Figure 3 - The Mountain Ranges Framing Iraq
EMH survived the Ice Age in the shelter of Middle Eastern caves for anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 years. Meditation probably began as a natural coping mechanism for tribes and families who survived during that period. Meditation significantly strengthened the practitioner’s limbic system, and provided unprecedented access to the brain’s untapped potential. My hypothesis suggests that this “cave practice” was a widely established and cherished practice that came to define the sacred priestly tradition. I believe it to be the missing evolutionary link between caveman and the sophistication of pre-Sumerians “who were culturally far more advanced than were the Sumerians...”29 Samuel Noah Kramer, a renowned scholar on ancient Sumer, discovered a vastly superior pre-Sumerian culture that emerged from the Iranian mountains. This aligns well with my own theory about Aryan “shepherd-gods on the mountain.”
Chapter 2: The Founders of Civilization
The Founding of Sumer
The Aryans migrated to Eridu from Susa in the province of Elam at the dawn of Iranian history.30 Susa was named for Noah’s granddaughter Susan, while Elam was named for his grandson Elam. Both were children of Noah’s son Shem. In this earliest period of Iranian history, this region was first known as Arana (Āryānā), meaning “land of the Aryans.” The Sanskrit word Aryan (or Arya) means “noble” or “honorable,” and can be literally translated as “one who strives upward.” In the Persian language, this evolved to “Erān,” and finally to “Irān,” in modern Persian.
By 5400 BCE, any flood waters would have cleared. At this point, the Aryans/Iranians who founded the Zagros Mountain Neolithic settlement at Susa descended into the valley along the Karkheh River (which I believe is the Bible’s Pishon River) and founded the city of Eridu, the first city of ancient Sumer. “Henri Frankfort argued that the Sumerians were the first settlers in southern Mesopotamia and came from the Iranian highlands in the beginning of the Ubaid period. Next, the Semites arrived in the Uruk period...”31 Kramer echoes these thoughts: “Not long after the establishment of the first settlement by the Iranian immigrants [circa 5400 BCE], the Semites probably infiltrated into Southern Mesopotamia [circa 4000 BCE].”32 Kramer describes the pre-Sumerians as “culturally far more advanced than were the Sumerians.”33 This pre-Sumerian civilization was actually responsible for the “material and spiritual heritage” of ancient Sumer, which positioned Sumer to play such a predominant role in the Ancient Near East.34 Kramer also speaks of an important Irano-Semitic cross-fertilization in Southern Mesopotamia.
If we can accept the premise that a superior race existed, then we are in a position to consider the syncretistic perspective that these “shepherd gods” became legendary figures, known to each derivative culture by different names. The existence of a single “master-race”35 would therefore describe the origin of the Greek pantheon of gods on Mount Olympus, the shepherd-gods of Sumer, Egypt, and Babylon, and the “Sons of God” in the Bible. As a further example, Noah had many syncretistic names, including: the Sumerian Ziusudra, his Akkadian counterpart Atrahasis, and the Babylonian Noah, Utnapishtim.
Soon after the first city was founded, according to Genesis 11:4, a Tower of Babel was said to have been built by Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, in dedication to the glory of man, rather than to the glory of God. This “idolatry” caused God to confuse language, and each language would evolve its own distinct culture. Thus, the 70 nations were dispersed to the “four corners of the earth.” The Tower of Babel allegory implies that there was originally a proto-language and a proto-culture, once again suggesting a single set of shepherd-gods on the mountain. The word Aryan has often been used to categorize the gentile Caucasian descendants of Noah’s son Japheth, whereas the term Semitic generally refers to monotheism’s patriarchal descendants of Noah’s son Shem. This text uses “Aryan” interchangeably with the Biblical term “Nephilim” to describe the founders of civilization. The Book of Genesis, however, describes a father-son relationship between the “Sons of God” and their Nephilim offspring, which Jewish Biblical commentators mistakenly, I believe, characterize as the Good “sons of Seth” versus the Evil “sons of Cain.”36
In further support of a syncretistic approach to this subject matter, we note that the ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (circa 58 CE) writes about Adam’s belief that the earth would be destroyed by flood and flame. Based on that belief, the “sons of Seth” would record the sacred mysteries for posterity on two pillars, one of stone and the other, brick, believing that if the flood destroyed the brick, the stone might still survive.37 This early record of the ancient knowledge was therefore said to be written on the “Pillars of Seth.” The rabbis are clear that it was someone in the “line of Seth” that carved those pillars. If we were to follow the Biblical timeline, it would have been the 7th generation from Seth, Enoch, the first holy man and scribe, who is believed to have carved the ancient secrets into stone and brick.38 These writings would then constitute the actual “Book of Enoch,” authored during the time that the Biblical Enoch would have lived, as opposed to the non-canonical “Book of Enoch,” authored around 300 BCE, thousands of years after the Biblical timeline for Enoch.
Three hundred years before Josephus, the writings of Manetho state that he actually saw these pillars, but he understood them to be inscribed by the Egyptian Thoth, who the Egyptians believed was the inventor of writing and keeper of the secret knowledge. Within Egyptian culture, the two pillars were believed to symbolize Upper and Lower Egypt. In addition to the “Two Pillars of Seth” and “Two Pillars of Thoth,” there was also the “Two Pillars of Hermes” within the Greek culture — also said to contain the secret knowledge. Like Enoch and Thoth, Hermes was said to be the first scribe, carving the science of religion’s mysteries into stone. This accounts for the etymology of the word hermeneutics, the art of interpreting hidden meaning.
Correspondences between Greek and Roman gods are widely accepted in the academic world. The Greek Hermes became Mercury in the Roman culture; the Greek Dionysus equates to the Roman Bacchus, while the Greek Artemis equates to the Roman Diana, etc. Our recommended syncretistic approach suggests that the Hebrew Enoch equates to the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Hermes, and the Roman Mercury. We have also mentioned the many names of Noah. These are just a few examples of how a narrow syncretistic view of the ancient gods and epic heros needs to expand in its scope to include a matrix for all the ancient cultures. I am suggesting that these shared myths are describing a single “golden age of the gods” viewed from different cultural and linguistic perspectives.
A broad syncretistic approach suggests that there was only one source allegory and one protagonist, whether or not the protagonist was a purely mythical character, an unknown person, or a known historical figure. But, even more significantly, the science of religion enables us to explain the underlying mathematical framework for these shared myths and gods. A syncretistic approach is made possible by a shared scientific legacy among the world’s religions that began with the Aryans. In Part II, we will study the hermeneutics of Abrahamic monotheism, and see exactly how it evolved directly from the Aryan science of polytheism.
We might want to think