A Book of Dartmoor: Second EditionBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A Book of Dartmoor: Second Edition
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Dartmoor (England)
"Further quiet research makes it clear beyond all manner of doubt
that the Phœnician tin colony, domiciled at Totnes, and whose Sun
Temple was located on their eastern sky-line at Ipplepen, have
left extensive traces of their presence all the way down the Dart
in the identical and unaltered names of places, a test of which
the Palestine Exploration Committee record the priceless value.
To give but one instance. The beautiful light-refracting diadem
which makes Belliver[16] the most striking of all her sister tors,
received from the Semite its consecration as 'Baallivyah,' Baal,
crown of beauty or glory. The word itself occurs in Proverbs i.
9 and iv. 9, and as both Septuagint and Vulgate so render it, it
must have borne that meaning in the third century B.C., and in the
third century A.D., and, of course, in the interval. There are
many other instances quite as close, and any student of the new
and fascinating science of Assyriology will continually add to
them. A portrait of Ballhatchet, with some notes by an eminent and
well-known Semitic scholar, may probably appear in the _Graphic_;
in the meantime it may be pointed out that his name is typically
Babylonian. Not only is there at Pantellaria the gravestone of one
Baal-yachi (Baal's beloved), but no less than three clay tablets
from the Sun Temple of Sippara (the Bible Sepharvaim) bear the
names of Baal-achi-iddin, Baal-achi-utsur, and Baal-achi-irriba.
This last, which bears date 22 Sivan (in the eleventh year of
Nabonidus, B.C. 540), just two years before the catastrophe which
followed on Belshazzar's feast, is in the possession of Mr. W. G.
Thorpe, F.S.A. It is in beautiful condition, and records a loan by
one Dinkiva to Baal-achi-irriba (Baal will protect his brother), on
the security of some slaves."
One really wonders in reading such nonsense as this whether modern
education is worth much, when a man could write such trash and an
editor could admit it into his paper.
Ballhatchet means the hatchet or gate to a ball, _i.e._ a mine.
As it happens, there is not a particle of trustworthy evidence that
the Phœnicians ever traded directly with Cornwall and Devon. The
intermediary traders were the Veneti of what is now Vannes, and the tin
trade was carried through Gaul to Marseilles, as is shown by traces
left on the old trade route. In the next place, there is no evidence
that our British or Ivernian ancestors ever heard the name of Baal. And
finally, Belstone is not named after a stone at all, to return to the
point whence we started. In Domesday it is Bellestham, or the _ham_,
meadow of Belles or Bioll, a Saxon name that remains among us as Beale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account