ANTIPAS TO CAMENIHAH
INTRODUCTION
The MAP provided with this entry is based on the ancient SUMMERIAN KING LIST, mentioned in the discussions of this entry. (Hunt p. 43) The MAP is however, especially provided to draw attention to KISH. In the upper right, No. 5, refers to SHURUPPAK a city state that ruled the region soon after the Flood from which the KINGSHIP was passed to KISH. (See entries in this web site THE ANCIENT CITY OF KISH, THE JAREDITES AND THE BRASS PLATES 4 Aug 2005; FARA-ANCIENT SHURUPPAK AND THE JAREDITES 28 July 2005) In the lower left one will note the series of references, 7, 11, 17, 19, to KISH. In the upper left, there are two more references, 16 and 19. KISH occurs several times in the genealogy of JARED. (Largey p. 431) This a likely the City of origin, or at least somewhere nearby, for the Jaredites. Note also the locations of important cities in Mormon scriptures, No. 9, 14 and 24 of UR. Abraham was probably in UR during the Dynasty 111 period. Also note the location of URKISH, (Roaf p. 113) which will be mentioned below, as well as No. 16, MARI, a major contributor of names from tablets found there. And off the MAP, a hundred miles to the west, in the upper right, is where EBLA is located, important in many ways for Jaredite history and names, some of which are discussed below. Notice how the clay tablets refer to the extensive and expanded years before the flood, a significant Biblical confirmation.
The map THE QUAY AT CARCHEMISH shows the location of that famous Quay, used for thousands of years. Nearly every one coming down the Euphrates River, and those going north on the east side, if accompanied by or part of a caravan, crossed form the east side to the west side of the river at the QUAY. Abraham crossed here coming from HARAN about 50 miles to the east. The Jaredites were familiar enough with the Quay to used CHEMISH in their genealogy. Was the ancient Quay the source of the name they used? Or is there a link to another group of people? The QUAY will be discussed in some detail in PART 12.
ANTIPAS: ANTI, PAS, PASQUE, PASQUI, PASQU, PUSQU(M)
ANTIPAS is a place name, the name of a mountain where a heinous crime took place. It was the mountain upon which deserting Lamanites who refused to go to war against the Nephites gathered to resist efforts to "compel them to arms,." about 72 BC. (Alma 47:3) The traitorous Amalickiah met with the rebellious Lamanite leader Lehonti in the night at the foot of the mount. "In the original Book of Mormon manuscript there may have been two or more misspellings or confusion between the followers of AMELEKI, (Omni 1:12) and AMLICLI (Alma 2:1) and a possible misspelling of AMALEKITES (Alma 21:2, 4:6) in the Book of Mormon manuscripts prepared by Oliver Cowdery," (Conkling p. 112) which does not change the meanings. AMALICKIAH, pretending alliance with Lehonti, agreed to surrender his army to Lehonti as part of his plan to take over the Lamanite kingdom. (Alma 47:8-18) The narrative then gives an account of absolute ruthlessness and deceit. One aspect of it clearly anticipated our day. It is common today to accuse and lie about something and pretend it is the truth to bring about frightful consequence. Amalickiah by false pretenses gets Lehonti to meet with him and proposes an evil plan that Lehonti follows leading to results that only serves Amalickiah, who then kills Lehonti and in a heinous travesty of justice accuses the servants of Lehonti of the murder and gets Lehonti's people to believe the servants are the guilt party so they chase after the servants. By this murder he gains the kingdom. The whole story is an extremely good example of using accusations and lies and touting it as truth against someone to demean and destroy them and get great gain. (Alma 47: 24-27) A common practice today, especially in Syria.
ANTIPAS is a genuine Indian word. On the mountain slopes of the Cordilleras, in the upper Amazon basin, there is, according to Dr. Brinton, a tribe of Indians, of the Jivaro linguistic stock, known as the ANTIPAS. They are described as tall, light color, thin lips, aquiline noses, straight eyes, prognathic jaws and black hair with a reddish tint. There is also a significant parallel of this place name denoting a mountain in the Book of Mormon and the South American Andes Mountain Range. Reynolds has pointed out the following: "Anti- appears in the Peruvian word Antisuyu. The name given by Peruvians to the eastern part of their vast domain; that is, to the part that was transversed by the loftiest ridge of the Andes Mountains." (Reynolds p. 20) When I visited the Alto-plano of Peru and the ruins near Cusco, to study geology and archeology, I became aware the Peruvians used the word as it is found in the Book of Mormon. In the New World, in the Amazon Basin there is a tribe called by that name. (Hickman p. 175) Until more study is done such parallels may be more of a coincidence than real.
The place name, ANTIPAS, has the prefix ANTI-, and the suffix -PAS. As a geologist, I know the use of ANTI in the geological term ANTICLINE, meaning ARCH-FOLD in stratified rocks. A ridge or mountain of folded strata. (Challinor p. 8) It is used in the Book of Mormon as a place name for an infamous mountain. All that has been written in previous parts of this web site on ANTI- apply to this name as well. We have discussed ANTI before, it has several meanings, one is being "like" or "with," whatever is then identified by the suffix, which would then indicate "like" what? So we are looking for the "like," like what?
In the Akkadian dictionary, there is the word PASQUE, with two variations: (PASQIS and PASQU), meaning "narrow" of way, or a terrain that is "steep, difficult, severe, hard," "with difficulty," "a ledge." These are appropriate meanings for the Book of Mormon name. PASQUE can also be written with a "u" instead of the "a." without changing its meaning. For example, by putting in the "u" in place of the "a" and adding some mimation common to Book of Mormon names, especially Jaredite ones, we end up with PUSQU(M), which is, with the meaning " narrowness; straits," "mountain defile," (Black p. 280) in keeping with the Book of Mormon usage. So the meaning of ANTIPAS, in one ancient application is in keeping with the Book of Mormon's usage as a "Mountain," the meaning would be "like a steep or difficult terrain." (Black p. 269) Typical of a mountain! Buried in antiquity are the sources of many things; geological terms and Book of Mormon names! In the Akkadian dictionary, there are more than 75 names with the prefix PAS-, the suffix always determining the meaning. One name has the meaning of "anointed." (Baker pp. 992-993) In one list of names the meaning of the prefix- seems to be "becoming tranquil," in reference to a God. (di Vito p. 314) Other parallels, that do not vary much in meaning, are found in the AKKADIAN DICTIONARY (hereafter AD) where the spelling of the prefix is: PAS, PES and PUS. The meaning does not change when the vowel changes. For many of the names in the dictionaries, it is indicated that the use of the element PAS is Old Akkadian. The usage of PAS as a prefix or suffix greatly decreased in subsequent periods in Mesopotamia. In the Neo-Assyrian sources there were less than a dozen names with the element PAS, (Baker pp. 992-993) which is a decrease in usage by nearly 90 %. The element PASQU is found in the ASSYRIAN ENGLISH-ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY, recently acquired, where it is classified as an adjective and where the meaning is "narrow, arduous, cumbersome, difficult, grueling, precipitous, steep," like a mountain. PASAQU, another term from that same source has a similar meaning of "narrow, difficult." (Parpola p. 82) Many of the old forms are not given any meaning or it is stated that the meaning is unknown because it is old. The Book of Mormon retains some names with an old usage and understanding. This is consistent with the Book of Mormon being a true account of the time and world of the Jaredites and not a work of fiction.
The consonant element PS in the suffix -PAS, is recorded in inscriptions of the ancient Phoenicians, but like some of the entries in the AD, the meaning is not given or is unknown. (Benz p. 392) But again, it confirms the usage of the element is old. So, it is worthwhile to check the older name lists, pre-Akkadian, for some additional information. A cursory examination of names in the older Sumerian lists do show the presence of the element PA, where it is indicated to be Pre-Sargonic, (before Akkadian). (di Vito p. 31, 79 ) This becomes an important observation when we try to estimate the time the Jaredites departed the Middle East. In the Sumerian sources the A is replaced by U, so both the PA and PU elements, such as in names with the prefix of PUZ-, are present in ancient Sumerian, (Kleinerman p. 179) confirming the antiquity of the name by its presence in the Jaredite Record. As noted, the elements PS and PAS, do seem to have lost their use and meaning down through time. In the ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY, a massive and much larger dictionary published three years after the work of Baker, but before the work of Parpola, the PAS element can be written PIS, PES, PAS and PUS, without changing any meaning, and the use of PAS, or its varieties, as a prefix portion of names and words, is also much greater. (Roth p. 216) Thus, the usage in the Book of Mormon is consistent with the times of the Jaredites. The only way Joseph could have effortlessly included all of this into the Book of Mormon is to have had all the books that surround me now, or through divine inspiration. He did not have the sources, even Emma stated he had "neither book nor manuscript" or any kind of reference or source materials to guide him. (Welch p. 55) He was, therefore, a greatly inspired and guided prophet! In fact, unusually so. The Book of Mormon is an underrated tremendous historical book and much of its gold and silver remains to be mined! As a geologist, I am digging and finding abundant precious metals.
Perhaps it should be noted that nearly all of the Place names in the Book of Mormon were sites of battles or conflict. (Hauck Appendix B)
ANTIPUS: ANTI, PUS, PASQU(M), PUS(M)
ANTIPUS was the name of a Nephite army officer about 66 BC. The commanding officer, Moroni, appointed him to command the Nephite forces in a portion of Nephite Lands including the city of Judea. His men suffered many losses to the Lamanites, losing many of their leaders, until joined by Helaman and his 2000 stripling warriors. Because of these reinforcement, Ammoran ordered the Lamanites not to attack the city. (Alma 56:9-18) Later ANTIPUS and Helaman enacted a successful strategy to trap the Lamanites outside of their stronghold in Antiparah. The armies of ANTIPUS and Helaman defeated the Lamanites but in the course of the battle ANTIPUS became wearied and exhausted from "the speed of his march" in pursuit of the Lamanites and lost his life. (Alma 56:21-57; Largey p. 68; Price p. 118)
All that has been compiled and discussed above and in earlier PARTs of this series about the prefix ANTI-, with the meaning 'life', applies to the name ANTIPUS as well. That leaves the suffix -PUS, in part, also discussed above, to be examined. As pointed , the suffix -PUS can also appear as a prefix PES- or PAS- as the name PASQU(M) illustrates. In the Akkadian dictionary there are 22 names and words, with more than twice that, of variations of the use of the prefix PUS-. In the word PUS(U)M, the meaning is "whiteness," (Black p. 280), and is used in referring to gold and silver, it means the brilliance of the metallic appearance. Substituting an "e" for the "u" or, as in PESU(M), adding mimation, the meaning is "to be white" sometime expressed as the white heat of a fire. (Black p. 273) So, one meaning of the name ANTIPUS could be "like the white heat of fire." Because of the association in some variations of the name with gold and silver, the meaning may be a metallurgical term or name referring to the "white heat of a refining fire" often used in scriptures in reference to a person being taken into the refining fire for the development of his character and attributes. In mining, when the next to the final stage of refining takes place in a cupel furnace, the combined gold-silver melt is heated with fluxes to an incandescent white heat. It can never be mistaken the white is so brilliant. The product obtained then only needs to be cleaned up with electrolytic processing. In the Akkadian dictionary there are seven names and words with about the same amount of variations with the PUS- prefix. (Black p. 273)
In Old Akkadian there is the word PUZUR, with the prefix PU-, meaning "Protection of God," perhaps it might be associated with the refining fire to exalt a person. (di Vito p. 314) There is also the word or name PU, meaning '"word of Dagan" or "word of God," which would not take much of a stretch to see a distant relationship with most of the above. (di Vito p. 314)
In the Neo-Assyrian name lists, where PUS is listed, there are several names or words with the prefix PUS-, (Baker p. 1000) but for ten names the lists refers to the PUS- prefix being replaced, probably because of vocalization, by BUS- forms, nearly all with meanings unknown. Thirteen names are listed with some variations. (Radner p. 356) PUS and BUS , were interchangeable, it seems to be a vocalization thing with the use and sound of B over P becoming preferred.
ANTUM
ANTUM is a place name for the Land of ANTUM (Mormon l:2-4) The Land of ANTUM was near the city of JASHON. (Mormon 2:17) It was to this hill that AMMARON instructed MORMON to go to obtain the plates of Nephi in order to engrave the history of his people. (Mormon l:2-4; Largey pp. 68-69) The hill SHIM was in the land of ANTUM. (Mormon l:3) about 322 BC. (Hauck p. 2100) Make note of that. The Nephite attempt to establish a defensive settlement in the land of JOSHUA near the west sea ultimately failed, and by 345 AD they were in full retreat through the narrow pass, Mormon visited the nearby hill of SHIM in the land of ANTUM, where he recovered some of the records that AMMORON had deposited in the hill some 24 years earlier. (Hauck p. 186) Those who desire to locate the original hills, including Cumorah, must also identify the location of nearby JASHON, the land of JOSHUA, and the hill ANTUM, and the proximity of the WEST SEA, among other things. The Book of Mormon is clear enough on the matter.
The Land ANTUM was where the HILL SHIM was located, where the records were kept. (Mormon 1:3) AMMARON had deposited the records in the Hill SHIM. (Mormon 1:4) Mormon takes the records from the Hill SHIM. (Mormon 4:23) The Jaredites called it the HILL RAMAH. RAMAH was the Jaredite name for CUMORAH. (Hauck p. 160; Mormon 6:2-4; Book of Mormon p. 705) Omer and family travel near the Hill of SHIM, the place (Cumorah) where Nephites were destroyed (Ether 9:40; Mormon 6:4; Book of Mormon page 728). It is a land of many waters (Mormon 6:4). Nephites gather there for battle about 385 AD (Mormon 6:5) where records and plates are hidden (Mormon 6:6). Both the Jaredites and the Nephites fought their last battle at CUMORAH. (Peterson pp. 55-56) All but 24 Nephites are slain at Cumorah (Mormon 6:11) . The aftermath of battle is provided in Mormon 8:2. ANTUM, SHIM, RAMAH and CUMORAH are the same place and they are not in New York. (Welch Chart 159) CUMORAH is what Moroni called the hill where he made the stone box to hold the plates until Joseph would get them, he was the first to introduce the name in church history. (Peterson p. 114) David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, Emma and Joseph all saw and spoke to Moroni while moving from Harmony to Fayette. They offered him a ride, but Moroni declined to ride with them. They did notice that he had a heavy back pack on his back! When asked where he was going, he answered, "To Cumorah."
ANTUM, in the form ANU(UM), the meaning in the Akkadian dictionary is "the god of heaven," which is the male form. (Black p. 19) However, ANTUM, has the female TUM element and could be interpreted as "the goddess of heaven." The mimation attests to the antiquity of the name as does its presence in Akkadian. The form ANATUM refers to a great goddess, ISTAR, meaning "you are supreme deity." (Black p. 19) In ancient Sumerian the form is ANUTU. The Akkadians added the mimation, UM, and gave it gender by adding the T to get TUM, the goddess. Gender can also be indicated for a female by just using TU, without the mimation. Ecavations by archaeologists Giorgio Buccellati, of UCLA, and Marilyn Kelly began at Tell MOZAN in 1984. In 1995 the site was identified as the ancient commercial trade center, URKESH (URKISH), where they found the royal palace of king TUPKISH and his queen, UQNITUM. (National Geographic October 1998, Geographica) Both the ancient city and the name of the king has the name element KISH, distantly linking the city and the name to the JAREDITE world. Also note, the suffix ending of the name of queen UQNITUM, is -TUM, the feminine designation as well as identifying her, as royalty in those days were, as a goddess. The use of mimation in the name ANTUM, places the name and the name of the ancient king and queen, historically and geographically in Jaredite times and in Akkadian times. The discoveries at URKISH substantiates these conclusions. URKISH, so recently found, is about 80 miles east of HARAN, where Abraham moved when commanded to leave UR with certain members of his family. (Abraham 2:4; 2:6, 2:14) URKESH or URKISH, lies at the cross roads of an immense trade corridor. From the city caravans would finish satisfying the needs of transportation gear and animals. URKESH is located on the norhtern part of vast development of natural resources created by the Habur River system. (see earlier web site entires from TELL BEYDAR-ANCIENT NABADA AND THE BOOK OFMORMON, 22 Feb. 2006, and the three part series of CHAGAR BAZAR 15 Aug 2007 to 23 Aug 2007, as well as other related sites) HARAN is only about 50 miles east of the quay on the Euphrates River where Abraham would cross to go south to the Promised Lands in Palestine. (Hunt p. 113) The name of the quay on the river is CARCAMISH, (KARKAMESH) a great city with a long history, to be discussed in PART 11. Did the Jaredites cross from the east side of the river to the west side at CARCAMISH? What else is in the Jaredite record that connects them with this ancient quay?
The suffix -UM is a common west Semitic ending or hypocoristica and is used as such here where reference is made, in abbreviation, for deities- gods or goddesses, (Porten p. 137) and names given to queens. The -UM ending, is also a common West Semitic suffix, a hypocoristicon for Jehovah names. (Porten p. 139-140) Fourteen names in the Book of Mormon contain this ending. The -UM ending is also a prevalent hypocoristic suffix among the MARI TABLETS. (Huffmon p. 132) Recall that Nibley enunciated "mimation was everywhere succeeded by nunation around 2,000 B.C., that is well after the Jaredites had departed, but long before the Nephites had arrived." (Nibley pp . 283, 288) URKISH, HARAN and CARCAMISH are important cities for future discussions.
MORE ON THE GARSANA ARCHIVES
The GARSANA ARCHIVES were introduced in PART 10 of this series. They provide access to a wider array of data from the world of Ur III and other Mesopotamian regions, especially expanding understanding of UR III society and culture, about 2113-2006 BC, ( Saggs Appendix 1) with many new insights into SUMERIAN and BABYLONIAN civilization of the late third millennium BC, part of the time and world of the JAREDITES. Not yet exploited is the work of Marcel Sigrist who has spent nearly a lifetime on the study of the UR 111 PERIOD. This included the period of Abraham's early stay at UR. Of the nearly 87,000 tablets entered into the data base of that time period, more than 30,000 have been translated and published by Sigrist. (Michalowski p. vii) There are no doubt many other works out there that I have not yet become aware of. When found they will be the basis for additions to this web site. The CONCORDANCE TO THE GARSANA ARCHIVES has list after list of glossaries of names, verbs, adjectives and other linguistic information that when fully studied from the standpoint of the JAREDITE history and the BOOK OF MORMON will be astonishing. Unknowingly those committed scholars have provided vital information and confirmation of names and words greatly enhancing the study of that much maligned book. On nearly every page of the ARCHIVES there are endings with the UM and only slightly less, the TUM endings; way too many to enumerate. We are talking about thousands of names and words. (see Michalowski; Kleinermann p. v) Joseph Smith and Nibley got it right the first time. Moroni should be given more credit for adding his abridgement of the BOOK OF ETHER to the BOOK OF MORMON, because imbedded in ETHER is critical evidence that confirms ETHER is an authentic, a real true record and supports the absolute integrity of the Book of Mormon. To make a reference to such sources, such as the GARSANA ARCHIVES, and to add to all of the above, the suffix -TUM, when used as a verb means: "to bring." (Kleinerman p. 234) The GARSANA ARCHIVES will be referred to many times in the studies ahead. There may be so much data in them that a separate series may be justified!
The prefix AN-, in addition to the meanings already given, can also simply mean "the," used a great deal with this meaning. There are some 30 names and words, with more than that number of variations, in the Akkadian dictionary, with AN- as a prefix. (Black p. 19)
As noted, the place name ANTUM has the prefix elements AN- and ANT-, and the suffix element -TUM. The name ANTUM is listed in the Akkadian dictionary exactly as ANTUM, so it is a real name with meaning unknown, because it is an old name. So we look into the meanings of the elements that comprise the name for a plausible meaning. The element AN has been discussed before, in reference to the goddess ANT, what was said applies here. In Akkadian, one meaning of the element is "to or for," (Black p. 16) with quite a range of variations depending on context. All in agreement with the meaning selected for application to the Book of Mormon name. And it can mean "in" or "upon." (Radner Vol. l, Part. A, p.109) in the Neo-Assyrian dictionary. AN shows up in the Egyptian dictionary with a variety of meanings depending on what the scribe or carver had in mind when he worked on the hieroglyphics. One form is simply AN, and has the same meaning found in the listings in Akkadian: "in, to, for, because, by." (Budge p. 56) There are more than 39 names with the prefix AN- in Egyptian, (Budge pp. 55-61) but only one occurrence has the same meaning as found in Akkadian, both Semitic languages often preserving some names and words without much change, so, based on the above, the meaning of ANTUM could be "to, for, because of, or by the supreme deity." All supporting the conclusions being reached. Based on the foregoing, ANTUM is a genuine name of antiquity. Remember, it is a place name, the name of one of the most sacred and important localities on earth, the depository of the records, accessed by the greatest of the western hemisphere prophets and abridgers from the time of the Jaredites to the final days of Moroni, a period of about 2800 years.
ARCHEANTUS: ARCHEANTUS was a Nephite military officer about 385 AD. (Moroni 9:2) The name does not appear in the AD, it may have been present in the Brass Plates. Mormon wrote his son Moroni an epistle indicating that Archeantus had fallen in battle along with Luram and Emron. Singling out Archaentus this way may indicate Archaentus was a personal friend of both Mormon and Mornoni and had been important to the Nehite army. It seems to be a Roman name.
The names from ARAD to COLN, while in the Book of Mormon, are not unique to that book, most of them are from Isaiah, Old Testament, or related sources and so will not be discussed in depth, just briefly mentioned and noted that they do not appear in the Akkadian Dictionary, or in sources of the Akkadian Empire, such as EBLA or MARI.
ARPAD: ARPAD is mentioned in 2 Nephi 20:9 a reference from Chap. 20 of Isaiah.
ASSYRIA: ASSYRIA is a country in western Asia, once the greater part of Mesopotamia. (2 Nephi 17:17; Gen 10:10) The country was a constant threat to ancient Israel. A series of dictionaries of Neo-ASSYRIAN from the University of Helsinki, have become available after 2003. A massive ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY, from the University of Chicago, much more extensive, became available after 2005, both are being used in these studies. If it were not for the dictionaries that have become available since 1999, there would be few entries on names in these studies. Few, if any, were available to Hugh Nibley while he was alive and working on Book of Mormon themes.
BABYLON: BABYLON was the ancient capital of BABYLONIA, both a city and a country in central Mesopotamia that was a constant threat to ancient Israel and eventually conquered Jerusalem and took captives of the elite and noble among Israel. First mentioned in Nephi l:13. It was part of the conquered territory of the ancient Akkadians. The Jaredites probably were located about 50 miles southwest of Babylon near the ancient city of KISH. The ancient Tower of Babel was located very near or at BABYLON.
BASHAN: Derived from Isaiah 2, a warning that Bashan would be made low in the last days. (2 Nephi 12:13). Today we know the area as the GOLAN HEIGHTS, taken by the Jews in the 1967 war. It was the ancient territory of Manasseh, suffering conquest by Israel, then lost to the Syrians, then traded back and forth by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persian emperies, then known as Qarnaim, then came the Greeks calling it Batanaea. I first saw it seven years after the war, it was an area of rusting blown apart tanks and military debris. Today it is a battle ground between the Syrians and the Jews, truly made low. (Douglas p. 177)
BENJAMIN: BENJAMIN in Hebrew means Son of the Right hand, (Mandel p. 86) was the last son of Jacob, his mother Rachel died in Jacobs arms when he was born. (Gen35:10) The name was also held by a great a Nephite prophet-king about 120 BC . (Omni l:23) It is not found in Akkadian.
BETHABARA: BETHABARA is the place where John was conducting his baptisms. (John l:19) It is mentioned as a Palestinian town in l Nephi 10:9.
BOAZ: BOAZ figures in the lineage of Jesus Christ, married Naomi a descendant of Lot. (l Kings 7:21) It was the name of a city mentioned during the last days of the Nephites. (Mormon 4:20)
BOUNTIFUL: BOUNTIFUL was the name of the area in southern Arabia, near the sea where Nephi built his boat and departed for the New World. ( l Nephi 17:5) It was also the name of the landing place in the New World of the Nephites, as a city name it was located in Nephite territory north of Zarahemla. (Alma 22:29: 52:15)
CAIN: CAIN was the son of Adam. (Gen 4:l; Hel. 6:27) He sought deliberately to be the head of all evil, Master Mahan, and lord over Lucifer because he would have a body, Lucifer could'nt.
CALNO: CALNO is referred to in the Old Testament, 2 Nephi 20:9, part of Isaiah 10 and listed in the Book of Mormon. Also see Amos 4:1.
CAMENIHAH: KAMEN, KUMU, KUMENI, KMN, MENI, MN, IHAH,
CAMENIHAH was a Nephite commander about 395 AD who, like so any other commanders, was killed along with his 10,000 at the final battle. This is equivalent to about 5 divisions of military forces. The battle must have been fierce, and they must have been outnumbered horrifically, (Mormon 6:14; Price p. 155) though there were more than 2 million fighters in the Nephite ranks. CAMENIHAH is a compound and complex name.
To study this name we need to identify the elements that make up the name, the prefixes, suffixes, if any, cores and other elements including consonant elements. At least there is CAMEN, CMN, KUMEN, KUMENI, MENI, IHA, IHAH and HAH elements that comprise the name. It makes it interesting to study.
It has already been pointed out that in AKKADIAN there is no O. Now, it is pointed out, there is also no C. The Akkadian dictionary (AD) goes from B directly to D, this is also true for Ancient Assyrian. No words or names begin with a C, that letter is not used in Akkadian. The C sound is captured in Akkadian with the letter K. To find any names or words in the Jaredite language that start with a C, we would go to the K part of the AD. So we would be looking for KAMEN or its equivalent, with the consonantal root of KMN, in AKKADIAN. The consonants CMN would be KMN, all other elements or names that would have began with a C will have their spelling changed to start with a K. The -IHAH element is an abbreviation of some deity. The element or prefix, CAMEN is found in Neo-Assyrian (Baker p. 600) precisely as KAMANU, from the root KMN, "to be hidden." (Ibid) It is a Western Semitic masculine name. A, E or I vowels may be used in the root KMN to get KAMAN, KAMEN, KAMIN, or other variations without a change in meaning. This is a beautiful match of a Book of Mormon name to the ancient names of Jaredite times.
The -IHAH element has only been recently recognized as having significant antiquity. In 1957 Hugh Nibley wrote: "A large portion of Book of Mormon names end in -IAH, and -IHAH. The same ending is peculiar to Palestinian names of Lehi's time, but not so prevalent other times." (Nibley Vol. 6 p. 283) Many of the famous Biblical prophets have the -IAH ending. (Zedekiah, Jeremiah, et al.) The elements are hypocoristicons or abbreviations for Jehovah . The name is theophoric carrying the Jehovah element -IAH. It can be further abbreviated as I, IA, A, AH or H, and in some names it is. It also seems to be in the long form of CUMENI, which will be discussed when we reach that place name in the list.
Many critics of the Biblical Historical tradition did not believe that such abbreviations and use of IHAH for Jehovah or other historical data were much older than early in the second millennium BC. Seven years after Nibley did his study, Rome University began its excavations in Syria, about 20 miles south of Aleppo, and about half a mile off the road, in the mound or tell, of an ancient ruin, TELL MARDIKH. In 1968 a statute was recovered with the inscription "dedicated to the goddess Eshtar" and bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla, a long lost city. " (Wilson p. 12) Excavations continued without confirmation of the city as Ebla, until 30 September 1975, when the fruitful excavation was reaching its scheduled season's conclusion. Giovanni Pettinato, lecturer in Assyrian studies at La Sepienza University of Rome, and the decipherer for the Italian archaeological mission to Syria, had returned from the dig to one of the small rooms the mission retained at Tell Mardikh, intent on transcribing newly discovered inscriptions and documents and discussing the first textual data with colleagues, when an area supervisor ran in, out of breath, with the sensational news that cuniform tables had finally been found in the dig. Hours later, with the Tell in complete darkness, Pattinato with several others, by the light of a kerosene lamp, Paulo Matthiae, the director of the dig, began to brush the dirt off the tablets, which could barely be seen in the side of the dig. Then Pettinato says: " He then extracted one of them and handed it to me to be read. As I quickly discovered, it was an exceptional historical document. Even from a cursory reading of the text's first columns, a repeated expression stood out: 'in the hands of ruler of Ebla' = 'belongs to the ruler of Ebla.' Those lines held definite confirmation that Tell Mardikh could be none other than ancient EBLA. I was overcome with deep emotion." (Pettenato pp. 6-7) The discovery of EBLA would become famous and those who dug there would become so as well. The discovery would change a lot of things.
THE DAY THER ANCIENT CITY OF EBLA WAS REVEALED
This first cuniform tablet recovered from the dig at TELL MARDIKH, that would later be identified as the royal library containing tens of thousands of tablets, was a historical text, an international treaty. "EBLA was revealed as the center of a previously unknown and highly civilized world." (Pettenato p.7) EBLA had relationship with more than eighty kingdoms, all named on the tablets. The records all date before 2250 BC when the city was destroyed by Naram-Sin, grandson of Sargon king of the AKKADIAN EMPIRE. "EBLA was a great commercial empire that flourished during the middle of the third millennium BC. It carried on international trade and foreign relations with other city states and kingdoms of the Ancient Near East in a very sophisticated manner." (Pettanato p. 5) Great Aracheological Explorations in Syria had yielded UGARIT in 1929 and the ancient city of MARI in 1933. (See THE ANCIENT CITY OF MARI AND THE BOOK OF MORMON, 29 June 2005) Now it was EBLA in 1975. It would take another ten years for the world to realize the significance of these discoveries and especially EBLA. Everything changed. Biblical History, Egyptian and Mesopotamian History, all were affected drastically by the recovery of the royal archives from EBLA and their translation. From the various web site reports and research it will be evident that those three discoveries impact Book of Mormon studies, especially the World of the Jaredites and the Book of Mormon names. (See also LETTERS TO THE KING OF MARI AND THE BOOK OF MORMON NAMES, 21 March 2008 and the seven PART series from 20 April 2008 to 6 March 2009 on EBLA). This series provides an account of the discovery, recovery of the royal archives and the much information on names. There is still a lot of clay tablets that have not as yet been translated. It is amazing that we have so much now.
An important innovation is represented by the Eblaite conception of the divine. During the Akkadian Empire there was widespread polytheism, more than 500 gods have been identified, coupled with henotheism and an abstract idea of God. Henotheism is the worship of one particular divinity among others they could worship. For a while Dagan was raised to a role of superiority that touched upon uniqueness. Dagan often appears not with a proper name, but with the appellative "Lord" and "Lord of the Land." This translates the Semitic word belu, certainly different from Mesopotamian practice. But does confirm that for a while at a later date, Dagan's indisputable role as the princeps diety of the Semitic world and would give the tribes of Israel great tribulation a thousand years later. Sargon of Akkad went as far as to inscribe that the god Dagan gave him the Upper Region. (Pettinato p. 179)
What does this imply for the history of religion? Was it based on the principle that the name of god could not be pronounced as in the case of important religions of antiquity and as it would be the case for the Hebrews a thousand years later? There is the potential importance of the contribution of Ebla for explaining more recent historical religious phenomena. A large number of Eblaite names are formed with the theophoric elements IL and YA. Mormons would consider the presence of both of these as a carry down from the Adamic, Enochian and Noahican gospel doctrines, defining Elohim, the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jehovah. The Hebrew knew of Elohim, but their emphasis was on the God YAHWEH= JEHOVAH, with restrictions on the writing and speaking of the name, substituting ADONI. Until the reign in Ebla of one of their kings, Ebruim, thought by some to be the Eber of the Bible, (Genesis 10:24; Mandel p. 120), many names were composed with the IL element. But under Ebrium, this changed to YA more often. The appearance in Ebla of this change initiated "a great deal of discussion about the possible relationship of YA in the Ebla onomastica to Yahweh in the Bible." (Pettinato p. 179) "The term IL doubtless indicates 'god' in general, but also a specific divinity, the god IL/EL of the UGARITIC tablets. YA is still considered a crux interpretum as far as it would be rather understood as a hypocoristicon i.e., a shortened form. But the alternation in the personal names [at Ebla] as Mi-ka-IL to Mi-ka-YA...amply demonstrates that at EBLA, at least, YA had the same value as IL, and points to a specific deity. The form YA is considered to be the shortened form of YAW [YAHWEH=JEHOVAH] as may be inferred from such personal names as SU-MI-A-U. The ending A-U in EBLAITE, answers to IAH. However, IL and YA in the Eblaite onomastica indicate not the gods Il or YA, with their individual characteristics but rather an ABSOLUTE or DIVINE GOD...EBLITES had quite an advanced concept of the divine and were very near to henotheism." (Pettinato pp. 179-180) Imbedded in the ancient beliefs was the ambiguous and tenuous doctrine that seems to have lost definition in detail of a God of the Gods who had a Son. Mormons would agree with this. "Eblaites were profoundly religious and had close relations with their gods, whom they recognized to be superior, but not distant beings." (Pettinato p.181) Again Mormons would agree, God is directly approachable!
DEPARTURE TIME OF THE JAREDITES
An effort to try to work out a more reasonable time for the departure of the Jaredites from some region near anciten Babyon, may be rewarded by looking at the evidence the names provide. The names being found on the cuniform clay tablets at EBLA below the destruction level in 2250 BC, help establish an approximate time for the Jaredites as they may have left the presumed area around KISH, or some other region in proximity to ancient Babylon before this destruction. Especially since shortly after this date, the Gutian's (2230-2109 BC) began to make their conquest of the region. (All of the clay tablets would have had to have been prepared before the destruction) "According to the Sumerian King List, (See Map of King List) the first city to claim dynastic privilege after the great flood was Kish (Kic, [Kis])." (Hunt p. 22) Clearly the flood is distant history at this point because so many names are found in Akkadian, the Jaredites were likely under the Political influence of the Akkadian Empire. (2370-2139 BC) The Jaredite names include KISH, and a knowledge of the region suggests the KISH area as their origination and departure location. Going north on the east side of the Euphrates River until they reached SIPPUR, where the two great rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, were only about 20 miles apart, they could have chosen to cross the Tigris and travel north and then northeastward through the territory of the MARTU, the pastoral people of the steppe, or the GUTI, the mountain people who sort of took over after the Akkadians. (Liverani p. 65) But there is no contribution of MARTU or GUTI names in the Jaredite history, or names from any of the peoples that were beyond them to the northeast, on their destination to the New World if that had been the direction they took. It was the GUTI who expanded out of their mountain fastness to harass the Akkadians beginning about 2230 BC. Again, the Jaredites seem to have left long before Guti began their invasions and conquests. The Guti brought a dark age to the entire region, influencing even Ugarit on the coast. (Curtis p. 35) The evidence from the AKKADIAN names, and the names from MARI and EBLA, however, show connections and relationships with tribes at MARI, and names especially at EBLA before its destruction in 2250 BC, as described in earlier PARTS of this series. The kingdom of SARGON, or the AKKADIAN EMPIRE, was still in force during their departure. The names in the Jaredite record do not reflect names from the predecessor rulers and peoples of the region. The names clearly reflect the AKKADIAN language that was in use at the time and would seem to have been in use for a generation or so, because there are so many links to AKKADIAN. So the Jaredites would seem to have left after the AKKADIAN EMPIRE was established in 2340, (Hunt p. 48) and before EBLA'S destruction in 2250 BC. That leaves a window of time of not more than about 90 years when they might have departed. That may be narrowed down even to a shorter time by trying to find out where they traveled northwestward on the east side of the Euphrates and if and where they crossed the river over to the west side. Did they go into ancient ANTOLIA, today's TURKEY, where evidence of their passage might be indicated by names they acquired from empires and peoples of that region? One cannot tell where the search or journey may lead. This will be discussed in PART 12 of this series.
In addition there is likely an Egyptian connection when we compare CAMENIHAH to KHAMUNI-RA, a personal name in the AMARNA TABLETS from Egypt. (Nibley 1976, p. 28) Perhaps it may be the equivalent of AMMUNI-RA. (Nibley Vol. 5, p. 26) Note that the ending of -IHAH, representing Jehovah is replaced by -RA, head god of Egypt at the time of the AMARNA period in Egypt. The AMARNA tablets were first discovered in 1897 and updated in 1978 by A. F. Rainey, with further work by W.L. Moran in 1987 and 1992. (Hess p. 1) (See TELL AMARNA IN EGYPT AND THE BOOK OF MORMON 15 September 2005) From time to time we will return to the discoveries at TELL AMARNA, there is a lot more to be mined in its records.
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