Ancient World Review

Groundbreaking DNA Study Reveals Ancient Egyptians Were Indo-European (2017)

"The tombs of ancient Egypt have yielded golden collars and ivory bracelets, but another treasure — human DNA — has proved elusive. Now, scientists have captured sweeping genomic information from Egyptian mummies. It reveals that mummies were closely related to ancient Middle Easterners, hinting that northern Africans might have different genetic roots from people south of the Sahara desert." Source: Nature (2017).

This is huge news. The opening paragraph in this Nature article is worded very carefully, but if you keep reading, the story of who the ancient Egyptians were and where they originated comes into sharp focus. We now have solid evidence that the ancient Egyptians were Indo-Europeans, not sub-Saharan Africans:

"Both types of genomic material showed that ancient Egyptians shared little DNA with modern sub-Saharan Africans. Instead, their closest relatives were people living during the Neolithic and Bronze ages in an area known as the Levant. Strikingly, the mummies were more closely related to ancient Europeans and Anatolians than to modern Egyptians." (Emphasis added)

Note: "The Anatolians were a group of distinct Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages and shared a common culture," according to Wikipedia.

This study is truly groundbreaking. The Afrocentrists won't like it so they'll probably ignore it altogether, but no one has ever taken their heavily politicized Black Egypt mythology seriously. Afrocentrists have never seemed to be able to grasp the concept that "Africa" doesn't mean "black." North Africa was always part of the Mediterranean world. The Sahara desert formed a natural barrier that basically divided the continent in two, both geographically and genetically. 

Modern Egyptians do have some black African ancestry, but the mixture appears to have occurred fairly recently. According to the researchers who conducted this latest DNA study, "there was probably a pulse of sub-Saharan African DNA into Egypt roughly 700 years ago. The mixing of ancient Egyptians and Africans from further south means that modern Egyptians can trace 8% more of their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africans than can the mummies from Abusir el-Meleq."

Note: I might be wrong about this, but I think Abusir el-Meleq is ancient Bousiris, aka Abusir (?), the location of a large necropolis where the mummies used in this DNA study were discovered.

Another important result of this study is that it reveals where the ancient Egyptians came from originally and by extension gives us a general picture of how north Africa was settled. Neolithic and Bronze Age people from southwest Asia, the Anatolian peninsula, eastern Europe and the region around the Black Sea migrated down along the Mediterranean coastline into north Africa and apparently settled throughout the area between the Med and the Sahara desert. At one time the region was green and lush, but desertification forced them to concentrate in the Nile Valley where they laid the foundations of the Old Kingdom.

These people were Indo-Europeans or Proto-Indo-Europeans, the ancestors of the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, the Corded Ware Culture in western Europe, the Yamna culture in Central Asia and the Afanasevo culture in southern Siberia. (Wikipedia)

This study is being described as a first, but I'm not sure that's completely accurate. Years ago a DNA study was conducted on the mummy of King Tut which may have confirmed his European ancestry. As far as I know the full study was never released, though several reports claimed that Tut's DNA showed that he was "disabled, malarial and inbred." The Egyptian government apparently suppressed the full test results, but iGENEA, a Swiss genomics company, "started a Tutankhamen DNA project based on what [they said were] genetic markers that appeared on a computer screen during a Discovery Channel special on the famous pharaoh's genetic lineage," according to a 2011 Live Science story which dismissed the project as "unscientific".

According to iGENEA, King Tut belongs to haplogroup R1b1a2 which "arose about 9.500 years ago in the surrounding area of the Black Sea. The migration of this haplogroup into Europe started at the earliest with the spread of agriculture since 7.000 BC. It is very probable that it is also connected to the Indoeuropeans who spread over Europe a little later in several waves of migrations."

That sounds pretty accurate. Maybe the iGENEA study was unscientific, but in light of these new DNA results they may have been right after all, at least in general.

Comment: Many of the sources I've read about this story use semantic tricks in their lead paragraphs to soften the impact of the DNA results. For example, Science Daily concludes its opening summary of the research with the sentence "[t]he study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did." Technically, that's true, but the sentence is deliberately worded to obscure the most important finding. To get the full picture you have to dig deeper into the article, but that's typical with subjects which have become contaminated with modern identity politics. I have a feeling that this news won't get a lot of exposure in the modern indoctrination camps that still try to pass themselves off as universities.

The Roman City Of Gerasa In Jordan

"Jerash is the site of the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. Ancient Greek inscriptions from the city support that the city was founded by Alexander the Great and his general Perdiccas, who allegedly settled aged Macedonian soldiers there during the spring of 331 BC, when he left Egypt and crossed Syria en route to Mesopotamia. However, other sources, namely the city's former name of 'Antioch on the Chrysorrhoas', point to a founding by Seleucid King Antiochus IV, while still others attribute the founding to Ptolemy II of Egypt." Source: Wikipedia.

Note: According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), the city was "probably a Seleucid foundation."

"After the Roman conquest [of the region] in 63 BC, Jerash and the land surrounding it were annexed to the Roman province of Syria, and later joined the Decapolis league of cities. The historian Josephus mentions the city as being principally inhabited by Syrians, and also having a small Jewish community. In AD 106, Jerash was absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia, which included the city of Philadelphia (modern day Amman). The Romans ensured security and peace in this area, which enabled its people to devote their efforts and time to economic development and encouraged civic building activity." (Wikipedia)

"Jerash is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world outside Italy."

Note: According to Wikipedia, "The earliest Arab/Semitic inhabitants, who lived in the area during the pre-classical period of the 1st millennium BCE, named their village Garshu. The Romans later Hellenized the former name of Garshu into Gerasa. Later, the name transformed into the Arabic Jerash."

Before the Roman conquest, Gerasa / Jerash was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (103 - 76 BC), the second Hasmonean king of Judaea. The city "remained in Jewish hands until in 63 BC it became part of Roman Syria and of the Decapolis," according to the OCD. "It's prosperity, dependent on caravan trade, increased later when Trajan annexed Nabataea [1]. Gerasa, having become part of the Arabian province, enjoyed a 'golden age' under the Antonines."

[1] "Nabataea remained independent from the 4th century BC until it was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 106, which renamed it Arabia Petraea." (Wikipedia)

A modern view of the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter complex can be seen here. The tour guide's almost inaudible, but there are some good shots of the ruins.

The architecture in Jerash is really spectacular, especially the temples:

"One particularly important temple in the city of Gerasa was the Temple to Artemis, built during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD). The temple was built on a prominent hill. The major temple for which the city is known was built during the reign of Antoninus Pius, circa 150 AD, but there is evidence of an earlier, smaller sanctuary to Artemis that existed as early as 79 AD. This indicates that the veneration of Artemis was already important in the city before the Antonine period. In addition to the temple to Artemis, there is also a temple to Zeus, another important deity in the city, to the south." Source: Ancient Origins.

"The city of Jerash went through many changes during its long existence, going from a Semitic village to a Greco-Roman metropolis, and eventually to an Arabized metropolis. The city however remained inhabited and was able to adapt to each epoch in which it found itself. It is for this reason that it could be considered an everchanging city."

Greek & Roman Shipwrecks In The Black Sea

"The Black Sea is considered to be one of the world’s finest underwater laboratories due to the anoxic (un-oxygenated) layer which preserves artefacts better than any other marine environment." Source: Black Sea Marine Archaeology Project. The sea bottom is a museum full of ancient shipwrecks from all over Europe, Asia and the Near East, as well as submerged artefacts and shorelines dating back to prehistoric times:

"Ancient trade routes in the [Black Sea] are currently being extensively studied by scientists, as the Black Sea was sailed by Hittites, Carians, Colchians, Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Varangians, Crusaders, Venetians, Genoese, Georgians, Tatars and Ottomans." (Wikipedia)

"Perhaps the most promising areas in deepwater archaeology are the quest for submerged prehistoric settlements in the continental shelf and for ancient shipwrecks in the anoxic zone, which are expected to be exceptionally well preserved due to the absence of oxygen. This concentration of historical powers, combined with the preservative qualities of the deep anoxic waters of the Black Sea, has attracted increased interest from marine archaeologists who have begun to discover a large number of ancient ships and organic remains in a high state of preservation."

Video from 2008.

Is The Real Mount Sinai In Saudi Arabia?

"'Yahweh came from Sinai' (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 68:18). It is in Sinai that Moses first encounters Yahweh; it is back to Sinai that Moses leads Yahweh’s people from Egypt; and it is from Sinai that, two years later, on Yahweh’s order again, Moses sets off with them to conquer a piece of the Fertile Crescent.

"But where is Sinai, with its Mount Horeb [the mountain where God gave Moses the 10 commandments]? Exodus unequivocally places it in the land of Midian ...

"And where is Midian? Greek authors unanimously place it in northwestern Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba [see map]. Even Paul the Apostle, who spent three years in Arabia, knew that 'Sinai is a mountain in Arabia' (Galatians 4:25). It was not before the 4^th century that the biblical Sinai was misplaced in the Egyptian peninsula, probably for geopolitical reasons (Egypt was within the control of the Roman Empire, unlike Arabia, under Persian influence). But placing the biblical Sinai west of the Gulf of Aqaba didn’t make any sense, since that region had always belonged to Egypt (archeology has confirmed it). Why would the Israelites have settled there when chased by the Egyptian army?" Source: "The Arabian Cradle of Zion," by French historian Laurent Guyenot, The Unz Review. Image from World Atlas.

Comment: Whether you agree with Laurent Guyenot in general, he's right about one thing, at least. The idea that the biblical Mount Sinai / Mount Horeb is located on the Sinai peninsula doesn't make any sense at all. If the Jews were fleeing Egypt, why would they settle on Egyptian territory? Assuming this is actual history we're talking about here -- a very big assumption -- they would have left Egypt altogether and crossing the Gulf of Aqaba into Arabia would have been a good way to put some distance between them and the pharaoh. If that's what actually happened -- if the real Mount Sinai is in Arabia and not on the Sinai peninsula -- it would overturn centuries of accepted religious doctrine:

"The biblical Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. The summit [in Egypt] has a mosque that is still used by Muslims, and a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is 'Moses' cave', where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments." (Wikipedia)

The supposed Mount Sinai in Egypt. Is this just a pile of rocks in the middle of the desert?

I'm not sure how many Christians, Jews and Muslims still accept the idea that Mount Sinai is in Egypt. Some Christians, at least, have come around to the belief that the mountain is in Saudi Arabia and the idea seems to be gaining in popularity.  The UNZ Review article quoted above points out the effect this is having on Middle Eastern politics:

"The growing popularization of the Arabian Sinai cannot be unrelated to the NEOM project announced in October 2017 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman: a high-tech, ultra-connected, transnational mega city and economic zone, covering 10,230 square-miles (about the size of Massachusetts), which happens to correspond roughly to ancient Midian."

There's a lot that could be said about the Saudis, the NEOM project and the war in Yemen, among other things, but never mind all that. The UNZ Review article is as much about the current politics of the region as it is about the actual location of the mountain where YHWH gave Moses the ten commandments, but I'm just interested in the ancient history here. I'm not going to comment one way or another about the political stuff, but I will say that there is something deeply sinister about the NEOM project.

Getting back to where Mount Sinai is actually located, it would be interesting to know if the conventional wisdom has been wrong all these years, but I'm not sure how anybody could prove that this or that pile of granite in the desert is the biblical mountain. You would need an ancient map or some kind of non-biblical documentary evidence to do that and nothing of the sort has been discovered as far as I know. But even if the question could be settled conclusively, what difference would it make?

Scholarly interest aside, the importance of all this depends on whether you believe that the Old Testament stories are true. Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe that YHWH appeared on a mountaintop in the form of a burning bush and gave Moses a list of commandments. I don't believe that YHWH exists in the first place and Moses himself is probably a mythological character:

"The modern scholarly consensus is that the figure of Moses is a mythical figure, and while, as William G. Dever writes, 'a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C.', archaeology cannot confirm his existence. Certainly no Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure." (Wikipedia)

The Exodus itself, the founding myth of the Israelites, probably never happened as well:

"The consensus of modern scholars is that the Bible does not give an accurate account of the origins of Israel, which formed as an entity in the southern Transjordan region by the 13th century BCE from the indigenous Canaanite culture. There is no evidence that the Israelites were ever enslaved in ancient Egypt or even lived there and scholars broadly agree that the Exodus has no historical basis. There is a widespread agreement that the composition of the Torah or Pentateuch, the biblical books which contain the Exodus narrative, took place in the Middle Persian Period (5th century BCE), although the traditions behind it are older and can be found in the writings of the 8th-century BCE prophets." (Wikipedia)

In light of all this, the question of where Mount Sinai was located seems pretty much irrelevant.

Humans Migrated From Europe To The Levant 40,000 Years Ago

Video from 2017.

"Who exactly were the Aurignacians, who lived in the Levant 40,000 years ago? Researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Ben-Gurion University now report that these culturally sophisticated yet mysterious humans migrated from Europe to the Levant some 40,000 years ago, shedding light on a significant era in the region's history." Source: Science Daily.

"The Aurignacian culture first appeared in Europe some 43,000 years ago and is known for having produced bone tools, artifacts, jewelry, musical instruments, and cave paintings. For years, researchers believed that modern man's entry into Europe led to the rapid decline of the Neanderthals, either through violent confrontation or wresting control of food sources. But recent genetic studies have shown that Neanderthals did not vanish. Instead, they assimilated into modern human immigrant populations. The new study adds further evidence to substantiate this theory."

The Gigantic Stones Of The Baalbek Trilithon

The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.

An incredible testament to ancient engineering techniques can be found in the Roman ruins located in modern-day Baalbek, Lebanon, which was known as Heliopolis during Roman times (not to be mistaken with Heliopolis in Egypt).

"In the base of the ruins of the Jupiter Baal Temple [in Baalbek] lie three hewn stones known together as the 'trilithon.' Each is estimated to weigh over 750 tons. [Emphasis added] Construction on the massive Roman temple of Jupiter began roughly 27 years before the birth of Jesus, and while most scholars agree the blocks were cut by the Romans, there is some evidence that the trilithon may predate their presence in the Middle East. In fact, the stones may predate even Alexander the Great, who founded Heliopolis in 334 BCE." Source: Atlas Obscura.

Comment: The Romans were expert engineers, but considering how many huge temples and megaliths have been discovered around the globe, the techniques required to move extremely heavy stones must have been fairly widespread in the ancient world.

Prehistoric Humans Preserved Bone Marrow

Interesting video about wilderness survival. The eating bone marrow part starts at 14:32.

"Researchers have uncovered evidence of the storage and delayed consumption of animal bone marrow at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv. The research provides direct evidence that early Paleolithic people saved animal bones for up to nine weeks before feasting on them inside the cave." Source: Science Daily.

"'... Prehistoric humans brought to the cave selected body parts of the hunted animal carcasses,'" according to one of the professors involved in this study. "'... The most common prey was fallow deer, and limbs and skulls were brought to the cave while the rest of the carcass was stripped of meat and fat at the hunting scene and left there. We found that the deer leg bones, specifically the metapodials, exhibited unique chopping marks on the shafts, which are not characteristic of the marks left from stripping fresh skin to fracture the bone and extract the marrow.' ... The researchers contend that the deer metapodials were kept at the cave covered in skin to facilitate the preservation of marrow for consumption in time of need."

The bottom line here is that prehistoric hunter-gatherers didn't just live hand-to-mouth all the time. They knew they could preserve bone marrow by leaving the bone and skin intact. They were also familiar with preserving meat by freezing and drying.  Still, as shown in the first video above, eating and the search for food must have an ongoing process throughout the day.

The Library Of St. Catherine's Monastery In Egypt

"Saint Catherine's Monastery ... officially 'Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai'  lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt. The monastery is named after Catherine of Alexandria" (Wikipedia) "

Note: Catherine of Alexandria probably never existed:

"Donald Attwater (English Catholic author, 1892-1977) dismisses what he calls the 'legend' of Saint Catherine, arguing for a lack of any 'positive evidence that she ever existed outside the mind of some Greek writer who first composed what he intended to be simply an edifying romance.' Harold Davis writes that 'assiduous research has failed to identify Catherine with any historical personage' and has theorized that Catherine was an invention inspired to provide a counterpart to the story of the slightly later pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 350–370 – 415 CE)." (Wikipedia)

According to the UNESCO World Heritage List, "The [Greek Orthodox] monastery of St Catherine stands at the foot of Mount Horeb where, the Old Testament records, Moses received the Tablets of the Law. The mountain is known and revered by Muslims as Jebel Musa. The entire area is sacred to three world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism." The monastery is controlled by "the autonomous Church of Sinai."

Even though St. Catherine's was named after a fictitious saint, this is still a remarkable and very old institution:

^"Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world. The site contains the world's oldest continually operating library [next video], possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus."

The incredible library filmed on a potato.

Note: The manuscript shown in the video above is the Ashtiname of Muhammed, "also known as the Covenant or Testament (Testamentum) of Muhammad (the Islamic Prophet) ... a document which is a charter or writ ratified by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, given to the Christian monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand."

The manuscript may be inauthentic. According to Wikipedia, "Since the 19th century, several aspects of the Ashtiname, notably the list of witnesses, have been questioned by scholars. There are similarities to other documents granted to other religious communities in the Near East. One example is Muhammad's alleged letter to the Christians of Najran, which first came to light in 878 in a monastery in Iraq and whose text is preserved in the Chronicle of Seert." It doesn't really matter, though, because even if the Ashtiname is a forgery -- something I don't think anyone is claiming -- it's still a priceless artifact from the period.

Recently renovated, the library at St. Catherine's was re-opened in 2017.

The manuscripts and books in the monastery's library go way back:

"When Egeria visited the Sinai in 383-384, she wrote approvingly of the way the monks read to her the scriptural accounts concerning the various events that had taken place there. Thus we can speak of manuscripts at Sinai in the fourth century. It is written of Saint John Climacus that, while living as a hermit, he spent much time in prayer and in the copying of books. This is evidence of manuscript production at Sinai in the sixth century. The library at the Holy Monastery of Sinai is thus the inheritor of texts and of traditions that date to the earliest years of a monastic presence in the Sinai. In earlier times, manuscripts were kept in three different places: in the north wall of the monastery, in the vicinity of the church, and in a central location where the texts were accessible." Source: The Sinai Monastery website.

Research has also revealed that some of the manuscripts in the library contain "hidden manuscripts" which were erased in order to reuse the parchment they were written on.

"The Sinai manuscripts comprise the oldest and most important Christian monastic library collection. Of its 3,300 manuscripts, two-thirds are in Greek. The rest are principally in Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, and Slavonic, through there are other manuscripts in Polish, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Armenian, Latin, and Persian. The New Finds correspond to these languages, and are stored adjacent to the library. The library also contains an important archive, containing letters, account books, charters, and other documents." Source: The Sinai Monastery website.

"...The most famous manuscript is the fourth century Codex Sinaiticus, of which the monastery retains twelve pages and some twenty-four fragments."

Comment: I'm not a Christian, but St. Catherine's and its library are priceless historical treasures which must be protected at all costs. The monastery has already been the target of at least one attempted terrorist attack back in 2015 and the Islamic State vermin are still waging a sporadic insurgency in the Sinai. I hate to say it, but if the situation deteriorates the Church of Sinai (which controls the monastery) should consider moving the library to a safer location, preferably somewhere out of the country.

Related: St. Catherine's Monastery, its Library and its Palimpsests.

The Dark Lords Of Hattusha

"Hattusha [Hattusa] exerted dominating influence upon the civilizations of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC in Anatolia and northern Syria. The palaces, temples, trading quarters and necropolis of this political and religious metropolis provide a comprehensive picture of a capital and bear a unique testimony to the disappeared Hittite civilization." Source: UNESCO World Heritage.

According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised),  "the site [of Hattusa] has been under excavation by German archaeologists since 1906 (1), and besides the massive Hittite occupation has produced pre- and post-Hittite levels. Among the principle finds has been the royal archives of thousands of cuneiform clay tablets."

(1) I'm not sure if the Germans were still excavating the site when the war broke out in Syria. If so, I assume that their work was interrupted.

"Hattusa is a site full of treasures, which is mentioned in history books due to the rich correspondence between the Hittite king and other rulers like the pharaohs of Egypt. The site contains many important places, including the pre-Hittite royal tombs, dating to 3,000 B.C., and have yielded stunning artifacts such as weapons, gold and silver containers and jewelry, animal sculptures made of bronze and clay, chairs, gold brooches, belt buckles, and gold leaf-covered figures." Source: Ancient Origins (2016).

Next video shows the Yer Kapi tunnel under Hattusa.

"The Hittite Empire began its decline around the middle of the 13th century BC," according to Ancient Origins, "mainly due to the rise of their eastern neighbors, the Assyrians. Moreover, raids by hostile forces, such as the Sea Peoples and the Kaska further weakened the Hittite Empire, finally resulting in its collapse during the first half of the 12th century BC. In 1190 BC, the Kaskas managed to capture Hattusa, which they then sacked and burned."

According to Wikipedia, "[e]xcavations suggest that Hattusa was gradually abandoned over a period of several decades as the Hittite empire disintegrated. The site was subsequently abandoned until 800 BC, when a modest Phrygian settlement appeared in the area."

Neanderthals And Modern Humans In The Levant

Note: According to Wikipedia, "The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-type female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel. A 2014 study of objects at Tabun suggests that ancestral humans used fire at the site on a regular basis since about 350,000 years ago."

I think that Tabun Cave marks the southernmost spread of the Neanderthals. The remains discovered at Skhul Cave seem to be Neanderthal-human hybrids of some kind:

"Skhūl yielded three fairly complete skulls and some well-preserved long bones. These resemble the remains of Neanderthals ... in having some rugged features (e.g., browridges), but they do not have the entire suite of unique traits that characterize Neanderthals. Some features of modern humans ... are also present." (Encyclopedia Britannica)