Message #2347

[Wisteria]

The pole shift and the freezing of the old homelands, as told in Sumerian, Finn-Ugor and Iranic myths

These are the precursors to the events which eventually lead to the great floods, that affected the whole planet.

The Sumerians left behind legends about the gods and their early settlement as told in the "Barton Tablets". These according to Christian O'brian "The Genius of the Few", tell of a land "of the gods" which at one time became frozen and cold, and eventually forced them south. I consider these myths about the Sumerian "gods" to be ancient recollections of very early events remembered for millenniums, that actually happened to the ancestors of the Sumerians, about their old homelands in the frozen land areas like Siberia. They called this place "Karsag". I believe that this freezing was caused by the shift in the North Pole 13,000 years ago, which plunged Central Siberia from a temperate climate to a polar climate, where the ground a few feet from the surface never thaws out. Scientists have found frozen mammoths in Siberia, whose stomachs were still filled with plants that are known to live only in temperate climates, and not in the arctic regions.

Some groups trapped in this new harsh climate after the pole shift were so decimated by the freezing Siberian weather that they probably reverted to a primitive subsistence, which they could never hope to recover from in their new harsh surroundings. The lucky ones further away were able to move and look for new lands in more favorable climate, such as the great southern lakes like the Black Sea, Caspean Sea, Lake Baikal areas.

Similar stories are also told by the Californian Indians of the Penuitan language group, who are believed by some linguists to be descendant of the Ob-Ugrians of North Western Siberia, who are a branch of the FinnoUgrian language group. The ancestors of these Penuitan Indians crossed the Berring Straights and traveled here from the north. These Indians also believe that their gods come from and live in the polar regions. Their language has many common words with Ugrian and FinnUgor languages to which Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Lappish, Samoyedic, and several other minority languages of Russia belong. The language group is scattered from the Pacific to central and northern Europe.

Historic linguists also claim that the ancestors of the early Iranians also lived in close proximity to the Ugrians (Hungarians, Vogul and Ostjak languages), based on some common early words. According to ancient Hungarian legends there was an intermarriage with the Iranic Alan people. It is no surprise then that Iranian myths also talk of the freezing north in ancient times. This is an excerp from the Avesta of the ancient Persians: "...At that time Airyana Vaejo had a pleasant climate, with 7 months of summer and only 5 months of winter. The forests were rich with game and the fields with grains. In the valleys many brooks flowed. This land however turned into a cursed land, where for 10 months it was winter and only 2 months was it summer, following the attacks of Ahra-Majnyu (the evil-devil)." This land could not have been Europe, since prior to the pole shift most of Europe was under ice or very cold, and only afterwards did it warm up.

The implications and consequences of a climate change of such magnitude must have had a tremendous effect, causing the decimation of populations in areas plunged into the arctic, due to the dying of plants and animals and the initial loss of food supply. It also caused the subsequent changes in a way of living and the great migrations away from a once hospitable original homeland for those that could still manage to escape. The initial places for this maximum climate change would have been in central Siberia, around 100 degree East longitude but it affected much of the north also. It is believed that the early FinnUgor nations during the Ice Age lived in what today is the Ukraine and as the ice receeded many of them moved north to scandinavia. A branch of them however then started moving east and crossed the northern part of the Ural mountains and spread all around it. Others mingling with the local indegenous people of the north east, such as the Samoyeds and others navigated much of the arctic and crossed into north America.   Portions settled in the western states and California and are called the Penuitan language family. Special branches went further south into Yucatan and became the Maya indians.  In the early phases these all had sizable ethnic elements which included the original north European caucasian types, not just the  later mixed Siberian types.

The time after the ice age was fairly warm even in the northern areas from 7300 to 5300BC  it was hot and dry.  Around 5,500BC another kind of catastrophy occurred. The flooding of the Black Sea . This was the "great flood", as told by Sumerian legend, which was borrowed by later civilizations of early Mesopotamia and was eventually written down in the Bible. Those who were able to escape this flood fled from this once fertile lowlands, into Eastern Europe but the majority headed toward the warm climate of the south, to Mesopotamia. They founded the first recorded civilization of mankind, whose literature actually survived.  Then from 5300 to 3000BC, following the Black Sea flood,  it was wet and warm and is known as  the Würm period. After this it started to get continuously cold again in the north. Some groups trapped in this new harsh climate  were so decimated by the freezing Siberian weather that they probably reverted to a primitive life style, which they could never hope to recover from in their new harsh surroundings.


Searching for Noah's flood on the bottom of the Black Sea.

The flooding of the Black Sea and the Caspean Sea occured around  5,500BC  and affected mainly the north shore of the sea. The rising water levels in the Mediterranean and the connected Sea of Marmara next to modern Turkey, caused growing pressure on the earth's crust in a highly earthquake active region. This may have triggered major earth quakes and perhaps even some volcanic eruptions. This could have weakened or even lowered the earthen barrier between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Once this wall was breached, a huge waterfall, bigger than 40 Niagara Falls, started filling the much lower Black Sea basin, causing the destruction of the ancient civilization located there.

This was the "great flood", as told by Sumerian legend, which was borrowed by later civilizations of early Mesopotamia and was eventually written down in the Bible. Those who were able to escape this flood fled from this once fertile lowlands, into Eastern Europe but the majority headed toward the warm climate of the southern Mesopotamia. They founded the first civilization of mankind whose literature actually survived and is understood today. The Babylonian version of the flood goes into some detail about the fiery nature of the flood, which shook the ground and blackened the skies, along with the great flooding of the lowlands.

 
The Black Sea, also called the Euxine Lake, before its flooding, in 5,500BC.

Recently there have been many theories which have claimed that the flood story told in the Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh is to be found in the flooding of the Black Sea Basin. This idea from Dr. Walter Pitman and Dr Bill Ryan of Columbia University, is based on the clues told in the story of Gilgames, the great Sumerian king, who traveled back to the area near the old Sumerian homelands, to find the old king of Surupak, known as Ziusudra in Sumerian. Various researches have been done to figure out the most likely location of this place to determine the most likely time when this flood occurred. The best solution found was that the last great flood was the flooding of the northern Black Sea, which occurred around 5,500 BC. This was based on all the evidence known today from geological history, linguistics and mythology. It also occurred just prior to the earliest appearance of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia and after their appearance in Eastern Europe.
http://www.biblemysteries.com/library/blacksea.htm

Since the story of the flood in the Bible originates from the Sumerians, their legends and story is of outmost importance in locating the flood told by the Bible. Because this is a new theory, which hasn't been completely checked out yet, there have been also a lot of criticism, most notably from those who would like a verbatim identity with the Bible version. Some of this criticism however is contrary to the scientific results found so far. In other words I haven't seen a strong reason against this new theory, only quibbling over details.

Today National Geographic researchers have been searching the Black Sea next to Eastern Europe, for submerged remnants of early civilization before this flood. Underwater archeologist Bob Balard, has already located the old coastline of the preflooded Black Sea and now is looking for any human habitation there. The materials found in the Black Sea also appears to pinpoint the date of the flood, based upon the remnants of freshwater shells of marine animals, which ceased to exist there after the lake became connected to the ocean.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html

The agricultural revolution started in this general area and adjacent lands, like Anatolia (modern Turkey) long before the flood occurred. From here it first spread into eastern Europe, then toward Asia and lastly around the time of the Black Sea flood, into Mesopotamia. This agricultural revolution, transformed human life on this planet and brought about the early towns and cities which today are so universal, that everything else now is the very rare exception. When the Subarians and Sumerians first appeared in Mesopotamia they came as full blown agriculturalists, who transported their old culture to a new site, with farms, animal husbandry, towns and writing. The earliest known urban civilization. Yet a large concentration of that writing hasn't been found anywhere else, as though it was swallowed up by the sea. Obviously it had to have had a source of origin, and a place where it developed from primitive forms. While no concentration of written material has been found anywhere, there have been some surprising but meager finds in eastern Europe which we will discuss later.

The early Sumerians found a sparsely inhabited Mesopotamia and they descended down its great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, from their previous homelands in the north to eventually colonize southern Mesopotamia over a period of hundreds of years. This colonization required the successive adaptations of new seeds for the warmer climate and new farming methods, such as irrigation. Many early northern Sumerian cities attest to their origin and early presence in the north, and are recorded in early Sumerian legends, such as the legend of "En-Merkar and the lord of Aratta".

The earliest culture of Mesopotamia is called the Ubaid culture, which occurred around the same time as the flooding of the Black Sea basin, around 5,500 to 5,000 BC. There are some uncertainties about whether the Ubaid culture was Sumerian, but in general there is a peaceful evolution from the Ubaid culture to the Sumerian one, so its probably the same. Some have suggested that the Ubaid people were to be identified with the Subarians, which remained for a long time in Northern Mesopotamia. The Subarians were also not Semitic nor IndoEuropean and were probably similar in language to the Sumerians, even if not identical. We really don't know if that difference was only an archaic dialectical variation or a related language type. They also came from the north, from the same direction as the Sumerians and are mentioned by the Assyrians as "supri" , the aboriginals of Mesopotamia, since they were there before the coming of the Semites from Arabia. They were also called the SU by Sumerians.

With early Ubaidian society many technological innovations appeared from beaten copper tools, ceramics of more advanced design and advanced irrigation techniques. A more advanced kiln technology capable of smelting copper from ores. Several trade names in Sumerian appear to derive from this archaic Subarian (Suwar) dialect as well as several of the early Sumerian city names, indicating their early presence in Mesopotamia. The earlier Subarian presence and influence may explain certain key terms found in the northern Akkadian, which appear to be also related to Finn-Ugor but aren't present or quite distorted in the later Sumerian.
( kat=hand , pil=ear, paharu=potter = bog_ , álu=city,town =aul in Turkic; palGe in FU etc)


The traditional length of the shortest and longest day in Sumerian.

Sumerian tradition claimed that the recorded longest and shortest days to be such a large variation, that it doesn't agree with the locality of southern Mesopotamia, but is instead near to the Black Sea in latitude. [ trying to find my misplaced references here ]

The northern shores of the Black Sea are the areas that most likely were originally suitable for agriculture in contrast to the southern steep rocky shores. Thus it seems only natural that the various Finn-Ugor language groups were close neighbors to the southern Sumerians, but as forest dwellers they didn't practice intensive farming. Most hunters and herder societies avoid it unless forced into it by harsh circumstances. While the precise location of the old Sumerian homeland isn't known, they may have been from a combination of various people that lived along the shores of the old lake who were able to escape the rising water levels, by boats or rafts. The flooding of the lake wasn't instantaneous, although it was accompanied by changing weather patterns due to all the moisture pumped into the air from the huge waterfall. This period was accompanied by unusually wet weather. The techtonic pressures created by the huge water pressure which quickly filled the basin, and which lowered the global ocean levels by about one foot, no doubt also caused volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in a seismically active region of the world.

The Sumerian Legend of Gilgamesh and the Flood

The story of the great flood as told in the Bible and in the legend of Gilgamesh, has just too many almost identical passages to be coincidental. It was saved from Sumerian in the context of the legend of Gilgamesh rather than a separate and independent story. The story was passed from one Mesopotamian culture to the others, and it became part of the traditional sacred literature of the region, recorded in the writings found in their libraries and retold in the stories told by their religions. Yet all the variations go back to the earliest literature of the world, the literature of the Sumerians, who brought it with them from their old home in the north. Naturally over time the memories about the flood became a simplified legend, with a moral story behind it, which was explained not as an act of nature but as an act of an angry god, who wished to punish mankind for its sins. It became a story of a hero, who managed to save all of mankind and the seed of all living things in face of the greatest natural disaster and the will of the gods. In the Sumerian version of the story the chief gods decided to destroy mankind and Ziusudra (Noah ) was only saved because he was warned by the chief benefactor god, Enki, even though many other gods and goddesses were also saddened by the decision.

"That day Nintur wept over her creatures
and holy Inana was full of grief over their people;
but Enki took counsel with his own heart.
An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag
had the gods of heaven and earth swear
by the names of An and Enlil."

At that time, Ziusudra was king
and lustration priest.
-------"

Enki came to listen to the prayers of Ziusudra and talked to him indirectly, through his mind as Ziusudra preyed. He heard Enki talking to the wall, so as not to break his vows of secrecy.
The god warned Ziusudra of the coming flood and instructed him to build an ark to save his family and his people.

"And as Ziusudra stood there beside it, he went on hearing:
Step up to the wall to my left and listen!
Let me speak a word to you at the wall
and may you grasp what I say,
may you heed my advice!
By our hand a flood will sweep over
the cities of the half-bushel baskets, and the country.
the decision, that mankind is to be destroyed
has been made.
A verdict, a command of the assembly cannot be revoked,

an order of An and Enlil is not known
ever to have been contermanded,
their kingship, their term, has been uprooted
they must bethink themselves of that.
Now...
What I have to say to you...
[Lost section about the details of building the boat and its requirements..]

Later it continues..

"Tear down the house, build a ship!
Give up possessions, seek though life!
Forswear belongings, keep soul alive!
Aboard ship take thou the seed of all living things.
That ship thou shalt build.
Her dimensions shall be to measure."

Ziusudra followed Enki's instructions and after the flood had abated, Enki was able to persuade the other chief gods not only to spare Ziusudra but to give him eternal life as a reward for having saved all living things from destruction.

Gilgamesh, was a great and powerful Sumerian monarch of the city state of Uruk, whose many brave and daring deeds were immortalized in the epic poetry of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. One of his most unusual adventures was his search for the immortal flood hero, Ziusudra, the Sumerian "Noah", for the purpose of finding his secret, the elixir of eternal life. Gilgamesh traveled through many northern lands to return to the area where Ziusudra lived. He eventually reached a mountainous land, guarded by "scorpion men" ( gir-tab-lulu). When he crosses this land it was dark for many days, before reaching his destination. We are told that the "north wind calls Gilgamesh" and he is chilled. He reaches a great sea, "the waters of death" which he must cross and on the other side he finds Ziusudra, the immortal king. Could this "sea of death" be some northern polar sea or inlet? This description could only be in the far north where in the winter it stays dark for several days and in summer where it is light for several days. After Gilgamesh finds Ziusudra, he is told about the flood and was able to convince Ziusudra to give him the plant of eternal youth. However he never ate the plant, since it was stolen from him by a serpent, during his long trip home.

The following passage is from the Legend of Gilgamesh as told to him by Ziusudra, about the story of the great flood, which forced the ancestors of the Sumerians to escape and move.

I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir she held fast, she held fast and didn’t budge. One day she held, and the second day on the mountain of Nisir and didnt budge; A third day and a fourth day she held fast and did not budge; a fifth day and sixth day she held fast on the mountain. When the seventh day dawned I loosened a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting place she returned. Then I loosened a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting place she returned. I loosened a raven, she saw that the waters retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, but she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured a libation on the mountain top."

After Ziusudra, makes sacrifices to the gods, following the opening of the ark, the gods descended to partake of the offerings and as the following story describes, how Ziusudra is honored by the chief Sumerian god An and enLIL, who was placated by the "protector and caretaker" of man, the god en-Ki-ag known later as En-Ki. These names will all be explained later.

Ziusudra, being king,
stepped up before An and Enlil
kissing the ground.
And An and Enlil after honoring him
were granting him life like a god's,
were making lasting breath of life, like a god's,
descend into him.

An interesting parallel to the Sumerian flood story is the north Siberian Ugrian flood legends, which also last 7 days like the Sumerian legend and which also has a combination of a flood as well as fire, which is unique enough to warrant us to say it is an original legend and not borrowed from the Bible or any other later source. The Ob-Ugrians (Vogul and Ostyak) live in north western Siberia today. It must be stated however that the number 7 in Sumerian and Ugrian has a double meaning and can also mean many and not just 7. Originally this numeral wasn't part of their number systems, because their original number system was base 6 and not base 10, meaning that the concept of ten, hundred and thousand were all based on multiples of 6 rather than multiples of 10.
Just like in Sumerian the FinnUgor number system created numbers greater than 6 (7 through 9) by addition and combinations, indicating that this wasn't really part of the old counting system, because it didn't have unique names like the other digits.

Therefore the idea of 7 days of flooding may have really meant many days of flooding. The religion of both the Sumerians and FinnoUgrians however favors the number 7, which is woven into all kinds of different myths and religious concepts, such as 7 levels of heaven and 7 levels of hell. The 7 main gods and so on and so on.

In the Ugrian version of the flood story, the god of the sky Numi-Tarem, decided that he must destroy the devil Kulya-ter with a "holy fiery-flood" . For his own people, the gods, he builds an iron ship. For the humans he builds a covered raft... Numir Tarem then flies up into heaven with his iron ship, while the people go through the great fiery flood, where most of their ship is burned except the last of the 7 layers of their covering. The fiery flood also included "jur" insects and "sossel" insects who also devoured all living things they touched. .... The devil Kulya-ter however managed to survive, because while Numi Tarem was building his iron ship, he talked to his wife and asked what her husband was doing. She didn't know, so he told her to make a special drink, beer, to give him as he returns daily. He drank the drink and got drunk and told her what was going to happen. Kulyater was then placed in a sewing box by the wife of Numi Tarem and carried aboard the iron ship and saved from destruction.

In most other variations of the same story its "Noah" and not god who is duped by his wife to drink beer to loosen his tongue and tell what is going to happen. Variations of the Vogul –Ugrian story are found in Votjak and Hungarian also in certain small regions, which have remembered to pass it on. All have differences also but all tell of the wife who induces Noah to tell the secret, that saves the devil. By the time the Bible retells the story, Noah gets drunk after the flood and not before. It's interesting to note that the Sumerians are the first recorded people to be known to have brewed beer.

Of interest to me is the preflood city name Shurupak, which was ruled by Ziusudra and devastated by the flood, but which was also found later in Mesopotamia, as a new city established by the incoming Sumerians. Other references say that Shurupak is the name of the father of Ziusudra. The name "Shurupak" may be related to Proto-Ugrian "*sure" which is the archaic form of the word for flood, which becomes "tur" in Ob Ugrian, "_ár: in Hungarian and "_ur" in Sumerian. The term "pakk" can also mean the origin or source of life in FinnUgor languages, which is again a confirmation of a likely link to Ziusudra myth.

Continued ...