Culture, religion, farming and history of the Pre-Pottery culture of the Levant.

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Haplogroup T is widespread geographically and is relatively rare, it looks to have originated in Western Asia and then spread from there to East Africa, South Asia, Europe and neighbouring regions, alongside E1b1b and J1, traveling with both into Africa and Arabia.

Haplogroup J1 is primarily found in Arabia, Europe and as far as India, it’s linked with farming technology and spread during the Neolithic, it’s linked with PPNB culture.

Haplogroup E-M215 is associated with the Natufian culture of the Levant, the haplogroup most likely formed around North East Africa, and is primarily associated with Afroasiatic Speakers it’s linked with PPNA culture.

T, J1 and E1B1 seems to be associated with the expansion of the Pre-Pottery Neolotic A & culture(PPNB), one of the oldest sites in human history called Gobekli Tepe which translate to the local language as ‘Potbelly Hill’ the settlement was inhabited from 9500 bce till about 8,000 bce, the monument has many motifs of animals that lived during that time and it being astronomical observatory.

At 12,000 years old, Gobekli Tepe predated humanity’s oldest known civilizations. Its megalithic temples were cut from rock millennia before the 4,500-year-old pyramids in Egypt, 5,000-year-old Stonehenge in England, or 7,000-year-old Nabta Playa, the oldest known astronomical site. It even seems construction on some parts of Gobekli Tepe might have began as far back as 14,000 or 15,000 years ago.

Gobelki Tepe.

Gobekli Tepe Location.



E1B1B is associated with the Natufian culture which predated PPNA & PPNB, T and J1 spread south from Anatolia, marrying Natufian woman and intermixing, E1B1B is present in the Horn, North Africa, South Africa, Southern Europe and Iberia.

J1 and T into Arabia and eastwards together, and E1B1B and T spread into Africa, eventually reaching South Africa and spreading pastoralism there. I believe all three spread into Europe bringing farming there, J1 came into Africa much later due to Islamic expansion in the region during the 7th - 12 centuries.

Haplogroup T.

Camel carving Al Jowf Province.

When the carvings were first discovered in 2018, researchers estimated they were created about 2,000 years ago.


This was based on their similarity to reliefs at Jordan's famous ancient city of Petra.

But a fresh study puts the camels at between 7,000-8,000 old.

Precisely ageing rock sculptures is a challenge for researchers. Unlike cave paintings, say, there is often no organic matter to sample. Rock art of this size is also rare in the region.

The researchers, who published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science, assessed erosion patterns, analysed tool marks, and tested animal bones found at the site to determine a new date for the sculptures' creation.

Their age makes them even older than such ancient landmarks as Stonehenge (5,000 years old) or the Pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old). They even predate the domestication of camels, a catalyst for economic development in the region.

At the time of their creation, Saudi Arabia looked very different, with plains of grass dotted with lakes rather than the deserts of today.


It is not clear why the camel sculptures were created, but the researchers have suggested that they could have provided a meeting point for nomadic tribes.

They also noted the difficulty of making such works thousands of years ago. Many of the reliefs are high above the ground, meaning their carvers would have had to build scaffolding to create them.

Pre-Pottery Neolotic B

Pre-Dynastic Vase Egypt.

Granite is a natural stone. It is a very hard igneous rock containing quartz, mica and feldspar as its main mineral makeup. According to Moh's Scale of Mineral Hardness, granite is typically a 6-8 on the scale (1 is the softest and 10 is the hardest).

Thousands of these vases have been found all across Egypt, with amazing precision only possible today due to machine precision, feel free to watch UnchartedX video.

 

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Daniel Shriner (2018), using modern populations as a reference, showed that the Natufians carried 61.2% Arabian, 21.2% Northern African, 10.9% Western Asian, and a small amount of Eastern African ancestry at 6.8% which is associated with the modern Omotic-speaking groups of southern Ethiopia. The study also suggested that this component may be the source of Haplogroup E-M96 (particularly Y-haplogroup E-M215, also known as "E1b1b") among Natufians.[46]

Natufians. In 1928, British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod discovered 132 Epipaleolithic skeletons that date to approximately 15,000 BP. She found them at Shuqba cave in Wadi an-Natuf, so she named them Natufians. Since the time of Professor Garrod, DNA has taken much of the guesswork out of archaeology and anthropology. Garrod would have had no idea whether the Natufians first appeared in Canaan, or whether they emigrated from some other geographic location.

“Craniometric analyses have suggested an affinity between the Natufians and populations of north or sub-Saharan Africa, …Natufians and successor Levantine Neolithic populations carried haplogroup E, likely to be of ultimately African origin... The Basal Eurasian ancestry in the Natufians (44% ± 8%) is consistent with stemming from the same population as that in the Neolithic and Mesolithic populations of Iran.” (Lazaridis, Nadel, Rollefson, Merrett, Rohland, Mallick, Fernandes et al., 2016: p. 421).

There are many factors that point to Ethiopia as the Proto-Natufian homeland, including DNA, distinctive dolichocephalic (enlarged) skulls, and expertise in farming that developed in Ethiopia long before their Natufian descendants started farming in the Levant. Natufians became well-known as the Levant’s first farmers (Bar-Yosef & Valla, 1990: pp. 433-43). C.A. Diop cites French palaeontologist Raymond Furon’s account of Garrod’s discovery.

“[The caves of Erq-el-Ahmar]…produced 132 individuals for Miss Garrod. All these Natufians share the same physical type, completely different from that of earlier Palestinians [i.e., Kebarans]. They are short, about 160 cm.* and dolichocephalic. They were probably Cro-Magnoid Mediterranean’s, presenting certain Negroid characteristics attributable to crossbreeding…” (Diop, 1974, p. 265).

The previous passage underscores the genetic ties of Natufians to their North African ancestors as well as to their Persian descendants. DNA enables us to identify a continuum of Ethiopian descendants that anthropologists have categorized into different cultural silos. Ice Age Ethiopians migrated out of Africa and settled in Canaanite caves 15,000 BP, within the borders of modern-day Israel. The Ethiopian migration (ca. 13,000 BCE) occurred about 9000 years before Semitic tribes ever set foot in the Middle East (ca. 4100 BCE), and more than 11,000 years before the Biblical stories of Abraham and Moses established a Semitic presence in Canaan. If we were to combine anthropology’s different cultural categories into a single continuum of genetically linked generations, we would get a much clearer picture of Ethiopian influence during their 10,000-year-long semi-nomadic trail of neolithic settlements scattered across the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and Predynastic Egypt. Before we explore this post-Göbekli Tepe narrative it is important that we return to the origins of Ethiopian civilization, to outline how their struggle for survival transformed them into the most advanced race ever to grace humanity.

Ethiopians. A research team of archaeologists, soil scientists, palaeoecologists, and biologists, have provided the first evidence that, as early as 45,000 years ago, those who stayed in Africa fled to the high altitudes of the inhospitable Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2019). Life was restricted to the ice-free plateaus. There was plenty of water at those altitudes but finding food and staying warm were significant challenges. The main food source in the African mountains was giant mole rats (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2019), which was not sufficient nourishment over the long term. The Ethiopian Highlands rose 6000 - 15,000 above sea level. Its’ cool and wet forests retreated, giving way to expanding high elevation grasslands called “montane forests”. The proto-Afroasiatic language family that populated the Ethiopian Highlands discovered and perfected the collecting of wild grasses for food as their primary means of subsistence. They began to harvest the seed of wild grasses to become gatherers of wild grains, which they then ground into flour to make dough, and finally baked into flatbreads (Ehret, 2016: p. 34). Discovering this technology added much needed carbohydrates to their diet. This was the beginning of a revolutionary new farming economy that traces the entire Neolithic period of agriculture back to its Ethiopian origins. In the northeastern Congo, the inhabitants of the East African Mountains also acquired this food technology but chose to remain in Africa. By 15,000 BP, the proto-Afroasiatic Ethiopians migrated out of Africa and settled in Canaan. “The development of wild grain-collecting technology led in time to a far-flung spread of the culture, ideas, and languages of the Afroasiatic peoples who had pioneered that kind of economy” (Ehret, 2016: p. 35).

Christopher Ehret, a scholar on ancient African civilizations, writes about proto-Afroasiatic religious ideas, including practices and beliefs that existed before 15,000 BP. He describes them as clan-based patriarchal communities. Each Afroasiatic clan had their own deity, and each clan would have been founded by a common patriarchal ancestor. Its members were either born into the clan, or they were outsiders adopted into the clan by consensus. Their religious leader was called a *wap’er (scholars include the asterisk to approximate its pronunciation). Clan decisions that affected the community were generally reached by consensus after community discussion, however, Ehret assumes that the *wap’er would have had considerable influence over community deliberations. The main role of the *wap’er was to preside over religious rituals as intermediary between the deity and the people. Ehret specifically points out the similarities between the Afroasiatic and Jewish religion, sharing a similar conception of an inner spirit, as well as circumcising boys as a rite of passage. He also points out that Biblical scholars know Israel’s God, Yahweh, to be an ethnically restricted as the God of Israel. Ehret also describes the allegiance of an Afroasiatic clan to the community’s own god, but they refused to deny that other gods might exist in the interest of maintaining peace among the clans. He calls this henotheism (Ehret, 2016: pp. 38-39).

Ugaritic scholar Mark Smith also describes pre-Biblical Canaanites as henotheistic, thousands of years later. Smith points out that the Pre-Biblical Canaanite God was known by the name (El) or (Elohim) rather than יהוה (Smith, 2002: pp. 32-25). Since the Biblical name Elohim is plural, it suggests that Canaanite polytheism existed. The name El simply translates to God, but its plural form, Elohim, might best be rendered as “God among gods,” since Elohim was the head of the entire Canaanite pantheon of Gods. “It seems almost certain that יהוה the God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the ‘God of Abraham’” (Leeming, 2009: p. 118). Smith argues that Yahweh and El were originally separate but considered synonymous from very early on (Smith, 2002, pp. 32-35). This article posits that the unique mathematics of יהוה is not replicated within , further, it will be demonstrated that the underlying mathematics of Abrahamic monotheism is identical to the underlying mathematics of Vedic polytheism. Therein lies the beauty of Göbekli Tepe as the prototype for all religions.

Dorothy Garrod’s Canaanite Natufians would have been living in Middle Eastern caves since 13,000 BCE, more than 3000 years before the Holocene period began (ca. 9700 BCE). Soon after it began, Natufians would have emerged from their caves to begin construction on Göbekli Tepe. It is therefore extremely important that we fully understand the genetic makeup of the Natufians. To accomplish that we need to recall our discussion about the out-of-Africa migration to Europe which took place about 70,000 years ago. East African Homo sapiens chose to bypass the Middle East because it was settled by Neanderthals. They headed north, through Turkey and into Europe, where they became known as European Early Modern Humans (EEMH) or Aurigncians, and they are believed to have reached Europe between 45,000 and 35,000 BP.

 

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The first settlers in Canaan appear to have been a splinter group of EEMH who became known as the Levantine Kerbarans. They arrived on the shores of Canaan from somewhere in the Mediterranean, possibly Crete or Greece, to become Canaan’s first settlers (ca. 18,000 BCE). Approximately 5000 years later, the Ethiopians settled in Canaan (ca. 13,000 BCE). These two groups were both geographically and chronologically adjacent to each other. When Dorothy Garrod discovered 132 “Natufian” skeletons in 1928, it is not surprising that she observed a genetic admixture of European Caucasians and dolichocephalic Ethiopians. There was a long line of Ethiopian holy men, farmers, and thinkers, with a great deal to teach the neighboring Kerbarans. From Garrod’s perspective, the Kerbarans and Ethiopians had merged into a single Natufian culture, but it is likely that many inhabitants remained purely Ethiopian, while others remained purely Kerbaran. Since there appears to have been no other Canaanite inhabitants toward the end of the Ice Age, Enoch and Noah, the earliest Biblical patriarchs, would have been either pure-bred Ethiopians or cross-bred Natufians.

The gap in our knowledge about the Natufian builders of Göbekli Tepe has had a devastatingly divisive impact on post-Göbekli Tepe religion. One of the root causes of division within the three Abrahamic faiths can be traced back to the following passage in Genesis. Without the historical context of how Kerbarans and Ethiopians merged into the Natufian culture, the non-canonized Book of Enoch (Laurence, 1976) was written to provide a back story that seriously distorts the intended meaning of the following Biblical passage.

“1) And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2) That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3) And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4) There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 5) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6) And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7) And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:1-7 (Holy Bible: KJV, 1982).

In the passage above, the word “giants” is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word Nephilim. The Book of Enoch amplifies this translation into a nightmarish story about the Nephilim offspring born to the “sons of God” and “daughters of men.” The Nephilim were described as “giant cannibalistic demons” born out of an unnatural union between “gods” and “mortals” (Laurence, 1976: pp. 7, 20-21). This theological dilemma appears to have lingered within early Christianity until the first Ecumenical Council (ca. 325 CE) attempted to clarify how the natures of God and man were conjoined in Christ. The Hebrew word Nephilim refers to the offspring of history’s first interracial population, but ironically, the racism on full display here does not exist between black and white races, but between gods and mortals. The word Nephilim was also mistranslated by the early Church fathers as “Fallen Angels,” based on its Hebrew root naphal, “to fall.” This implied that the Nephilim “fell from heaven” in that they were “begotten by heavenly beings.”

The Book of Enoch also refers to the “sons of God” as lecherous “Watchers” who sinned by lusting after the beautiful Canaanite “daughters of men.” It also contrives that God’s anger was directed at the “sons of God” for choosing whomever they wanted for a wife among the “daughters of men” (Laurence, 1976: pp. 20-21). By distorting Genesis in this way, their union was transformed into an illicit marriage between gods and mortals, which was misconstrued as the root cause of the Great Flood. Genesis itself never faults the “sons of God” in any way for any reason. It is only the juxtaposition of Genesis 6:1-4 to Genesis 6:5-7 that renders the “sons of God” and their offspring guilty by association as the root cause of the Great Flood. The Book of Enoch’s misinterpretations have had a devastatingly divisive effect on religious dogma throughout the world. If the history of Kerbarans and Ethiopians was properly interpreted within the context of Genesis, the “sons of God” would have been born within the patriarchal line of Seth, while the “daughters of men” would have been born into the Evil line of Cain. The rabbinical community typically translates the Hebrew word Nephilim to “mighty men,” “heroes of old,” or “men of renown.” The concept of “Fallen Angels” became the prototype for Christianity’s War in Heaven, depicting the Archangel Michael leading the forces of Good against the Evil forces of the “Dragon,” who is identified as the Devil or Satan. This Biblical passage became controversial because it epitomizes the “butterfly effect” of mathematical Chaos Theory, in which a metaphorical butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a tornado on the other side of the world. The Book of Enoch’s nightmarish distortions have greatly contributed to the division of Abrahamic theology into three competing theologies that have been tearing at the fabric of interfaith dialogue for centuries.

You can continue reading this on the link below, the author is Howard Barry Schatz is a retired computer specialist, classically trained composer, jazz musician, archaeomusicologist, teacher, author, and lecturer. He has spent the last 45 years deciphering and authenticating monotheism’s most ancient and sacred text, called the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation). These are the only writings attributed to the great patriarch Abraham by many within the Chasidic Jewish community, and within that community they are the seminal writings on monotheism and Kabbalah. https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=120336

 

[NidarNidar]

Interesting video on Gobelki tepe

 

[NidarNidar]

When you say "Ethiopian" you mean omotics right? I don't think Ethopia was the "proto-natufian" homeland. IBM SSA was a mixture of west and east african and natufians likely inherited it. Pastoralism in the Horn, coincides with the Sahara getting more arid and North East Africans coming from Egypt/Sudan migrating down mixing with an ancestral east african population. The North East Africans were mostly Eurasian with some native african ancestry. Which is why we have 35 West Eurasian instead of 45.

You can substitute Ethiopian for Omotic, this component is also found in Tarofalt sample, E1B1 origins seem to be somewhere in East Africa 22,000 years ago, I meant Proto-Afroasiatic not proto natufian homeland.

Yes, the spread of pastoralism concedes with the drying of the Sahara pushing nomadic herders further south for new grasslands, the Paternal haplogroup for Natufians that crossed into Africa primarily was E1B1B which had its origin in East Africa and migrated into the Levant mixing in with local HG and coming back into Africa and bringing T1 alongside with it.

Keep in mind for those that are reading this, I skipped a lot of information, I was just reading a lot and wanted to compile it for myself into something easy to read, I implore you guys to read it yourself, a lot of these discovers are recent and we're getting more information.

 

[Ella Amida]

Ruined potentially good thread by posting pseuds like UnchartedX .

 

[NidarNidar]

Ruined potentially good thread by posting pseuds like UnchartedX .

I have to disagree, his videos on granite vases have been quite insightful, you should open your mind to ideas towards the fringes, just cause you watch one video doesn't mean you support all their viewpoints.