Indus Valley and Atlantis

Ancient civilization in the land of two rivers Saraswati and Indus known in modern times as Indus Valley often because the Saraswati River has mostly been lost since ancient times, from tectonic shifts or climate change or both

Between three and four thousand BC three great river valley civilisations with planned urban areas sprang up in three different parts of the world  - Indus Valley, Sumeria and Nile valley in Egypt. recent archeological findings at Bhirrana near Delhi push back the origins of  the Indus valley civilisation to 7500 BC  i.e the oldest of the three. Even Mehrgarh dates to 7000 BC showing the extent of the early Indus valley civilisation extended from Mehrgarh in the East to at least Bhirana in the west. Recent excavations in the gulf of Kambhat suggest that in the south the civilization extended up to the ocean coast. By 5500 BC all these sites had a fairly developed urban culture that predates Sumerian civilization by around two thousand years.

Rakhigarhi, located around 150 km from Delhi, housed the largest city of the Indus Valley civilisation. Even at a conservative 6,000 years old, it is 1,000 years older than Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Uruk,Sumeria. It is believed that the city was located near the now extinct Saraswati river. Therefore it does seem that urban civilisation marched from this direction first to Sumeria and later Egypt. This is especially evident because it is well known now that Sumerians were dark people of foreign origin with their own language distinct from the language of surrounding people. The contact between the Sumerian and Indus civilisation did not end with the first migration but continued well into later centuries and milleniums. A description of such later interactions can be found at  http://vamadevananda.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/journal-the-river-sarawati-and-its-people/

It has also been established now with near certainty that ancient Sumerian belongs to the Austric group of languages of  South Asia and that it is not a linguistic isolate. There is a separate post on that in this blog. Recent highly rigorous scientific DNA studies by Henryk W. Witas et al. support such a migration theory (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0073682) from the Indian Sub-continent to ancient Mesopotamia.

The first known examples of writing may have been unearthed at an archaeological dig in Indus valley. and Ttrident-shaped markings have been found on fragments of pottery dating back 5500 years. According to Dr Richard Meadow of Harvard University, the director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project, these primitive inscriptions found on pottery appear to pre-date all other known writing. Clay tablets containing primitive words were uncovered in southern Egypt at the tomb of a king named Scorpion. They were carbon-dated to 3300-3200 BC. This is about the same time to the primitive writing developed by the Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilization around 3100 BC. "It's a big question as to if we can call what we have found true writing," he told BBC News Online, "but we have found symbols that have similarities to what became Indus script. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/334517.stm)

The summary as reported here is based on recent findings and there is a silence about some of the new findings amongst many historians because they upset long held and cherished views on the history of human civilization which in the past was based on presumptions in the absence of evidence.

Spread of civilisation in the ancient world

Scholars differ in their opinion about the race of Indus people and more study is needed in this direction. The picture is complicated due to the presence of a racial mix that varied in time and space over the extent of the civilisation. It appears that Indus Valley Civilization had been a combination of diverse racial elements. In fact this peaceful mixing of races is what may have spurred the inventions of early civilisation. Certain anthropological investigations and examinations of  human remains show that four racial types existed in this civilization namely Proto-Australiod, Mediterranean, Alpinoid and the Mongoloid.  The racial diversity is the precise reason why scholars have not been able to arrive at a definite conclusion about the race of the Indus valley people. The Indus valley region was a fertile civilized land with moderate climate attractive for immigrants from all over the old world to come and settle in. Such an immigration into the sub-continent has continued until recent times and the most recent language that has been brought into the sub-continent is English. In early days days of low population density and large portions of the country yet to be discovered, immigrants would have been welcome. The Australoid type and Armenoid types appear to be a prominent strains in early samples in a ratio exceeding four is to one as in early Sumeria. The earliest contribution to urban human civilization may well have been a contribution spurred by a racial mix of Armenian origin and Australoid races. In fact a racial mix is something that has been asserted to in ancient Sanskrit literature as well such as the Mahabharata and the Vedas, with some persons being described as black and others white. It is a racial mix that continues up to modern times in South Asia.

It is possible that just as in Sumeria the language gradually changed from Sumerian Austric to Semetic Akkadian, in the Indus valley it gradually changed from an ancient Austric language similar to archaic Tamil to Indo European languages, not because of any invasion as some early western scholars presumed but becuase of how the numbers fell. Absolutely no archeological evidence of any invasion has been discovered. Some of the early historians had assumed that the advanced Indus valley civilisation disintegrated because of an invasion by barbarians from the north west and that was the reason that the region became less civilized and remained so for another thousand years. These early invasion theories have been ruled out as fanciful now although immigration in small batches appears to have been a continuous process in the region.

The disintegration of the civilization and the movement of its people towards the South,North and East appears to have been because of climatic changes and changes in the course of rivers that sustained the earlier urban civilization of Indus valley. Austric languages still continue in southern India and amongst tribal people of central India. An invasion assumption appears to be a part of western heritage, perhaps because of a history of colonisation. Even in western science fiction, whenever visits of aliens is envisaged, it is often in the form of an invasion, a concept that is viewed as strange in the East since a  friendly entry is by far the more civilized thing to do as compared to war.

"Available evidence as of now in the year 2013 appears to suggest that ancient Indus Valley was the crucible in which people from far away places such as the Armenian Highlands, Catalhouyk, Jericho and other places came together with the local Australoid population as far back as 7500 BC - 3500BC  to pool together their knowledge and develop the earliest innovations of human civilization such as metallurgy, agriculture, animal rearing, trading, irrigation, grain storage, writing, bricked buildings, planned urban areas and a structure for governance of large areas that included both urban centers, that were the hubs of trading, religion and governance along with rural areas as hubs of agriculture; on the fertile and climatically moderate plains of Indus valley."

The abandonment of Indus valley cities by its people, subsequent to the drying up of the region, carried seeds of civilization to other more fertile parts of the sub-continent so that by the time of Buddha around a thousand years later, Eastern India with its centers at Benares and Patna became the most developed and learned part of the sub-continent.

This is presently speculation, and more scientific evidence is awaited, but the mythical Atlantis story may have been the ancient submerged coastal city known as Dwarka in ancient Sanskrit literature. It was surrounded on all sides by water and has been described in Sanskrit texts as the most advanced part of the civilization in this region just prior to its submergence. It is on the coastal portion of Indus civilization as shown on the map. It is coastal cities that often develop the most in many parts of the world because of their greater trade interactions by both land and far away sea ports. Detailed discussion of these topics is available in other posts of this blog as well as in:

http://ashokmalhotra.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/atlantis-myth-or-reality/

It is worth noting that as per archeological findings most early sites were along the now dried up Sarasvati River (see for maps here) rather than the Indus River which was the lesser of the two rivers at the peak of this civilization. Therefore in reality the name of this earliest civilisation is Sarasvati (also spelt Saraswati) Valley civilization rather than the Indus Valley civilization.

Dwarka was then the port city at a point where the Saraswati River met the Ocean

Map adapted from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spread_of_Oecumene_Mesopotamia.jpg This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The image has been modified before use here.

Why did the Catalhoyuk people make doors in the roof?

Catalhoyuk home witha door in the roof

Catalhoyuk was a  large Neolithic proto city settlement in southern Anatolia. It is a remarkable example  which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC. The city was abandoned for unknown reasons before the Bronze age commenced. It is one of the few of the earliest known cities in the world.

The inhabitants lived in mud-brick houses that were crammed together in an agglutinative manner. No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were accessed by holes in the ceiling, with doors reached by ladders and stairs. The rooftops were effectively streets. The ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation, allowing smoke from the houses' open hearths and ovens to escape. Houses had plaster interiors characterized by squared-off timber ladders or steep stairs. Each main room served for cooking and daily activities. The main rooms contained raised platforms that may have been used for a range of domestic activities. Side rooms were used as storage, and were accessed through low openings from main rooms. Although no identifiable temples have been found, the graves, murals, and figurines suggest that the people of Catalhoyuk had a religion rich in symbols. Rooms with concentrations of these items may have been temples. The inhabitants were worshipers of the mother goddess. In upper levels of the site, it becomes apparent that the people gaining skills in agriculture and the domestication of animals and fruit were harvested from trees in the surrounding hills. However, hunting continued to be a major source of food for the community. Pottery and tools appear to have been major industries Tools were probably both used and also traded. This is where the oldest pottery known from Anatolia has been found. The oldest pottery was fired, unpainted and unglazed and had a very simple bag shaped form.

A question that shall trouble a modern observer about this civilization is the use of a home with a very difficult door opening in the roof rather than on the side that is far more convenient, safer from the elements and intruders and easier to construct. What could be the reason for such an opening?

One possibility is that these dwelling were made by a people who lived in pits dug inside the earth prior to making such homes. In pit homes, precisely this type of roof openings are required. The question then arises – are there any examples of pit dwelling from around the time? The answer is yes and this takes us to the Pre Harappan civilization in North-west India. Bhirrana is a small village located in in the Indian state of Haryana. It belongs to the Indus Valley Civilisation dating from around 7500 BC too.  The site is situated about 220 km to the northwest of New Delhi.

The Bhirrana excavations have revealed the remains of the Harappan culture right from its nascent stage, i.e. Hakra Wares Culture to a full-fledged Mature Harappan city. Prior to the excavation of Bhirrana, no Hakra Wares culture, predating the Early Harappan had been exposed in any Indian site. For the first time, the remains of this culture have been exposed at Bhirrana. This culture is characterised by structures in the form of subterranean dwelling pits, cut into the natural soil. The walls and floor of these pits were plastered with the yellowish alluvium of the Saraswati valley. The artefacts of this period comprised a copper bangle, a copper arrowhead, bangles of terracotta, beads of carnelian, lapis lazuli, bone point, stone saddle etc.. The pottery is very rich and like their Anatolian contemporaries these early pre Harappans too were worshipers of Mother Goddess. A connection between and a common root of both these ancient people is very possible.

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Catal_H%C3%BCy%C3%BCk_Restoration_B.jpg

Sumerian not a Linguistic Isolate but an Austric Language - Archaic Tamil

Some seven years ago when I wrote a blog post (and also an ezine article)on the Sumerian language, describing why I thought that it was not a linguistic isolate but belonged to the Austric group of languages, some linguistic historians scoffed at the suggestion. It seems they were so seeped in existing theories that they did not want to open their mind to new thoughts as is common in many areas of knowledge since ancient times. The old post is here

http://alienaccount.blogspot.in/2006/09/tracing-origin-of-ancient-sumerians.html

Since this post several new studies have emerged that have described the close similarities between Sumerian and Archaic Tamil. The modern form of that language is still spoken by millions in southern India and its archaic version is well documented. The Similarities between Sumerian and Archaic Tamil are not just ephemeral but clear. Not just words are similar but entire sentences and one would have to be blind not to see that both languages belong to a common group. There are several references and discussions on it on the net now that an interested reader can find for example,

http://www.araichchi.com/Sumeria/Sumeria_Linguistics.html

An older study by Muttarayan  has provided hundreds of lexical correspondences and other linguistic data supporting the family relationship between Sumerian and Dravidian languages.(Muttarayan, K. L., J. Tamil Stud., 1975, 7, 41–61.)Recently this author has discovered that there are several older studies comparing Tamil and Sumerian that have been ignored by the main stream scholars. There is a need now for a rigorous compilation of all these older works into a comprehensive comparison.

Tamil, especially Archaic Tamil although classified in a different Dravid group is either a more developed subset or has a close relationship with the Austric/Australoid group of languages as different from the Indo-European group.. Although upon further reflection some of the statements of the original article need revision however its central assertion that Sumerian is not an isolated language but rather belongs to the Austric group of languages appears to be verified. it may be pointed out that blog posts are not written as carefully as scholarly articles but that does not mean that none of them contain any valuable information. They can serve to articulate an idea that may later be pursued with the thoroughness and referencing required for a peer reviewed journal article.

Thus the original deduction of this author stands vindicated that ancient Sumerian was not an isolated language but rather belonged to the Austric group of languages.This language has been identified as Archaic Tamil

Men came from Mars and Women from Venus

There were reports in the media recently that conditions were conducive for creation of life on Mars at one time and that life may have come to earth from that planet. I was reminded of the old adage that Men are from mars and the Women from Venus. However, it is not necessary to limit one’s imagination to just Mars or Venus once one has read and understood the theory of Panspermia (or its modification Pansmeria) described in several posts of this blog. The posts describe in detail how it is possible for bacteria in hibernation to arrive on Earth from virtually any part of the universe, from far away galaxies and even other galaxies over millions and billions of years. Within these bacteria are the genetic codes for all life forms that exist on earth and those that are yet to appear. Bacteria even carry the gene of advanced life forms on a planet because they can be infected by viruses carrying break away genes from advanced life forms. 

The genetic make up of bacteria is such as can be modified easily, and once modified replicate as they multiply by duplication rather than sexual reproduction that tends to eliminate such modification during reproduction. It does seem that it is at the level of bacteria and viruses that creation of new life forms takes place and it is an ongoing process, with most new variation rejected but few becoming a part of the genetic pool of life in the universe. It is only when a gene is integrated in a higher life form that it can be perpetuated near endlessly because of a continuous rejection of erroneous mutations through the process of sexual reproduction

Deleting some old Posts

I do not visit this blog frequently nowadays while my attention is focused on another blog. However, I hope that my interest will be rekindled sooner or later and there would be more new posts. It has been retained because many of its posts are relevant and were ahead of their times when published. However, on a review today I discovered that there were also a few that were a bit too speculative and did not match up with the other posts. therefore three of them were deleted today. In the meantime if any reader wishes to enter a query or comment on any of the earlier posts, please do so I shall know through an email alert and respond quickly.

http://someitemshave.blogspot.com

New name and New Look

Today I visited this blog and gave it a new name and a new look that is easier on the mind and eyes. I do not post much in this blog nowadays but it has valuable material that was gathered through strenuous work at one time, therefore it has been preserved. The new title ' Darwinism Revisited' attempts to explain what that blog contains. It attempts to explain how life was created on our wonderful planet based om modern scientific thinking. It does not necessarily negate what is contained in the scriptures but views these merely recorded in metaphors as suitable for the times in which they were composed.