style="font-size:15px;"> Ms. Painter essentially dismisses the story of Noah and the Biblical Diaspora as non-factual, but she fails to recognize that the Caucasian Mountains has long been considered the gateway between Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, functioning as a virtual turnstile of ethnicity and language. In the Biblical story of the Great Flood, Noah landed on Mount Ararat in the Armenian Highlands in order to repopulate the world like a second Adam. The story continues with Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, building a Tower of Babel (Hebrew: Babylon) to reach Heaven.57 God considered this idolatry, so He confused the “tongues” of all those on the Tower, dispersing various races and languages to the “four corners of the earth.” Ms. Painter might consider the possibility that the Bible is a reasonably accurate chronology of pre-historic events. It turns out that the geographic region situated between the Black Sea and Caspian Seas has long been the most ethnically and linguistically diverse area in the world. Sanskrit developed right along side Hebrew, as well as numerous other Indo-European, Semitic, and non-Semitic languages and cultures.
A great flood has been documented across many ancient cultures as the Ice Age drew to a close. The last glaciers melted and flooded the plains from about 14,000 to 7,000 BCE. Noah, emerging from his Ark on Mount Ararat in the Caucasus Mountains, can be thought of as metaphor for the Aryan tribes emerging from the extensive network of Ice Age caves that border Iraq. When Early Modern Humans first emerged from the nearby Shanidar Cave in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan, some linguists suggest that the language they spoke might be called proto-nostratic, meaning that it would have been spoken at an earlier time than the language families descended from it.
The Bible refers to the Aryan fathers as “Sons of God” (Hebrew: Bene Elohim).58 The Book of Enoch elaborates on this Biblical passage by describing 200 “Watchers” who descended from Heaven to Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:48 calls it Mount Sion), located in the northern most section of today’s Golan Heights in Israel on the Syrian and Lebanese border. Those who emerged from caves in this area would have also emerged from the Kebera Cave within nearby Mount Carmel. There is archeological evidence of an advanced Early Natufian culture (12,500 - 10,800 BCE) that was sedentary before the advent of agriculture. The very first agriculture in the world is said to be the small Natufian settlement of Abu Huyeyra, on the banks of the Euphrates in northern Syria (ca. 9000 BCE).59 Some evidence of Natufian dolichocephalic remains have been discovered (enlarged skulls). And, in 2008, the remains of the oldest shaman’s grave was discovered. Buried with this Natufian priestess was the wing tip of a golden eagle, the tail of a cow, and the pelvis of a leopard — significant symbols of the four fixed astronomical signs (to be discussed in Chapter 3). Another important early Natufian settlement was the Mesolithic site of Tell es-Sultan, a couple of kilometers from Jericho, the famed “walled city” mentioned in the Bible.
As the Neolithic period got underway, ca. 8000 BCE, early farming settlements included Jericho, Catal Höyük, Jarmo, and Susa. In addition to founding Eridu in the river valley below, the diaspora spread other Aryan tribes through the Zagros Mountains as far as Mehrgarh, Pakistan (ca. 8000 BCE). A 4th millennium Aryan migration from Mehrgarh descended in6to the Indus Valley to begin the advanced Harappan civilization (ca. 3000 BCE). The ancient name of India is Aryavarta, which literally means “abode of the Aryans.”
My own research on Aryan migrations suggests that we must look deeper into Winkler’s theory about Aryan tribes founding Egyptian civilization. Hitler’s inhumanity cast an enormous shadow over Winkler’s work, initiating a major effort to discredit him. His discovery of swastikas in the Egyptian wadis have since been dated more accurately, to about 1800 BCE, which would have been more than 2000 years after the beginning of Egyptian civilization. Winkler also suggests that the Aryans would have had to cross the Mediterranean Sea in river boats, circa 4000 BCE, and then portage across the Suez. Since these boats were considered too flimsy to cross the Mediterranean, his theory was ultimately rejected, and largely ignored for the next 50 years. Ironically, Winkler was drafted into the German Army and was shot and killed in WWII during active duty in Poland. Modern Egyptologist, Toby Wilkinson, provides some background about his own first expeditions in the eastern Egyptian desert, as part of his own effort to revive Winkler’s theory:
After half a century of neglect, Winkler’s “Eastern Invaders” hypothesis was brought back to life in the late 1990’s by historian David Rohl. His book Legend tries to use diverse archeological data, supported by alternative etymologies of important ancient names to demonstrate the historical accuracy of Old Testament stories... Rohl identified these ancestors ... as Mesopotamians, citing the boat petroglyphs of the Eastern Desert as important supporting evidence.60
Rohl never won over the academic community. He subsequently teamed up with Ancient World Tours to launch adventure safaris in the Eastern desert, in an effort to train participants to follow in Winkler’s footsteps, in order to perpetuate his theories. Wilkinson’s first exposure to the Eastern desert was as a member of one of these expeditions. Winkler was guilty by association — Hitler distorted his theory — and without new evidence, it has been difficult to reestablish the validity of Winkler’s original theory.61
However, I believe that significant new evidence did appear within the last 20 years. Mesopotamian river boats did not need to travel the Mediterranean Sea, as Winkler’s detractors presumed. Satellite photos taken in the 1990’s have established that ancient rivers existed under the Saudi Arabian desert before the rain belt moved south, quite possibly capable of carrying Aryan river boats from Basrah to Mecca and on to the Nile. The existence of just such a navigable river is substantiated by the Bible as one of the Four Rivers of Eden known as the Gihon River.
Consider the possibility that tribes of Aryans migrated across Saudi Arabia to Egypt in riverboats between 4500 - 3500 BCE. We might recall Sir Arthur Keith’s already mentioned observation that the Sumerians were “dolichocephalic, with large brain capacity, like a section of the pre-dynastic Egyptians.”62 Of course, Sumerians would have brought the science of religion along with them, including an astral theology of the four fixed signs (Chapter 3), the Clock of Heaven and Earth (Chapter 4), and the Sumerian notion of local city-gods:
At Memphis, Ptah, the power of the earth was the creator. At Heliopolis and Hermopolis it was the power in the sun [the god Re], and at Elephantine it was said that Khnum [god of water] made all living beings on a potter’s wheel...63 Amon, the wind, was also, as breath, the mysterious source of life in man and in beast...64 The dead lived in the great cosmic circuit of the sun and stars.65
The Four Rivers of Eden
Many evangelical Christians believe Genesis literally. They believe that Adam and Eve were historical people, and that the Garden of Eden was a historical place. One reason for this is our knowledge that at least two of the Four Rivers of Eden actually exist. These rivers are described in Genesis 2:10-14 as the Tigris and Euphrates.66 However, the other two rivers: the Pishon and Gihon, have never been decisively located. Eden is also called Heaven or Paradise, and although Eden is considered a spiritual realm, the musical mathematics in Part II describes exactly how Adam’s exile from Heaven bridges the spiritual and material realms. Since the spiritual Eden has a material reflection, it is logical to assume that the other two rivers would also have a physical presence here on Earth. According to Genesis 2:10-14:
A river issues forth from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. The gold of that land is good; bdellium is there, and lapis lazulli. The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
According to Samuel Kramer:
“The very idea of a divine paradise, a garden of the gods, is of Sumerian origin. The Sumerian paradise was located, according
