Re: King Solomon's Mines
HOLA my friend Joseph, and howdy to friends Treasure Minder, Blackbeard and all the other friends here,
Thanks for the kind words Tropical Tramp! You know, your posts here on T-net and elsewhere impress me all the time, though I frequently fail to tell you. Your research on Tayopa and the early Jesuits are especially outstanding, I still hope that you will publish your work some time soon.
Treasure Minder I hope you did not get the impression that I was trying to 'pick apart' your theories, I am simply having trouble grasping the connections and meanings, which if taken by the simple definitions (like Hebrew 'G' mentioned earlier) the connections are not clear to me. You must have reasons why you arrived at your ideas, which seems to suggest that some of the meanings you have, come not from ancient Hebrew but from other (and later) mysterious groups like for example the Knights Templar. Am I correct in assuming this? The other reason I say "later" is your mention of one symbol resembling a house; I presume you are referring to the Hebrew letter "B"?
The modern Hebrew letter "B" ("Bet", ancient "Beth" and means "house") is in gemiatry equivalent to "2" and is thought to refer to the two parts of the Torah, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The shape too has meaning, that it is closed on three sides is taken to mean that you are allowed to question (God) about what happened after Creation, but not before, nor about what is in Heaven or beneath the Earth. When written as a prefix, it can mean "in" or "at" or "with" (in Phoenician it has even more meanings). Here is the shape of the modern Hebrew letter "B"
ב
Compare this to the ancient form (identical to the Phoenician form) which is quite different:
(Sorry about the size difference, can't seem to get the sizes close.)
Your mention of some inscriptions and symbols found can indeed have a great deal of meaning, without even having to resort to any codes. Ancient Hebrew and Phoenician were written without vowels (they were implied) and were almost a sort of "shorthand".
*Side note, to give an example of how much information could be included with a very brief text; I obtained a bronze Punic coin from the ancient city of Agadir, known to the Greeks and Romans as Gades, modern Cadiz Spain, which had five Punic letters on the obverse (heads) side. Not one of the reference books on ancient coins had an explanation/translation of what was written on these ancient coins, so I set to work to figure it out myself using my Phoenician and Punic dictionaries as well as a Hebrew dictionary I borrowed. The five letters were B-P-S (actually the Punic letter "Sh", shin, not samekh) -H-R. There was no listing for a word like that, but eventually it dawned on me this was several words; B meant "Ba" and translates to "For payment" (or for exchange) P meant "Pa" translates to "by permission" (or agreement) and Sh-H-R was the word "Shoher" which means "merchants". So the five letters actually mean "for payment (or "for exchange") by agreement (or by permission) of the merchants" - very much like we have on some old trade tokens! An even more striking example is found in one of the few Punic texts which survives to our day, the Periplus of Hanno (sixth century BC Punic explorer who sailed round Africa and may have even reached America) for when the Greek historian Polybius copied the text from a plaque in the temple of Baal Eshmun in Carthage, it took up only eighteen lines in Punic. When translated into English, it takes 834 words and 84 lines!
Have you translated the inscriptions you saw on the bar that you handled, just to see what it says (prior to working out any coded message)? I am trying to make the connections between a pre-Solomonic source for the gold, to the navy of Tarshish and Ophir, to the Knights Templar to Caballa to Victorio Peak, it is quite a convoluted path of linkages and I fail to see most of the connections. You also mentioned Rucker canyon, do you mean in New Mexico or the one here in Arizona? (That one is less than an hour drive for me from home, which is why I ask.) Cabala, (meaning "received lore" approximately) as a side note is thought to date to about the second century BC, or about 800 years after the time of Solomon. You have mentioned Rog, that this lore and secret coded information has been passed down in your personal family - however I get the impression that you must have had to figure out at least some of this yourself? It is an interesting alternative history, to say the least!
Tropical Tramp I saw your fellow member of the Explorer's Club on David Letterman tonight, Gene Rurka, serving up some less than appetizing insects as food! Your club members DO get around don't they, (you included!) heck maybe someday you will personally be invited to appear on one of these talk shows, to tell the true story of Tayopa! I hope you will!
Well sorry for yet another lengthy post, this idea of hidden codes, the Knights Templar, Cabala etc all involved and directly related to the Victorio Peak treasure and King Solomon's mines really peaked my interest and got the gears cranking.
Roy ~ Oroblanco
"Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest." Gospel of Thomas 5
Oro... good to see you, again; King Solomon's Mine(s) is alluded to in the Royal Arch Degrees of the York Rite FreeMasonry... 'tis about TREASURE HUNTING! Gotta go thru the lectures, and see what I can "get" out of it... ALSO, review the Knight Templars history of living in the stables of K.S. Temple, and finding SOMETHING... the K.T. Order became VERY wealthy, and established the FIRST "banking system" in the 1200's - 1300's or so... they may have found the mines, moved the wealth to R.I. and elsewhere in the USA; so the stuff from Kentucky MAY WELL be linked... I just think the Knight Templars found it (or entrance to it) under the Temple in the stables... dunno. 8) (sunny out...).
