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Background of Tunisian history This region includes the land now known as the Republic of Tunisia. Yet the most ancient written records concerning the Berber peoples are those reported by neighboring peoples of the Mediterranean region. When the Berbers enter history during the first millennium BCE, their own points of view on situations and events are, unfortunately, not available to us. Due to the impact of Carthage, it is the people of Tunisia who dominate the early historical writings on the Berbers.[16]
Remote epochs
Evidence of human habitation in the region, however, stretches back one or two million years.[17] Cavalli-Sforza includes the Berbers in a much larger genetic group, one which also includes S.W. Asians, Iranians, Europeans, Sardinians, Indians, S.E. Indians, and Lapps. Cavalli-Sforza also makes two related observations. The Berbers and those S.W. Asians who speak Semitic idioms together belong to a large and ancient language family (the Afroasiatic). This large language family incorporates in its ranks members from two different genetic groups, i.e., (a) some elements of the one listed by Cavalli-Sforza immediately above, and (b) one called by him the Ethiopian group. This Ethiopian group inhabits lands from the Horn to the Sahel region of Africa.[18][19] In agreement with Cavalli-Sforza's work, recent demographic study indicates a common Neolithic origin for both the Berber and Semitic populations.[20] Very remote epochs often concern physical anthropology. Later millennia disclose more cultural information. Dating to the Mesolithic era, stone blades and tools, as well as small stone figurines, of the Capsian culture (named after Gafsa, Tunisia) are connected to the prehistoric presence of the Berbers in North Africa. Also connected are some of the monuments built of very large rocks (dolmens), found throughout the western Mediterranean.[21][22] A commonly held view of Berber origins is that Paleo-Mediterranean peoples long occupying the region combined with several other largely Mediterranean groups, two from the east near S.W.Asia and bringing the Berber languages about eight to ten kya, Saharan cave painting from Tassili n'Ajjer [Berber: Plateau of the Chasms]. (one traveling west along the coast and the other by way of the Sahel and the Sahara), with a third intermingling earlier from Iberia.[23][24] "At all events, the historic peopling of the Maghrib is certainly the result of a merger, in proportions not yet determined, of three elements: Ibero-Maurusian, Capsian and Neolithic."[25] A widespread opinion is that the Berbers are a mixed ethnic group sharing the related and ancient Berber languages.[26][27]
Background of Tunisian history ornamentation; a few dance. Other human figures drive chariots, or ride camels.[31][32]
Here described are Berber peoples in the first light of history, drawn from written records left mainly by Greek and Roman authors. To the east of Tunisia, a Libyan dynasty ruled in Egypt; their armies marched into Phoenicia a century before the founding of Carthage. Next is described Berber life and society in Tunisia and to its west, both before and during the hegemony of Carthage.
Northeast Africa
Egyptian hieroglyphs from early dynasties testify to Libyans, the Berbers of the "western desert".[41] First mentioned as the Tehenou during the pre-dynastic reigns of Scorpion (c. 3050) and of Narmer (on an ivory cylinder), their appearance is later shown in a bas relief of the Fifth Dynasty temple of Sahure. Ramses II (r.1279-1213) placed Libyan contingents in his army.[42] Tombs of the 13th century contain paintings of Libu leaders wearing fine robes, with ostrich feathers in their "dreadlocks", short pointed beards, and tattoos on their shoulders and arms.[43] Evidently, Osorkon the Elder (Akheperre setepenamun), a Berber leader of the Meshwesh tribe, became the first Libyan pharaoh. Several decades later, his nephew Shoshenq I (r.945-924) became Pharaoh of Egypt, and the Karnak temple wall with list of cities in founder of its Twenty-second Dynasty (945-715).[44][45] In 926 Shoshenq Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, and Philistia (Shishak of the Bible) successfully campaigned to Jerusalem then under conquered by the Pharaoh Shoshenq I. Solomon's heir.[46][47] The Phoenicians, particularly the people of the city-state of Tyre who in the west would found Carthage during the Meshwesh dynasty, first came to know of the Berber people through these Libyan pharaohs. For several centuries Egypt was governed by a decentralized political system based on the Libyan tribal organization of the Meshwesh. Becoming acculturated, Libyans also eventually served as high priests at centers of Egyptian religion.[48] Hence during the classical era of the Mediterranean, all of the Berber peoples of North Africa were often collectively called Libyans, after the Meshwesh dynasty.[49][50][51]
Northwest Africa
West of the Meshwesh dynasty of Egypt, later reports of foreigners mention Berber people living in fertile and accessible coastal regions who were known as Numidians (located in or near Tunisia), and farther to the west, as the Mauri or Maurisi (later the Moors), and also in remote mountains and deserts to the south Berbers called Gaetulians.[52][53][54] The western Berbers are mentioned in ancient literature (by Herodotus) regarding specific military events during the 5th century BC, i.e., c. 480, as mercenaries of Carthage in Sicily.[55] Thereafter the Berbers more frequently enter into the early light provided by various Greek and Roman historical works. Yet unfortunately, apart from the Punic inscriptions, little Carthaginian literature has survived.[56][57]
Ancient Numidia.
During these centuries, Berbers of the western regions actively traded and intermingled most frequently with Carthage, founded by Phoenicians; the name Libyphoenicians was coined for the cultural and ethnic mix surrounding the city. Political skills and civic arrangements encountered in Carthage, as well as material culture, were adopted by the Berbers for their own use.[58][59] In the 4th century Berber kingdoms are referenced, e.g., the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus evidently mentions the Libyo-Berber king Aelymas, a neighbor to the south of Carthage, who dealt with Agathocles (361-289), a Greek ruler in Sicily.[60][61] A bilingual (Punic and Berber) inscription of the 2nd century BC from urban Numidia, specifically from the ancient city of Thugga (modern Dougga, Tunisia), indicates a complex city administration, with the Berber title GLD (cognate to modern Berber Aguellid, or paramount tribal chief) designating the ruling municipal officer. This top position apparently rotated among the selected members of the leading Berber families. Since the Numidian titles of
Background of Tunisian history the offices mentioned (GLD, MSSKWI, GZBI, GLDGIML) were not translated into Punic but left in Berber, it suggests an indigenous development.[62][63] Circa 220 BC, three large kingdoms had arisen among the Berbers (west to east): (1) the Mauri (in modern Morocco) under king Baga; (2) the Masaesyli (in northern Algeria) under Syphax who ruled from two capitals, Siga (near modern Oran) and to the east Cirta (modern Constantine); and (3) the Massyli (south of Cirta, west and south of Carthage) ruled by Gala [Gaia], father of Masinissa. Massyli and eastern Masaesyli later became Numidia, located in historic Tunisia. Following the Second Punic War, both Roman and Hellenic states gave its ruler Masinissa the great honors befitting an admired king.[64]
Afroasiatic language family. Outside Ethiopia, marked here Tigre & Amharic, Semitic languages were not generally spoken elsewhere in Africa until the spread of Islam (after 632). Then Arabic supplanted some Afroasiatic languages, e.g., ancient Egyptian and Berber in [65] many areas.
Afroasiatic family
Taken together the twenty or so Berber languages constitute one of the five branches[68][69][70] of Afroasiatic,[71][72][73][74][75][76] a pivotal world language family, which stretches from Mesopotamia and Arabia across the Nile river and the Horn of Africa to the Atlas Mountains and Lake Chad. The other four branches of Afroasiatic are: Ancient Egyptian, Semitic (which includes Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic), Cushitic (around the Horn and the lower Red Sea),[77] and Chadic (e.g., Hausa). The Afroasiatic language family has great diversity among its member idioms and a corresponding antiquity in time depth,[78][79] both as to the results of analyses in historical linguistics and as regards the seniority of its written records, composed using the oldest of writing systems.[80][81][82] The combination of linguistic studies with other information about prehistory taken from archaeology and the biological sciences has been adumbrated.[83][84] Earlier academic speculation as to the prehistoric homeland of Afroasiatic and its geographic spread centered on a source in southwest Asia,[85][86][87] but more recent work in the various related disciplines has focused on Africa.[88][89][90][91]
Proposed prehistory
The conjecture proposed by the well-regarded linguist and historian Igor M. Diakonoff may be summarized. From a prehistoric homeland near Darfur, which was better watered,[93][94] the "Egyptians" were the first to break from the proto Afroasiatic communities, before ten kya (thousand years ago). These proto Egyptian language speakers headed north. At about the same time, the Chadic branch left, traveling west. About eight kya the speakers of the proto Cushitic languages broke off and journeyed east. During the next millennium or so, the remaining proto Semitic and Berber speakers [92] ("Semito-Libyan") eventually went their divergent ways. The Semites passed Afro-Asiatic languages, distribution shown in yellow. by the then marshlands of the lower Nile and crossed into Asia (evidently the Semitic speakers anciently present in Ethiopia remained in Africa or later crossed back to Africa from Arabia). Meanwhile, the peoples who spoke proto Berbero-Libyan spread out westward across North Africa, along the Mediterranean coast and into a Sahara region then better watered, traveling in a centuries-long migration until reaching the Atlantic and its offshore islands.[95][96][97][98] Later, Diakonoff revised his proposed prehistory, moving the Afroasiatic homeland north toward the lower Nile, then a land of lakes and marshes. This change reflects several linguistic analyses showing that common Semitic then shared very little "cultural" lexicon with the common Afroasiatic.[99] Hence the proto Semitic speakers probably left the common Afroasiatic community earlier, by ten kya (thousand years ago), starting from an area nearby a more fruitful Sinai. Accordingly, he situates the related Berbero-Libyan speakers of that era by the coast, to the west of the lower Nile.[100][101][102]
Syncretic developments
The Berbero-Libyans came to adopt elements from ancient Egyptian religion. Herodotus writes of the divine oracle, sourced in the Egyptian god Ammon, located among the Libyans at the oasis of Siwa.[122] However, the god of the Siwa oracle, to the contrary, may be a Libyan deity.[123] Later, Berber beliefs would influence the religion of Carthage, the city-state founded by Phoenicians.[124] George Aaron Barton suggested that the prominent goddess of Carthage Tanit originally was a Berbero-Libyan deity whom the newly arriving Phoenicians sought to propitiate by their worship.[125][126] Later archeological finds show a Tanit from Phoenicia.[127][128][129] From linguistic evidence Barton concluded that before developing into an agricultural deity, Tanit probably began as a goddess of fertility, symbolized by a tree bearing fruit.[130] The Phoenician goddess Ashtart was supplanted by Tanit at Carthage.[131][132]
Background of Tunisian history Libya. Earlier the Phoenicians had settled in Sardinia, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sicily, and Tunisia. At Tunisia the city of Carthage was founded, which would come to rule all the other Phoenician settlements.[136] This history continues with History of Punic era Tunisia.
Reference notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Much later arrived the Arabs and Islam. Eventually the result was a merger effected by Tunisian Berbers with Muslim Arab civilization. Semitic languages include Arabic, whose arrival later in Tunisia transformed the language spoken there. Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp.1114. Brett and Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp.1415.. Gerard et al.: North African Berber and Arab Influences in the Western Mediterranean Revealed by Y-Chromosome DNA Haplotypes 2006 (http:/ / www. bioone. org/ doi/ full/ 10. 1353/ hub. 2006. 0045). [6] See also authorities cited here below. This ethic origin is sometimes called Arabized Berber. [7] See History of Tunisia for information on the Tunisian geography and climate. [8] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp.56. [9] Theodor Mommsen, Rmanische Geschichte, volume 5 (Leipzig 1885, 5th ed. 1904), translated as The Provinces of the Roman Empire (London: R. Bentley 1886; London: Macmillan 1909; reprint: Barnes and Noble, New York 1996) at II: 303, 304. By ancient Mauretania Mommsen here would be refetring to present-day Morocco. [10] Greeks regularly called people whose speech they could not recognize "barbarians". [11] Ancient Egyptians also knew of a Berber tribe called Meshwesh. See below section entitled, "Accounts of the Berbers". [12] Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp.1114, 65. Camps posits a new influx around 6000 B.C. that joined a pre-existing population (an archeologist, Camps founded the Institut d'Etudes Berberes at the Univesit de Aix-en-Provence). [13] Brett, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp.5, 1213. Brett and Fentress refer to Gabriel Camps at 7, 12, 15-16. [14] Professor Jamil Abun-Nasr mentions the arrival of the Libou (Libyans) up to 5000 years ago, in his A History of the Maghrib (Cambridge University 1971) at 7. [15] McBurney, C. B. M. (1960). The Stone Age in North Africa. Pelican. pp.84. [16] Laroui, Abdallah (1970, 1977). L'Histoire du Maghreb: Un essai de synthesis (translated as: The History of the Maghrib). Librairie Franois Maspero; Princeton Univ.. pp.326. Professor Laroui here laments that until well into the period of ancient history the story of the indigenous people was told by their antagonists, because the Berbers themselves then left no writings. Thus the ancient point of view of the Berbers is little known; rather they appear as "pure object and can be seen only through the eyes of foreign conquerors". Laroui (1970, 1977) at 10. In this regard, Laroui criticizes several French historians, including Gabriel Camps cited above, not for their research results, but because Laroui finds they continue to portray the Berbers as marginalized in terms of their history. Ibid., at 15-25, 23-25, 60n43. [17] L. Balout, "The prehistory of North Africa" 241-250, at 241, in General History of Africa, volume I, Methodology and African Prehistory Abridged Edition. (University of California/UNESCO 1989). [18] Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, & Alberto Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton University 1994) at 99. Notwithstanding this genetic distinction, there is overlap. E.g., it is suggested that the Tuareg Berbers are genetically linked to the "Ethiopian" Beja (ancient Blemmyes) of the Red Sea hills area of the Sudan; in coming west into the central Sahara, the Tuareg may have adopted Berber speech. Ibid. at 172-173. [19] See below, "Berber language history" for discussion regarding Afroasiatic. [20] "Our analyses suggest that contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the Middle East and that they share a dairying origin with Europeans and Asians, but not with sub-Saharan Africans". Sean Myles, Nourdine Bouzekri, Eden Haverfield, Mohamed Cherkaoui, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Ryk Ward, "Genetic Evidence in support of a shared Eurasian-North African dairying origin" in Human Genetics (Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer 2005) 117/1: 34-42, "Abstract" at 34. SpringerLink - Journal Article (http:/ / www. springerlink. com/ content/ x428750458w4080r/ ) [21] Brent, Michael; Elizabeth Fentress (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell. pp.1013, 1722, map of dolmen regions at 17. The dolmens are found both north and south of the Mediterranean Sea. [22] The Capsian culture was preceded by the Ibero-Maurusian in North Africa. J.Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" at 236-245, 236-238, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990), Abridged Edition. [23] Abdallah Laroui, The History of the Maghrib (Paris 1970; Princeton 1977) at 17, 60 (re S.W.Asians, referencing the earlier work of Gsell). [24] Camps, Gabriel (1996). Les Berbres. Edisud. pp.1114, 65. Camps has an influx at eight kya (thousand years ago), with an earlier Iberian prospering at twelve kya. [25] J. Desanges, "The proto-Berbers" 236-245, at 237, in General History of Africa, v.II Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990). [26] Mrio Curtis Giordani, Histria da frica. Anterior aos descobrimentos (Petrpolis, Brasil: Editora Vozes 1985) at 42-43, 77-78. Giordani references Bousquet, Les Berbres (Paris 1961). [27] Also see infra, "Berber language history" re Afroasiatic, in particular Diakonoff's discussion about prehistoric populations. [28] Lloyd Cabot Briggs, Tribes of the Sahara (Harvard Univ. & Oxford Univ. 1960) at 38-40. [29] P. Salama, "The Sahara in Classical Antiquity" at 286-295, 291, in General History of Africa, volume II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa (UNESCO 1990), Abridged Edition.
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