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
The Four Rivers of Eden
Many evangelical Christians believe Genesis literally. They believe that Adam and Eve were historical people, and that the Garden of Eden was a historical place. One reason for this is our knowledge that at least two of the Four Rivers of Eden actually exist. These rivers are described in Genesis 2:10-14 as the Tigris and Euphrates.66 However, the other two rivers: the Pishon and Gihon, have never been decisively located. Eden is also called Heaven or Paradise, and although Eden is considered a spiritual realm, the musical mathematics in Part II describes exactly how Adam’s exile from Heaven bridges the spiritual and material realms. Since the spiritual Eden has a material reflection, it is logical to assume that the other two rivers would also have a physical presence here on Earth. According to Genesis 2:10-14:
A river issues forth from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. The gold of that land is good; bdellium is there, and lapis lazulli. The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
According to Samuel Kramer:
“The very idea of a divine paradise, a garden of the gods, is of Sumerian origin. The Sumerian paradise was located, according to our poem [“Enki and Ninhursag”] in the land of Dilmun, a land that was probably situated in south-western Persia. There is good indication that the Biblical paradise, which is described as a garden planted eastward in Eden, from whose waters flow the four world rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, may have been originally identical with Dilmun, the Sumerian Paradise-land.67
The story of “Enki and Ninhursag” is just one example of a Bible story that closely resembles its Sumerian or Babylonian predecessor, as deciphered from cuneiform tablets. It begins in the paradise of Dilmun, where there was no sickness or death.68 The two-faced Isimud plucked precious plants in the divine garden and gave them to Enki to eat. As a result, Enki’s health quickly began to fail, until Ninhursag (Mother Earth) brings him back to life. This resembles the duplicity of the serpent offering Eve the “forbidden fruit” that resulted in Adam and Eve’s “sickness” of exile on Earth, and implies that Eve acquired a temptress persona from the serpent. In another story, Noah’s Sumerian counterpart, king Ziusudra, was sole survivor of the great flood and preserver of the seed of mankind. He was given “life like a god” and “breath eternal.” Similarly, Noah “walked with God.”
Scientific evidence suggests that the man who would be Adam, migrated out of Ethiopia in several waves, along different possible routes. The first wave is believed to have crossed into Yemen at the Horn of Africa, and continued on to India and Australia. The second wave of migration is believed to have entered the Middle East, and with this second wave, the Bible begins its narrative. Our gnostic hypothesis provides insight into the Biblical narrative that guides our speculation about prehistoric migrations. Adam’s “Out of Africa” journey, or his tribes journey, would have begun at the Eden-like headwaters of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. We can trace their route along the Gihon River (Figure 38) as the Blue Nile merges with the White Nile at Khartoum. The Gihon proceeds north along the Nile to the wadis in the Eastern Egyptian desert, and then follows the Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea.
There is some geological evidence to suggest that the Gihon entered Saudi Arabia around Mecca. Following Biblical and geological clues, we can speculate that Adam’s descendants traveled the length of the Gihon in Saudi Arabia to the spot where it “cross-cuts” the Pishon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. This would corroborate the legend of the Kabah in Mecca as Adam and Eve’s first home after they were exiled from Eden. The next 6 generations after Adam would have settled nearby, along the Gihon, leading up to what would be Basrah today. At some point, during glacial periods, and certainly during the Last Glacial Maximum (circa 28,000 BCE), the descendants of Adam would have had to escape to Zagros Mountain caves in order to survive. This area is referred to by Samuel Kramer as southwest Persia, “the land of the Aryans.”
Today, the Zagros Mountains in Iran are known for its mining of natural resources, including: bauxite, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, chromite, manganese, silver, tin, and tungsten, and various gems, such as: amber, agate, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. In the Sumerian story “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta” an emissary had been dispatched to this region to obtain gold and lapis lazuli to