Thank you for these comments and for quoting that extract from Laura. You are correct that Harran came under Hittite control at one stage. From Wikipedia:I think this from Laura also relates:
The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Lit.
I don't have the Amarna letters. The excepts of the Amarna letters translation I quoted are from two books where they are cited en passant. The only reference to a boy and a girl I found on the net is here: Behold, one chariot, two horses, one male servant, one female servant, out of the booty...cassiopaea.org
Both Harran and Mitanni (under Tushratta) were under Hittite control and "Land of Hatti" was used to refer to the whole Hittite state so this also fits with Abraham/Ay being a Hittite moon worshiper as the Cs said and Sarah/Nefertiti passing along this religion to Akhenaten. Laura is also suggesting the genetic tweak of their heads perhaps made them desirable gifts for a King of Egypt. The Cs confirmed this Nefertiti to Akhenaten religion relates back to Zoroaster and Zoroaster was trying to fix a much older religion which seems to relate back to Lascaux cave paintings via a Zoroastrian creation story so tracing back to Druid areas is possible via Zoroaster as well as via "Where Troy Once Stood". The Luwian "new" Troy kind of intermixed with the neighboring Hittites hence a Helen of Troy/Paris trip to Egypt story to match with Nefertiti/Ay appeared perhaps.
"After the Suppiluliuma I–Shattiwaza treaty in the 14th century BCE between the Hittite Empire and Mitanni, Harran was burned by a Hittite army under Piyashshili during its invasion of Mitanni."
This event could therefore have coincided with the time when Abraham and Nefertiti were resident in the City and they were taken as captives as a result. They may also have been children at the time, so could have been the one male servant, one female servant, out of the booty from the land of Hatti cited in the Amarna letters. However, the fact that Abraham/Moses went on to become an important figure in Egypt and Nefertiti became Akhenaten's wife, suggests they were not simply slaves or servants since they could not have become members of the royal household as mere slaves. When I read Kent R. Weeks book on The Lost Tomb, 1998, he looked at the myth surrounding the story of Moses and pointed out that no child found in a basket afloat on the River Nile could possibly have been adopted into the Egyptian royal family. You had to be of royal blood to be a part of the royal family. Hence, it is likely that Abraham at least was a royal prince in his own right and Moses has always been described as a Prince of Egypt. Nefertiti on the other hand could certainly have achieved her exalted status through marriage. She could well have married Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, first before marrying Akhenaten. When you are Pharaoh, you can have any woman you want. Although Nefertiti was known to have an enlarged cranium and was therefore a hybrid, I do not recall this being said of Abraham/Moses, but I stand to be corrected if anyone can show differently. Let us not also forget that the C's have said that Nefertiti came from the underground civilisation (the Nation of the Third Eye) but this origin may not apply to Abraham.
I don't think Abraham can be Ay since Ay, a top adviser to the Pharaoh's, would go on to become pharaoh after King Tutankhamen’s death in 1323 B.C. The C's made it clear that Abraham and his group would spend the next 40 years or so wandering around the desert as Bedouins. The question we really need to answer is: was Ay Nefertiti's father?
Nefertiti’s parentage is unrecorded, but, as her name translates as “A Beautiful Woman Has Come,” early Egyptologists believed that she must have been a princess from Mitanni (Syria). There is strong circumstantial evidence, however, to suggest that she was the Egyptian-born daughter of the courtier Ay, brother of Akhenaton’s mother, Tiy. In one of the records, a woman called Tey is depicted as the “Nurse of the Great Royal Wife”. Tey was probably the wet nurse of Nefertiti. It’s also been noted that Tey was the wife (second wife possibly) of Ay.
Scenes from the tombs of the nobles in Amarna mention that Nefertiti had a sister, named Mutbenret. Further, a woman named Tey carried the title of "Nurse of the Great Royal Wife." In addition, Tey's husband Ay carried the title "God's Father." Some Egyptologists believe that this title was used for a man whose daughter married the pharaoh. Based on these titles, it has been proposed that Ay was in fact Nefertiti's father. However, neither Ay or Tey are explicitly referred to as Nefertiti's parents in the existing sources. At the same time, no sources exist that directly contradict Ay's fatherhood which is considered likely due to the great influence he wielded during Nefertiti's life and after her death. According to another theory, Nefertiti was the daughter of Ay and a woman besides Tey, but Ay's first wife died before Nefertiti's rise to the position of queen, whereupon Ay married Tey, making her Nefertiti's stepmother. Nevertheless, this entire proposal is based on speculation and conjecture.
I may go into more depth about Ay's role in this whole affair in a subsequent article. The worst notion I have come across though is that there is a theory that Ay may have been behind Tutankhamun's death. If he was his grandfather, that would be appalling. However, one fact that is not well known about Tutankhamun is that he had a deformed leg, not a good advert for a man who was supposed to be the embodiment of a living god. At a time when plague may have been rampant in Egypt, this was not a good selling point. It would look as though somebody took the decision that he had outlived his usefulness for there is definite indications that Tutankhamun, like his father before him, was murdered. A loose bone fragment has been found in the young Pharaoh's skull, which implies he suffered a possible blow to the head. See Possible Death Theories. Since Ay assumed the throne after Tutankhamun's death, many point the finger at him. However, another theory suggests that he was murdered by General Horemheb, a man of low birth who became one of Akhenaten's closest advisors. Under Tutankhamun, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and deputy of the king. Following the demise of Tutankhamun and Ay, Horemheb became pharaoh.
I don't think Abraham can be Ay since Ay, a top adviser to the Pharaoh's, would go on to become pharaoh after King Tutankhamen’s death in 1323 B.C. The C's made it clear that Abraham and his group would spend the next 40 years or so wandering around the desert as Bedouins. The question we really need to answer is: was Ay Nefertiti's father?
Nefertiti’s parentage is unrecorded, but, as her name translates as “A Beautiful Woman Has Come,” early Egyptologists believed that she must have been a princess from Mitanni (Syria). There is strong circumstantial evidence, however, to suggest that she was the Egyptian-born daughter of the courtier Ay, brother of Akhenaton’s mother, Tiy. In one of the records, a woman called Tey is depicted as the “Nurse of the Great Royal Wife”. Tey was probably the wet nurse of Nefertiti. It’s also been noted that Tey was the wife (second wife possibly) of Ay.
Scenes from the tombs of the nobles in Amarna mention that Nefertiti had a sister, named Mutbenret. Further, a woman named Tey carried the title of "Nurse of the Great Royal Wife." In addition, Tey's husband Ay carried the title "God's Father." Some Egyptologists believe that this title was used for a man whose daughter married the pharaoh. Based on these titles, it has been proposed that Ay was in fact Nefertiti's father. However, neither Ay or Tey are explicitly referred to as Nefertiti's parents in the existing sources. At the same time, no sources exist that directly contradict Ay's fatherhood which is considered likely due to the great influence he wielded during Nefertiti's life and after her death. According to another theory, Nefertiti was the daughter of Ay and a woman besides Tey, but Ay's first wife died before Nefertiti's rise to the position of queen, whereupon Ay married Tey, making her Nefertiti's stepmother. Nevertheless, this entire proposal is based on speculation and conjecture.
I may go into more depth about Ay's role in this whole affair in a subsequent article. The worst notion I have come across though is that there is a theory that Ay may have been behind Tutankhamun's death. If he was his grandfather, that would be appalling. However, one fact that is not well known about Tutankhamun is that he had a deformed leg, not a good advert for a man who was supposed to be the embodiment of a living god. At a time when plague may have been rampant in Egypt, this was not a good selling point. It would look as though somebody took the decision that he had outlived his usefulness for there is definite indications that Tutankhamun, like his father before him, was murdered. A loose bone fragment has been found in the young Pharaoh's skull, which implies he suffered a possible blow to the head. See Possible Death Theories. Since Ay assumed the throne after Tutankhamun's death, many point the finger at him. However, another theory suggests that he was murdered by General Horemheb, a man of low birth who became one of Akhenaten's closest advisors. Under Tutankhamun, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and deputy of the king. Following the demise of Tutankhamun and Ay, Horemheb became pharaoh.
And then there is Yuya:
Amurru/Amorite/Apiru will come later without entering into details. Abram/Saraï betray Pharaoh, and it seems the whole story is about international intrigue involving betrayal as well as marital scandals.
A certain Yuya enters the scene at the same period, he's apparently a foreigner who becomes very influential in the royal court. He's the father of Tiyy, the mother of Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV. He's suspected of being of Mettanic decent, even the brother of the Hurri princess who married Thutmose IV...
This then would make him Ay's father too.
From Wikipedia:
Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, or Yuaa, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC). He was married to Thuya, an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, who held high offices in the governmental and religious hierarchies. Their daughter, Tiye, became the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. Yuya and Thuya are known to have had a son named Anen, who carried the titles "Chancellor of Lower Egypt", "Second Prophet of Amun", "Sm-priest of Heliopolis", and "Divine Father". His title "Father-of-the-god" possibly referred specifically to his being Amenhotep's father-in-law.
Yuya and Thuya may also have been the parents of Ay, an Egyptian courtier active during the reign of Akhenaten, who eventually became pharaoh as Kheperkheprure Ay. There is no conclusive evidence, however, regarding the kinship of Yuya and Ay, although certainly both men came from the town of Akhmim.
However, it is interesting to me that Yuya was known as "Divine Father" and Ay subsequently was known as "God's Father".
The Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt gives credence to the foreign origin hypothesis: "It is conceivable that he [Yuya] had some Mitannian ancestry, since it is known that knowledge of horses and chariotry was introduced into Egypt from the northern lands and Yuya was the king's 'Master of the Horse'." It also discusses the possibility that Yuya was the brother of queen Mutemwiya, who was the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and may have had Mitannian royal origins. However, this hypothesis cannot be substantiated, since nothing is known of Mutemwiya's background. Yuya is believed to have died in his mid fifties, in around 1374 BC.
Hence, we see a lot of strange people, possibly with non-Egyptian origins, as the ancestors of Akhenaten and Tutankhamen. However, for our purposes, here is the most interesting theory about Yuya:
Proposed identification with biblical Joseph
Journalist Ahmed Osman in his book Stranger in the Valley of the Kings has suggested an identification between Joseph, the ancient Hebrew patriarch who led the tribe of Israel into Egypt during a famine, and Yuya. This theory has not been accepted in mainstream Egyptology. Donald B. Redford wrote a scathing review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings for Biblical Archaeology Review. Similarly, Deborah Sweeney has expressed great doubt toward the proposed identification. Sweeney states that the title "God's father of the Lord of the Two Lands" is an extension of the title "God's Father," which is not exclusive to Yuya. The Bible claims that Joseph's mummified body was exhumed and transported to Canaan by the Israelites, while Yuya's remained undisturbed in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, where his mummy was discovered in 1905.
Well this theory certainly puts the cat among the pigeons.
You said: "Both Harran and Mitanni (under Tushratta) were under Hittite control and "Land of Hatti" was used to refer to the whole Hittite state so this also fits with Abraham/Ay being a Hittite moon worshiper as the Cs said and Sarah/Nefertiti passing along this religion to Akhenaten."
The Hittites were moon worshippers that is true, as were many people in that region of the Middle East. Moon worship is very much tied up with Mother Goddess worship (think of Isis, Hathor, Selene etc.), which by my reckoning is ultimately derived from a deification of the Holy Grail, turning that ancient artefact into a triple goddess persona. Robert Graves in his book 'The White Goddess' advances the idea that the ancient Britons were worshippers of the Goddess until she was replaced by the male deity Bel, a sun god equivalent to Baal, as their supreme god. However, the Egyptians of Akhenaten's age worshipped as their chief god Amun-Ra, being an amalgamation or fusion of the god Amun with the Sun god, Ra. As the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten changed this to a worship of the Aten, a monotheistic deity with unspecified gender. Hence, Abraham/Moses and Nefertiti/Sarah may certainly have been influential in converting Akhenaten to monotheism but not, I think, to moon worship unless you are taking the Aten to be a representation of the Moon. Recall also that I said the Harrian Sabians (whose origins are unknown) were star worshippers and that would have included the Moon and Planets too. If Abraham lived in Harran for any length of time, as the Bible suggests, this would have allowed him to imbue the Sabian philosophy, which, as I noted, seems to have been shared with the Druid builders of Stonehenge in England.
As regards the question of "Where was Arcadia?", the solution to this issue may lie in determining when the Siege of Troy took place. If it was before Abraham's time, then this might suggest that Abraham was either a refugee (perhaps as a child) or a descendant of Trojan refugees who fled Troy and Arcadia was, like the other Greek city states mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, in northern Europe. There has even been some suggestion that Trojan refugees made it as far as Anatolia, which may create a link with the Harrians and/or the Hittites. Alternatively, if it was after or during Abraham's lifetime, this may suggest that Abraham's links with Troy in England are tenuous at best but would establish a suitable timeframe for Meritaten/Hagar to take the Grail to Troy (Cambridge), in the persona of Helle, when going into exile from the desert of Paran - perhaps in the company of the Tuatha de Danaan. If it is the latter case, then this would suggest that the C's comparison of Abraham/Moses to Paris of Troy is just a metaphorical device, similar to the way in which the Jews would later use Greek (particularly Homeric) literature for the basis of their Biblical stories, as noted by Laura.
However, the fact that the C's described Arcadia as a crossroads, which is the literal meaning of the name "Harran", a city which had been within Sargon the Great's Empire of Akkadia (Arcadia?) seemed to good to ignore; particularly when this was also a metaphorical crossroads in the life of Abraham according to the traditional Biblical narrative. Harran also has those strong links with the Sabian star worshippers, who in turn would seem to have had putative links to that colony on the Giza Plateau, whose descendants wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Again a link too good to ignore for me.
Happy to discuss further though.
As regards the question of "Where was Arcadia?", the solution to this issue may lie in determining when the Siege of Troy took place. If it was before Abraham's time, then this might suggest that Abraham was either a refugee (perhaps as a child) or a descendant of Trojan refugees who fled Troy and Arcadia was, like the other Greek city states mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, in northern Europe. There has even been some suggestion that Trojan refugees made it as far as Anatolia, which may create a link with the Harrians and/or the Hittites. Alternatively, if it was after or during Abraham's lifetime, this may suggest that Abraham's links with Troy in England are tenuous at best but would establish a suitable timeframe for Meritaten/Hagar to take the Grail to Troy (Cambridge), in the persona of Helle, when going into exile from the desert of Paran - perhaps in the company of the Tuatha de Danaan. If it is the latter case, then this would suggest that the C's comparison of Abraham/Moses to Paris of Troy is just a metaphorical device, similar to the way in which the Jews would later use Greek (particularly Homeric) literature for the basis of their Biblical stories, as noted by Laura.
However, the fact that the C's described Arcadia as a crossroads, which is the literal meaning of the name "Harran", a city which had been within Sargon the Great's Empire of Akkadia (Arcadia?) seemed to good to ignore; particularly when this was also a metaphorical crossroads in the life of Abraham according to the traditional Biblical narrative. Harran also has those strong links with the Sabian star worshippers, who in turn would seem to have had putative links to that colony on the Giza Plateau, whose descendants wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Again a link too good to ignore for me.
Happy to discuss further though.
