the region as it is about the actual location of the mountain where YHWH gave Moses the ten commandments, but I'm just interested in the ancient history here. I'm not going to comment one way or another about the political stuff, but I will say that there is something deeply sinister about the NEOM project.

Getting back to where Mount Sinai is actually located, it would be interesting to know if the conventional wisdom has been wrong all these years, but I'm not sure how anybody could prove that this or that pile of granite in the desert is the biblical mountain. You would need an ancient map or some kind of non-biblical documentary evidence to do that and nothing of the sort has been discovered as far as I know. But even if the question could be settled conclusively, what difference would it make?

Scholarly interest aside, the importance of all this depends on whether you believe that the Old Testament stories are true. Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe that YHWH appeared on a mountaintop in the form of a burning bush and gave Moses a list of commandments. I don't believe that YHWH exists in the first place and Moses himself is probably a mythological character:

"The modern scholarly consensus is that the figure of Moses is a mythical figure, and while, as William G. Dever writes, 'a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C.', archaeology cannot confirm his existence. Certainly no Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure." (Wikipedia)

The Exodus itself, the founding myth of the Israelites, probably never happened as well:

"The consensus of modern scholars is that the Bible does not give an accurate account of the origins of Israel, which formed as an entity in the southern Transjordan region by the 13th century BCE from the indigenous Canaanite culture. There is no evidence that the Israelites were ever enslaved in ancient Egypt or even lived there and scholars broadly agree that the Exodus has no historical basis. There is a widespread agreement that the composition of the Torah or Pentateuch, the biblical books which contain the Exodus narrative, took place in the Middle Persian Period (5th century BCE), although the traditions behind it are older and can be found in the writings of the 8th-century BCE prophets." (Wikipedia)

In light of all this, the question of where Mount Sinai was located seems pretty much irrelevant.

The Roman Frontier In Jordan

"Until the 1980s, the Roman frontier in modern Jordan was among the least studied of the empire’s far-flung border regions. From 1980 until 1989, the Limes Arabicus Project investigated the frontier east of the Dead Sea. Excavation focused on the late Roman legionary fortress of el-Lejjun as well as soundings of four smaller but contemporaneous forts. The project’s regional survey recorded over five hundred other archaeological sites in the area, dating from the Paleolithic to the Late Islamic periods." Source: "The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan, Final Report of the Limes Arabicus Project," 1980-1989, Harvard University Press.

"This frontier, known as the Limes Arabicus, spanned more than 1,300 kilometers from northern Syria to southern Palestine and the edges of the Arabian Peninsula. Recent research and excavations have done much to augment scholarly knowledge of this frontier, which served as the south-eastern defense of the Roman Empire for over six centuries, until it was eventually overrun by the Arab Muslim conquerors in the 630s. This frontier consisted not only—nor even primarily—of fortifications and watchtowers, but also of major nomadic tribal confederations, allied to Rome, which patrolled the desert and ensured the security of the eastern provinces by exercising control over nomadic movements both within and, to a certain degree, beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire." Source: Ballandalus.

Related: Archaeological Explorations of the Roman Frontier in North-East Jordan.

Limes Arabicus and Still-Standing Buildings

Ancient Inscription Points To Lost Temple Of Unknown God In Yemen

Video from 2016.

"A 2,000-year-old bronze tablet from Yemen, has engraved writing that mentions a lost temple dedicated to a god named 'Athtar Ḥarmān,' a deity whom scholars have never heard of before." Source: Live Science.

"Written in the Sabaic language, in a text known as Sabaean [see next video], the bronze inscription reads:

"'Ilīmataʿ and Khabīʾat, the two servants of Khawliyān offered to Athtar Ḥarmān, the owner of Bana, with a tablet of bronze, their sons and those he will add, for their salvation'" (translation by Christian Robin)."

Note: "For readers of the Bible, the region (Saba) is best known for its possible identification as the biblical land of Sheba. In 1 Kings 10 the Queen of Sheba travels to Jerusalem with a large retinue and brings spices, gold, and other valuables with her. She tests Solomon’s wisdom and they then exchange gifts." (Daily Beast)

Arabia Felix - Fortunate Arabia

"Arabia Felix—Fortunate Arabia—was the name chosen by the Romans for the lands on the southern fringe of the Arabian Peninsula, some of which were known until recently as the Aden Protectorates, now the Federation of South Arabia, and Yemen. It would seem today, perhaps, in looking upon a region that is little more than empty plateau and arid desert, that the Romans exercised somewhat less than acute judgment in choosing such a name. But that's today. At the time there were many reasons for the Romans to believe that South Arabia was a blessed land." Source: Saudi Aramco World.

Notes: The Arabian Peninsula has a long and complex history. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD), 3rd ed revised, "Greeks of the Classical period were familiar with the coast of Arabia and with Arabia Petraea. They knew less about the other divisions into which by Ptolemy's time they [the Romans?] had divided the peninsula -- Arabia Felix in the south and Arabia Deserta."

Alexander the Great planned "the conquest of the eastern Arabian coast, in preparation for which he sent naval expeditions into both the Persian Gulf and Red Sea." (OCD) Arabia was important for the Greeks and Macedonians for its incense, spices, gold and gems, "and [for] its role as middleman for the Indian trade."

"Augustus sent a military expedition under Aelius Gallus to Arabia Felix which failed, but Roman naval predominance in the Red Sea was secured and the reduction of Aden (Arabia Eudaemon) in the early Principate eased the movement of Roman merchantmen beween Egypt and India."

Related: Trade Between Arabia and the Empires of Rome and Asia.

 

World's First Images Of Dogs On Leashes?

"Carved into a sandstone cliff on the edge of a bygone river in the Arabian Desert, a hunter draws his bow for the kill. He is accompanied by 13 dogs, each with its own coat markings; two animals have lines running from their necks to the man’s waist." Source: Science.

"The engravings likely date back more than 8000 years, making them the earliest depictions of dogs, a new study reveals. And those lines are probably leashes, suggesting that humans mastered the art of training and controlling dogs thousands of years earlier than previously thought."

Did Laziness Help Lead To The Extinction Of Homo Erectus?

"New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus, an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because they were ‘lazy’." Source: Eurasian Review.

"An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used ‘least-effort strategies’ for tool making and collecting resources."

Comment: These archaeologists claim to have found evidence that Homo erectus used whatever rocks were lying around to make their tools while ignoring higher quality rocks available (with a little more effort) at a nearby outcrop:

"They knew [the better rock outcrop] was there, but because they had enough adequate resources they seem to have thought, 'why bother?'

"This is in contrast to the stone tool makers of later periods, including early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, who were climbing mountains to find good quality stone and transporting it over long distances."

These Homo erectus layabouts also seem to have stubbornly kept to their old ways of doing things even though their environment was going through changes that threatened their survival if they didn't alter their habits:

"Not only were they lazy, but they were also very conservative," according to one of the researchers, and this lack of adaptability in the face of climate change may have contributed to their extinction.

If you take all of this at face value Homo erectus doesn't sound too bright, but there are other ways to interpret the finds at this site. For instance, the archaeologists are assuming that "least-effort strategies" are a sign of laziness, but they could be a sign of basic practicality. After all, why work harder than you have to if it isn't necessary to achieve your goals? It's also possible that Homo erectus simply lacked the mental capacity for innovation found in modern humans. Considering the fact that they weren't modern humans, that wouldn't be very surprising.

They were smart enough to use fire and make handaxes, though. According to The Smithsonian, "the appearance of Homo erectus in the fossil record is often associated with the earliest handaxes, the first major innovation in stone tool technology," and "evidence for the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning some 600,000 years ago, has wide scholarly support." (Wikipedia) They were social animals as well. According to Wikipedia, "Homo erectus was probably the first hominin to live in a hunter-gatherer society, and anthropologists such as Richard Leakey believe that erectus was socially more like modern humans than the more Australopithecus-like species before it."

If any of this is accurate, I guess you could say that Homo erectus was innovative up to a certain point, but too limited mentally to develop any further. They weren't necessarily "lazy" -- I don't see how you could call any of these early hominins lazy considering the effort it must have taken just to stay alive back then -- but when they found a system that worked they never bothered to improve it. They were creatures of habit who stuck to the routines that had worked for them in the past and this led to their eventual extinction when they couldn't adapt to changing environmental conditions.

In a way, they sound a lot like modern humans. Based on my own experience, I'd say that we have a tendency to settle into ruts and stay there until some outside force compels us to change our ways. In the case of Homo erectus, maybe the thing that finally forced them out of their behavioral rut was their own extinction event.

The same thing could be happening to us.

The Belitung Shipwreck

Notes: "The Belitung shipwreck (also called the Tang shipwreck or Batu Hitam shipwreck) is the wreck of an Arabian dhow which sailed a route from Africa to China around 830 AD. The ship completed the outward journey, but sank on the return journey, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia." Source: Wikipedia.

The Belitung shipwreck, along with two other ships discovered in the area, "turned out to be an undersea treasure trove of such massive historical significance that Shanghai, Singapore and Doha in Qatar are vying with each other to buy the cargo," according to The Independent (2011) .

"The treasure was part of a huge cargo of eighth-century porcelain that traders from the Chinese Tang dynasty had put aboard an Arab dhow for export to Malaysia, India and what is now Saudi Arabia. The dhow's remains, found among the treasure, suggest the ship was wrecked on the treacherous underwater reefs of Indonesia's Karimata straits on its outward voyage through the Java sea." (Ibid)

Related: Controversies surrounding the Belitung shipwreck

Ancient Camel Rock Art Found In Saudi Arabia

"At a remarkable site in northwest Saudi Arabia, archaeologists have discovered camelid sculptures unlike any others in the region. They are thought to date back to the first centuries BC or AD. The find sheds new light on the evolution of rock art in the Arabian Peninsula." Source: Science Daily.

Note: Located near caravan routes in the desert, this site may have been a way station or place of worship.

Related: Rock Art of Saudi Arabia.

Note On The Historical Muhammad

I don't know a lot about the early history of Islam and apparently no one else does, either. From what I can tell, the story of how Islam first appeared is very similar to the story of how Christianity first appeared. You have many of the same ingredients: the prophet with a foggy biography, the companions or disciples who supposedly wrote down his story from an early oral tradition which may or may not have existed, the early documents of doubtful authenticity, the borrowed elements from other belief systems, the gradual appearance of an organized religion. It's all very murky.

In the case of Islam, the figure of Muhammad is even more obscure than that of Jesus, mostly because the sources that do exist don't provide much biographical information and because so little is known about the world of pre-Islamic Arabia. The sources are so sketchy and questionable that it's impossible to write any kind of reliable biography of Muhammad:

"On the one hand, it is not possible to write a historical biography of the Prophet without being accused of using the sources uncritically, while on the other hand, when using the sources critically, it is simply not possible to write such a biography." Source: "Historicity of Muhammad," Wikipedia.

Muhammad, like Jesus and the Buddha, may be a totally legendary character. And the Islamic version of its early history, like the version of early Jewish history found in the Old Testament, may be legendary as well. According to one book, "Crossroads to Islam," Muhammad probably didn't exist and monotheistic Islam didn't come into existence until much later than traditionally believed.

These claims have apparently been rejected by most mainstream scholars, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. The whole question of whether Muhammad was an actual historical figure is just as contentious and politicized as the question of whether Jesus actually existed. Both issues are obscured by a fog of rhetoric, misinformation and intractable arguments about the authenticity of ancient sources, so it's impossible to come to any definite conclusions one way or another.

It doesn't really matter, though. Until someone comes up with concrete evidence to the contrary, I'd have to say that none of these characters actually existed in the real world.