Читать книгу The Science of Religion - Howard Barry Schatz - Страница 11

Rediscovering the Aryan Fathers

The first archeologist to journey eastward from the Nile Valley was the Russian scholar Vladimir Golenischeff in 1887. He traveled through the Wadi Hammamat. Before the Mediterranean rain belt moved south, circa 3500 BCE, this wadi was once a great river connecting the Nile to the Red Sea. Golenischeff was also the first to discover abundant hieroglyphic inscriptions at the siltstone quarries along the wadi.53 In 1908, Englishman Arthur Weigall traveled along the nearby Wadi Barramiya to discover prehistoric images inscribed along the cliffs of the wadi. He was the first Egyptologist to publish large numbers of boat drawings discovered along these cliffs. In 1936-37, German scholar Hans Alexander Winkler searched through the Wadi Hammamat, studying its ancient rock art for clues about Egypt’s earliest inhabitants. He noticed a resemblance between the high-prows and sterns of boats inscribed on the Eastern desert walls, with similar vessels depicted on Mesopotamian cylinder seals that were in his possession. Winkler theorized that Egypt was invaded from the East by a “master race” who brought civilization with them in river boats.54 Winkler also found numerous swastikas inscribed on these cliffs. He knew the swastika to be the Axis Mundi symbol of the Aryan tribes in the Armenian Highlands (see Figure 24c).

Nazi Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s aide-de-camp, convinced Hitler to adopt the swastika based on Winkler’s theories regarding an Aryan master race. Rosenberg’s racial ideas were reinforced by the work of another German scientist, a “craniologist” named Johann Blumenbach, the acknowledged father of racial classification.55 Blumenbach categorized five different races by studying and measuring human skulls:

• The Caucasian or white race

• The Mongolian or yellow race

• The Malayan or brown race

• The Negroid or black race

• The American or red race.

Based on these distinctions, he also applied a now defunct pseudo-science called phrenology, in which personality traits were determined by “reading” the skull. He theorized, for example, that the high brows of Caucasians were physical expressions of a loftier mentality. He also found great similarities between a German skull in his collection and what he considered to be the most perfect and beautiful human skull, taken from the Caucasus Mountain region:

I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian.

Blumenbach’s work was followed by decades of debate among early 20th century anthropologists that had less to do with science, and more to do with ideology. Among the ideas that surfaced was an observation that blond, blue-eyed, beautiful Caucasians appeared to be best exemplified by the Nordic people. This appealed to Rosenberg and Hitler, who then declared that a Nordic-Aryan master race was the ancient ancestor of the German people. In Hitler’s twisted mind, a contrived German link to an idealized master race was transformed into Hitler’s distorted version of “Aryan supremacy,” which became his justification for genocide.

Historian Nell Painter remarks that Blumenbach used the word “beautiful” compulsively to describe the Georgian skull, suggesting that his conclusions were something less than scientific. In an article that questions the very identity of white people as Caucasians, Ms. Painter suggests that Blumenbach’s theory depicting the Caucasian race as the “primeval race,” “the oldest race of man,” and the “first variety of humankind,” was based on the very unscientific Biblical notion that Noah’s Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat in the Caucasus Mountains, and further, that the great dispersion of people after Noah’s Ark landed, began their migration from the Caucasus Mountains.56

From the perspective of Ms. Painter’s “American black experience,” the term “master race” brings to mind the trauma of slavery and oppression. Obviously, it has similar overtones within the Jewish psyche. It is easy to get caught up in exaggerated notions of Hell and mortal sin, just long enough to dole out Semitic justice to the likes of a Hitler. Indo-Aryan karmic justice does not seem severe enough to satisfy Western sensibilities, and as a result, there has been a strong desire to discredit the work of Winkler, Blumenbach, and the Aryan founders of civilization. They have been unjustly slandered, primarily because Hitler took an interest in them. Today, the very mention of an Aryan master race elicits a visceral reaction from descent people the world over.

Since the time of Hitler’s distortions, major strides have made in biology resulting from the discovery of DNA, revealing that far too much has been made of racial differences. It is now well established that skin color readily adapts to changing climate, since dark skin is a way to filter ultra-violet rays. EMH originated in Africa some 200,000 years ago, where people were very dark. During the earliest migrations out of Africa, those who traveled to the Middle East and Asia, circa 50,000 - 60,000 BCE, became moderately dark. By the time Cro-Magnon skeletons were discovered in French caves, they were believed to have the size and coloration of the robust Finnish people, with pale skin and red hair, circa 30,000 BCE.

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