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The Lords of Avaris: Uncovering the…
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The Lords of Avaris: Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation (edition 2007)

by David Rohl (Author)

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551468,075 (4.43)9
The Lords of Avaris is one man's journey in search of the legendary origins of the Western World. Our story begins in a small rock-cut tomb below the desolate ruin-mound of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. This is the start of an epic journey of discovery, in the Homeric mould, which ranges across the ancient lands and archaeological sites of the Mediterranean. From Joshua's Jericho to Romulus' Rome, the true chronicle of our pre-Christian past is uncovered revealing an extraordinary historical picture, previously unimagined by scholars. The epic legends of the West, which permeate the writings of Greece and Rome, appear to have been based on the exploits of genuine historical figures and actual events. There really was an 'Heroic Age' of brazen-clad warriors, the last of which fought before the walls of Troy, just as described in Homer's Iliad. At the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age - two thousand years before the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate - a new people appeared on the stage of history to join the great civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. These 'Indo-European'-speaking tribes were chariot-riding warriors from the northern mountains and plains. They became the Hittites, the Aryan kings of Mitanni, the Vedic heroes of the Indus, and the founders of the later empires of Greece, Persia and Rome. They had many legendary names - the Divine Pelasgians of Greece, the Luwians of Troy and western Anatolia, the Rephaim and Anakim of the Bible, and the Hyksos rulers of Avaris who suppressed Egypt for generations. Their heroes and heroines are legionary: Inachus, mythical king of Argos in the Peloponnese; his daughter the beautiful Princess Io who married an Egyptian pharaoh; Danaus, the Hyksos ruler who, fleeing from Egypt to Greece, founded the Mycenaean dynasty which culminated in Agamemnon's ill-fated Trojan War; Cadmus, the bringer of writing to the West; Minos, the Cretan high-king of Knossos who built the infamous Labyrinth; Mopsus, warrior and sage who led a vast Greek, Philistine and Anatolian army into the Levant in a daring attempt to seize Egypt in the time of Ramesses III. All these, and more, are the stuff of legend - but The Lords of Avaris reveals these Classical heroes as flesh-and-blood characters from our ancestral past.… (more)
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Title:The Lords of Avaris: Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation
Authors:David Rohl (Author)
Info:Century (2007), 524 pages
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The Lords of Avaris by David Rohl

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When I spotted this at the library it was a must read. Looking at how myths and legends can be tied to a real chronological account of ancient history David Rohl has written a successful thesis. Taking in to account archaeology; linguistics and original sources Rohl presents a picture of the past that is worth revisiting. The migrations; wars and lives of a past that has been seen as legendary is presented in a new context.

Back in the nineteenth century it was decided that the dating system based on Egyptian records was the way to date the ancient world. This led to the idea of the Greek Dark ages and dating the Trojan war to the 12th century BC. A reinterpretation of that has led Rohl and others to the conclusion that this is a basically flawed idea.

I have some reservations about the way he has presented his ideas; mainly in the way he writes — not in the actual interpretation of the data he uses. If you are interested this is a fascinating subject and well worth reading. ( )
1 vote calm | Mar 7, 2010 |
A brilliant book by David Rohl that buttresses his New Chronology in several ways. Rohl is picking up, in essence, where his ex-colleagues Peter James, et al., left off. Namely, that there is no Greek Dark Ages. The archaeology of Greece is tied to the over-extended chronology of Egypt, which means that Greek cities are occupied, then unoccupied for three hundred years or so, then occupied again by people who are oddly similar to the guys from three hundred years ago. He also shows how a whole bunch of Greek myths, fables, and histories all of a sudden match up with Hittite, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian, and even biblical, records when the chronology of Greece is lowered. The Trojan war in the 800s makes more sense as it relates to stratigraphy, the founding of Rome, the Sea Peoples, the collapse of Minoan civilization, the eruption of Thera, the Dorian invasions, et cetera. Figures like Inachus, Cecrops, Pelops, Mopsus, Aeneas, Tuecer, and on and on and on now fit into history, and actually, many times, have actual counterparts in the written historical records. An essential entry. ( )
1 vote tuckerresearch | May 18, 2009 |
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The Lords of Avaris is one man's journey in search of the legendary origins of the Western World. Our story begins in a small rock-cut tomb below the desolate ruin-mound of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. This is the start of an epic journey of discovery, in the Homeric mould, which ranges across the ancient lands and archaeological sites of the Mediterranean. From Joshua's Jericho to Romulus' Rome, the true chronicle of our pre-Christian past is uncovered revealing an extraordinary historical picture, previously unimagined by scholars. The epic legends of the West, which permeate the writings of Greece and Rome, appear to have been based on the exploits of genuine historical figures and actual events. There really was an 'Heroic Age' of brazen-clad warriors, the last of which fought before the walls of Troy, just as described in Homer's Iliad. At the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age - two thousand years before the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate - a new people appeared on the stage of history to join the great civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. These 'Indo-European'-speaking tribes were chariot-riding warriors from the northern mountains and plains. They became the Hittites, the Aryan kings of Mitanni, the Vedic heroes of the Indus, and the founders of the later empires of Greece, Persia and Rome. They had many legendary names - the Divine Pelasgians of Greece, the Luwians of Troy and western Anatolia, the Rephaim and Anakim of the Bible, and the Hyksos rulers of Avaris who suppressed Egypt for generations. Their heroes and heroines are legionary: Inachus, mythical king of Argos in the Peloponnese; his daughter the beautiful Princess Io who married an Egyptian pharaoh; Danaus, the Hyksos ruler who, fleeing from Egypt to Greece, founded the Mycenaean dynasty which culminated in Agamemnon's ill-fated Trojan War; Cadmus, the bringer of writing to the West; Minos, the Cretan high-king of Knossos who built the infamous Labyrinth; Mopsus, warrior and sage who led a vast Greek, Philistine and Anatolian army into the Levant in a daring attempt to seize Egypt in the time of Ramesses III. All these, and more, are the stuff of legend - but The Lords of Avaris reveals these Classical heroes as flesh-and-blood characters from our ancestral past.

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