Posted on 10/17/2006 6:10:35 AM PDT by NYer
The Garden Of Eden was probably here in SE Asia.
This article is so ideological it is laughable. Noble savage and all that!
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Southern Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and the Euphrates flowed, first separately, then united, towards the Persian Gulf, was more beguiling in history than in fact. Here were Babylon and Nineveh, here Sennacherib had fought his battles, here indeed, some said, had been the Garden of Eden at the start of the world. But it was a fearful country now. Much of it was empty desert, inhabited by lawless predatory Arabs who loathed nearly everyone, the rest wide and foetid fen, inhabited by amphibious marshmen who detested everyone else. The irrigation works of the ancients had long since crumbled, and the long years of Turkish rule had left only decay and depression. There were no paved roads, no railways. Such towns as existed were hardly more than excretions of mud, like piles of rubbish in the wasteland, relieved only by the minarets of shabby mosques, or the lugubrious walls of forts. In the summer it was indescribably hot, in the winter unbearably cold. In the dry season everything was baked like leather, in the wet season 10,000 square miles were flooded, the waters gradually oozing away to leave malodorous wastes of marsh. Fleas, sand-flies and mosquitoes tormented the place, and its inhabitants lived lives of ignorant poverty, enlivened only by sporadic excitements of crime or brigandage, the illusions of religion and the consolations of sex.Is this the land of dear old Adam (one British soldier wondered),
And beautiful Mother Eve?
If so dear reader small blame to them
For sinning and having to leave. James (Jan) Morris, Farewell the Trumpets.
WHatever it is, it is hungry or its ribs wouldn't be sticking out.
How about going for real heresy and postulating that this culture existed prior to the last ice advance and was wiped out by a combination of invading hunter-gatherers and climate change as the ice advanced? I think humanity has dropped the ball more than once.
David was in a group - but none of the tribes of Israel were with him; they were positioned throughout the land.
Then to suggest that the "tribe" flourished under David because of a more stable agricultural environment strikes me as completely missing all of the points. Or perhaps I'm missing something - the civil war in David's later years... Bad crops in successive years? "Absolem, oh Absolem! You should have irrigated!"
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I remember being taught that the females were the "gatherers" of local grains and fruits, and the men were the "hunters" who would venture off afar to track game. The women would hold down the home base and raise the children.
Coincidentally, the temple of Gobekli Tepe was deliberately covered with earth around this time.That's an (ahem) interesting claim. The earliest known sign of agriculture (and it's from the Near East) is RC 14,000 year old multirow barley, a bred variety which requires irrigation, and that's 4,000 years before this site. So I think the interpretation is the offspring of a fertile imagination and/or a case of conclusions fitting the assumptions.
GoE was in Afghanistan. They all know this. An Afghani told me.
Garden of Eden? It was in what is now Ventura County, California.
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What's the water-sphinx theory?
It has something to do with the erosion marks on the base of the Sphinx looking more like they were made by water (rains), than desert winds. If so, then the Sphinx is much older (from a wetter period) than is currently thought (it has been modified, we know that).
"If you ever do extended survival training, you'll find that it takes a lot of work to get food by finding it here and there throughout the year. Plus, it is not assured that you'll find enough in any one place."
If you're ever reduced to really extended survival training, of the sort where nobody is going to come and rescue you, ever, you'll find that it does not take all that much work to get food by finding it here and there for about 9 months of the year. Roll over stones and turn over logs: there are plenty of insects and worms and all sorts of nasty protein sources which can be eaten, and which will keep you alive. Most green stuff can be eaten, but most of it is not really necessary. Bugs and worms will keep you alive, and they are plentiful just about everywhere. And horrible.
During snowy periods...well...there's a reason naked mankind didn't develop in the temperate and subarctic zones!
For that, you have to live off all that stored bug fat, and store up acorns (which are horrible, but edible). The inside of pine bark will keep you from getting scurvy (and is also horrible).
Life as a wild man is short, but it's not really starvation that gets you. There really are enough bugs out there to keep you alive indefinitely. The problem is that the combination of cold and exposure lowers your immunity, and you die of illnesses and infections much more quickly. A cold becomes the flu becomes pneumonia, and pfffft, you're worm meat.
And they're gonna charge people a dollar and a half just to see em...
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