Talk:Eastern Mediterranean

Adding Cyprus to the Map

Can someone please add Cyprus to the map of the Eastern Mediterranean, or create a new one which would incorporate the island? Thanks Olympian (talk) 09:20, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! Dunnor432 (talk) 15:24, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Just a comment to point out that the map image titled "Nicolas Sanson. Map of Eastern Mediterranean, 1651" here is nothing of the sort - the map title says in Latin (roughly) that it's of the 'Sacred Geography of the Old and New Testament'. It is definitely not of the "Eastern Mediterranean" but includes almost all of the Mediterranean bar the western half of Spain, most of Arabia, Mesopotamia and points east. Surely there is a better option?

Note

I've widened the scope of the article to the general region around the eastern Mediterranean, as there are varying definitions and many factors to consider beyond [present] political boundaries. I'm open to opinions though. ^Izzedine 13:20, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Hey Izzy I made just one minor change, I removed S.A, because it's not supported by the two sources, moreover you're stretching the definition of Eastern Mediterranean; because the article also talks about culture and ethnicity, not just geography. For instance indigenous S.A food is non-Mediterranean. And the tabbouleh and hummus they eat was taken from the Eastern Mediterranean world.George Al-Shami (talk) 20:13, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

I know, I only included Saudi Arabia because it's quite near and would seem strange not to include it. Howcome you've removed WikiProject Iraq? If you are going by coast only then Jordan should be removed and Turkey included. I have maps placing Iraq in the region which I will upload later. ^Izzedine 04:10, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Hey Izzy, no I was going by the best best source for this article, which is the National Geographic source; and in that source Iraq is not included. Jordan is close to the eastern Mediterranean coast, Turkey is a large country with its western tip that is no longer in the East; it's close to Greece, which is almost in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. However I do agree that this is a complicated subject; the eastern Mediterraneans have been living there for millennia,whereas the Turks moved to Anatolia 800 years ago. And this gets even more complicated , because a large percentage of turkish speakers are from Greek and Syrian origins.George Al-Shami (talk) 06:39, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

There isn't a single definition for it George, the criteria are too subjective. These maps include Iraq [or most of it] in the region:
Lands Of The Eastern Mediterranean Map By National Geographic
The Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age
The Eastern Mediterranean 1600-1200 BC
Countries Surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

I thought I knew you better than to see any significance in those artificial borders. ^Izzedine 11:24, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't see any significance in those artificial borders, however there is a huge dessert separating Western Syria from Eastern Syria and Iraq.George Al-Shami (talk) 19:08, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

What about the north where they merge? ^Izzedine 08:27, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Original research

The article in the state I found it consisted of obvious original research. It needs proper references. Who uses the term? Who has defined the term? Are not Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and other countries within the scope of the term? Lebanese 876 (talk) 03:11, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

If you believe there is original research, then put the tag; but don't blank, pretty much, the whole page. This article needs to be seriously expanded. Moreover, in one of the subsections it says "countries and territories"; Palestine is a set of territories that are controlled by both the Palestinians and Israelis.George Al-Shami (talk) 00:02, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I didn't blank the whole page. I wrote edit summaries for my edits, so if you want to question them, address each edit individually please. Those "references" do not match the definition in the article. The article is blatant original research, and needs references. Lebanese 876 (talk) 01:25, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

In my first comment I asked the questions: Who uses the term? Who has defined the term? Lebanese 876 (talk) 01:27, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The "references" do not match what the article said in any way. The definition used in the article is original research. Lebanese 876 (talk) 01:34, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I agree with everything you've said! None of the references, including the ones with the very old maps, seems to be excluding Turkey or Egypt. As for the BBC reference used, an opinionated news article that obviously wasn't designed to inform or educate anyone about geography, I assume/hope the reason for its inclusion was that someone was far too lazy or busy to find a better reference with 'Eastern Mediterranean' written in it. This Wikipedia article reeks of original research and I strongly suspect its oddly limited definition of what the Eastern Mediterranean is was invented to support some very dubious political agenda.

Please take my edits on an individual basis, and refer to the edit summaries, where I have given a rationale for the edit. Lebanese 876 (talk) 02:52, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The World Health Organisation uses 'Eastern Mediterranean', the states included can be found on their website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Treesmill (talk • contribs) 17:54, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

References

I just uploaded an article that is clearly referring to Syria, Lebanon, and Israel as Eastern Mediterranean. I call on all interested editors to please check this reference.No reference should be removed until it is discussed. Here is what two paragraphs say

­

"The Canaanites, a people who probably originated in eastern Syria, had begun migrating down the Mediterranean coast about seven centuries earlier. "They came by the boatload," says Stager. "They had master craftsmen and a clear idea of what they wanted to build—big fortified cities." The Canaanites made Ashkelon a major center of trade, exporting wine and olive oil throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Stager's team recently found evidence of the cosmopolitan nature of Canaanite Ashkelon— part of a 13th-century tablet used to teach scribes languages. The tablet had one column of Canaanite words, which would have matched up with two or three adjacent columns containing equivalent words in different languages. Based on complete tablets found in Syria, linguists suspect that one column would have been a Semitic language called Akkadian, another an unrelated tongue, possibly Hurrian or Hittite."'' George Al-Shami (talk) 19:49, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Merger

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested merge. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not merged. Users are welcome to propose an opposite merger as discussed.Greyshark09 (talk) 22:20, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Essentially, Levant and Eastern Mediterraneran are one and same, Levant being the French term for the area. There are some arguments what are the exact boundaries of Eastern Mediterranean or Levant, but in the end those mean exactly the same. There is no need to use two articles, and we can simply merge this one into Levant, starting the lead section with "Levant or Eastern Mediterranean...".Greyshark09 (talk) 20:54, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

I think the articles should be left as is because this article provides links and references different than the ones provided in the Levant article. More and more academics are disusing non-neutral colonial names like "Levant" and, "Near East". In the case of "Middle East", the UN is now using "Western Asia" and "North Africa" (Far East and Middle East are in reference or relation to the geographic position of Europe to China or Lebanon respectively; with this view Europe is the center of the world. With Eastern Mediterranean we are just relating to the geographic position of the entity itself and not to another geographic entity). By merging this article to the Levant article , a preference is being made for the French Colonial "Levant". I know the proper noun "Levant" is more common, however "Eastern Mediterranean" is becoming more and more common. Check out the BBC article and the book I sourced. I would support a merger that retains the neutral, more geographic-specific proper noun "Eastern Mediterranean".George Al-Shami (talk) 05:47, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

I agree - i herewith withdraw the proposal.Greyshark09 (talk) 22:20, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested merge. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Clarifying

This article used two different definitions for the term. I have clarified this and made it more streamlined. If anyone would like sources for both defintions, please do a quick search on google books - it is definitely commonly used both ways. Oncenawhile (talk) 07:55, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• East Mediterranean sea.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:42, 9 January 2020 (UTC)