Page 81 - BV3

Ur, and followed the route of their cousins, settling This distinctive method of building is to be found even
west of them in what today is known as Galacia. Their today in countries spread out across the centre of
name had changed from Ur to ERI! They called them- Europe, ending in the British Isles, and marking the
selves the Gaal (Gael) of Sciot (Scots) of Eri. They main route of the Israel migrations. The roofs of these
named the great Spanish Peninsula "Iberia" after their structures were mainly of thatch, replaced in some ar-
homeland in Ararat, which is to this day called the "Ibe- eas by slate for permanency. The corner posts were
rian Peninsula." They raised sheep and cattle. But they sometimes intricately carved and decorated. This half-
also hired themselves out as miners to the Phoeni- timbered method of building is carefully maintained
cians. Under Eolus their king, they adopted the and preserved today in many parts of Europe, making a
Phoenician writing, and kept a record of their activities commanding memorial to the passage of the children
in the Chronicles of Eri. of Israel north and westward to the Appointed Place.
Indeed, in the distinctive structure of their buildings
O'Connor, who translated the Chronicles into English we have enduring evidence of the slow passage of the
in 1822, states in his footnotes that Phoenicia, or tribes of Israel through the forested centre of Europe
Feinece, means the "land of husbandmen." Further- to their new home in the British Isles.
more he explains their origin: "When David, chief of
the children of Israel, invaded the land of the -- J.A.B. Haggart, Wake Up!, June-July 1987.
Edomites, numbers from the neighbourhood of the
Red Sea fled, and settled themselves in Phoenicia, that Plight of the Conversos
is, in all the sea coasts of Syria from Egypt to Zidon,
and called themselves Phoenicians in the language of In a fascinating article for Time International news-
Syria." He also writes that "Though the government of
Sidon (Phoenicia) strove to establish their name magazine for 4th March, 1991, Elaine DeRosa re-
throughout (the peninsula), the attempt was always re- ported on the veils of history being drawn back on the
sisted by the Iberians, who persisted in distinguishing descendants of the Sephardic or true "Spanish" Jews in
their lands by their own names of Gaelag and Buasce." the South-western United States.
O'Connor asserts that the word "Gaelag" is synony-
mous with "miner" and was used by the Hebrews in the For hundreds of Americans scattered from California
Old Testament for "miner." to Texas -- families that have been Roman Catholic as
far back as they remember -- over the past five years a
new heritage has been coning to light that stretches
How the Timbered House Evolved back over 500 years to the days of the Spanish
Inquisition.
Cadiz, or Gades, became the secret centre for the
skillful manufacture of artifacts made of bronze. This In 1492, just as Columbus sailed for the Americas,
metal, an alloy of copper and tin, was in wide demand Spain was finally united under King Ferdinand and
because of its hardness and its ability to maintain Queen Isabella with the conquest of Granada, the last
sharpness. In husbandry the adze was a new and most Muslim stronghold on the Iberian (or Hebrew) Penin-
valuable tool in digging and in shaping timbers into sula. In the same year, the primacy of Roman Catholi-
squared posts and beams for building houses. The adze cism was established with the expulsion of hundreds of
and other tools made of bronze was the special gift of thousands of true Israelite Sephardic Jews.
the Celts to the children of Israel as they escaped from
captivity in Assyria and made their way through the The establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in
forests of Europe toward England. Whereas the Celts 1480-84 and the 700-year-long Christian reconquista
had followed the rivers and lakes, living in villages set had already led to the forced conversion of thousands
upon poles and safely surrounded by water, the Israel- of Jews, the so-called conversos, who wished to avoid
ites used the bronze adze and the axe to shape square expulsion and even death. Jews who wanted to continue
posts and beams to erect houses upon dry land. The living in Spain after 1492 had to renounce their faith
framework of the houses was made up of adze-hewn publicly, in the triumph of Christianity over the Moor-
oaken beams with the interspaces filled with what is ish domination of Spain.
known as wattle and daub.
At first, conversos thought that fleeing Spain would
keep them out of reach of the Inquisition. But the

81