ARCHAEOGENETICS, ANCIENT TEXTS, AND THE TOWER OF BABEL MOMENT
The picture that archaeogenetics provides is growing stronger that humanity's origins do indeed stem from Africa, with vast migrations across the globe beginning ca. 60,000 years ago:
DNA Evidence Tells \'Global Story\' of Human History
Now this poses certain problems when one is attempting to reconcile modern science with ancient texts and the attempts of various researchers to use those texts to situate the origins of humanity. I am, of course, referring to the various Mesopotamian texts that seem to indicate some deliberate genetic engineering of humanity long ago by what may best be described as our genetic cousins. For most such researchers, those texts - everything from the Kharsag Tablets to the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal works such as Enoch - indicate the origins of humanity in Mesopotamia, with some researchers, Andrew Collins or the O'Briens for example, even attempting to locate the actual Garden of Eden in the Fertile Crescent area. Additionally, the dispersion of humanity in most of those researchers' views began much more recently than modern genetics will allow.
Such questions I left deliberately unanswered in Genes, Giants, Monsters and Men because I believe that science has yet to learn everything it can that might shed light on the interpretation of these ancient texts. But these recent studies, confirming the "out of Africa" hypothesis, do raise some interesting speculative possibilities. Most ancient legends speak of a "Tower of Babel Moment" of history (if I may be permitted to use that wonderful expression of Leonard Bernstein), when mankind's ancient social unity was broken by whatever means by the gods (and the means vary from culture to culture, including the familiar Biblical and Mesopotamian confounding of the language), and mankind was dispersed over the Earth.
Geneticists are, in their own oblique way, confirming such a "Tower of Babel Moment" by highlighting a particular period of history, ca 60,000-70,000 years ago, when mankind, for whatever reason, began the migration from Africa, more or less splitting whatever primordial cultural unity that existed. If one couples the ancient stories with modern genetics, this means quite simply that the location and time frame of those stories has to be revised not much farther back in time than the pure "textualist" researchers in most cases have advocated, but also that the location for the stories - if one is taking them in a more or less historical sense as containing at least some kernel of historical truth - must be relocated to Africa.
And that means, quite simply, that if there was a "Tower of Babel Moment," or even perhaps a Tower of Babel, that it would be most comfortably - at least as far as modern science might be inclined to view the story (if it views it at all) - in Africa.
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Interesting.. but in light of the new evidence of Neanderthal DNA in the Human Genome.. it seems the weight of evidence is shifting back into the Middle East, Jordan Valley, once more.
I vote for the Persian Golf. It wasn’t flooded at the time… was quite likely a very lush valley with at least 4 rivers flowing down from the highlands. The weather systems would have added to that with monsoonal seasons, that even now, make that area the wettest in the world.. Odd.. but true. Check it out. The fogs and rain only come in a great burst of moisture during one season. The wave of moisture would have made the valley the ‘Best Place on Earth’ for early Humans. Areas with high humidity and low seasonal variations tend to be places with accelerated mutation rates.
Geology has proven the Great Flood.. that would be the massive Flooding of all coastal lands at the end of the last Ice Age.. inundating most places humans tend to live… If we want to know what we were really like before the End of Ice Age Flood.. it’s all sitting out on the Continental Shelves. We’re all guessing until the next Ice Age lowers the sea levels enough for us to start trying to re-claim those lands.. and our history.. Anyone for a continuation of the Spotless Sun? Koshner .. heads up.. WE ALREADY LIVE ON ‘WATER-WORLD’ .. as our ancestors would judge it.
.. very nice brain-doodles on your site, good dotted-line work! … Lee
First off, thanks for all your work Joseph…
I could be wrong, but I thought the Anunnaki are told to have made humans in Africa to mine gold, it was only civilzation after the last Ice age(i.e. post 10,000 BCE) that began in Mesopotamia?
That’s Sitchin’s scenario…much of which I have problems with
Yea, I understand. I’m just saying that scenaario fits the genetic dating doesn’t it?
The Hebrew name of God and biblical names appear in the archives of Ebla as early as the 4th millennium bc.
The greatest ruler of Ebla was one Ibrium and one of the names used by his son was Izak. Their economy was mostly pastoral (cattle and sheep)–they were Shepard Kings. The last florescence of Ebla was destroyed by the predations of Naram Sin.
I believe the Ebla aristocracy and refugees took refuge in the Nile Delta at this time and were known as the Hyksos. The largest extant of the Ebla empire went from the Nile Delta to the Euphrates.
http://www.amazon.com/Archives-Ebla-Inscribed-Translation-NellArgilla/dp/0385131526/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308184564&sr=8-3
May I recomend a podcast from Beyond the Edge Radio it was a interview with Lloyd Pye he said on that their was evidence of upright apes going back to the Miocene this was back by up the book Forbidden Archaeology Pye also recomended a book titled The Upright Ape I am not sure of the athor’s name it either Erian Filler or Eric Fuller look up Pye website http://www.lloydpye.com he may tell you.
New evidence brings Northwest Africa and the Berbers into the picture of our ancient origins. This connects to some theories of Atlantis, but as archeo-genetics is in such a state flux at present, it will be some time before the dust settles. When it does, the picture of human origins will have changed dramatically. I don’t claim to have any idea where it will end up–but I’ll bet a lot surprises are in store:
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/father-of-us-all-142-thousand-years-ago.html
In regard to the acoustic signatures of the Greek temples mentioned in the ‘Genes Giants’ and their possible use as radio transmitters and receivers, were the Gothic cathedrals in medieval Europe constructed in similar fashion?
Are any buildings today constructed with such acoustic signatures, or for a purpose that still exists today but is not radio related?
Mr. Farrell,
What I like most about your work is that while you are open to ideas WAY outside of what is deemed safe from a “OMG I want to get tenure SOMEWHERE so I can pay my bills & publish in Nature” point of view if it makes sense, but you are still willing to use the “mainstream” scientific tools that have been tried & tested. There is a tendency in this arena for people to just say “All mainstream science is BS!” This is not true, and I’m happy to see that you are aware of this.
Fascinating view on the “out of Africa” migrations.
try to google adams calendar, it may be interresting…
Australian Aborigines are the key.
They have the oldest continuous civilisation on earth.
The oldest language group on earth -what is left of it 🙁
The have a big flood
They have wars with giants
They have mixed species creatures
They have astronomical knowledge
They have gods coming from certain star constellations
But NO pyramids………..that we know about……….
They are supposed to have been in Australia for some 40-60 000 years if you are to believe the dating methods.
Central africa and central Australia-that is where the secrets are 🙂
An interesting book is GENETIC ENTROPY & THE MYSTERY OF THE GENOME by J. C. Sanford. Our DNA is actually degrading at continuous rate (it won’t last forever!).
Finding ancient DNA might have something to do with getting access to “younger,’ more pristine (less degraded) DNA. Not that it would be shared with anyone, of course.
The Chinese got around the tower of Babel by opting for a universal written script the origins of humanity is getting more complex with Neanderthal and another side branch know only by a single finger bone in our gene pool and who knows what next they will find by the way the Clovis and the Solutrian are related but that nothing new I read a book publish in nineteen fifty six titled No Stone Unturned that brought this same idea up just waiting to see what else blows up in the scientist face next time.
Hello Dr. Farrell,
I am finding your books very valuable and interesting. I persuaded my local library (in Montreal, Canada) to buy two of them. My only complaint is about the imperfect editing.
I have just finished reading Genes, Giants, Monsters and Men and was reminded of something which I read recently. Apparently some studies have been made on the genetic origins of the native people in North and South America. As was already suspected, most show an origin in Eastern Asia having at some stage crossed from Siberia into Alaska.
However, those in the north-east of North America have a ‘genetic marker’ which is not found elsewhere. The only other people who have this marker are on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean and they are the Basques and the Berbers (original inhabitants of North Africa.) This could lead to some interesting speculation concerning the connections which brought about this relationship. Perhaps there was a mid-atlantic continent (Atlantis) from which both groups emigrated or perhaps there was more long-distance seafaring in the remote past than is popularly supposed.
Happy hunting
Grahame
Perhaps the African population was the largest (or only) group left after said event, and the rest of the lines just died out.
I would be curious to see how the Inca descendants in Peru fit into this, as they supposedly have a blood type which only exists there, and is unrelated to any other on the planet.
Interesting idea. I’ve so far not considered the idea that the Babel incident and similar myths from other cultures refers to the migrations from Africa. But what you say does make sense. Thank you for this insightful post.
Btw, concerning the traditions of the confounding of the language, it should be noted that certain linguists believe that all the thousands of languages existing on earth today can be traced back to an original “mother tongue” that was spoken long, long ago.
In addition to your new book, Joseph, I look forward to reading Robert Bauval’s new book “Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt.”
There is a book called “The Book of Jasher” that was referred to in the books of Joshua and II Samuel…it has a detailed description of floods before “Noah’s” flood, who taught all the knowledge to all the people on earth and then left the earth, and the Tower of Babel with descriptions of several wars with the gods including the gods sending down arrows with blood on them to fool the ‘men’ building the Tower into thinking they had killed the gods. It even talks about the top of the Tower falling upside down into the sands below and the rest being ‘covered’. The history declares that going around the base of the tower was a maximum of three miles in one day and only get a portion around the base. Many tie in’s to points in your books Dr. F. Including several dispersions, mixing animals and humans as ‘science’ and so on. I’m sure most of your ‘fans’ have read this book a long time ago, but maybe after reading your things would want to read the descriptions again. In one of the N.T. gospels Jesus said that the particular audience knew about Orion and Pleiades, but not the son of God before them. I have always wondered if He was referring to the ancient histories that now you bring out in your writings. Interesting dots to put together even if loosely and not ‘in stone’ until more information becomes available. Maybe with the news I heard last night about the new photos of deep below the sand of Egypt with hundreds of pyramids and buildings and cities more information will become available. Wonder when those photos became available by the way — before the fence, after the riots???
opps I ‘misspoke’ –I re-read my points and then went to check the book — the top didn’t fall off the tower – there was an opening in the earth that took the 1/3 base and fire took the middle third and only the top third is above the sand…a 3 day circumference walk.
Hi Dr. Farrell,
thank you so much for this posting-
you are just such a tremendous researcher (God bless you!)-
but have you yet checked out the work of Michael Tellinger in South Africa?-
his research would give your insights on this subject a lot of back-up credence-
Kerry Cassidy has been hot on his trail for quite some time- you know the internet link-
many warmest regards,
Larry