Archive 2365

Descendants of Legendary Atlantis by Constantin Benetatos

Are Northern Europeans more pure descendants of the Atlanteans than their Mediterranean counterparts?

1. ICE AGE AND SOUTHERN MIGRATION.

SCIENTISTS AND OTHER EXPERTS INDICATE THAT THE LAST ICE AGE STARTED ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO AND ENDED SOME TEN TO TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE PRESENT. THE ICE AGE MAY HAVE STARTED SLOWLY OR ABRUPTLY. IF THE START WAS GRADUAL, BOTH THE HUMANS AND ANIMALS OF NORTHERN EUROPE MAY HAVE HAD A GOOD CHANCE TO MIGRATE SOUTHWARD TO WARMER CLIMATES. THE ONES WHO DID NOT OR COULD NOT JUST PERISHED. IN SOME AREAS THE SNOW ACCUMULATION MUST HAVE BEEN VERY RAPID AND SEVERE. FROZEN WOOLLY MAMMOTHS WERE DISCOVERED IN SIBERIA STILL STANDING ON THEIR FEET. THE ICE SHEET EVENTUALLY COVERED MOST OF NORTHEASTERN EUROPE. THE GULF STREAM MUST HAVE INFLUENCED THE WEATHER CONDITIONS IN WESTERN EUROPE AT THE TIME AND PROBABLY KEPT PORTIONS OF THE CELTIC SHELF FREE FROM ICE.

THE EARLY HUMAN POPULATION IN EUROPE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ICE AGE, CONSISTED OF MOSTLY HUNTER-GATHERERS, AND VARIED FROM A FEW THOUSAND TO NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED THOUSAND SOULS. FOOD SUPPLY, NATURAL DISASTERS, AND DISEASE WERE ALL INFLUENTIAL IN KEEPING THE HUMAN POPULATION IN CHECK.

WE CAN ONLY GUESS WHAT THEIR SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATIONAL SKILLS WERE. APPARENTLY THEY LIVED IN GROUPS CONSISTING OF SEVERAL FAMILIES MOVING WITHIN THEIR OWN BORDERS AND OVERLAPPING OTHER TERRITORIES MARKED BY NATURAL BOUNDARIES SUCH AS RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS. SLOW MIGRATION WAS AN ONGOING PROCESS THAT WAS INFLUENCED MAINLY BY WEATHER CONDITIONS AND FOOD SUPPLY. WE MIGHT IMAGINE OF THESE NOMADIC PEOPLE TO BE BRUTES READY TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AND ATTACK OTHERS WHO CROSSED THEIR PATH , OR WE MAY THINK OF THEM AS MORE GENTLE WITH A MORE PEACEFUL ATTITUDE TOWARDS COEXISTENCE WITH THE OTHER GROUPS LIVING IN THE NEXT VALLEY OR OVER THE MOUNTAIN. SIMILARITIES MAY BE DRAWN FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, THE PYGMIES OF AFRICA AND THE IRIAN JAYA OF INDONESIA. SOME OF THE AFORESAID GROUPS PRACTICED HUMAN SACRIFICE AND OR CANNIBALISM. NO ONE REALLY KNOWS IF THE EARLY EUROPEANS DID THE SAME. INBREEDING MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM, DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY WERE CONSTANTLY ON THE MOVE (PROBABLY BARTERING TOOLS AND HUNTING IMPLEMENTS).

THEIR EVERYDAY LANGUAGE, ALTHOUGH LIMITED, WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH TO COMMUNICATE DURING HUNTING EXPEDITIONS AND TO PERFORM THEIR SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS FUNCTIONS. THIS PROTO-LANGUAGE MUST HAVE BEEN USED AND MUST HAVE BEEN UNDERSTOOD BY ALL PROTO-EUROPEANS AS THEY MOVED AROUND MINGLING WITH EACH OTHER AND THEN SEPARATING AGAIN. THERE WERE CERTAINLY PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS, ESPECIALLY IN ALPINE AREAS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE, THAT WERE MOSTLY COVERED BY TREES. SOME ARCHAEOLOGISTS SUGGEST THAT THESE PROTO-EUROPEANS REVERED AND BURIED THEIR DEAD.

AS THE ICE AGE PROGRESSED AND THEY WERE HARD PRESSED BY THE COLD AND LACK OF GAME, MANY GROUPS WERE FORCED TO SEEK NEW TERRITORIES TO THE SOUTH WHERE THEY COULD HUNT AND LIVE. THEIR CONTACT WITH THE LOCAL INHABITANTS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES IN PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS, MAY HAVE BEEN PEACEFUL OR VIOLENT. THERE WERE CERTAINLY WINNERS AND LOSERS.

WAS THEIR EXPERIENCE / INTELLIGENCE HIGHER, THE SAME, OR LOWER COMPARED TO THOSE FROM THE SOUTH, ESPECIALLY THE ONES IN THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS? WERE THERE ANY PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE NORTHERNERS AND THE ONES FROM THE SOUTH?

AT THE TIME, THE NEANDERTHALS AND HOMO SAPIENS OCCUPIED THE SAME TERRITORIES. DID THE HOMO SAPIENS PREVAIL DUE TO THEIR HIGHER INTELLIGENCE? BECAUSE THEIR NOMADIC WAY OF LIFE BROUGHT ALL THESE GROUPS IN CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER, THEIR PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS MUST HAVE BEEN SIMILAR.