This anthology of ancient and fresh archaeological artifacts paints a cohesive arc from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution to the first empires of Uruk and Egypt, ignited around the Black Sea by the Kurgan Copper revolution.

1. Kurgan Copper revolution
This anthology of ancient and fresh archaeological artifacts draw a cohesive arc from the
beginning of the Neolithic Revolution to the first empires of Uruk and Egypt, ignited around
the Black Sea by the Kurgan Copper revolution.
We refine the Kurgan hypothesis in that we show how kingship, developed on the Northern
shores of the Black Sea picked up elements from the Vinca culture, copper and seals,
pushed through Anatolia, transformed Mesopotamia and finally reached Egypt around
3700BC. With kingship came beer, burial cults and other inventions in one cohesive bag as
the seeds of civilization.
Historical context
Civilization came in many waves.
Often it advanced locally by rising tides,
but waves of outside innovation were always crucial.
“Independent” innovations are very rare exceptions.
Because of the fugacity of most materials,
we probably still vastly underestimate how the typical town looked like
10,000 years ago.
Gobekli Tepe, the monument on the right, should have really opened
our eyes. If this is one discovered stone monument from 9000BC,
how many gigantic wooden monuments from
10,000 BC are we missing?
How many wooden cities have been erased
from memory, eaten by termites, fire, men and
time.
How many painted carpets and façades are
forever lost?

2. Quick summery of Neolithic Revolution
Qadan culture (13,000-9,000 BC)
irregular usage of wild grain in Nubia
Pre-Pottery (A, B)
Pyrotechnology was highly developed in this period. During this
period, one of the main features of houses is evidenced by a thick
layer of white clay plaster floors highly polished and made of lime
produced from limestone. It is believed that the use of clay plaster
for floor and wall coverings during PPNB led to the discovery of
pottery. The earliest proto-pottery was White Ware vessels, made
from lime and gray ash, built up around baskets before firing,
Rectangular floor plans and plastered floor techniques
6200 BC 8.2 kiloyear event
6200 BC Nomadic pastoralism
The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between
about 6100 and 5100 BCE. The period is a continuous
development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located
primarily in south-eastern Turkey, Syria, and northern Iraq,
although Halaf-influenced material is found throughout Greater
Mesopotamia.
Previously
Millenia of megalithic monuments
9000 BC: Asia Minor (Göbekli Tepe)
7000 BC: proto-Canaanite Israel (Atlit Yam).
6000 BC: Portugal (Évora)
5000 BC: Atlantic Neolithic period, the age of agriculture along the western shores
4800 BC: Brittany (Barnenez) and Poitou (Bougon)

3. 4500 BC: South Egypt (Nabta Playa!)
4400 BC: Malta (Skorba temples)
4000 BC: Brittany (Carnac), Portugal (Lisbon), France (central and southern), Corsica, Spain
(Galicia), England and Wales, Andalusia, Spain (Villa Martín, Cádiz).
3700 BC: Ireland (Knockiveagh and elsewhere).
3400 BC: Sardinia (Domus de Janas) , Ireland (Newgrange), Netherlands (north-east),
Germany (northern and central) Sweden and Denmark.
3200 BC: Malta (Ħaġar Qim and Tarxien).
3100 BC: Russia (Dolmens of North Caucasus)
3000 BC: Sardinia ( prehistoric altar of Monte d'Accoddi similar to a mesopotamic Ziqqura )
2500 BC: Brittany (Le Menec, Kermario and elsewhere), Italy (Otranto), Sardinia, and
Scotland (northeast), plus the climax of the megalithic Bell-beaker culture in Iberia,
Germany, and the British Isles (stone circle at Stonehenge). With the bell-beakers, the
Neolithic period gave way to the Chalcolithic, the age of copper.
Overview of domesticated animals:
Says Wikipedia elsewhere: Asses were first domesticated around 3000 BC, probably in
Egypt or Mesopotamia. (vs 5000 BCE, see above). This is somewhat important tour story
and we will pin it at around 3500BC … in Egypt, by people from Uruk.

4. The Kurgan model
The Kurgan model is the dominant theory of several scenarios for the Indo-European
origins. It postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic
steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European(PIE) language. The term
is derived from kurgan (курган), a Turkic loanword in Russian for a tumulus or burial
mound [much more of these important graves amounts later].
Languages as historical strata
Many Indo-European languages have cognate words meaning axle; for example: Latin axis,
Lithuanian ašis, Russian os' , and Sanskrit ákṣa. (In some, a similar root is used for the word
armpit: eaxl in Old English, axilla in Latin, and kaksa in Sanskrit. Also see: ox) All these are
linked to the PIE root ak's-. The reconstructed PIE root i ̯eu-g- gives rise to German joch,
Hittite iukan, and Sanskrit yugá(m), all meaning yoke. Similar for wheel/cart/wagon/chariot
Most estimates for the Proto-Indo-European ‘ur-language’ revolve around the most probable
date falling right around 3700 BC.
Situation ~500 years before the ‘Kurgan event’:
Funnelbeaker culture (ca 4300 BC–ca 2800 BC)
The north-central European megaliths were built primarily
during the TRB era.
Region similar to later Angle-Saxons: England - Elbe + upriver
Sedentary: single-family daubed houses ca 12 m x 6 m
It was dominated by animal husbandry of sheep, cattle, pigs
and goats, but there was also hunting and fishing. Primitive
wheat and barley was grown on small
patches that were fast depleted.
The houses were centered on a
monumental grave, a symbol of social
cohesion. Burial practices were varied,
depending on region and changed over time. Inhumation seems to have
been the rule.
The Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at
the coasts of the Baltic and of the North sea, an example of which are
the Sieben Steinhäuser in northern Germany. The megalithic structures
of Ireland, France and Portugal are somewhat older and have been
connected to earlier archeological cultures of those areas.
The graves were probably not intended for every member of the settlement but for only an
elite. At graves, the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that probably contained food, and
axes and other flint objects.
They also constructed large cult centres surrounded by pales, earthworks and moats. The
largest one is found at Sarup on Fyn. It comprises 85,000 m2 and is estimated to have taken
8000 workdays.
The culture is named for its characteristic ceramics, beakers and amphorae with funnel-
shaped tops, which were probably used for drinking. One find assigned to the Funnelbeaker

5. culture is the Bronocice pot, which shows the oldest known depiction of a wheeled vehicle
(here, a 2-axled, 4-wheeled wagon). The pot dates to approximately 3500 BC.
Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC.
They drag sledges and, somewhat later, ploughs and wheeled wagons.
The plough immeasurably increases the crop of wheat or rice.
Mesopotamia
See below
The Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis
of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised
social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism.
multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the
appearance of the first temples of public architecture
Ubaid expansion took place largely through the
peaceful spread of an ideology, leading to the
formation of numerous new indigenous identities that
appropriated and transformed superficial elements of
Ubaid material culture into locally distinct
expressions".[16]
The earliest evidence for sailing has been found in
Kuwait indicating that sailing was known by the Ubaid period.
The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) saw the emergence of
urban life in Mesopotamia, the gradual emergence of the cuneiform
script (34th to 32th centuries) and corresponds to the Early Bronze
Age; it may also be called the Protoliterate period. It was during this
period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become
popular, along with cylinder seals.
It was followed by the Sumerian civilization.

6. Black Sea
Center of civilizations 4500-4000BC

7. Neighboring cultures of the Black Sea
Danube
5000-4200 BC: Danube as the worlds center of innovation
4200BC: Ideas and technology spreading from the shores of the Black Sea to lower
Anatolia, Mediterranean and Pontic steppe to Mesopotamia, Persia (to be), Indus valley,
later Egypt and then China.
Via boat, soon later horse and ox-cart.
Vinča Culture
c. 5700–4500 BCE
Council of Goddesses
4200 BC in Romania. Dubbed the "Council of Goddesses", it
was a collection of 15 anthropomorphic female clay figurines,
all of whom were seated, with 13 of them seated on
accompanying clay chairs (or thrones), all of the figurines were
placed so that they were facing inward in a circle
Vinča settlements were considerably larger than
any other contemporary European culture, in some
instances surpassing the cities of the Aegean and
early Near Eastern Bronze Age a millennium later.
Vinča symbols [c. 5700–4500 BCE]
The archaeological gap between porto-writing and Vinča symbols is
closing. We propose that the idea of marks on items (aka seals) was
carried to Anatolia between 4500 and 4000 BC.

8. Individualism (apparent in very different dresses and pottery ornaments)
Most creative culture of its time.
Vinča culture provides the earliest known example of copper metallurgy.
Why did the advanced Vinča culture decline?
Maybe their ignition of the first industrial revolution also
lead to their decline,
because their relatively egalitarian (peaceful) society
became disrupted by internal/external envy or greed.
(Plus the ‘holländische krankheit’ of resourceful nations?)
Varna culture 4400-4100BC, 294 graves have been found
in the necropolis, many containing sophisticated examples
of copper and gold metallurgy, pottery. Grave #43: one
grave contained more gold than has been found in the
entire rest of the world for that epoch.
Trade relations with distant lands, possibly including the
lower Volga region (pre Yamna) and the Cyclades
Spondylus shell first currency (?)
Oldest known burial evidence of an elite male.
The time that Marija Gimbutas, founder of the Kurgan
hypothesis, claims the transition to male dominance began in
Europe. The high status male was buried with remarkable amounts of gold, held a war axe
or mace and wore a gold penis sheath. The bull-shaped gold platelets perhaps also
venerated virility, instinctive force, and warfare. Gimbutas holds that the artifacts were made
largely by local craftspeople.
Karanovo culture (-4000BC), for which a destruction horizon seems to
be evident, raids are becoming common
Boian neighbors west of vinca: 3500BC Late settlements also
sometimes showed signs of possible fortification in the form of deep,
wide defensive ditches.
The Cernavodă culture, ca. 4000—3200 BC, was a late Copper Age
archaeological culture.
It is characterized by defensive hilltop settlements. The pottery shares
traits with that found further east on the southern Russian steppes;
burials similarly bear a resemblance to those further east.
4000BC:
Kurgans have arrived!

9. Decline
The discontinuity of the Varna, Karanovo,
Vinča and Lengyel cultures in their main
territories and the large scale population
shifts to the north and northwest are indirect
evidence of a catastrophe of such
proportions that cannot be explained by
possible climatic change, desertification, or
epidemics. Direct evidence of the incursion of
horse-riding warriors is found, not only in
single burials of males under barrows, but in
the emergence of a whole complex of Indo-
European cultural traits.
Now they are coming for the whole of
Europe…
‘OLD EUROPE, before’:

10. Dniester and Dnieper basins
Cucuteni culture between the ages and cultures:
(ca. 4800 to 3000 BC)
After Vinca culture, adopted some proto-writing, that was some hundred years before it
reached the baby empire of the Sumer in Mesopotamia ~ 34th century B.C. True historical
records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before
Enmebaragesi (c. 26th century BC)].
Biggest settlement of its time (before Uruk peak)
Big difference to Vinca culture: Grave with a king, carrying lots of copper ornaments!
Did they steal from the Vinca, and burn their villages down?
During this time: Barter tokens common
Started dissolving ~3200BC,
later building fortifications,
keep reading for possible
explanation…
Meanwhile around the
Volga-Don basin
Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their
domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. The
clearest evidence of early use of the horse as a means of transport is
from chariot burials dated c. 2000 BCE. However, an increasing amount
of evidence supports the hypothesis that horses were domesticated in
the Eurasian Steppes approximately 4000–3500 BCE.

11. Yamna culture
In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis, the Linear Pottery
culture, as well as its neighbors and early decedents, are seen
as non-Indo-European, representing the culture of what Marija
Gimbutas termed Old Europe, the peoples of which were later to
be governed by the Indo-European-language-speaking peoples
intruding from the east, descendants of the Yamna culture. The
political relation between the aboriginal and intrusive cultures
resulted in quick and smooth cultural morphosis into Corded
Ware culture.
The same study estimated a 45-50% ancestral contribution of the
Yamna into modern Central & Northern Europeans, and a 20-30% contribution into modern
Southern Europeans [excluding Sardinians].[5] The above information makes it quite clear
that Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA), far from being aboriginal to western Europe as previously
thought, is in fact one of the two founding Y-DNA haplogroups for the Proto-Indo-European
peoples (the other being Haplogroup R1a), and that, given the present-day distribution of
R1b in Western Europe, may well be the progenitors of the Centum subgroup of Indo-
European languages.
A recent genome wide association study revealed The autosomal DNA characteristics are
very close to the Corded Ware culture and estimated a 73% ancestral contribution from the
Yamna into the Corded Ware.
They brought with them:
Mounds, graves tombs, kurgans

12. Characteristics:
funeral chambers
tombs
surface and underground constructions of different configurations
a mound of earth or stone, with or without an entrance
funeral, ritual, and other traits
the presence of an altar in the chamber
stone fence
moat
bulwark
kurgans ( -> churches , ziggurats, mastabas)
Kurgan Steles
A fragment of one was found in the earliest layer of deposition at Troy
I, and thirteen in Hakkâri, a city in the south eastern corner of Turkey.
They always hold a drinking vessel made of skin in both hands.
Cumans installed these statues on tombs of their deceased. They can
be seen as predecessors to our gravestones.

13. Kemi Oba culture
Kemi Oba culture, ca. 3700—2200 BC, an archaeological culture at the northwest face of
the Sea of Azov, the lower Bug and Dnieper Rivers and the Crimea. This was a component
of the larger Yamna horizon.
The economy was based on both stockbreeding and agriculture. It had its own distinctive
pottery, which is suggested to be more refined that that of its neighbors.
The inhumation practice was to lay the remains on its side, with the knees flexed, in pits,
stone lined cists or timber-framed graves topped with a kurgan. Of particular interest are
carved stone stelae or menhirs that also show up in secondary use in Yamna culture burials.
COMPARE WITH URUK + UPPER EGYPT Ziggurats / Mastabas
Metal objects were imported from the Maykop culture.
(Really?)
Standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery found
underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the
Beaker people. They were constructed during many different
periods across pre-history as part of a larger megalithic culture
that flourished in Europe and beyond.
Caspian
Armenia, Turkmenistan, northern Iran
Petroglyphs in Gobustan,
Azerbaijan, dating back to 10,000
BC indicating a thriving culture.
According to Parpola,[5] ceramic similarities between the Indus Civilization, southern
Turkmenistan, and northern Iran during 4300–3300 BCE of the Chalcolithic period (Copper
Age) suggest considerable mobility and trade.

14. Anatolia, Armenia (2nd) center of the
Copper Age
The Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the world's oldest securely dated evidence of
copper making at high temperature, from 5,000 BCE.
The two centers of early metallurgy: First ‘Vinca-land’ and then Caucasian Urartu?-land
Most important map
Coming pretty late to Egypt:
Egyptian weapons made from
meteoric iron were highly prized as
"daggers from heaven.”

15. Copper in Europe
Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal
itself. The European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper
axes, even with imitation "mold marks" carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman,
who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991 and whose remains were dated to
about 3300 BCE, was found with a Mondsee copper axe. What was he doing
at 3,210 metres (10,530 ft) of altitude? He could have been prospecting for
new ores of minerals.
The Mondsee group was a neolithic Austrian Pile dwelling culture spanning
the period from roughly 3800 to 2800 BC, of particular interest due to its
production of the characteristic "Mondsee-Copper" (arsenical bronze),
apparently the first in central Europe to emulate the Serbian Vinča culture.

16. Missing culture?
4200 BC the Black Sea was red hot with new innovations, the center of the world for that
time if you will. Soon later this center shifted to Mesopotamia, which raises the question:
Was there a very important intermediate culture or civilization in Anatolia/southern Caucasus
around that time?
Anything on the south shore of the Black See?
What came in between the Yamna and the Cimmerians/Scythians?
Or, why did the Yamna culture not occupy the south-eastern shores of the Black
Sea? Was there another culture occupying the gap between Mesopotamia and
the Black Sea cultures? And who was mining all this copper? Slaves? The
‘Tauric empire’?
Even if the Yamna people had the Tauric miners as slaves, wouldn’t there be tradepost-cities
on the way to Mesopotamia? Forts designated to control the centres of extraction?
Update: Answer:
Tell Zeidan (belonging to Ubaid horizon) comes at least close to ‘missing link’ between the
Black Sea and Uruk.

17. Ancestors of Sumer civilization
Ubaid
5500 - 3500 BC
Lizard figurines, WTF
Prestige Objects, stag stamps
Tell Zeidan!
Tepe Gawra
Obsession with BOATS
URIDU - First City (Eridu)
House of the Aquifer (temple):
Level Date (B.C.) Period Size (m) Note
XVIII 5300–5000 3×0.3 2.8×2.8 first cellar
XV 5000–4500 Early Ubaid 7.3×8.4
XI 4500–4000 Ubaid 4.5×12.6 first platform
VI 4000–3800 Ubaid 22×9
V 3800–3200 Early Uruk - only platform remains

18. Uruk
After its transition through northern Ubaid, the dominant
most advanced civilization south of the Black Sea became
Uruk.
Mass production (fast wheel pottery)
Stratified villages and cities with more than one 10,000 people
and temples. They dominated ‘the hills’ (taurus mountains)
and collected slaves for their monuments.
Priest king with counsel (?)
Unwalled towns, no soldiers … no threats
Uruk with 50,000 inhabitants most urbanized city of that time
Bureaucracy and inequality
Many temples and palaces
Very organized and counting system
Sheep and Fishbones, but cow very rare !? Except for figurines:
Here we see cows, but only from stone and clay!?
Much increased scale of trade relationships …
Shift from ancestor worship to worship of gods
“Mann im Netzrock” = Asar -> Ashur -> Assyria
The shekel was an
ancient unit used in
Mesopotamia around
3000 BC to define
both a specific
weight of barley and
equivalent amounts of materials such as silver, bronze and
copper.

19. Uruk: First civilization
In the sense of:
First walled city builders.
With temples and writing
The Kish tablet is inscribed with
proto-cuneiform signs. It is dated to
ca. 3500 BC (middle Uruk period)
Several thousands of proto-
cuneiform documents dating to
Uruk IV and III periods (ca.
3350-3000 BC) have been found in
Uruk.

20. Copper revolution reaching Egypt
The period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence.
Around 6000 BC, Neolithic pastoralist settlements appear all over Egypt.
Weaving is evidenced for the first time during the Faiyum A Period. People of this period,
unlike later Egyptians, buried their dead very close to, and sometimes inside, their
settlements.
From about 5000 to 4200 BC the Merimde culture flourished in Lower Egypt. The culture
has strong connections to the Faiyum A culture as well as the Levant. People lived in small
huts, produced a simple undecorated pottery and had stone tools. Cattle, sheep, goats and
pigs were held. Wheat, sorghum and barley were planted. The Merimde people buried their
dead within the settlement and produced clay figurines.
The Maadi culture (also called Buto Maadi culture) is the most important Lower Egyptian
prehistoric culture contemporary with Naqada I and II phases in Upper Egypt.
Copper was known, imported from the Northeast, and some copper adzes have been found.
The pottery is simple and undecorated and shows, in some forms, strong connections to
Southern Israel. People lived in small huts, partly dug into the ground. The dead were buried
in cemeteries, but with few burial goods. The Maadi culture was later replaced by the very
advanced pre-dynastic Naqada III culture of the Upper Nile.
This is the story of what happened in the Upper Nile (Naqada II-III)
The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt
during the Predynastic Era. It flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE.
About forty settlements and six hundred graves have been located. Social stratification
has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a
different part of the cemetery. The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture,
fishing and animal husbandry. Tools included end-scrapers, perforators, axes, bifacial sickles
and concave-base arrowheads. Remains of cattle, dogs and sheep were found in the
cemeteries. Wheat, barley, lentils and tubers were consumed.
The deceased were placed on mats and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the
South, looking West. Little is known of their buildings, although remains of wooden stumps
have been found at one site and may have been associated with a hut or shelter of unknown
construction. Pits that have been found may have served as granaries.
Badarian grave good were relatively simple and the deceased wrapped in reed matting or
animal skins and placed with personal items such as shell or stone beads. Green malachite
ore, perhaps for personal decoration, has also been detected on stone palettes.
Shells came in quantities from the Red Sea. Turquoise possibly came from Sinai; copper
from the North. These all suggest the Badarians were not an isolated tribe, but were in
contact with the cultures on all sides of them. Nor were they nomadic, having pots of such
size and fragility that would have been unsuitable for use by wanderers.
So how did the copper revolution reach Egypt? First imported from the North.
Considerable mobility and trade. But that’s not the whole story.

21. Uruk Relationship with Egypt:
Wadis as mining routes to upper Egypt colonies.
Must have come first in Naqada II ~3700BC.
First indications: very similar boats, new burial
techniques, breweries!
Later: SAME MOTIVE: Serpopard
Similar ZIGGURAT/MASTABA FACADES,
Same initial goddess / holy prostitute (harimtu Šamhat)?
No, similar Venus figurines are spread all around the
whole ecumene of agricultural neolithics!
Left: Egyptian Narmer palette, with bull crushing the lion city and serpopard in chains (see
next pages)
Right: Uruk seal with serpopard

22. Egypt, story of a Uruk colony
And its struggle for independence?
☥ The strong similarities between early Egyptian art and middle
Uruk/Elam art has long been observed. By 3500 BC Mesopotamia
can look back at a long history of continued development, whereas
in Egypt those recent changes in culture appear quite abrupt.
"It is highly improbable that such specialized techniques [decorated
artifacts, boats, grave digging, laying their dead to the west, etc.]
were independently invented in two widely separated regions at the
same historical period without cultural transmission.”
It appears much more likely that between 4000 and 3500 BC the
advanced people of Eridu were exploring their surroundings
beyond Oman, always searching for new prestige goods and
resources, especially this red-hot new copper and good old Gold.
And thanks to the ancient trade routes through the Wadis on the
coast of the Red Sea, their search was quickly rewarded.
Admittedly it is quite a journey from Eridu to Wadi Hammamet and Wadi Allaqi.
Maybe the Uruki built their first trading posts in Qus-tul, or initially controlled trade from small
coastal harbors on the Red Sea (Qus-ayre).
Note that
1) 6000 years ago those Wadis were much friendlier places, even green (Wadi Hammamet
literally means Valley of Many Baths)
2) Those wadis were full of Gold and Copper
3) According to [Zarins], The Sumerian word for shipyard/harbor/port might be Marsa,
which happens to be in the name of some coastal cities near wadis (Marsa Alam etc)
The Uruki people could look back at a history of at least thousand years of boating, possibly
even offshore sailing, importing pearls from todays Bahrein and incense from Yemen.
They might have entered the continent as powerful semi-gods, quickly gaining fame for their
technological advances and perceived magic.
Most importantly the grave finds from Qustul and Sayala contained copper hatchets, -
chisels and spearheads! Too bad that one of the two earliest centers (maybe the most
important) of Egyptian civilization are now buried underneath the artificial Nasser lake.
Anyways this story does not depend on further excavations as it is completely consistent
with Narmer defeating the counter kings upstream (later imprecisely associated with Ta Seti /
Nubians). Indeed after Narmers victory the old center becomes almost forgotten.
Which would also explain why ‘Qus’ is a bit elusive in old Egyptian history.

23. Tamer of the two beasts
One persistent myth about the new kings might have been their obsession with (hunting)
lions and their ability to control wildebeests.
Unlike previous theories, the Uruki introduced the whole technological packages to those
Nile populations not in the fist dynasty, but over a prolonged period, starting with Naqada II
around 3600BC. Before that, Egyptians had only been in contact with ‘modern civilization’,
mostly through traders, mostly from Palestine/Arabia. Even more important than
technological innovations would have been the cultural change.
Painting from
from Tomb 100
at Hierakonpolis
(c. 3.400 BC)
Below: boat seal
from Eridu
Note the beard, hat and dress from the seal of Eridu and
on the Knivehandle of Qustul!
Is they are a connection between taming animals and
later concepts of a Circus? Did they show off?
Whoever the legendary “tamer of the beast” was, he
soon managed to domesticate one of the most useful
animals: The african ass
Boat petroglyph from Wadi Hammamat:
Qus (city + hieroglyph:)
Qus-ayre =
Quseir, a Harbor city
close to Wadi Hammamat

24. The A Group revisited
Whether the colonists started in Qustul/Sayala (via Wadi Allaqi) or
whether they started near Qus/Naqada (via Wadi Hammamet) and were
subsequently pushed back further north will be left open and is not
important to our story:
What is most important is that people of the South were associated with lions, bow and
arrow, hunting and the Uruki dress. Hat and kilt and belt:
Strikingly note that at the time of Hor-Aha, the
northern alliance that is “Narmer’s” Thinis
group still didn’t use bow and arrow themselves.
Instead they had the whole of lower Egypt on
their side and clearly outnumbered the
remaining colonists. The indigenous population
of the Nile at that time might have been over one
million souls.
Their mace-head did the job for a successful
rebellion.

25. Epic struggle of pre-history
LION vs BULL
Initially the lion (Uruki) was doing well in Egypt,
In coalition with the vulture and another bird (king/city)
Does the promoted beard try to imitate
the lion’s mane?
Do those squares represent number of
people or cities per pre-nome?
3 towns left for the lion king(s)?
But finally the bull won (Egyptians represented by Narmer).
Note the similarity of the now destroyed
city with the lion city above.
What is this thing in the lion city? A
throne? A shrine? Their mastada
palace?
The Uruki arrow-men and their bird
alliance lie defeated.

26. And those three cities (Sayala, Qustul & Dakka) sure were full of bounty:
This could be the founding myth of the Egyptian state anyways.
Even after Narmers defeat of the colonists, the Egyptians preserved some memories,
for example in the form of:
* Aker two lions on the horizon
“Akeru (= 'those of the horizon', plural of aker) will not seize the pharaoh”
Representing the concept of yesterday … yes, fight was long over
“Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty,
Amenemhat I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy, the centre for her cult was moved as
well. [Kind of Jews/British in the US diaspora, regaining power?]
Sometimes the dress she wears exhibits a rosetta pattern over each breast, an ancient
leonine motif, which can be traced to shoulder-knots”
Ruti, the Egyptian word meaning two lions
Sedja, Sudja = Serpopard! (They even had a word for this?)
* Sekhmet, goddess of fire, war, vengeance, and medicine. She is depicted as a lioness,
the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians.
She was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt,
when the kingdom of Egypt was divided. (Bastet in Lower Egypt)

27. Summary of the Uruk colonies
Around 3700BC, they introduced the whole technological package of their time in
Egypt and in Indus Valley (Harappan):
Seals!
Boats!
Copper!
Temples? Palaces!
Bakeries Industrialization
Granaries
Breweries (!) Kinda Beaker cult
Myths and ceremonies
Burial rites and ‘kurgans' (adopted)
Incense ( Insect repellent! Against smell of indigenous/pilgrims, found in Qustul, from Yemen?)
Workmanship Craftsmanship? drills?
Irrigation?
Artistic carving techniques? (chisel!)
Mud-brick houses ( technology transfer from Mehrgarh Harappa to+via Uruk)
Proto-writing? (Initially only seals = iconography of ownership)
It will be most interesting to see if those skeletons from Qustul show DNA from Eridu in their
bone marrow!
Why did, in our model, those influences come through the Red Sea and not through the
Mediterranean? This is indicated by the fact that the Lower Egyptian Maadi culture was less
advanced. Plus the strong cultural links to Mesopotamia in art and architecture!
Even though the cultures quickly diverged, it seams obvious that they were built on the same
foundations:

28. Wild speculations
Is this historical struggle ‘Lion vs Bull’ represented in the early
versions of the ancient Gilgamesh epos? Even though it became
twisted over time, we can still recognize elements that point to
Egypt in the 2000BC version:
Humbaba, the rumored monster behind the cedar forest (continuous struggles in Canaan?)
Mountain in the plain with long tunnel.
References to eternal life and Boat of the West.
Friend from the wilderness, seduced by prostitute, rejecting Inanna, killed by ‘gods’
Careful: the later Assyrian version contains Inanna bashing!
Ambiguous bull motive, but often ridiculed.
Crossing of ocean
If the snared bird returns to its nest, if the captive man returns to his mother's arms, then you my
friend will never return to the city where the mother is waiting who gave you birth.
Twisting of the bull motive ( after all they wanted to conceal their defeat )
I seized hold of a wild bull in the wilderness. It bellowed and beat up the dust till the whole sky was
dark, my arm was seized and my tongue bitten. I fell back on' my knee; then someone refreshed me
with water from his water-skin.'
Enkidu said, ‘Dear friend, the god to whom we are travelling is no wild bull, though his form is
mysterious. That wild bull which you saw is Shamash the Protector’
Institutionalized temple sex? Female+mountain=(sex)slave
Gilgamesh: jus primae noctis abolished!
We must differentiate between the bull and the mother cow goddess.
The later has much deeper roots:
By the 6th millennium BC, evidence of a prehistoric religion or cult appears, with a number of
sacrificed cattle buried in stone-roofed chambers lined with clay. It has been suggested that
the associated cattle cult indicated in Nabta Playa marks an early evolution of Ancient
Egypt's Hathor cult. For example, Hathor was worshipped as a nighttime protector in desert
regions. “... there are many aspects of political and ceremonial life in the Predynastic and
Old Kingdom that reflects a strong impact from Saharan cattle pastoralists … “
The holy cow reached cultures 2000 years earlier than the copper revolution.

29. Random nonsensical speculations
Did the people of Uruk have a trade post / colony in Abyssinia (Punt)?
Similar to Stonehenge, those newly built temples on the Nile were also likely gathering
points for pilgrims searching for a healer, local medical centers of their time.
Naqada I could be the time before the arrival of Uruki colonists, when indirect trade routes to
lands beyond the Red Sea were forming.
Ankh, Holy symbol of Egypt, representing eternal life(?), not well explained yet.
To this day, the ankh is also used to represent the planet Venus,
(the goddess Venus) and the metal copper.
Did it all start with this Uruki cult of a naked lady:
Actually Venus figurines are much older than this, but maybe those
copper diggers and gravediggers from Romania/Eurasia/Anatolia
reignited an old tradition and used it in a new way: to bring people to
their temples. To bring copper to their temples.
Sex is power, Amun.
The rebellion started in Hieraknpolis
Priestdom started in Göbekli Tepe
Institutionalized vanity
One of the first uses of the freshly introduced copper was: The mirror! Egyptians are well
known for their black eyeliner and from what we can see this goes back to the very
beginnings.
One of the reasons why we see so few copper artifacts is that it was so precious that it was
constantly recycled. Yet it was not holy enough to be placed into the tombs, or stolen
alongside the gold long time ago.
The cosmetic palettes of middle to late predynastic Egypt are archaeological artefacts,
originally used to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative
palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became
commemorative, ornamental, and possibly ceremonial. They were made almost exclusively
out of siltstone. The siltstone originated from quarries in the Wadi Hammamat. Many of the
palettes were found at Hierakonpolis, a centre of power in pre-dynastic Upper Egypt. After
the unification of the country, the palettes ceased to be included in tomb assemblages.

30. On some symbols
If the Serpopard on the Narmer palette should somehow signify the Uruki dynasty, it’s quite
possible that the Egyptians tried to ridicule their symbol. Surely they knew the difference
between Giraffes and long necked Lions? But did the Sumerians know it when they arrived?
Alternatively the artists somehow tried to consolidate the ‘lion’ predicate of the colonists
with their ‘land of the two rivers’ (Euphrates and Tigris [not etymologically related to lion]).
In the time and land of confusion, Egyptians probably quickly adopted this label for their
own country.
Whatever the necks of the Serpopard originally meant, they were now curtailed by Narmer.
If the Rosetta is a power sign of the northern lion dynasty, than its owner is possibly being
ridiculed on the Narmer palette: By degrading him to the position of sandal-bearer and foot-
washer.
Makes little sense as this motive also appears in earlier
pictograms. Unless they had a longer tradition of abusing
the prisoners from the North as sandal bearers. Also if this
tradition was initially degrading it lost its negative
connotations in later epochs. [proof?]
Are those seven cities from the city palette mystically
linked to the (early version of) seven sages? By
associating Narmer with a catfish, did the Narmer
foundation myth built on an older myth, that the first cities
were created by Fishman? (see even Ubaid)
Is the (usually seven leaved) Rosetta a symbol for the
seven sages?
Is the Palm tree between the giraffes/serpopards the tree of wisdom?
In this reading Narmer wearing the crown of the South could also mean that he was leading
this unwilling? alliance of the South against the ‘Nubian’ colonists in Qustul.

31. Nonsensical speculations:
Other cultural remnants of the A group (Sayala, Qustul & Dakka)
Dakka, dedicated to Thoth, the god of wisdom.
Thoth God of Knowledge, fittingly arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the
system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead. <- Enki
Depicting Thoth as Ibis likely was a later misconception, is the initial bird next to the tree of
knowledge looked like this:
Also see the bird in alliance with lion above.
Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the three epic battles between good and
evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods. The first
battle took place between Ra and Apep. (Apep was the ancient Egyptian deity who
embodied chaos. He appears in art as a giant serpent. [see serpopard]
Tree of knowledge and writing also associated with Knot and panthera: Seshat
Temple of Maharraqa was originally situated here and dedicated to the Egyptian gods Isis
Why didn’t the colonists bring Uruki writing with them?
Maybe they just came is a bit before porto-writing really took off.
Maybe those explorers were just not amongst the most literate.
However, they did bring primitive seals.
How come then that Egypt is not clearly attested as an important trading partner in Sumerian
texts? Maybe after their defeat the Sumerians had to search for different colonies (like
Harappan) and Egypt lost its importance before the invention of writing proper.
Maybe the name Magan meant “trading partners of the Western Sea”, as opposed to
“trading partners of the eastern sea” (aka Meluhha/Harappan), who set their sails at different
times of the year. Maybe after the victory of the Egypt the pharaohs controlled all resources
and there was just not much trade going from Egypt to Sumeria.
After the Thinis king(s) defeated the old colonists, the Urukis have faced a crisis and the old
places were forgotten and names shifted. Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC)
Did the Uruki really carry their boats through the desert or just the idea from their coastal
trade posts. It doesn't really matter, it is still obvious that it was them who brought the new
technological package to Egypt. But again maybe those Wadis contained some water at this
time a maybe the reed boats were not as heavy as one might think.
Is it a coincidence that seven is the magic number of Sumeri and the number of leaves on
the Rosetta power sign? Caution: the number was not always 7, and it became 8 afterwards

32. Building of the Aswan dam a deliberate political act?
In any case it creates an excavational bias.
Someone dig on the coast of the red sea and do DNA analysis of the bone-marrow.
Does the Egyptians false beard stem from envy of their Sumerian adversaries real beards?
The Ankh sign originally had two stems:
In those times the concept of DIĜIR / EN might have been the same as the Rosetta
The sign in Sumerian cuneiform (DIĜIR !) by itself represents the Sumerian word an
("sky" or "heaven") the ideogram for An or the word diĝir (“god")
EN !,the Sumerian cuneiform for "lord" or “priest"
Note that the eighth leaf was also added in Egyptian culture.
If nothing else this shows that cultures and religions were constantly stealing from each other.
Keep in mind that those gods and their attributes were constantly shifting but many can be
traced back:
* Hathor (cow goddess of miners, foreign lands, beauty etc) <- Inanna/Ishtar ~> Isis??
* Osiris <- Asar/Enki/An/Anum/Abzu -> Ashur
* Anum -> Amun etc
Horus as Gegengott
Counterweight against the induced Uruki gods, similar to Christianity in Rome
Probably most important ideological center for the rebellion:
Hierakonpolis, one of the mega-centers of its time, was also located near a Wadi:
Wadi Baramiya, which happens to be also full of boat petroglyphs.

33. First Dynasty in uniting Egypt
Before the reign of Narmer, the local rulers of Thinis, located near Abydos in Upper Egypt,
already appear to have had large parts of the country, including at least parts of the Nile
delta, under their control.
Even if Narmer was a real person he was also a symbol and projection of the continuous
struggle for independence, which likely lasted some generations.
Despite of the many similarities between Egyptian and Uruki/Elam arts and culture there are
consistent discrepancies. Which might not come as a surprise considering that the
homeland of those new colonists or their ancestors was a very long journey away.
Most settlers from Uruk probably never went back.
Narmer's name has also been found in Syria-Palestine
Narmer the catfish
Two pits found at Umm el-Qa’ab, near Narmer’s own modest tomb,
refer to Horus Ka and Horus ‘Mouth’ (or Iri-Hor) whose names have
also been found in Lower Egypt.
Maybe the above story of the Egyptian independence war is off by a
few generations and the struggle really ended after the first Dynasty:
Hotepsekhemwy's full name may be read as "the two powers are
reconciled"

34. “A very great calamity befell Egypt during the reign of Semerkhet.” Maybe Urukis striking
back?
Qa'a was the last king who appears to have had several of his retainers buried with him, a
practice that seems to have been introduced during the earlier part of the 1st Dynasty by
Aha.
^^ intermediate culture dynasty!
That Qa'a's reign marked the end of an era is also shown by the move of the burial grounds
of his successors from Umm el-Qa'ab in Middle Egypt to Saqqara, near Memphis
Hotepsekhemwi, meaning "the two powerful ones are at peace", is sometimes interpreted
as an indication that this king reunited a divided country OR it marked the end of the
independence war OR some inner conflict!
North+South OR Egypt+Uruk OR Horus+Seth
Writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period (31st to 30th centuries BC). A
similar development took place in the genesis of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Various scholars
believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and ...
probably [were] ... invented under the influence of the latter ...
PROBLEMS:
This story is somewhat depends on the “tamer of the beast” with
advanced bow and arrow techniques. However arrowheads existed
in Egypt long before the Uruki:
Similarity the domestication of the donkey has to be excluded from
the story.
Despite of the apparent connections to Mesopotamia it’s also
possible that most inventions were imported from the Levante and
Uruk only had some settlers / trading posts / cult centers in Egypt,
without dominating politics.

35. Uruk-Expansion
Uruk colonies or influence in the North, East and West
Habuba Kabira
Tell Hamoukar, eine weitere urbane Ansiedlung, liegt in der Nähe von Tell Brak. Die
dortigen Ausgrabungen finden seit 1999 statt. Bisherige Forschungsergebnisse deuten auf
eine Siedlungsausdehnung von bis zu 750 Hektar hin, die sogar Uruk deutlich übertreffen
würde. Innerhalb Tell Hamoukars lag möglicherweise eine Uruk-Kolonie. Bekannt wurde der
Fundort jedoch vor allem für archäologische Hinweise auf eine organisierte
Gewaltausübung. Damit handelte es sich hierbei um den ältesten bekannten
Kriegsschauplatz der Menschheit.
Bridge to Black sea
Update: The missing link between the Black Sea Revolution and the Uruk state can be found
in the Upper Ubaid cultures near Anatolia. This pre-civilization should probably get its own
name: Urartu (Aratta als ein Vorläufer des Urartu-Staates angesehen und in das von Mesopotamien aus gesehen nördliche
Hochland im heutigen Armenien, Aserbaidschan, Iran und der Türkei verlegt. Demnach wäre Aratta ein sehr früher Flächenstaat gewesen.)
Urukis already invented and imported all the necessary Technologies. They already had
temples and social stratification. Maybe some Yamna traders brought them the horse and
maybe some old Cucuteni folks brought ox-carts to them, but they were the first to develop
the Vinca idea of symbols into full writing.
Unclassified but probably important:
Horse in Ubaid??

36. Summary: 4000-3000 BC
Metal-Mobility industrial revolution ignited
Widespread use of copper, wheel, weaving->sail, plough, climaxing in horse and bronze
age
The real importance of the metal is not utilitarian but social
Really? axe for tree cutting -> ships + ploughs mass production
Knives, copper pitchforks for …
Igniting trade, ox-powered-agriculture, elites, war and
civilizations
Big Changes
Starting around 3200 finishing 2800 BC changes were
happening all around in Europe and the near east:
In Mesopotamia The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) ended
Rise of the Sumer civilization (2900BC-2300BC) after 200 year recovery?
Trade tokens + seals developing into money and proper writing

37. The First Dynasty of Egypt appeared.
Importing idea of writing and ziggurats and priest/kingship from Sumer
Quickly followed by
Elamite kingdom in Iran/Persia
Indus Valley civilization
probably ignited by Uruk civilization, starting as colony, similar to Egypt?
Harappan skipping copper age
remarkably egalitarian, aryans haven’t arrived yet
trade contacts extended to Crete and possibly to Egypt
Minoan civilization in its infancy
Europe transformed:
Late to the party
The Corded Ware culture
Funnelbeaker culture had collective megalithic graves
with a great deal of sacrifices to the graves, but the
Battle Axe culture has individual graves with individual
sacrifices.
Middle Europe c. 2900–2450/2350BC

38. PART II
Cultural Export 3000BC to West Europe
Corded Ware Beakers and vessels
Single Grave (mound or tumuli graves already existed for millenia)
Battle Axes primarily a status object. There are strong continuities in stone craft traditions,
and very little evidence of any type of full-scale migration, least of all a violent one
Ox wagons of central-east european corded ware uncles replaced by Horse wagons!!
Horse riding (exclusive to elite)
Metal: Copper, very soon bronze
Stone Stele (not a new invention, but a reintroduction, through a long line from Göbekli
Tepe))
inhumation under tumulus with various artifacts (notably battle-axes).
ancestral to the Celts, Germanic peoples, Balts and Slavs
The cultural emphasis on drinking equipment already characteristic of the early
Funnelbeaker culture, reappeared with the spread of Corded Ware traditions
In the western regions this revolution has been proposed to be a quick, smooth and internal
change that occurred at the preceding Funnelbeaker culture, having its origin in the direction
of eastern Germany.[7] Whereas in the area of the present Baltic states and Kaliningrad
Oblast (former East Prussia), it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion
of the Narva culture.
some evidence of sedentary farming emerged. Traces of Emmer wheat, bread wheat and
barley were found at a Corded Ware site at Bronocice in south-east Poland. Wheeled

39. vehicles (presumably drawn by oxen) are in evidence, a continuation from the Funnelbeaker
culture era.[3]
Changes in slaughter age and animal size are possibly evidence for
sheep being kept for their wool at Corded Ware sites in this region.[8]
Inhumation occurred in flat graves or below small tumuli in a flexed
position; on the continent males lay on their right side, females on the
left, with the faces of both oriented to the south. However, in Sweden
and also parts of northern Poland the graves were oriented north-
south, men lay on their left side and women on the right side - both
facing east. Originally, there was probably a wooden construction,
since the graves are often positioned in a line. This is in contrast with
practices in Denmark where the dead were buried below small
mounds with a vertical stratigraphy: the oldest below the ground, the
second above this grave, and occasionally even a third burial above
those. Other types of burials are the niche-graves of Poland. Grave
goods for men typically included a stone battle-axe. Pottery in the
shape of beakers and other types are the most common burial gifts,
generally speaking. These were often decorated with cord, sometimes
with incisions and other types of impressions.
The approximately contemporary Beaker culture had similar burial
traditions, and together they covered most of Western and Central Europe. While broadly
related to the Corded Ware culture.
The contemporary Beaker culture overlapped with the western extremity of this culture, west
of the Elbe, and may have contributed to the pan-European spread of that culture. Although
a similar social organization and settlement pattern to the Beaker were adopted, the Corded
Ware group lacked the new refinements made possible through trade and communication by
sea and rivers.
Einar Østmo reports sites inside the Arctic Circle in the Lofoten Islands, and as far north as
the present city of Tromsø.
The Middle Dnieper culture has very scant remains, but occupies the easiest route into
Central and Northern Europe from the steppe.
Beaker
Contemporary

40. With some notable exceptions, most Iberian early Bell Beaker burials are
at or near the coastal regions
2900 BC and 2500 BC
The Mount Pleasant Period is a phase of the later Neolithic in Britain
dating to between c. 2750 BC and 2000 BC. Metalworking, initially using
copper and gold but with bronze working appearing at the end.
There is proof for the use of those beakers for funeral purposes (urns) as well as for alcohol
consumption, possibly going hand-in-hand. Three millennia later at the arrival off the
romance it will still custom to sit around in stone circles and get drunk (in Ting assemblies).
Updated Kurgan
Original:
Map of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000
to 1000 BC based on Kurgan model. The red
area corresponds to the area that may have been
settled by Indo-European-speaking peoples up to
ca. 2500 BC, and the orange area by 1000 BC.
Issue
In places a continuity between Funnelbeaker and
Corded Ware can be demonstrated, whereas in other
areas Corded Ware heralds a new culture and physical
type.
As the beaker culture shows many common threats with
the newly arrived Corded Ware culture of Central Europe
and by extension with the Yamna culture of the steppes,
the following theory is imminent:

41. The invention of horse riding promoted a change in the whole sphere of Europe and West
Asia, that spread like wildfire, probably literally: wooden cities would have been burned and
sacked, much like in the millennia to follow.
Either some of those Riders reached the far end of Gibraltar themselves, following main
trade routes and beaches, or the shock wave of the new culture was forwarded via ships, as
in the case of England, Elba and Sicily.
Spread
In the context of the entry of Germanic into the region, Einar Østmo emphasizes that the
Atlantic and North Sea coastal regions of Scandinavia, and the circum-Baltic areas were
united by a vigorous maritime economy, permitting a far wider geographical spread and a
closer cultural unity than interior continental cultures could attain. He points to the widely
disseminated number of rock carvings assigned to this era, which display "thousands" of
ships. To seafaring cultures like this one, the sea is a highway and not a divider.
Idea of religious/noble elite spreading like wildfire (kurgans not first, but professionalized)?
Impact on Mesopotamia:
A few commentators have associated the end of the Uruk period with the climate changes
linked to the Piora Oscillation, an abrupt cold and wet period in the climate history of the
Holocene Epoch, other explanation is the arrival of the East Semitic tribes represented by
the Kish civilization.
Here I suggest, that the kurgan riding hordes of the north (coming from the Tauric
mountains, home of the mystical fire-spitting dragon ‘Kur’) were bringing destruction to the
uruk civilization, giving rise to the newly fortified Sumer civilization … which fortunately
through some pathway rescued the old ‘Danubian’ invention of proto-writing a millennium
before and handed this flame to the pharaohs, indians and greeks.
Impact on Greece:
Early Helladic period (2650–2050/2000 BC) such as bronze metallurgy, monumental
architecture and fortifications
Image of men on horses mistaken for (or inspiring) Minotaurs.
Kumtepe is the oldest permanent settlement in the Troas, the region in northwestern
Anatolia, where later Troy was built. Kumtepe has four layers, Kumtepe IA, IB, IC and II. The
last two have been largely disturbed in the twentieth century. The remaining and relatively
undisturbed IA and IB are of special interest to the archaeologists, because these are older
than other settlements in the region.
Around 4800 BC the first settlement in Kumtepe was founded. The inhabitants lived on
fishing, and their diet included oysters. The dead were buried, but without grave gifts.

42. Although Kumtepe belongs to Neolithic, the occupants used also copper. Around 4500 BC
the settlement was abandoned.
Around 3700 BC new settlers came to Kumtepe. The people of this new culture, Kumtepe B,
built relatively large houses with multiple rooms, sometimes a porch. They also practiced
animal husbandry and agriculture. The main domestic animals were goats and sheep, bred
not only for meat but for milk and wool as well. They knew lead and bronze along with
copper. Shortly after 3000 BC Yassıtepe (Izmir) and Hisarlık (Troy) were colonized probably
from Kumtepe.
Troy I–V
The first city on the site was founded in the 3rd millennium BC. During the Bronze Age, the
site seems to have been a flourishing mercantile city, since its location allowed for complete
control of the Dardanelles, through which every merchant ship from the Aegean Sea heading
for the Black Sea had to pass.
İzmir.
The city is one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin. The 2004 discovery of Yeşilova Höyük and
the neighboring Yassıtepe, situated in the small delta of Meles River, now the plain of Bornova, reset the starting
date of the city's past further back than was previously thought. The findings of the two seasons of excavations
carried out in the Yeşilova Höyük by a team of archaeologists from İzmir's Ege University indicate three levels,
two of which are prehistoric. Level 2 bears traces of early to mid-Chalcolithic, and Level 3 of Neolithic
settlements. These two levels would have been inhabited by the indigenous peoples of the area, very roughly,
between 7th millennium BC to 4th millennium BC. With the seashore drawing away in time, the site was later
used as a cemetery. Several graves containing artifacts dating, roughly, from 3000 BC, contemporary with the
first city of Troy, were found.[13]
Shall we search further east?
Hattians were living in inner Anatolia till 2000BC and they did not speak Indo-European.
They remained in the prehistoric period until it entered the sphere of influence of the
Akkadian Empire in the 24th century.
While Anatolia was well endowed with copper ores, there was no evidence of substantial
workings of the tin required to make bronze in Bronze-Age Anatolia.
There we go!
2500 - 2000 BCE Hittites influence Minoan culture of Crete (3400 to 2200 BC)
Who was living in Corduene, a fertile mountainous district, rich in pasturage?
3200-2500BC: Too late, but note the name of:
Kura-Araxes culture
Some, but not all, settlements were surrounded by stone walls.
At some point the culture's settlements and burial grounds expanded out of lowland river
valleys and into highland areas.[7] Although some scholars have suggested that this
expansion demonstrates a switch from agriculture to pastoralism, and that it serves as
possible proof of a large-scale arrival of Indo-Europeans, facts such as that settlement in the

43. lowlands remained more or less continuous suggest merely that the people of this culture
were diversifying their economy to encompass both crop and livestock agriculture.
Pottery, ochre-coloured ceramics, earthen hearth props with horn projections, flint
arrowheads, stone axes and copper pitchforks.
In its earliest phase, metal was scant, but it would later display "a precocious metallurgical
development”.
Structures within settlements have not revealed much differentiation, nor was there much
difference in size or character between settlements,[3] facts that suggest they probably had
a poorly developed social hierarchy. Really? Kurgans of greatly varying sizes, containing
greatly varying amounts and types of metalwork.
Their metal goods were widely distributed, recorded in the Volga, Dnieper and Don-Donets
systems in the north, into Syria and Palestine in the south, and west into Anatolia. Via trade,
or via extraction? Its southern expanse is attributable primarily to Mitanni and the Hurrians.
Inhumation practices are mixed. Flat graves are found, but so are substantial kurgan burials.
They are also remarkable for the production of wheeled vehicles (wagons and carts),
which were sometimes included in burial kurgans.
There we go: They were dominated by northern Yamna culture! They acted as trade-post
people between the rich Black Sea tribes and Mesopotamia. Lucky for the Sumers. Through
this buffer they were protected from Yamna raiders (after 3000BC). Or were they … ?
Urkesh - Hurrians
They spoke a Hurro-Urartian language
called Hurrian. Another buffer between
Uruki and Yamner Kurgans.

44. There is evidence that they were initially allied with the east Semitic Akkadian Empire of
Mesopotamia, indicating they had a firm hold on the area.
Impact on Egypt:
Many millennia later Marco Polo reported that Southern Kingdoms still tried hard to import
horses but they keep dying of the climate. Thus Egypt and southern India had to stick with
mules.
Scythians
Fast forward 2000 years later, 900BC - 400AD
Grand children of our common ancestor Yamna culture:
Big Cities of wood
Red or blonde hair blue or green eyes
Living in Crimea and around northern Black Sea shore:
Scythian 5th to 4th century BC kurgan
Compare to ‘our’ grave-mounds, but their stele later evolved into obelisks with faces:
Update, so do the celts:

45. Genetics
DNA of first peasants not our ancestors
Monolithic settlers are 50%
I2b black hair elite (saxons)
R-L21 red hair elite (angles)
I2a ur-elite (3000BC?)
I1 blondes - ancient?
R1b old cow herders (black/brown hair)
R1a new cow herders (brown/black hair)
J2 island/costal ‘Troyans’
G mainland greek? ‘Aryan’ ? lost caucasian empire?
E Vinca remnants?
E-M81 Barbers
N Siberian barbarians ;)
G eastern greek settlements: ?

46. The eastern branch
Proto-Indo-Iranian
The word Iran is the Persian word for land/place of the Aryans

47. Notes, speculation and fun
This revolution did not stop in Europe/Asia/Egypt:
Near simultaneous arrival of the whole bronze age technology package in America:
Writing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_writing_systems)
Metallurgy (gold artifacts in the Andean region 2155–1936 BCE)
Statues
Pyramids (Olmec 1600–1500 BCE)
Strongly suggesting that Near Eastern ships reached America either by exploring or
unplanned through a storm (likely one-way-only journey). At the very least they were inspired
by artifacts showing up on beaches.
Volksetymologie ;)
Kurgan -> Cyrtians -> Kurds -> Kurmanj, Kalhur, and Guran
Kurds -> Kura-Araxes culture (“Kurga-Xerxes” ;)
Kurgans -> Khurgans -> Hurrians , Hussians -> Huns , Hussars -> Zar
Kurgan -> Khurgan -> Khurja -> Church, Kirche, Kurie
Kurgan -> kwrt- used in Middle Persian as a noun to refer to "nomads" or “tent-dwellers" ->
Kurgan -> Kurd (Sumerian as Kar-da) -> Cord, Corded ware (->Corduene)
Kur/Kurs = cities -> name of egyptian colonial cities Qus (Qua-ayre)
K’ur -> Urartu -> Uruk
Median Empire 1000BC - 549BC
The people of Gorduene were known to have worshipped the Hurrian sky God Teshub.
Teshub god of storm -> Hittite root *tarh- "to defeat, conquer” -> Thor = Zeus -> thur ->
thunder
Teshub holding a weapon, usually an axe -> axe graves
Thor -> Celtic Taranis, Hindu Indra (red hair and thunderbolt ) -> India
accepted today as ultimately derived from a Proto-Indo-European deity
Indian language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian
(24%)
Tauris=Crimea
Tauris->Thor-people , Ox-people
Tauris->Minotaurs (men-horses)
Tauris->Tauric mountains (Sumer: ‘north people’)

48. kurgan riding hordes of the north (coming from the Tauric mountains, home of the mystical
fire-spitting dragon ‘Kur’)
Thor-men -> *tarh-men -> Germans, Hermans, t’Armenians ?
German: “Du Tor” (derogative for diehard unreformable)
Taurian->Dacian->Thracian
Tauris=Crimea <- Tauric empire <- Tyras , Tyras river?
Tyras (Τύρας), is from Scythian tūra, meaning "rapid."[citation needed] The names of the
Don and Danube are also from the same Proto Indo-European word *dānu - river.
caucasian myths (prometheus brought fire to mankind)
Prometheus tricks Zeus into eternally claiming the inedible parts of cows and bulls for the
sacrificial ceremonies of the gods, while conceding the nourishing parts to humans for the
eternal benefit of humankind. theft of fire, Talaus was the king of Argos and one of the
Argonauts.
*tarh -> Thor = Zeus -> theus
Stone circle assemblies
Eridu first city urqus ~> urukus, qus, kush
(Hittite belonged to IndoEuropean language family, Kurds to north IndoIranian)
Kurgan -> Ziggurat
Amun,Ammon->Amen
Ramses-> Ra’moses -> Moses
Herrscher -> Arxer -> Axt (Grabbeigabe)
Archer -> Arxer -> Herrscher (just kidding)
Xerxes=Ar’cherchis=Herrscher der Herrscher
Grab -> Grave culture -> feudale Graf ‘Religion’?
Coward = Cow ward (duck)
Trade on steroids?
Graf/Count (CowBell - Beaker cult)
Beer, Med, Smithdom
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