Broken Timelines

Jack Stornoway

Egypt is unique among Earth’s ancient cultures, as the Egyptians kept records longer than most cultures existed. Around 300 BC the Egyptian historian Manetho compiled a record of Egyptian History for the Greeks. It was the height of Greek cultural influence. The Greeks were ruling everything from southern Italy to northwest India, and had established colonies as far west as France, and as far north as Crimea. Manetho’s book Aegyptiaca, circulated far and wide within the Greek world, and then the Roman and Sassanian Empires that rose up to consume the Greek world.

  1. 03/07/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 12 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 4)

    The most enigmatic Greek god, Dionysus, was steeped in Dumuzid-Tammuz lore. For the Greeks, he was always the foreign god, even though being part of the Greek pantheon since the Mycenaean era, circa 1500 to 1100 BC, when they called him Disonuso. This foreign god, was also worshiped by the Minoans under the name Diwonijo, although it is unclear when they started worshiping him. The Minoans built a major civilization in the Aegean, long before the Greeks. Their civilization was devastated by the volcanic eruption of Thera, sometime between 1650 and 1500 BC, however, dating systems all disagree on when. Archaeologists working in Crete, generally claim it was circa 1500 BC, due to the style of pottery being made at the time. Carbon dating places it, between 1627 and 1600 BC, by examining the remains of plants buried at the time. Egyptologists have found a layer of pumice they think is related to Thera, at Tel el Dab’a, that is dated to the reign of King Ahmose I, and places the Thera eruption circa 1540 BC. Meanwhile, ice core samples from Greenland, show evidence of a large volcanic eruption circa 1642 BC, and dendrochronology, shows a disruption of the normal growth cycles of trees circa 1628 BC, in both North America and Europe. Additionally, Chinese records of the year 1618 BC, imply a large volcanic eruption somewhere in the northern hemisphere. This eruption of Thera, didn’t destroy the Minoans but did cause a great deal of damage throughout the Aegean. The eruption caused tsunamis and ash-fall across the region, damaging their economy and causing their civilization’s decline. In the longer term, the decline of the Minoans ultimately allowed the rise of the Greeks. Like the history of other nearby cultures, the Minoans timeline is based on how it correlates with Egypt, however, unlike the Middle Eastern cultures, there is no complex written histories, or invasions by other cultures before the Greeks invaded, near the end of Minoan history.

    56 min
  2. 02/28/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 11 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 3)

    If one accepts the Recent Out-of-Africa theory for modern-human origins in Africa, then the lifespan of Dumuzid, was during the first phase of modern-human migrations out of Africa into the Middle East and South Asia. The current version of the Recent Out of Africa theory, proposes that modern-humans first migrated into southern Eurasia, between 110,000 and 95,000 years ago, and by 100,000 years ago, modern-humans and Neanderthals had begun interbreeding. Meanwhile, Dumuzid’s lifespan was listed as approximately 129,600 to 93,600 years ago. Given that Cain was leaving Eden traveling east, the original Garden-of-the-Gods must have been in North Africa somewhere. As Zimbir was required to still exist between 65,000 and 44,000 years ago, the City of Enoch would have to have been in South Asia. This would then suggest that Cain settling in Nod, and being ‘marked’ as different from other people, was the first wave of modern-humans settling in southern Eurasia and creating light-skinned children with the native Neanderthals. The light-skin genes in modern Eurasian and Native American populations are believed to be inherited from Neanderthal ancestors. This is of course, only valid if the current version of the Recent Out-of-Africa theory is correct. Modern-human remains have been found in Eurasia, long predating the current version of the Recent Out of Africa theory, indicating that modern-humans either ventured out of Africa earlier than previously thought, or that they originated elsewhere. The immediate ancestor of the modern humans, was thought to be homo-heidelbergensis, until genetic analysis of the Sima de los Huesos fossils showed homo-heidelbergensis to be primitive Neanderthals, and pushed back the splitting of the modern-human and heidelbergensis-neanderthal bloodlines, to roughly 600,000 to 800,000 years ago. This raises the question of who our primary ancestors were, if they weren’t homo-heidelbergensis. The ancestor species of homo-heidelbergensis, is currently believed to be homo-erectus, which could be the last common ancestor the modern-human bloodline had with the Neanderthal and Denisovan bloodlines.

    34 min
  3. 02/21/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 10 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 2)

    In the Sumerian King List, before the kingship was in Zimbir, it was in the city of Larak, which fell approximately 64,800 years ago, after being around for 28,800 years, meaning it was founded circa 93,600 years ago. So far, no ruins have been found in Iraq associated with a dynastic city called Larak, however, it is believed they may lie somewhere near the ruins if Isin. Almost nothing is known about Larak. The King of Larak was said to be En-Sipadzidana of which there are no surviving stories. The name En-Sipadzidana translates approximately as ‘time of the shepherd for the faithful of heaven,’ which doesn’t really enlighten us as to what Larak was, other than that they were apparently shepherding. Sheep are believed to have been domesticated in the Middle East, approximately 13,000 years ago, however, the wild mouflon species which sheep were domesticated from, have been around for approximately four million years, and therefore sheep could have been domesticated earlier than 13,000 years ago. In fact, some studies have suggested that sheep may have been domesticated up to three times from three different wild mouflon species. Of course, the term shepherd could have been used metaphorically, as it is being used within the concept ‘shepherd for the faithful of heaven,’ which sounds like something a Christian minister might describe himself as being. The world was different between 94,000 and 65,000 years ago, and modern-humans weren’t the only people on it. The Neanderthals and Denisovans of Eurasia were the other humans on the planet at the time. Modern-humans are believed to have initially left Africa sometime between 110,000 and 95,000 years ago, and by 100,000 years ago humans and Neanderthals had begun interbreeding. While modern-human remains are found in the Middle East earlier than 80,000 years ago, after 80,000 years ago they were replaced by Neanderthals. It is believed that modern-humans left the region because the world was cooling, which allowed the neanderthals to migrate down into the area from Eastern Europe or Central Asia. Somewhere in Eurasia, a group of modern-humans with some Neanderthal DNA did survive, presumably in South Asia. Between 55,000 and 45,000 years ago these modern-humans returned to the Middle East, as the neanderthals withdrew to Europe and Siberia.

    41 min
  4. 01/31/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 7 (Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 1)

    The timelines of Mesopotamia and Egypt are the two pillars that ancient history is built around, unfortunately, as the Egyptian timeline was more developed by the early-1900s it has traditionally taken precedence over the Mesopotamian timeline. This means whenever the Egyptian timeline is changed by Egyptologists, the Mesopotamian timeline needs to be adjusted by Assyriologists to keep the two timelines in sync. Unlike Egypt, where one civilization rose and fell repeatedly for thousands of years, in Mesopotamia various civilizations rose and fell. The oldest known culture in the region was the Sumerian culture, which was ultimately supplanted by the Akkadian civilization. The Akkadian civilization then devolved into the Babylonian and Assyrian cultures. When the academic study of ancient Mesopotamian cultures began in the 1600s, Assyria was the oldest known Mesopotamian civilization, and as a result, the field of study is still known as Assyriology. Through the 1700s and 1800s, early excavations in Iraq uncovered the ruins of Babylon, and evidence of the Akkadian language, and by the 1850s evidence of the Sumerian language, although it was not translated until the early 1900s. The Sumerian civilization was established in history books by the 1910s, followed by the earlier Jamdet Nasr, Uruk, and Ubaid periods in 1930. The records that have survived from the Sumerian and Akkadian periods, list a series of ancient dynasties going back tens of thousands of years, which might have been considered history if Egypt did not exist. Unfortunately for Assyriologists, Egypt does exist. The similarities between the early dynastic periods of both cultures were documented by 1900, which essentially proved that one culture influenced the other. The question was which culture influenced the other. Both Egyptian hieroglyphs and Akkadian cuneiform had been translated by the late-1800s, and both have the same unique logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, which indicate that both derive from a common ancestor, and the question again was which one? Likewise, both cultures built flat-topped buildings in the early period, and then started building pyramidal structures, again, which culture influenced which? The common elements go far beyond writing forms and structural design, the two cultures even shared mythical animals, such as the serpopard.

    40 min
  5. 01/24/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 6 (Pre-Dynastic Egypt, Part 3)

    Before the 30 kings of Memphis, Manetho listed the rule of another group of kings for 1,817 years. Very little is known about this period that apparently existed between approximately 17,280 to 15,463 years ago. This was deep into the glacial drought when Egypt was extremely dry. During the period of around 17,000 years ago Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highlands dried out, which was the source for 80% of the Nile’s water during the later dynastic period. This led to the Nile’s water level falling to one of its all-time lowest points. Lake Tana did not recover until sometime after 15,100 years ago. The other primary source of water for the Nile has traditionally been the White Nile, which flows from Lake Victoria in central Africa. The White Nile is currently the source for around 20% of the Nile’s water, however, during the time when Lake Tana was dried out, it would have been the source for most of the Nile’s water. However, Lake Victoria was very low at this time as well, ultimately drying out entirely by 15,000 years ago, meaning that the Nile itself, had almost dried out by the end of this very ancient dynasty. It is theorized that the Nile was a seasonal river during this period, flowing only part of the year, and possibly dammed by sand dunes in multiple places, where lakes would have formed behind the dams. There is very little that has been discovered dating from this period. Some stone tools have been found along the higher banks of the Nile, however, the majority of artifacts from this period would likely be buried under the Nile’s riverbed, as people would have clustered around the water, not at the top of the surrounding cliffs.

    24 min
  6. 01/17/2021

    Broken Timelines - Episode 5 (Pre-Dynastic Egypt, Part 2)

    According to Manetho, before the rule of the 10 Kings of Thinis, there was a dynasty of 30 kings based in Memphis, who ruled for 1,790 years. The location of the dynastic city of Memphis is known, it’s near the modern town of Mit Rahina, 20 km south of Giza. The city of Memphis was the capital of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, said to have been founded by King Menes after he unified Egypt circa 5510 BC ULT (or 3100 BC CET). It was a major city throughout most of Egyptian history and is the root of where the name ‘Egypt’ is derived. While the city of Memphis founded by Menes, could be at the location of the earlier city of Memphis, it is not necessarily the case. The name Memphis is derived from the ancient Egyptian words ‘Hut-ka-Ptah,’ meaning ‘Enclosure of the ka of Patah.’ The term ‘ka of Patah’ translates as essentially the ‘spirit of Ptah,’ or more literally ‘craftsmen,’ as Ptah was the patron deity of craftsmen. Therefore the name of the city could be read as the ‘enclosure,’ or ‘fortress’ of the craftsmen. This basic term is found in several ancient cultures across the region, such as the ancient Sumerian Bad-tibira, which also meant ‘fortress’ of the smiths or craftsmen. Like the Egyptian city of Memphis, Bad-tibira was both a historic city in Iraq, and an ancient mythical city from a time period thousands of years before the foundation of Sumer. This concept of the ‘city of the smiths,’ whatever it might have originally meant, is so ingrained in the ancient Middle Eastern culture that it even found its way into the Tanakh, (the Biblical Old Testament). In the earliest part of the Bible, the first city was built by Cain, the first metalsmith. Naturally it is possible that King Menes built his capital where he thought the ancient city of Memphis was, however, there is no reason to assume that he did. If one does assume that Menes’ Memphis was in the vicinity of the ancient Memphis, then one faces the fact that Menes’ Memphis was in the area that is today covered by modern Greater Cairo. Finding the original Memphis under all that might not be possible.

    41 min

About

Egypt is unique among Earth’s ancient cultures, as the Egyptians kept records longer than most cultures existed. Around 300 BC the Egyptian historian Manetho compiled a record of Egyptian History for the Greeks. It was the height of Greek cultural influence. The Greeks were ruling everything from southern Italy to northwest India, and had established colonies as far west as France, and as far north as Crimea. Manetho’s book Aegyptiaca, circulated far and wide within the Greek world, and then the Roman and Sassanian Empires that rose up to consume the Greek world.