Maybe it's just nonsense but...

[littlemanpoet]

Thanks for your enthusiastic replies, Mac and Legate!

I agree that the Old Testament is best seen as paralleling both First and Second Ages. Genesis and Exodus seem best to fit the First Age with their mythic wonders. Not that the mythic wonders end, but as soon as the priesthood and chosen nation themes are established in the latter part of Exodus, from thence until the end of the Old Testament, you are dealing with a more Second Age type of parallel.

The New Testament is a whole different kettle of fish and I don't know if or how it belongs in this discussion, so I'm going to dismiss it for now.

Worth adding to the Greek and Roman ship/sea cultures are the Phoenicians and their descendants, the Carthaginians.

I think that starting with the emergence of the Persians is a bit late, and would start things with the beginnings of Greek and Greek-like (Philistine for example) dominance; this would be roughly 1200 B.C., which does seem to be just a couple centuries after the Hebrew Exodus; and incidentally correponds with the onset of the Iron Age.

And I agree with the assignation of the end of the Kingdom of Arnor in the north as being reminiscent of the Dark Ages in Europe. In fact, come to think of it, all we have in Arnor at the end of the Third Age in Arnor, is the Shire and Bree and its surroundings. Dunland is a barbaric land. Rohan is on a par with early Germanic kingdoms in Europe. It would seem that the Shire and Bree are small outposts in an England that is not an island, seemingly like the time between the Germanic migrations and the Viking raids. So I'm rethinking that bit.

Check out Etymology On Line to satisfy your curiosity about words from time to time.

culture
1440, "the tilling of land," from L. cultura, from pp. stem of colere "tend, guard, cultivate, till" (see cult). The figurative sense of "cultivation through education" is first attested 1510. Meaning "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867.

"For without culture or holiness, which are always the gift of a very few, a man may renounce wealth or any other external thing, but he cannot renounce hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge. Culture is the sanctity of the intellect." [William Butler Yeats]

cult
1617, "worship," also "a particular form of worship," from Fr. culte, from L. cultus "care, cultivation, worship," originally "tended, cultivated," pp. of colere "to till" (see colony). Rare after 17c.; revived mid-19c. with reference to ancient or primitive rituals. Meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829.