𐤑𐤓-Colony Island—​Hellenized exonyms: pre-LBAC  ΘΥΡΑ, post-LBAC  Θήρα.

qqGlosReduce

𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭,   [Glos_K-M, updated: 2023.09.05]

Eastern Mediterannean Basin, Nesha/Khattusha

Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshansHittites,Hattiland,Hattians,Khattushans (aka כִּתִּים (Kit•imꞋ), collectively transgarbled to modern "Hattians" & "Hittites")—Autochthonous Anatolians (modern western Turkey) defined by their NëꞋshan language.

The Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshan/​Kit•imꞋ NëꞋshan-speakers were the earliest, likely autochthonous, human inhabitants of Anatolia (modern western Turkey) along with the other "ocean-like" islands—particularly Pelopónnese, Crete and Cyprus—that are now part of the Cycladic civilization remnant of the Cimmerian Terranes group.

The Anatolian NëꞋshan-speakers were neighboring citydoms of the central and southern-coast Mediterranean regions of western Turkey, who serially predominated their collective confederation of land and seafaring "superpower" citydoms. Muddled and fragmented by modern archaeologists to mere sequential individual citydoms, the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans/​Kit•imꞋ were the world's first land and sea superpower!

(Bull god), i.e. Tarshish/Taurus/Tarsus in the pyrite-rich Central Taurus Mountain Range

cBCE 1525 Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshan/​Kit•imꞋ Bull-Leaper fresco Knossos, Crete

The principal god of the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans was . Several asso­ci­a­.tions with Taurus, the ancient weather-god of lightning & mace, including the Taurus Mountain Range, which is rich in Bull-God-Stone (pyrite).

The Hebrew for pyrite, Ta•rᵊshishꞋ, seems to have developed as a trans­gar­bling of the Greek θαρσος. Thus, this Hebrew term likely reflects the Hellenization taking place during the post-Ramses era (like the use of the name Ramses itself).

The Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans/​Kit•imꞋ succeeded the first neighbor-citydom: the ᴷH•ãrꞋrians, who were the world's first international land and sea superpower; navigating and controlling the Mediterranean Sea. The Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans eventually eclipsed their NëꞋsha-speaking ᴷH•ãrꞋrian neighbors, becoming the "unidentified" Naval superpower to whom the Egyptians would later refer to collectively (including the Tzūr•imꞋ) as the "Sea Peo­ples". 

𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭, The Kit•imꞋ

(Not The "Hethites" Nor The Misnomer "Hittites"!)

Table of Ancient Peoples (bᵊReish•itꞋ 10). Circa BCE 2629, emergence of written language: NōꞋakh first codifies lore of then-ancient Flood (cBCE 5500)

Like the fictitious exonyms fabricated by modern "Indiana Joneses" for ancient peoples they couldn't identify (e.g., "Minoans" & "Natufians"), the name "Hittite" is an embarrassment to scholars, who contentiously (and cavalierly) evade the issue while claiming that they're helpless to correct it. As Emeritus Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania James D. Muhly remarked, "The first thing to realize about the Hittites is that they are not Hittites."

Scholars are divided whether חִתִּים (ᴷHit•imꞋ, "Het"-ites), sons of חֵֽת "ᴷHæt", who lived in the vicinity of Khë•vᵊr•ōnꞋ and, by the Biblical era, were reported living all around the north and east regions of the Mediterranean Basin as well as Anatolia, were part of the Kit•imꞋ. When one takes into account the geotectonic factors of the previous 5 megaannia, then it seems more difficult to explain how those out of Africa, Egypt, Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula could have been not autochthonous to these lands. When you read or hear "Hittite", they were, in Hebrew, the כִּתִּים of the Ta•na״khꞋ!

Within Peoples, Tribal Citydoms' Predominance Ebbs & Flows

Just as the Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•an's citydom was eventually overshadowed by their fellow-Tzūran's citydom, the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans called themselves after their predominant city (Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha) in their NëꞋshan language inherited from their predecessors, the ᴷH•ãrꞋrians (vide infra).

The כִּתִּים

1^st Maritime World Superpower

Transcribed  In Ta•na״khꞋ During The LBAC 

The "Ships Of Ta•rᵊshishꞋ" (Southern Coast Of Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha)

qqShipsTarshish

Ancient Port 𒋫𒅈𒊭, Anatolia (modern Turkey). Map: Eastern Mediterranean Basin, Aegean & Black Seas, Middle East. (Google Maps)

Dating back to the Neolithic era, ancient Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshan Port 𒋫𒅈𒊭, in Anatolia (modern Turkey), was the primary maritime port of the entire Mediterranean Sea. The ancient port was a lagoon on the Taurus  (Arabic Berdan, "Cold Water") River.

Until the 6^th century, the Taurus River "[ran] through the midst of the city of Tarsus, and appears to have done no injury to it at any time except once, when it caused great destruction in the following manner: the season was spring-time, and a south wind, which suddenly began to blow with great strength, melted all the snow with which in winter-time the Tarsus Mountains are almost entirely covered. In 138 consequence of this streams of water ran down from every part of those mountains, all the ravines poured down torrents, and numerous springs inundated all the skirts of the Tarsus range. The river Cydnus, swollen high by these waters which were poured into it by its tributaries, and by heavy rains which afterwards fell, overflowed and entirely washed away all the suburbs of Tarsus on the southern side, poured furiously into the city, sweeping away the bridges, which were of slight construction, inundated all the streets and market-places, and even rose as high as the upper stories of the houses. For a night and a day the city remained in this danger and distress, after which the river gradually retired and returned to its usual bed. When the Emperor Justinian heard of this, he devised the following plan. In the first place, he prepared a second channel for the river outside the city, in order that it might there divide its stream, and might only pour half its waters upon the city of Tarsus: next, he built the bridges very much wider, and rendered them too strong to be swept away by the flooded Cydnus. Thus he enabled the inhabitants of the city to dwell in it without alarms or dangers for the future."  As a result, remnants of the ancient lagoon are now 20km/12mi inland from the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and ancient Tarshish lies under the modern city, precluding most excavations.

Ta•rᵊshishꞋ, likely became synonymous with the greater surrounding administrative district to include the Taurus {Minoan Bull} Mountain Range (i.e. Tarhuntassa).

"The ancient name [𒋫𒅈𒊭] is derived from Tarsa, the original name given to the city by the Hittites, who were among the earliest settlers of the region. That in turn was possibly derived from the name of the storm god Tarḫunz." (Sirkeli Archaeological Project Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine), see further https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsus,_Mersin, Foundation and prehistory] as city of Kitim, Khattushan tribal citydom along Mediterranean (southern coastal region) of Khattusha

Eastern Hemisphere: From Ta•rᵊshishꞋ to Eilat & on to Ophir (modern Vaypura), India.

ShᵊlōmꞋ•h ha-mëlꞋëkh received a shipment from אוֹפִיר, India, every three years. These triennial maritime shipments from India consisted of gold, silver, fragrant Indian sandalwood, pearls, ivory, peacocks, Indian Hoolock, hoolock apes  and monkeys. In Ta•na״khꞋ, Mᵊlãkh•imꞋ and Di•vᵊr•eiꞋ- tell of a joint expedition to אוֹפִיר, by ShᵊlōmꞋ•h ha-mëlꞋëkh and חִירָ֑ם, mëlꞋëkh Tzūr, from Yi•sᵊr•ã•eilꞋ's port of עֶצְי֥וֹן גָּֽבֶר, on the Red Sea.

Later, after Yᵊhō•shã•phãtꞋ, MëlꞋëkh YᵊhudꞋãh, "improved" the Kit•imꞋ ships 🙄, his expeditionary fleet to אוֹפִיר proved unseaworthy and the fleet was lost!

Modern readers are increasingly accustomed to reading clearly printed publications. Accordingly, the usual reader may not appreciate how readings of scholars aren't always as straightforward as they allow to be assumed. Puzzling real ancient cuneiform tablets or MSHPA: ostraca can be very confuzzling (see photo).

cBCE 600 Middle Semitic Hebrew-Phoenician-Aramaic ostraca from Arad; TAU

Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha was evidently later transgarbled to ᴷHa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha (the initial hard consonant becoming softened (internationalized, Hellenized due to extensive maritime shipping & trade—opposite to the Semitic pattern), then further transgarbled to "Hatti", their land to "Hatti-land" and their alephbet (and probably sometimes their language as well) "Hatti". Eventually, these were transgarbled to "Hittite(s)" (losing the hard initial consonant entirely)—instead of the exonym "Kittites" (Hebrew exonym: "Kittim"). These should all properly be identified by their (approximate) transliterated endonym: Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha.

In those ancient times, broken pottery sherds were saved and used by scribes like we used paper (before digital ink). Like early handwritten recording of immigrant names entering the U.S., mishearing of foreign tongues and confusing handwriting produced an enormous confusion of names and proliferation of variant spellings.

Likely, an MSHPA: accountant (scribe), recording some maritime trade transaction, Semitized Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha, as he (mis)heard it with his foreign ears, from a native NëꞋsha speaking maritime Kᴴa•tū•shaꞋ trade merchant or ship captain. Thus, he would write it on a nearby ostracon—and parts of real ostraca, unlike textbook reports, are often more baffling to discern that scholarly papers convey (see photo). We might expect something like .

The consensus of later readers, upon reading the ostracon, before it reached our Ta•na״khꞋ, understood it to read mytk (MH: כִּתִּים ⇒ Hellenized ⇒ Latinized ⇒ Anglicized to "Kittim"), rather than swtk (MH: (כתוש, pl. כתושים).

Modern-Era—Further Confused Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha With "Hethites"

Modern-Era Christian "Indiana Joneses" who couldn't read Hebrew conflated English transliterations of כִּתִּים and חִתִּים creating a non-existent confusion of the two as "Hittites"

Origins / Predecessors Of The Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha 

cBCE 3500–2500—The Indigenous Anatolian 𒄷𒌨𒊑 (ᴷH•ãrꞋri-ans )

The only evidence of the existence of the ᴷH•ãrꞋrian people (apparently an exonym) is a few Hellenized-Semitic Linear A & Linear B cuneiform tablets, found in Boghazkoy, Turkey by Hugo Winckler in 1906 CE, written in their hybrid Semitic-Indo European NëꞋsha language. They reportedly called themselves by the endonym NëꞋshans. Since Muhly's paper, Turkish archaeologists have located NëꞋsha, which is now known as Kültepe ("Ash Hill"; also called Kanesh), in the heart of Turkey near the Syrian border.

cBCE 3000–1600 ᴷH•ãrꞋrian-Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha-Kitim

cBCE 1450 Mediterranean Maritime Shipping & Trade Routes

The ᴷH•ãrꞋrians are perhaps best defined by their international pidgin hybrid Indo-Europeanized Akkadian-Semitic language, developed as needed for contract and accounting records to serve their multilingual international needs of maritime trade. The ᴷH•ãrꞋrian maritime traders, shippers, navies and colonizers developed their international pidgin language as needed for clients ranging from earliest Greeks to Egyptians to Semitic Kᵊna•an•imꞋ & Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•an-TzōrꞋi•ans . Keeping it as simple as possible, they called their international pidgin record-keeping shorthand by the name of their principle city—Në•sha.

cBCE 1800–1450 Akrotiri, Creta ("Minoan") Hellenized-Semitic Linear A tablets

Multilingual international contract and accounting records in pidgin Në•sha required its own, pidgin Në•sha alphabet recognizable to each of their various international clients around the Mediterranean Basin: Linear A.

Because of their early dominance of the Mediterranean Basin maritime naval, trade and shipping, the ᴷH•ãrꞋrians became distinguished by their Në•shan language and Linear A alphabeit from surrounding peoples as well as from each of their international clients around the Mediterranean Basin; from the earliest Hellenists (who would one day derive their, and our, alphabet from this early ᴷH•ãrꞋrian alphabeit), distinct from peoples sharing the Akkadian cuneiform alphabet, from the Semitic alephbeit and from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Muhly also noted that the ᴷH•ãrꞋrians are also transgarbled to the "Aryan" Race.

It must further be noted that while the ᴷH•ãrꞋrians of Në•shan were eventually (cBCE 1650) eclipsed and absorbed by their neighboring citydom of Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha, that doesn't necessarily imply that the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans were genetically similar. That remains to be determined by genetic studies.

Between cBCE 3500 and cBCE 2000 ᴷH•ãrꞋrians Establish Colony On Krit (Crete) cuneiform

Greek Kríti Crete Etymology: "The current name Crete is [NOT]  first attested in the 15th century BC in Mycenaean Greek texts, written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te (𐀐𐀩𐀳, *Ke•rē•te (Krit); later Greek: Κρῆτες [krɛː.tes], plural of Κρής [krɛːs])[8] and ke-re-si-jo (𐀐𐀩𐀯𐀍, *Ke•rē•si•yo; later Greek: Κρήσιος [krέːsios],[9 Pulos ["PYlos" PY] An  128 tablet.] 'Cretan').[10][11] In Ancient Greek, the name Crete (Κρήτη) first appears in Homer's Odyssey.[12] Its etymology is unknown." (along with Egyptian hieroglyph [Keftia]

The earliest beginnings of Aegean-Cretan civilization date to the Bronze Age (cBCE 3500). Their complex urban civilization began cBCE 2000 and then declined during the early Greek Dark Ages (from cBCE 1450) until its collapse cBCE 1100. wiki Minoan_civilization

cBCE 1600—Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha City Eclipses NëꞋsha City; Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans Absorb ᴷH•ãrꞋrians As The Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha

cBCE 1650–LBAC : Kit•imꞋ (ᴷHittite) Multi-Dialect Confederation

"Hittite" Cuneiform 𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Transliterated Into MSHAP: swtk 

𐤑𐤓-Colony Island—​Hellenized exonyms: pre-LBAC  ΘΥΡΑ, post-LBAC  Θήρα.

Likely, the bottom part of the final (left) 2 Semitic letters of swtk, having become too worn, faded or faint to discern the lower parts of the letters, was misread by a scribe as a Semitic masc. pl. ending (ימ□, □•imꞋ; no final mëm having yet developed), thereby garbled to mytk—MH: כִּתִּים.

Despite the dissimilarity of the MSHPA  (and MH:) initial letters (k v h) making garbling of these 2 letters highly unlikely in the original MSHPA  languages, modern-era English-speaking theologians, clueless to the original languages, assumed that the English "Ḫittim" (כִּתִּים) was merely a variant spelling of "Biblical" "Hittim" (חִתִּים)

Early western "Indiana Jones" art-adventurer "theologian archaeologists", assumed that the "Hittites" must correlate to the חִתִּים in Ta•na״khꞋ (bᵊReish•itꞋ 10.15 with 15.20). They were not the same people. The כִּתִּים descended from the Hellenic (Helladic) Greek Ἴωνες‎‎, son of יפת, while the חִתִּים descended from the (Semitic-speaking) Kᵊna•anꞋ, son of .

cBCE 1650 ᴷH•ãrꞋrian-Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha Bull Leaper Vase

cBCE 1525 Knossos, Crete "Minoan" Bull-Leaper fresco; (photo: Jebulon )

cBCE1600 ᴷH•ãrꞋrian-Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha terracota vase relief, wedding musicians & dancers (İnandık Turkey)

cBCE 1500 "Minoan", Crete; clay octopus flask (ArchMusHerakleion)

Most pottery was monochrome red or black, with incised and white-painted decoration sometimes occurring in the first and second phases. Fluting and ribbing resembled the decoration of metal vessels and was especially characteristic of the southwest. In central and southern areas painted wares reappeared in the second phase, and in the third phase a purple-on-orange ware with strongly geometric designs appeared in the Kültepe region. A related polychrome ware appeared simultaneously in the Elazığ and Malatya regions. The most important technical innovation in ceramics was the introduction of the potter’s wheel, which in most areas occurred about the beginning of the third phase. [https://www.britannica.com/place/Anatolia/Early-Bronze-Age 1]

The transition to the third phase of the Early Bronze Age, possibly about 2450 bce, brought with it the general appearance in western Anatolia of wheel-made plates and two-handled drinking vessels. These, together with other western styles in pottery and architecture, spread also to central and southern areas. Surveys have suggested that many sites were destroyed at the end of the second phase. Some scholars therefore have argued that speakers of an Indo-European language entered Anatolia at that time from the northwest. The language, in this view, would have been ancestral to Hittite and Luwian. Indo-European is first attested in Anatolia in names occurring in Middle Bronze Age tablets from Kültepe, but the date, route, and even the reality of an Indo-European invasion or infiltration are all controversial. Furthermore, it is likely that the greater universality of styles occurring in the third phase can be attributed simply to increased contact through trade and improved transport. The beginnings of trade with Assyria are indicated by the pottery and small objects of Kültepe in the third phase; this trade was to develop strongly in the Middle Bronze Age. [https://www.britannica.com/place/Anatolia/Early-Bronze-Age 2]

qqNesha

Eventually, The Në•sha language was retained by their successors, the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshans, after Në•sha city was eclipsed by Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha City. Their shared language and Linear A alphab et, however, retained its original name, Në•sha. indigenously developed in the 𒌷 𒉌𒅆𒇷 𒉌𒅆𒇷 NëꞋsha. Similarities between Nëshili and Semitic-Aramaic suggest to me that it was a hybridization when Semitic and Indo-European mingled.

qqHarrians

The ᴷH•ãrꞋrians simply vanished, replaced by the 𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭  (Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋshaf.

While their NëꞋsha language (was probably shared and) persisted after them, however, the people themselves vanished. Most likely, they became the paradigm later followed by the Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•ans & TzūrꞋi•ans, and even later by the Kᵊna•an•imꞋ & Yi•sᵊr•ã•eil•imꞋ—the indigenous latter conquered the previous indigenous people and then absorbed the survivors into their own people, thereby becoming the sole, incorporated, indigenous people.

Thus, the ᴷH•ãrꞋrian-NëꞋsha vanished from the historical record, they left their NëꞋsha language to their successors: the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha ("Hattians"—Kitim).

This raises the question: what is meant by the name “Hatti-Land,” where does it come from? Fortunately, we can now answer that question. Prior to the arrival of the Hittites the area of central Anatolia was controlled by a non-Indo-European group who called their language Hattic, their land the Hatti-Land, and their capital city Hattush. … All that we can say is that they greatly influenced the later Hittite inhabitants of the area, who bor­rowed much from them, including the name of the land and of their capital city and who, to our great good fortunate, preserved Hattic texts in their own archives. By the time of the Old Assyrian merchant colony, or karum, at Boghazkoy, we find that the site is already known as Hattush, for the Old Assyrian tab­lets found there refer to the karum Hattush. Sometime around c. 1650 B.C. the Hittites took over the site. They took the name Hattush and added a Hittite nominative ending, making it Hattushas. The Hittite king, whose native name was Labarnash, took the throne name Hattushili, “the one of Hattusha.”
https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-hittites-and-the-aegean-world/

to 𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭(Kã•at•tūꞋsh). This is the endonym of the people who merged with a number of neighboring dialects, later misidentified through multi-language transgarblation to Kit•ūshꞋim, Kit•imꞋ (in Ta•na״khꞋ) and later confused by Christian "Indiana Jones" style art-archaeologists with Khit•imꞋ (sons of Kheit—resulting in the English misidentification: "Hittites". Only in modern times, the 1940s CE, a British arts-archaeologist Arthur Evans, unable to trace back this never-before resolved etymology, concocted a new exonym for the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha—the entirely fictional, never-existed, "Minoans"!,(Evans invented the name "Minoans" from a mythical king "Minos" mentioned at the place of his excavations, in Knossos, Crete.)

So whenever you read "Hittite" or "Minoan" immediately recall that these are both mistaken or entirely fictional names; neither "Hittites" nor "Minoans" have ever existed. They were the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha. It's impossible to be sure whether the first consonant was a "k" or "kh" sound. Semitic grammar, very likely paralleling the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha cuneiform, generally hardens an initial כ to the "K" sound, not distinguished in written form until 4½ millennia later. Thus, the indigenous people of Anatolia were probably the Kᴴa•tᵊ•tūꞋsha.

qqNotHittites

"The first thing to realize about the Hittites is that they are not Hittites. The sad fact is that we are stuck with an incorrect terminol­ogy, but it is too late to do anything about it now. This unfortunate situation came about as a result of several deductions made by earlier scholars which, though entirely reasonable at the time, have proved to be false. The Bronze Age civilization of Central Anatolia (or Tur­key), which we today call Hittite, completely disappeared sometime around 1200 B.C. We still do not know exactly what happened, though there is no lack of modern theories, but that it was destroyed, of that there can be no doubt."
"Because we continually see things from the Greek point of view, we tend to assume that Greece was always the center of events and that everyone else knew of and was concerned with Greek affairs. Yet, seen in proper histor­ical perspective, Greece was, in all periods prior to the conquests of Alexander the Great, a remote and peripheral area, on the very fringes of the civilized world,… "

""

"what about that Mycenaean pottery at Miletus and Ephesus, sites probably actually mentioned in Hittite texts as Millawanda and Apasas? Now we read of masses of Mycenaean pottery at Miletus and even of Mycenaean brick struc­tures and a Mycenaean brick factory, to say nothing of a Mycenaean fortification wall. "

The Hittites had no interest in Myce­naean Greece. Why should they have con­cerned themselves with a primitive, rather barbaric and mostly illiterate land, far beyond a sea they would never have dreamed of crossing? Mycenaean pottery has indeed been found on the Ionian and Carian coasts, but we must be very careful in assessing the signifi­cance of what are still but a few chance finds, apart from Miletus and now lasos. Much work remains to be done, if only it were possible to do it. The Hittites themselves had very little interest in the west coast. They were not a sea power and seem to have had little or no concern with Aegean or Mediterranean trade. Hittite interests looked to the east and to the south, to Syria and the kingdom of Mitanni, to Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt. Here was to be found the real center of the civilized world in the second millennium B.C. The Mycenaeans were about as much a part of this as England was a part of the world of Pericles. We often tend to view the transmission of ideas as a movement from west to east but, in broad historical terms the actual movement of civil­ization has been, for all periods prior to the Renaissance, a movement from east to west (ex Oriente lux)."

qqMinoan

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and many other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings date to c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages,[1] part of a wider bronze age collapse around the Mediterranean. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean. wiki Minoan_civilization

cBCE 1500-1450 Kitim octopus marine vase, New-Palace period (1500-1450 BCE) Cretan Clay askos with 'Marine Style' decoration, (Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete) https://www.worldhistory.org/image/367/minoan-vase-in-marine-style/

Modern Fabrication: "Minoans"

The Kit•imꞋ were discovered in early 1940s (CE) excavations at Knossos, Crete by British art-explorer (arts degreed archaeologist) Arthur Evans. Unable to identify what people they were, he concocted their name after one of their mythical god-kings: Minos, hence "Minoans". No "Minoan" people ever existed in the ancient Mediterranean world. So the real quest has been to identify the people of ancient Knossos, Cretan art

The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur. The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe,[2] and historian Will Durant called the Minoans "the first link in the European chain".[3]

This ancient people is distinguished by maritime trade, language and art: distinctive painting style (reflecting an advanced culture & pottery), advanced building construction and a very early writing system.

"Ruled from vast palaces, its people were accomplished artists and maritime traders, but their civilization fell into decline after a devastating volcanic eruption on the nearby island of Thera (modern-day Santorini)."
See also Library/Aegean linear scripts rethinking the relationship between Linear A and Linear B – Bryn Mawr Classical Review.htm; https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2021/2021.04.30/

"Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the Book of Kings, they supplied the Israelites with cedar, chariots, and horses, and in the Book of Genesis were friends and allies to Abraham. Uriah the Hittite was a captain in King David's army and counted as one of his "mighty men" in 1 Chronicles 11." (wiki Hittites)

Language

Hellenized-Semitic Linear A

Minoans—concocted from Greek mythology by British art-explorer "archaeologist" Arthur Evans in the 1940s, "Minoan" is an eponym of a mythical King Minos" because he couldn't identify the people historically. Now they are identified: TzurꞋi•ans and there is no further excuse to continue promulgating a silly myth instead of evidence-based history.

qqAnatolianNeolithFarmers

DNA 70.9–76.7% Anatolian Neolithic Farmers (ANF)
file:///C:/Yirmeyahu/Netzarim/Library/Minoan%20civilization%20-%20Wikipedia.htm

"The [Hittite] material culture of Late Bronze I shows affinities with the Hurrian world to the east, such as Nuzi Ware (Woolley, 1955, Yener et al., 2019), as well as strong contacts with other, more far-flung regions, such as Cyprus (Woolley, 1955, Yener et al., 2019). … from a bi-lingual Hittite-Hurrian text called Song of Release, it seems that the site was destroyed by a coalition of Hittites and Hurrians led by an otherwise unknown personage called Pizikarra of Nineveh (Matthiae, 2009a)."

Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the Book of Kings, they supplied the Israelites with cedar, chariots, and horses, and in the Book of Genesis were friends and allies to Abraham. Uriah the Hittite was a captain in King David's army and counted as one of his "mighty men" in 1 Chronicles 11. (Wiki Hittites#History)

The script on a monument at Boğazkale by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo and Hama in Northern Syria. In 1887, excavations at Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of Kheta"—apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of Hatti"—were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform, but in an unknown language; although scholars could interpret its sounds, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of Kheta" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as Max Müller, agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, but proposed connecting it with Biblical Kittim rather than with the Biblical Hittites. Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy.[16] Hattusa ramp (photo)

During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy (Hattusa) that began in 1906, the archaeologist Hugo Winckler found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from Kheta—thus confirming the identity of the two names. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, controlled northern Syria.[17] Wiki

(photo above) Ceremonial vessels in the shape of sacred bulls, called Hurri (Day) and Seri (Night) found in Hattusa, Hittite Old Kingdom (16th century BC) Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara Wiki Hittites#History (caption to photo: 2 ceremonial bulls)

To the southeast of the Hittites lay the Hurrian empire of Mitanni. At its peak, during the reign of Muršili II, the Hittite empire stretched from Arzawa in the west to Mitanni in the east, many of the Kaskian territories to the north including Hayasa-Azzi in the far north-east, and on south into Canaan approximately as far as the southern border of Lebanon, incorporating all of these territories within its domain Wiki (citation needed, Wiki)

new genetic and archaeological research confirm that Proto-Anatolian speakers arrived to this region in mid-5th millennium BC.… Petra Goedegebuure has shown that the Hittite language has borrowed many words related to agriculture from cultures on their eastern borders,[37] (Wiki Hittites#Origins)

The dominant indigenous inhabitants in central Anatolia were Hurrians and Hattians who spoke non-Indo-European languages. … There were also Assyrian colonies in the region during the Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750 BC); it was from the Assyrian speakers of Upper Mesopotamia that the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script. … wiki/Hittites#Origins

qqKritim Kʳitim Greek people Semitic name conundrum ("Out of Adamah", no different than Ionians, et al.) כת (Klein 289; Egyptian (hieroglyph kti (Kiti) 228x75.png), כִּתִּיִּים כִּתִּים (son of יָוָן‎‎ Yã•uãn son of יָפֶת‎ Yãphët)=Early identified with Yã•uãn (Ἴωνες Ionian Greek) Aegaean maritime people of Kaphtor, who colonized: "Josephus (Ant. 1:128) identified Kittim with Kition, or Kitti, a Phoenician city on the island of *Cyprus near present-day Larnaca, an identification accepted by most scholars."  TO 260: Hebrew כרת (taw, kaph) or (yod, taq, kaph) 

The Mediterranean Confederation
of International Maritime Traders 

(The Ancient Mediterranean  "Sea Peoples" — "No ancient inscription names the coalition as "Sea Peoples" - this is a modern-day designation first coined by the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero in c. 1881 CE. Maspero came up with the term because the ancient reports claim that these tribes came "from the sea" or from "the islands" but they never say which sea or which islands and so the Sea Peoples' origin remains unknown." )

cBCE 12,000–8800: Neolithic 1.0  Levantine Culture (ELC)

The quest to learn the identities and cultures of the Philistines (Palestinians), Minoans, Phoenicians and "Sea Peoples" who emerged from the "Black Box" of the LBAC  has engaged art-trained sociologists (pseudo-archaeologists) since the late 19^th century of the Modern Era.

Human habitation of began during the Levantine Culture  

cBCE 8799–6500: Neolithic 2.0 (Chalcolithic)  Founders: The Predate The Egyptian Civilization

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB, cBCE 8800–6500)—the next stage following the initial peopling of Levantine and Upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent (PPNA, cBCE 10,000–8,000).

PPNA is characterized by tiny circular mud-brick dwellings, the cultivation of crops, the hunting of wild game, and unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings. 

Ku-pᵊ-ri-yians ("Cyprians", Cypriots)/p>

Misleading 19-20^th Century CE, Art-Based, Non-Scientific Nomenclatures

qq0213

LBAC  Shrouds Pūlossian Accession To Mediterranean Maritime Prominence 

Ca. B.C.E. 627 — Yi•rᵊmᵊyãhꞋu 2.10 refers to the כִּתִּים who remain steadfast to their (Hellenist) idols

Ca. B.C.E. 583 — Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ 27.6 (probably walnut) ivory inlay from the (Hellenist) Aegean isles of כִּתִּים

Ca. B.C.E. 519, as the — Zᵊkhar•yãhꞋ Bën-Bë•rëkh•yãhꞋ Bën-Id•oꞋ ha-Nã•viꞋ prophesied the ultimate vanquishment of (Hellenist) יָוָן (9.13) following the appearance of the Mã•shiꞋakh (9.9), interpreted to refer initially to Hellenist Bã•vëlꞋ, then reinterpreted to refer to Hellenist Syria (namely Antiochus 4^th Epiphanes who enabled the Hellenization of the Judean priesthood and "Temple"). Later, כִּתִּים was reinterpreted to refer to Hellenist Rome. Today, כִּתִּים is associated with the Hellenist Roman (Catholic = Christian) democracy spawned by Rome.

Ca. B.C.E. 275 — Dãn•iy•eilꞋ specifies the mëlꞋëkh יָוָן (8.21-22 and 11.2) and LXX translates (the ships of the Aegean islands of the Hellenist) כִּתִּים (Dãn•iy•eilꞋ 11.30) as (Hellenist) ῥωμαῖοι.

Ca. B.C.E. 50 — In the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the (Hellenist) כִּתִּים are referred to as being "of Asshur" (Hellenist Assyria), namely Antiochus 4^th Epiphanes, who, in B.C.E. 175, empowered the Hellenization of the Judean priesthood and "Temple," thereby targeting the current Hellenists: the Hellenist pseudo-Tzᵊdoq•imꞋ apostates who had expelled the Ōs•inꞋ (authors of the DSS) and Hellenized the "Temple"!

Ca. 100 C.E. — Josephus (1.6.1) identifies כִּתִּים as Hellenist (whether Greek or western Turkey) Cyprus (37-100 C.E.),

qqKaphtor

כַּפְתּׂר

(MH:, also כַּפְתּוֹר )—colonized by the seafaring people Kit•imꞋ, ≈130 Ka later famed for their textile dye the color of their national emblem Phoenix-bird figurehead identifying their ships (later Greek exonym Phoenicians) 1st wave of colonists [ca. 130,000 b.p. or earlier; Strasser et al 186, Crete Stone Age Seafaring] Mediterranean island known today as Crete.

In ancient times, however, the internationally famous ancient seafaring islanders who inhabited KaphᵊtōrꞋ weren't known as "Caphtorians"—but rather, hectomillennia before Hellenism's "Crete", or the first Greek—these seafaring islanders were known throughout the Mediterranean Basin as the Kit•imꞋ! 𐤊𐤕‎ (m.s.n.) 𐤊𐤕𐤉‎ 

It's illogical that Anatolians (southern coast of modern west Turkey) who colonized Crete hadn't first established a colony on the much closer island of Cyprus. Ἰώσηπος identifies the Cyprian southeast coastal town of Κίτιον with the Kit•imꞋ, used by the Hebrews to designate all of Cyprus and even lands further west.

Since the earliest human presence in KaphᵊtōrꞋ dates to the Middle to Upper Pleistocene (no later than 130 Ka  ) predates human presence in southern Europe (Greece and the Aegaean) cBCE 40,000, a priori, KaphᵊtōrꞋ was not initially settled by Greece or other Europeans. The conclusion of Strasser, et al., that the island of KaphᵊtōrꞋ (later Crete), therefore, originally settled by African hominins (ibid.) was based on their assumption that mankind came "Out of Africa"—which has since been shown to be erroneous (see subsequent research proving that mankind came, far earlier, out of A•dãm•ãhꞋ). Ergo, the obvious earliest seafarers "Out of A•dãm•ãhꞋ" were the Semitic Phoenicians—hence KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

Strasser, et al. assessed evidence on KaphᵊtōrꞋ demonstrating "that two separate human groups left traces of their existence in this region, one in the Middle to Upper Pleistocene (ca. 130,000 b.p. or earlier), and the other in the late Pleistocene-early Holocene (ca. 11,000-9000 b.p.)" (ibid.). The only seafaring people associated with the earliest of these two dates, a priori, could only have been the Kit•imꞋ, associated with, i.e. tying together, KaphᵊtōrꞋ, and
by the Phoenicians—well-documented Semites, the earliest to record the name of the island: KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

Keftia Egyp­tian hier­oglyph (Crete)

Corroborating the island name of KaphᵊtōrꞋ, one of the earliest written occurrences of the island name appears in Mi•tzᵊr•ayꞋim hieroglyphs as Keftia—a transgarblation (i.e. not native to the ancient Egyptian language) of KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

KaphᵊtōrꞋ was a very early center of the Western Mediterranean, the ancient Ægæn-Cycladic Islands and Mediterranean maritime trade via the central Aegaean distribution hub-island of Thæra.

, written in Mycenaean Linear-B Greek during the time of Shᵊmū•ælꞋ Bën Ëlᵊqãn•ãhꞋ ha-Lei•wiꞋ, ha-Nã•zirꞋ, ha-Nã•viꞋ during the Greek Dark Ages (Late Bronze Age Collapse) was associated with the PūlꞋos colony—which was on the northern coast of Sin•aiꞋ abutting the Egyptian border. 

Similarities in Linear-B, pottery & Kritim-Kitim names between Kitim, Kritim, Crete

"Humans have inhabited the island since at least 130,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic age. Crete was the centre of Europe's first advanced civilization, the [Kitim] Minoans, from 2700 to 1420 BC. The [Kitim] Minoan civilization was overrun by the Mycenaean civilization from mainland Greece." (Crete) colonized by Kitim (Phoenicians) 1st wave of colonists [ca. 130,000 b.p. or earlier; Strasser et al 186, Library/Crete Stone Age Seafaring in Med Strasser 40835484 20220815.pdf]

Greek Kríti Crete Etymology: NOT: "The current name Crete is first attested in the 15th century BC in Mycenaean Greek texts, written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te (𐀐𐀩𐀳, *Ke•rē•te (Krit); later Greek: Κρῆτες [krɛː.tes], plural of Κρής [krɛːs])[8] and ke-re-si-jo (𐀐𐀩𐀯𐀍, *Ke•rē•si•yo; later Greek: Κρήσιος [krέːsios],[9] 'Cretan').[10][11] In Ancient Greek, the name Crete (Κρήτη) first appears in Homer's Odyssey.[12] Its etymology is unknown." (along with Egyptian hieroglyph [Keftia]

qqKaphtorCrit

Notwithstanding the weak criticism of ???, כַּפְתּׂר (MH:, also כַּפְתּוֹר)—colonized by the seafaring people Kit•imꞋ, ≈130 Ka later 1st wave of colonists [ca. 130,000 b.p. or earlier; Mediterranean island known today as Crete.

qqKitim

In ancient times, however, the internationally famous ancient seafaring islanders who inhabited KaphᵊtōrꞋ weren't known as "Caphtorians"—but rather, hectomillennia before Hellenism's "Crete", or the first Greek—these seafaring islanders were known throughout the Mediterranean Basin as the Kit•imꞋ! 𐤊𐤕‎ (m.s.n.) 𐤊𐤕𐤉‎ 

It's illogical that Anatolians (southern coast of modern west Turkey) who colonized Crete hadn't first established a colony on the much closer island of Cyprus. Ἰώσηπος identifies the Cyprian southeast coastal town of Κίτιον with the Kit•imꞋ, used by the Hebrews to designate all of Cyprus and even lands further west.

Since the earliest human presence in KaphᵊtōrꞋ dates to the Middle to Upper Pleistocene (no later than 130 Ka  ) predates human presence in southern Europe (Greece and the Aegaean) cBCE 40,000, a priori, KaphᵊtōrꞋ was not initially settled by Greece or other Europeans. The conclusion of Strasser, et al., that the island of KaphᵊtōrꞋ (later Crete), therefore, originally settled by African hominins (ibid.) was based on their assumption that mankind came "Out of Africa"—which has since been shown to be erroneous (see subsequent research proving that mankind came, far earlier, out of A•dãm•ãhꞋ). Ergo, the obvious earliest seafarers "Out of A•dãm•ãhꞋ" were the Semitic Phoenicians—hence KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

Strasser, et al. assessed evidence on KaphᵊtōrꞋ demonstrating "that two separate human groups left traces of their existence in this region, one in the Middle to Upper Pleistocene (ca. 130,000 b.p. or earlier), and the other in the late Pleistocene-early Holocene (ca. 11,000-9000 b.p.)" (ibid.). The only seafaring people associated with the earliest of these two dates, a priori, could only have been the Kit•imꞋ, associated with, i.e. tying together, KaphᵊtōrꞋ, and
by the Phoenicians—well-documented Semites, the earliest to record the name of the island: KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

Keftia Egyp­tian hier­oglyph (Crete)

Corroborating the island name of KaphᵊtōrꞋ, one of the earliest written occurrences of the island name appears in Mi•tzᵊr•ayꞋim hieroglyphs as Keftia—a transgarblation (i.e. not native to the ancient Egyptian language) of KaphᵊtōrꞋ.

KaphᵊtōrꞋ was a very early center of the Western Mediterranean, the ancient Ægæn-Cycladic Islands and Mediterranean maritime trade via the central Aegaean distribution hub-island of Thæra.

, written in Mycenaean Linear-B Greek during the time of Shᵊmū•ælꞋ Bën Ëlᵊqãn•ãhꞋ ha-Lei•wiꞋ, ha-Nã•zirꞋ, ha-Nã•viꞋ during the Greek Dark Ages (Late Bronze Age Collapse) was associated with the PūlꞋos colony—which was on the northern coast of Sin•aiꞋ abutting the Egyptian border. 

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