[blam]

"Could very well be. I don't know when the Ashkenazim first formed as a group in northern Europe, but they could have been the Jews who fled the Middle East at the end of the first century AD."

Go here , look at the bottom of the page and click on 'Genetic Markers' then look to the haplogroup column to the right and click on haplogroup N1 for your answer.

[Siobhan]

This is one of the most exciting pieces I have seen in years.

First remember that in the development of language "l" and "r" are liquid vowels and can replace each other. So change the Greek "l" to an "r" and you are close to abra kedabra.

Also, words of power inscribed like this were often meant so that letters were read in reverse.

That is definitely an anchor in my opinion - I have seen a number of others including one up in Deeside on Pictish Christian carvings on megaliths.

This noble woman was of extraordinary importance to have this.

[SuziQ]

Ah! So they had come from the Near East, the Levant and Egypt!

What a cool site! Our daughter became fascinted with this study when it first came out, and spent HOURS on the Atlas site.