| 3000 years ago the location of Ephesus was highly significant. It lay on the coast of the Aegean, ‘cradle of sea faring’ below the Great Peninsula. It controlled north-south routes along the coast and west-east routes into the Anatolian Peninsula and thence to Asia. For 6000 years, since the time of Çatal Hüyük, these route ways had been of enormous importance. Anatolia’s broad, west facing valleys are extremely fertile, producing cereals, fruit and vegetables, opium, saffron, and livestock. They were rich in zinc and gold too.
Before the eruption of volcanic Thera Island (Santorini) 3500 years before the present, sea trade in the Aegean and the Mediterranean was under the suzerainty of the Cretan From the Carian, Herodotus, a major source for this work, we learn of the strong, original connections between Minoan Crete and the earliest settlers along the Ephesian coastline. Crete had trading settlements on the Nile Delta too. Herodotus was only one of those famed Ionian illuminate who about 2500 years ago, from Thales on, was strongly drawn to the wonders of the Egyptian Temple. This was facilitated by Persian Imperial Conquests. In a mere 500 years, in tiny settlements, such as Pirene, Smyrna, and Miletos, these Fathers supposedly laid the foundations of Western Science! Wow! It doesn’t compare with the size, community focused-ness and time-embedded-ness of Pharaonic Egypt, let alone what went before that. At best they half-copied some ideas. But a whole machine now exists to prove and maintain the false image of triumphant Ionia.The Schwallers note that Egypt’s lore was accessible but hidden. The protective mind-set which was its matrix was an effective protection from unworthy use. |
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