The Oxus Civilization

An ancient civilization that I meant to write about, but never did.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_n259_v68/ai_n28640827

Well worth knowing about

Tartessos-Tarshish was the Model for Plato's Atlantis

Author: Rainer W. Kühne
published: May 11, 2008

SUMMARY - Literary evidence supports the following view. Tartessos and Tarshish were identical. Tartessos was the model for Plato's Atlantis. The Tartessians traded with precious metals, especially with silver. Among their trading partners were the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks. The capital of Tartessos lay in the Donana National Park. Tartessos existed from the tenth to the sixth century BC.

We know about Tartessos by several Greek and Roman writers. These include Herodotus (1,163; 4,152; 4,191), Diodorus (5,35,4), Strabon (3,1-2), Pliny (3,7; 4,120), Pausanias (6,19,3), and Rufius Festus Avienus (Ora Maritima 225; 284).

The Tartessians traded with several precious metals, especially with silver (Herodotus 4,152; Diodorus 5,35,4; Avienus 225; 284). Among their trading partners were the Phoenicians (Diodorus 5,35,4) and the Greeks (Herodotus 1,163; 4,152).

The capital of Tartessos lay between the two mouths of the river Baetis (Strabon 3,1,9; 3,2,11; Pausanias 6,19,3). The Baetis was tidal and Iberia's largest river (Pausanias 6,19,3). Baetica was the ancient Roman name of Andalusia (cf. Pliny 3,6). So it is reasonable to identify the Baetis with the Guadalquivir and to locate the capital of Tartessos within the Donana National Park.

The Tartessians had knowledge of writing (Strabon 3,1,6). This knowledge was brought to Iberia by Phoenician colonists. The culture of Tartessos ended about 550 BC (Herodotus 1,163).

We know about Tarshish by inscriptions of the Assyrian king Asarhaddon and by several books of the bible. These include Genesis (10,1-4), 1 Kings (10,22; 22,49), 1 Chronicles (1,5-7), 2 Chronicles (9,21; 20,36), Psalms (48,8; 72,10), prophets Isaiah (2,16; 23,1; 23,6; 23,14; 60,9; 66,19), Jeremiah (10,9), Ezekiel (27,12; 27,25; 38,13), and Jonah (1,3; 4,2).

Tarshish traded with several precious metals (1 Kgs 10,22; 2 Chr 9,21; Ezek 27,12), especially with silver (1 Kgs 10,22; 2 Chr 9,21; Isa 60,9; Jer 10,9; Ezek 27,12). Among its trading partners were the Phoenicians (1 Kgs 10,22; 2 Chr 9,21; Ezek 27,12) and the Hebrews (1 Kgs 10,22; 2 Chr 9,21).

Tarshish was a grandson of Japhet (Gen 10,2-4; 1 Chr 1,5-7). This means that Tarshish was a state either in Europe or Anatolia. King Solomon's ships brought apes from Tarshish (1 Kgs 10,22; 2 Chr 9,21). This means that Tarshish was near Gibraltar, because Gibraltar is the only place in Europe and Anatolia where there live apes. With the Greek ending -os, the name Tarshish or Tarsis becomes Tarsisos or, as it is easier to pronounce, Tarsessos or Tartessos.

Tarshish existed already during the time of king Solomon in the tenth century BC (1 Kgs 10,22; 22,49; 2 Chr 9,21) and existed at least until the time of prophet Ezekiel in the sixth century BC (Ezek 27,12; 27,25; 38,13). All this confirms the view of Eusebius (11,17) that Tarshish and Tartessos were identical.

We know about Atlantis by the Greek philosopher Plato. Plato's Atlantis tale (Timaios 20d-27a; Critias 106a-121c) includes philosophical fiction to describe his fictitious ideal state in the case of war (Tim 19b-20c).

Atlantis was a trading centre (Crit 117e) and rich in metals (Crit 114e).

Atlantis lay in the Atlantic Sea beyond the pillars of Heracles (Tim 24e; Crit 108e), this means beyond Gibraltar (cf. Pliny 3,4). Atlantis consisted of ten countries (Crit 113e-114a; 116e; 119c). The second largest and easternmost of these countries extended from the Gadeirean country to the pillars of Heracles (Crit 114b). This means that it extended from the city of Cadiz to Gibraltar. The capital of Atlantis lay in the largest of the ten countries (Crit 114a). The capital lay at a south coast (Crit 118a-b) and within a large rectangular plain (Crit 118c). West of Cadiz there is only one rectangular plain at a south coast. This is the valley of the Guadalquivir southwest of Sevilla. The capital lay close to the coast (Crit 113c; 115d). So it lay in the Donana National Park.

There were oil trees on Atlantis (Crit 115b). The Atlanteans had knowledge of writing (Crit 119c-d). The plain of Atlantis included a system of channels (Crit 118d-e). Oil trees, knowledge of writing, and channels are known in Iberia only since the Phoenician colonization. The native name of one of the first kings of Atlantis was Gadeiros (Crit 114b). Gadir is a Phoenician word and means "fencing" (Pliny 4,120). It was the Phoenician name of the city of Cadiz.

The content of this article is copyrighted © 2008 by Dr. Rainer W. Kuhne and is published on The Anthropogene with the express permission and consent of Dr. Rainer W. Kühne. No part of these contents may be reproduced or redistributed by any mean without the written consent of the author. The article and views presented are his alone.

Dr. Rainer W. Kühne
Tuckermannstr. 35, 38118 Braunschweig, Germany

The Long Tailed Heavenly Climbing Star

A hat tip to Donald Sensing at Sense of Events for the mythological reference to the Younger Dryas event covered in the Paradise Irradiated posted on June 27th, 2007. His post on the topic is here.

The Ojibwa of the upper Great Lakes region had a story about Genondahwayanung, which meant "Long Tailed Heavenly Climbing Star."

During the 1980's, Thor Conway visited the Ojibwa and talked to Fred Pine, an Ojibwa shaman. Pine's story about the creation notes that Genondahwayanung was a star with a long, wide tail which would return and destroy the world someday. He said, "It came down here once, thousands of years ago. Just like a sun. It had radiation and burning heat in its tail."

The comet was said to have scorched the earth so that nothing was left, except the native americans, who were warned ahead of time by Chimanitou, a Holy Spirit, and had gone to a bog and rolled themselves up in the mud to protect themselves from the heat.

Pine continued, "It was just so hot that everything, even the stones, were cooked. The giant animals were killed off. You can find their bones today in the earth. It is said that the comet came down and spread his tail for miles and miles." Thereafter, all comet and meteors were treated as serious omens which required the interpretation of the Ojibwa shamans.

There are other stories of a great fire coming from the sky and destroying everything except for certain native american tribes. In some cases the tribes claimed they were warned, while others claimed they just ran for the nearest bodies of water.

http://www.geocities.com/starstuffs/native/myths/sky/main.htm

The City Under the Lake

From lake Issuk-kul in the Tien Shan or Alexander mountains, A legend of the Ossounes (Wusun):

Once they were ruled by a good and wealthy king. This fortunate king dwelt in a splendid palace, and his hospitality and charity were proverbial; the only strange thing was, he demanded a new barber every single day! Every morning yesterday's barber was executed, and a new one summoned; at last there was only a single barber left in the whole kingdom. This one had to be spared, for he had no replacement. But he was wracked by torments, and eventually fled, going for advice to a hermit in the mountains. He told the hermit he was tortured by a secret he could never reveal ... The hermit pondered, and advised him to whisper the secret down a well, late at night, shutting the well-cover carefully afterward. This the barber did. He went to the city well, and cried into it three times over: "Our king has ass's ears!" after which he fled into the night--but he forgot to shut the well. Then the water in the well rose and rose and drowned the splendid palace and flooded the whole kingdom. And now the king's country has become the great lake, Issuk Kul, known the world over!

Note: other legends of Issuk-kul claim that as many as four drowned cities lie beneath the waters of the lake, which never freeze over no matter how harsh the winter is. (From Turkestan Solo, by Ella Maillart)

The Sacred Lake lies high amongst the Mountains of Heaven, an expanse of snow-capped peaks located in the eastern region of present day Kyrgystan. Now known as Issyk Kul, it is the ninth largest lake in the world, 182 kilometers in length, with a width reaching up to 60 kilometers and 668 meters in depth.

An ancient city and other settlements have been discovered in the last year due to the combined efforts of Krygyz and Russian archaeologists, submerged near the coastlines at a depth of 10 meters. The ruins are estimated to be at least 2,500 years old - contiguous with the late Archaic period of Greece.

The ruins of fortified walls over 500 meters in length have been discovered along with traces of a large city that would have covered several square kilometers. A large metropolis for the time. Outside the city proper have been discovered the remnants of Scythian burial mounds and other ritual complexes.

Numerous artifacts have been uncovered over the course of seven different expeditions to the area; such as bronze battleaxes, arrowheads, daggers, mirrors and gold bars. A bronze cauldron was found that indicated a high level of metallurgical skills in the craftsmanship.

Issyk Kul was a stopover on the what would become the northernmost branch of the the Great Silk Road, the fabled land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe. The location would have been a commercial and mercantile hub, proven by the discovery of the sunken city. The people who had settled there would have quickly turned from their previous nomadic existence into an urban environment.

Who were these people? The Chinese chronicles describe a nation known to them as the Wusung (Wusun, Ossounes, Issedones) and they name the lost city as Chihu. The physical description of these people potentially link them to the ancient Tocharians of the Tarim Basin. Having "green [or blue] eyes and red beards" describe a race of Caucasian heritage.

The legends confirm the destruction of Chihu in a flood. There is a well-documented history of what are called outburst floods that wreak havoc in the region, the 1963 mudflow being one example.

The national website for Kyrgyzstan has an account of the legends surrounding the lake beyond the one that started this narrative.

The Kyrgyz remember many legends about how the lake was formed, about ancient cities and the catastrophe that drowned them, when water poured out of the wells and flooded the cities.
Another legend states that Alexander the Great flooded the valley to comply with the desire of a Persian hero, Rustem, who reigned in Andijan and possessed the lands around Issyk-Kul. Before his death Rustem wished that the bones and relics of his companions-in-arms and ancestors should be inviolable forever. After the conquest of the lands around Lake Issyk-Kul Alexander decided to execute the last will of the hero. From a girl who had fallen in love with him, he found out about the well that could flood the whole valley. His beloved gave Alexander a casket with a key to the door that covered the entrance to the well. Opening the door the well bubbled over with flood waters that drowned the surroundings. There is also a legend stating that it was Tamerlane in the 15th century who decided to destroy the rebellious cities.

According to one of the legends, in the city there was a spring from which water came out with such a force that each person coming for water, after filling a bucket, hurried to cork up the well's throat with a heavy stone. It happened that a young man met a young woman at the spring and they tarried too long with love chatter. Forgetting to replace the stone onto the fountain, the rushing water flooded not only the city but the whole valley as well.

Another tale: Once upon a time, so long ago that people have forgotten when, there was a city by Lake Issyk-Kul. A fortress of a powerful khan dominated the city. The terrible governor learned that one poor nomad had a daughter of incomparable beauty. The khan sent his jigits to bring the girl to him. However, the girl had a beloved young man, who, before leaving for distant lands, put his ring on the beloved's finger and asked her not to remove it until he came back. "It will protect you from any misfortune!" the young man said. The khan's envoys brought generous gifts to the girl's parents, but she rejected the gifts stating: "I love another and cannot become a wife of the khan!" When the khan's jigits grew more insistent, the girl escaped to the mountains in an attempt to hide herself from them. All of a sudden, with horror she found out that the ring on her finger had disappeared. The girl came back to the village in the hope of recovering the lost ring, but the servants of the khan seized her and took her to his camp. The khan imprisoned the intractable girl in the fortress and tried various means of persuasion to woo her for himself. His efforts were all in vain. "I love another and I shall never be yours!" This was the beauty's answer. Having failed to enjoy the girl's favor by gifts, the khan decided to possess her by force. Like a beast, he charged towards the girl intending to overpower her. But she rushed to the open window and threw herself out. Suddenly the unassailable walls shook, the earth split and water gushed out of a crevice washing away the fortress and the whole city, continuing to pour out until the whole valley disappeared under the lake.

The Zombie Threat

Zombies have been a problem since time immemorial. (not to be taken seriously please!)

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hierakonpolis/zombies.html

I will have the conclusion of the Danube Dilemma up before Thanksgiving

More on the Ice Age Impact

An update on the North American impact that caused the Younger Dryas.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/nau-rts092407.php

The Danube Dilemma: Failing the Criteria

The following were the ancient civilizations: Ta-meri, the beloved land of the Nile; the Kengir along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates; Meluhha in the Indus Valley and the Zhong Guo of the Yellow River. It was along the banks of those four rivers that human civilization emerged and until now, that was the accepted version.

But there was another river-valley civilization -- one that has received scant respect, though it pre-dates the traditional four cultures. This is the "Old Europe" of the Danube River, and in time its progeny would clash in a titanic struggle.

The Danube River begins in the Black Forest of Germany, then flows southeast. The tributaries of the Danube nurture the most diverse forests of Europe -- from the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains down into the Pannonian lowlands of Hungary.

The river is then constricted through a series of gorges that culminate in the famed Iron Gate. Whenever there was snowmelt or heavy rains in the past, before modern efforts tamed the river, it would rise until the lowlands would become inundated and a lake "200 square miles in extent, and 7 feet deep .. formed." Then the Danube escapes and meanders across the plains of Romania till it reaches the delta on the coast of the Black Sea.

Ancient traditions that were recorded by Nicolae Densusianu describe how once "the land which we inhabit now, might have once been a sea of water." The end of the Younger Dryas that was discussed recently happened around 9,400 BC, and would have been responsible for massive floodings that would have left the Hungarian plain inundated.

There was a later period, from 6,200 to 5,800 BC, that also qualified as a mini Ice-Age, and was also followed by floods. Possibly it is from this period that the tales come, for this was the time of Lepenski Vir, a series of Stone Age villages on the Serbian side of the Iron Gates that were inhabited from 6,400 BC to 4,900 BC.

But change was afoot, albeit slowly. The Black Sea flood of roughly 5,600 BC had (as the theory goes) forced the nascent agriculturists of the delta to expand up the Danube River. What follows then becomes too complex to try detailing in any depth in this article as people make their mark along the Danube.

We have in no particular order; the Starčevo-Criş culture, the Dudeşti culture, the Cucuteni culture, the Hamangia culture, the Vinča culture, and the Gumelnitja culture. Then Marija Gimbutas' eponymous Kurgans trample in from the northeast and impose themselves as the elites, and whether that happened is a matter of conjecture.

Karl Wittfogel's controversial premise on how hydraulic civilizations arise is based on geographical conditions: the civilizations are based on major rivers bounded by arid regions, rainfall is scanty, and the summer temperatures are high. Such conditions require complex systems of irrigation necessitating administrative control and social co-operation. Comparing the state of the Danubian "proto-civilization" at this pivotal point to the traditional four river valley cultures, several important aspects stand out.

The Danube was not bounded by desert such as the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates. There was ample rainfall, and the summer temperatures of Europe are more tolerable. Also, more so than the others, the geographical features of the Danube effectively compart- mentalized the region. The Pannonian Plain is separate from the Romanian lowlands for example. Wittfogel would have instead defined the Danube cultures as examples of a hydroagricultural society.

Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, notices the following about these people he calls the Thracians:

"Now the Thracian race is the most numerous, except the Indians, in all the world: and if it should come to be ruled over by one man, or to agree together in one, it would be irresistible in fight and the strongest by far of all nations, in my opinion. Since however this is impossible for them and cannot ever come to pass among them, they are in fact weak for that reason."

We can infer from this statement that the Danube was nothing less than an incubator, with a population base constantly outstripping the resources of the river. At last count, historians had determined that no less than 80 Thracian tribes were known to be jostling about the Danube during the Bronze Age. Without the constraints of geography, there was little reason to co-operate and build a hydraulic civilization, much less Osmanagic's fanciful pyramids. It was far easier just to fight each other, and if that proved unsuccessful, then leave.

The Bryges were but one example. According to the account Herodotus relates, they crossed the Hellespont and founded the Phrygian Kingdom in Asia Minor. They would not have been the first, as legend tells us that the Dardani crossed the Hellespont -- known to us as the Trojans of Homer's Iliad. There are enough similarities in the archaeological finds to confirm a connection between the Danube and the Troad region of Anatolia.

A common cultural pattern becomes apparent among these people. Young men, disaffected or at odds with the status quo, were encouraged to go elsewhere. These groups of emigrants, exiles, and fugitives were called "wolves."

Part II to follow: The War of the Wolves