Chapter 1: A solar eclipse. A solar eclipse did take place in 1192 BC, as described in Eric Cline’s (page 109, 1177 BC). A cuneiform tablet was found in the ruins of Ugarit that described an eclipse. I relocated the eclipse for narrative effect to 1190 BC. In the ancient Near East, eclipses were understood to be an attack on the sun-god by a hostile god (in Egypt: a serpent-god) and were omens of impending disaster.
Chapter 2: Prophet in the street. An adaptation of a vision of Jeremiah the prophet from the
Hebrew bible; combined with a vision of Elijah the prophet.
Chapter 2: Herbal medicines. Both cannabis and opium were widely available in the ancient
near east, as were frankincense, myrrh, and the other herbals mentioned in the text. See
Craigie’s book, page 34.
Chapter 3: Egyptian love poetry. Modelled after the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible. (song 4) “This song closely follows the traditional format for Egyptian love poems,” according to the Jewish Study Bible, page 1564. Egypt had a long history of love poetry going back to 2000 BC. Often, the speaker is a woman. Apparently, the women of ancient Egypt were allowed more agency than what is allowed in modern societies.
Chapter 4: The Trojan War. The Trojan War’s historicity is unclear. I dated it for narrative
effect to twenty years before the fall of Ugarit. Cline’s book (1177 BC: Collapse of Civilization),
dates it to an interval between 1250 and 1175. The soldiers in Troy were Myceneans, from the
islands and mainland of modern-day Greece. The Mycenean city-states disappeared at about
the same time as the city of Ugarit, as part of the Bronze Age Collapse. The Greeks who told
the stories of the Trojan War had taken those stories from the Myceneans who preceded
them in the land.
Chapter 7: Egyptian style pool in courtyard of palace. The Queen can see the courtyard and its
pool from her veranda. Per Yon’s book, there was a grand courtyard with a pool and pavilion
excavated in the ruins of Ugarit.
Chapter 10: Giants in the land. These giants were said to be half god and half human, as.
described in stories told throughout ancient Canaan. In the Hebrew Bible, they are called
“Nephilim” (Genesis 6:2, Numbers 13:32).
Chapter 11: Baal battles the Sea (page 95). The story of a great sea monster that is destroyed by a
hero in the early days of creation that is retold in the Hebrew Bible as well. The sea monster
is called “Leviathan” in the Biblical sources.
Chapter 15: Golden calf. In this instance, the calf represents Baal. The temple ritual is taken
from the scene in the Bible of the Hebrews in the wilderness making a figure of a gold calf,
offering up burnt offerings, sitting down to eat and then rising to dance (Jewish Study Bible,
page 175).
Chapter 23: Visit to the Seer. Taken from the biblical story of King Saul seeking out the witch
of En-Dor. “Throughout the Mediterranea, people believed in an after-life where shades
wandered and could be called up by a skillful seer to provides prophecies.” See Jewish Study
Bible, page 598.
Chapter 32: Invention of the Alef Bet. The Ugaritic scheme of 30 phonetic symbols was
vaguely based on cuneiform symbols borrowed from the Akkadian. It is possible that someone
was inspired by the Ugaritic model of thirty phonetic symbols and invented the letters of the
“Alef-bet” (renamed the “alphabet” by the Greeks). The letters of the Hebrew and Phoenician
alphabets have the same sound-value as the corresponding letters of the Ugaritic script and
are arranged much in the same order as the Ugaritic system (see Ras Shamra and the Bible,
page 27).
Chapter 33: Origin of Sea Peoples. No one knows exactly where the Sea Peoples came from.
There are scant written records. I am voting for an origin in the Balkans; with the recruitment
of Aegeans as the Sea Peoples attacked seaports in Crete and in Mycenae. See Ribert Drews’
book, “The End of the Bronze Age.” He describes evidence for the Sea Peoples moving into the
Mediterranean from Europe. That they were part of the Urnfield cultures of central Europe
(page 163) and that they a carried a new kind of sword that overwhelmed their opponents
(page 175).
Chapter 35: Ramses III. Ramses III had 100 sons altogether. As foreshadowed in Ugarit: Tales
of a Lost City, one of his sons lost patience and had him killed in 1155. He was 95 years old.
The conspirators were tried in court and found guilty and executed This was according to
recently found papyri of court proceedings. (Cline, page 137).
Epilogue: Sea Peoples attack Egypt in 1177 BC (page 325). We have a pictorial record of the
attack. “Carved into the walls of Ramses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, along the
banks of the Nile at Thebes, were pictures of invaders, showing us their faces and helmets and
kilts, as well as Ramses’ boastful account of the conflict.” See Cline, page 4.
Dr. Janet Tamaren 