Secret HistoryS

Sherlock

New study reveals link between Armenian genetics and Neolithic Europeans

bronze age armenia
A new study into Armenian genetics reveals that present day Armenians are a mixture of local Bronze Age people who have retained homogeneity for over three thousand years, and show great affinity to Neolithic Europeans.

Armenians are an ethno-linguistic-religious group distinct from their surrounding neighbors. They have their own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which was founded in the 1st century CE, and became in 301 CE the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion. They have also their own alphabet and language which is classified as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.

The historical homeland of the Armenians sits north of the Fertile Crescent, a region of substantial importance to modern human evolution. Genetic and archaeological data suggest farmers expanding from this region during the Neolithic populated Europe and interacted/admixed with pre-existing huntergatherer populations. Furthermore, Armenia's location may have been important for the spread of Indo-European languages, since it is believed to encompass or be close to the Proto-Indo-European homeland (Anatolia or Pontic Steppe) from which the Indo-Europeans and their culture spread to Western Europe, Central Asia and India.

Cross

Leading British scholar: 'We shouldn't be taking the Bible literally'

New Testament
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
People should not take the Bible at face value, a leading British scholar has said after analyzing a unique Latin interpretation of the gospels from 800 AD.

Dr. Hugh Houghton of the University of Birmingham said the Bible should not be taken literally, after studying a copy of a fourth-century commentary by African-born Italian bishop Fortunatianus of Aquileia, which reads the religious text as a series of allegories rather than literal history.

"There's been an assumption that it's a literal record of truth - a lot of the early scholars got very worried about inconsistencies between Matthew and Luke, for example," Houghton said, according to the Telegraph.

"But for people teaching the Bible in the fourth century, it's not the literal meaning which is important, it's how it's read allegorically.

Comment: For more on the history of the bible, listen in:

The Truth Perspective: Interview with Russell Gmirkin: What Does Plato Have To Do With the Bible?


Star of David

Armenia's six-pointed star - 5000 years old

armenian star
Marble tombstone of the Armenian Grand Prince Hasan Jalal Vahtangian (1214-1261)
A few months ago, I made a YouTube video about the history of the Armenian Wheel of Eternity. Maybe the most iconic among many ancient Armenian symbols. As expected people started to ask questions and post comments. Among the commentators a keen observer noticed that in some cases Armenians depicted the Wheel of Eternity inside a six pointed star. Because of the many questions I received since, I've decided to finally grant this symbol attention in a manner of a blog post.

Most people today associate the six pointed star (hexagram) with the Jewish Star of David (Magen David), as it is the modern symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism. In 1948 it was even adopted on the official flag of Israel. According to Wikipedia: "Its use as a symbol of the Jewish community dates to the 17th century." However, like many other aspects of Armenian culture, not much has been written about the Armenian usage of the hexagram. Even though its usage in science, art, architecture, decorations and even for religious purposes has been extensive throughout the history.

Video

New film reveals that Prince William and Prince Harry had not seen Princess Diana in the month prior to her death

William and Harry
The twentieth anniversary of Princess Diana's death is nearly upon us, and with the date looming, there's a new documentary with Prince William and Prince Harry looking back at their mother's life. The film shines a light on the fact that the Duke of Cambridge and his younger brother had not seen Princess Diana in a month when she passed away on August 1, 1997. At that time, the People's Princess and Prince Charles had a custody arrangement that kept the boys traveling back and forth. The princes were with their father when their mother died. In the documentary, Prince Harry illuminates this subject and says,
There was the point where our parents split, and we never saw our mother enough, or we never saw our father enough. There was a lot of traveling and lot of fights on the back seat with my brother -- which I would win. There was all that to contend with. And -- I don't pretend we're the only people to have to deal with that, but it was an interesting way of growing up.
It turns out Prince William and Prince Harry had plans to see their mother on the day that she and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, died in a car accident in Paris. The boys and Princess Diana had been apart for weeks. The princes were vacationing with Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral, Scotland. Meanwhile, Princess Diana was busy making humanitarian trips, including a journey to Bosnia to speak out against the use of landmines.

Comment: The loss and trauma of Princes William and Harry tragically losing their mother at such a young age is just another meaningless piece of 'collateral damage' to those who had Princess Diana killed: Unlawful Killing - The Murder of Princess Diana and Why it Matters


Cow

Armenia: Spread of agriculture

Rock drawings
© Unknown
The invention of agriculture was a pivotal event in human history. The first animal tamed by people was the dog. Its domestication probably occurred in the Early Stone Age, in the period of hunting development. Centuries later, people managed to tame sheep, pigs, goats, and cows. The Armenian Highlands are crucial in this regard. The oldest center of stock farming can be traced to the Armenian plateau. In a paper: "Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact" Dr. Melinda A. Zeder (2008) argues that the early spread of agriculture known as the Neolithic revolution spread from the Armenian plateau through a mix of colonization and cultural diffusion, into Europe and elsewhere. [1] Dr. Zeder believes that in Europe the indigenous hunter gatherers adopted the new farming technologies by cultural diffusion. The map, from the article in the August 11 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the regions and dates where the four species were first domesticated.

Archaeology

Newly discovered tablets reveal ancient Babylonians knew a form of trigonometry superior to modern version

Babylonian tablet Plimpton
© UNSWThe Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 has numbers written in cuneiform script
The Ancient Babylonians knew about a form of trigonometry more advanced than the modern-day version - about 1,000 years before its supposed invention by the Ancient Greeks, academics in Australia say.

The astonishing claim is based on a 3,700-year-old clay tablet inscribed with a table of numbers.

Known as Plimpton 322, it is already known to contain evidence that the Babylonians knew Pythagoras' famous equation for right-angled triangles, long before the Greek philosopher gave his name to it.

And researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have claimed it also shows the Babylonians developed a highly sophisticated form of trigonometry - the system of maths used to describe angles that has tortured generations of school pupils with sine, cosine and tangent.

Horse

Armenian Highlands, land of the horse

Armenian horses
Horse breading, the domestication of the horses and the development of the chariot in Armenia dates back to the time immemorial. In fact, the Armenian Highlands were renowned for horse breeding and horsemanship throughout ancient times. Murals of the Iron Age (Armenian) kingdom of Ararat attest to the richness of this practice. Traditionally Armenians consider themselves as descended from the biblical Torgom (Togarmah), where the Bible refers to the House of Togarmah, a land known for its horses (Ez. 27:14). For this reason the ancient Persians would collect Armenian horses as part of taxation for their armies and the royal guard (Strabo, 20 B.C.). Equally revered was the Armenian cavalry of the ancient times.

Brick Wall

Discovery of the Great Wall of Siberia, 1st millennium BC

Great wall Siberia
© Ancient-origins.net
Giant ramparts guarded Altai Mountains against attack from the north, says leading archaeologist Professor Andrey Borodovsky. The wall complex - now almost hidden to the naked eye - is believed to date from a long era that also saw such constructions as the Great Wall of China and Hadrian's Wall.

Concealed under thick layers of turf are huge stones put in place by ancient man, says the scientist. Six rows of a parallel wall system limited access to the Altai Mountain complex from the north via the valley of the Katun River. Their width is a substantial ten meters with an impressive height of up to eight meters.

It is not known who built the giant ramparts. 'To the east of these walls is a fairly wide passage, which is limited at the mountainside by another series of walls, oriented west-east across the Katun valley,' he said.

There are nine walls adjacent to the mountain slope.

Professor Andrey Borodovsky said: 'These walls were clearly made to cut off crowds of people, and make them go through a narrow passage in the direction chosen by the creators of the (construction).'

In this way access from the steppes to the mountains - the home of ancient civilizations, for example of the Pazyryk people - could be controlled.

Some of the walls were destroyed by the construction of the Chuya highway in tsarist times, modernized by Stalin using prisoner labor. [...]

Prof Borodovsky insists geophysical analysis using scans shows the structures here were manmade not natural. He has announced plans to conduct detailed research here next year, which - while not long in total length, with more than 1 kilometer identified - are high in historical significance.

So far archaeological evidence of man from the areas around the walls points to a medieval presence yet the researcher from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk is convinced proof will be found of their construction much earlier.

'Geophysics has clearly confirmed that the Souzga walls were artificially created,' he told The Siberian Times.

For more of this article, go here.

Pharoah

Analyzing mummy genes: Could ancient Egyptians be closely related to Middle Easterners?

Egyptians
© ancient-origions.com
Egypt has been thought of by many as a quintessentially African civilization. There is, however, evidence that the ancient Egyptians may have been less African than modern Egyptians, at least genetically. Recent genetic studies have shown that the people of ancient Egypt had ties to ancient Near Eastern populations such as Armenians. This is also consistent with the idea of a large migration out of the Middle East to settle parts of North Africa and Europe and mingle with local populations in those areas.

Modern Egyptians have a lot of genetic and cultural ties to Sub-Saharan Africa. It has long been believed by archaeologists that the Egyptian civilization grew from villages developing along the Nile which were similar to people farther south. So far, genetic studies of modern Egyptians as well as archaeological research have confirmed this. Studies of the ancient Egyptian mummies, however, tell a slightly more complex story.

Checking the Genes of Egyptian Mummies

In a recent study, genetic samples were taken from at least 90 mummies. What geneticists working alongside archaeologists found was that the mummies had closer genetic connections to the Middle East, specifically the Levant and Anatolia. This is an interesting find since it suggests that modern Egyptians are more African than ancient Egyptians.

One possible explanation for more genetic similarities between ancient Egyptians and Middle Eastern populations such as Syrians or Armenians would be the Hyksos. The Hyksos were a Middle Eastern people who occupied the Nile delta sometime before 1650 BC and came to rule Egypt until they were ousted by a native dynasty.
Egyptian mummy
© BigstockEgyptian mummy in laboratory
For more of this article, go here.

Chalkboard

Mathematical secrets of ancient Babylonian tablet unlocked

Dating from 1,000 years before Pythagoras's theorem, the Babylonian clay tablet is a trigonometric table more accurate than any today, say researchers.
Plimpton 322 tablet
© UNSW/Andrew KellyMathematician Dr Daniel Mansfield with the Plimpton 322 tablet.
At least 1,000 years before the Greek mathematician Pythagoras looked at a right angled triangle and worked out that the square of the longest side is always equal to the sum of the squares of the other two, an unknown Babylonian genius took a clay tablet and a reed pen and marked out not just the same theorem, but a series of trigonometry tables which scientists claim are more accurate than any available today.

The 3,700-year-old broken clay tablet survives in the collections of Columbia University, and scientists now believe they have cracked its secrets.

The team from the University of New South Wales in Sydney believe that the four columns and 15 rows of cuneiform - wedge shaped indentations made in the wet clay - represent the world's oldest and most accurate working trigonometric table, a working tool which could have been used in surveying, and in calculating how to construct temples, palaces and pyramids.

The fabled sophistication of Babylonian architecture and engineering is borne out by excavation. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, believed by some archaeologists to have been a planted step pyramid with a complex artificial watering system, was written of by Greek historians as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Comment: Details of the hypothesis can be found in:
Plimpton 322 is Babylonian exact sexagesimal trigonometry, Historia Mathematica, 2017