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Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Kindling of Ancient Memory


A Kindling of Ancient Memory (A' beothachadh na cuimhne aosda)

Alice C. Linsley


I've been corresponding with a descendant of the Ainu/Anu people who migrated thousands of years ago to Newfoundland and Labrador and to the eastern coast of Canada. My correspondent's native name is Sea’Key (the ’ is a little click made with the tongue.) His name means White Salmon with a Heart of Gold.  He has been very generous with his time, sharing many accounts of his people's history.

He writes, "We are called MicMac now but early we were called the Beothique by the French and Beothuck by the English. Our people are said to be extinct, but we just left when the shooting started. A few 100 French did not wipe out 10,000’s of natives. It is said we migrated in 2 waves to Nova Scotia and Labrador."

MicMac or Mi’kmaq means friend. It may be derived from an early word Nikmaq, meaning kin-friend, but most Micmac (Mikmaq) refer to themselves as L’nuk, meaning the people.

The early name of the territory of Sea'Key's people was Khan O Dan, or Can a dan, which became "Canadian" to the French. Sea'Kay reports that according to the oral tradition of his people, they came in two waves from the Middle East to Scandinavia, then to Greenland and to the Hudson Bay area of Eastern Canada. This places him in Haplogroup X2b5, which traces the maternal line (Mitochondrial DNA).

This is a different route of migration than that taken by other Old World peoples coming to North America across Eurasia and the Bering Strait. If Sea'Key is correct that his clans are in mtDNA haplogroup X, there no no genetic trail across Eurasia. The dispersion of Haplogroup X is shown below. The greatest concentrations are indicated by the darker shade. MtDNA traces lineage by the mitochondria, received from mothers.




The heaviest concentration of mtDNA haplogroup X is in Eastern Canada which is where Sea’Kay lives. The estimate is upwards of 55% in some tribes and averages at around 25%. The next highest concentration, about 40%, is found in the Druze of the Middle East.

Only 7% of the Dene (Navajo) are in Haplogroup X. Their language has been connected to Ket, a Yeniseic language spoken by a very small Siberian population. However, Haplogroup X is virtually non-existent in Siberia, the land route to North America proposed by some anthropologists. According to Sea'Key, the MicMac did not come that way. They came along the coastal route through the British Isles to Finland and Greenland and on to Labrador and the eastern seaboard of Canada.

The genetic sequences of Haplogroup X diverged from Haplogroup N which originated in the region of the Lower Nile. Haplogroup X diverged further about 30,000 years ago with two sub-groups X1 and X2 now identified. Overall Haplogroup X accounts for about 2% of the population of Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.

Sub-group X1 is restricted to North and East Africa, and also the Near East. Sub-group X2 appears to have undergone population expansion and dispersal after the last glacial maximum, between 21,000 and 18,000 years ago. Sub-group X1 is more strongly present in the Near East, the Caucasus, and Mediterranean Europe. There are concentrations of sub-group X2 in Georgia (8%), the Orkney Islands (7%) and among the Israeli Druze (27%), most of whom live in Galilee.


The Paternal Line: Y-DNA

The Ainu of Japan appear to have a point of origin in Africa before 70,000 years ago. The Asia-Africa connection is found in Y-DNA Haplogroup DE. DE is unique because it is distributed in several geographically distinct clusters. Immediate subclade, Haplogroup D, is normally found only in eastern Asia, and the other immediate subclade, Haplogroup E, is common in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.


Common symbols and scripts

Micmac symbols suggest a point of origin in the Nile Valley. Studies of the Ainu Micmac hieroglyphics makes it clear that their ancestors traveled across the great oceans.



As Sea'Key called to my attention, there is also a correlation between the old Hebrew alphabet and the Ainu alphabet in Japan. Both appear to be based on a common older writing system.


According to the Greenland Saga, Sea'Kay's ancestors used bows and arrows. These weapons characterized the Ainu of the Nile whose land was called Ta-Seti which means "land of the bow."  There is a relation to the name of the ruler Seth and to the name of the sixteenth division of priests based in Nazareth, the division of Hapi-tsets.

Nyland (2001) found that many names of places and common objects in Hebrew are closely related to the Saharan proto-languages, the languages spoken by Abraham's Kushite ancestors.

In ancient Egyptian tera-ntr refers to a ruler-priest and among the Ainu tera means priest. The Ainu word for water is aka, which corresponds to asta, the Old Nubian word for water.


Movement out of Africa

The Ainu migrations are not shown on the Bradshaw Foundation maps of migration out of East Africa. However, the Ainu are at the center of Cavalli-Szforza's Genetic Distance Chart, which is what would be expected of an archaic population.

The mating structure of the Ainu rulers appears to be similar to the structure of the Horites who were also red, according to Genesis 36.  Abraham's father is associated with the Nilotic Annu and he was a Horite. The dispersion of the Ainu can be explained in part by their marriage and ascendancy pattern whereby younger sons were sent away to establish territories for themselves.

The Horites named in Genesis 36 called their land Edom, which means red. David, one of their descendants, is said to have had a red skin tone. The red skin tone was enhanced by exposure to the sun. The red tone represented the ruler as the servant of Ra, whose emblem was the sun. The queen made herself white to represent the moon.

The Ainu appear among the ancient Kushites who were explorers and kingdom builders. Their migration out of the Nile region has been confirmed through DNA and migration studies. Though we first meet Abraham in Mesopotamia (Gen. 12), he is a descendant of Nimrod, the son of Kush (Gen. 10:8), who built a kingdom the length of the Euphrates.

Among the Kushites there was a caste of ruler-priests known as Horites. They are called "Horites" because they were devotees of Hor (Horus in Greek). The oldest temples dedicated to Horus have been located in modern-day Sudan at Nekhen. From here the Horites spread their religion across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. This extended from present-day Benin to India, China and Cambodia.  There is little doubt that ancient Nilotic peoples, including the Annu, were masterful seamen and traveled widely. It is also evident that they didn't all migrate the same direction or at the same time.

Kushites, Egyptians and other Nilotic peoples varied in appearance. Eye colors included blue, gray, green and brown, and some men wore full beards while others were beardless. The typical Egyptian and the Beja had a reddish skin tone. Nubians ranged from black to red. Red and black Nubians are shown on ancient Egyptian monuments such as Ramesses' Great Temple at As.


Detail from a Ippolito Rosellini painting 
done during the Franco-Italian Expedition to Egypt in 1828


Africans exhibit great genetic diversity even today.


This is how Sea’Key describes his people: "We have beards and green eyes and we are very tall, between 6’ and 6’6”." Here is a photo of one of his ancestors (shown left).

The Ainu were the first settlers of Japan. They were said to appear more Caucasian than Asian. In literature they are often referred to as the "hairy Ainu."

On the right is an image of an Ainu elder from Hokkaido Japan. Compare to the photo of one Sea'Kay's ancestor. Note the similar robes and almost identical headdresses. Note also the reddish skin tone of these Ainu elders. 

It appears that the Ainu moved out of the Nile Valley in multiple waves and migrated in different directions. They were seafarers, explorers, warriors and kingdom builders. There are Ainu in China.

The Ainu were among the aboriginal peoples of the Nile Valley and the rulers of many of the river shrines. One of their cities was the prestigious shrine city call iunu - meaning "pillared place" and known as "On" in the Bible. The Greeks called it City of the Sun (Heliopolis). The pyramids at Giza, Saqqara and Abusir were aligned to the great obelisk (pillar) at Heliopolis.

19 comments:

Alice C. Linsley said...

An ancient Egyptian inscription has been found near the Rio Grande River in Texas. The inscription states than an Egyptian king by the name of Shishonq visited North America. The inscription states, “A crew of Shishonq the king took shelter in this place of concealment.”

Several kings of this name ruled Egypt and Libya between 1000 and 800 B.C. The Bible mentions a king named “Shishak” or “Shishonq” who invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah during the reign of Rehoboam (Solomon's son). Shishak plundered the Temple in Jerusalem (I Kings 14:25-26).

Alice C. Linsley said...

Yes, I should have written oldest mummy.

There isn't enough evidence to link this mummy to the Ainu. For one thing, not all Ainu performed mummification.

My research involves the structure of Abraham's ruler-priest ancestors. I believe that the marriage, mating and ascendency structure that I have identified is a deep structure, but I have only traced it to about 4000 B.C. The structure involves sent-away younger sons, which appears to have characterized Sea'Kay's Ainu ancestors, according to his research.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Alice. Based on current research, it indeed is only a tentative connection between the mummy and the Ainu, but I haven't seen much consideration about the Ainu in America, so your blog post was of special interest. I don't think Spirit Cave Man was intentionally mummified when buried, but the conditions inside the cave preserved his body (he was wrapped in animal skin and partially covered with a woven reed mat; the lower part of the body decomposed). Sorry for my anonymity. I want to be sensitive to the relationship between my employer and tribal members.

In any case, I very much appreciate your fascinating research on Abraham and his ancestors. Keep up the good work.

Alice C. Linsley said...

I fully understand and I appreciate your comments.

The oldest mummification in the Libya Desert and the Sahara was probably not intended. Bodies were buried and later found to be mummified as a result of the dry environment.

However, the mummified form of a Nubian boy, dated to around 3000B.C., found at the Uan Muhuggiag rock shelter by a team of Italian archaeologists shows sophisticated technique. Many practices popularly considered "Egyptian" were in pre-dynastic times Nubian and Saharan. Tera-Neter was a ruler of the cities of the Annu in the Upper Nile region. Tera is also the name of Abraham's father and "neter" is ntr/ntjr (ancient Egyptian) and refers to god/gods.

The part about Spirit Cave Man that I find interesting is the reed mat. The papyrus reed was a symbol of Annu royalty. Some mummies were wrapped in papyrus before the linen bindings were applied. Other mummies were placed in coffins constructed of reeds.

Rick Lobs said...

Alice, another great article. You are impressive. Rick

Alice C. Linsley said...

A Nigerian friend has sent me this comment:

While reading your blog entry on the Ainu I remembered an article I had read about the similarity of Nigerian and Japanese words http://stewartsynopsis.com/links_to_japanese_and_african_la.htm.

I had also noticed in my interactions with American, Indians, Chinese and Japanese that my Chinese and Japanese colleagues found it easy to get the intonation of my name right as both languages are tonal just like the Yoruba and Ewe/Gbe languages.

Anu is Yoruba for mercy.

The front of the headress of the Ainu elder features something in front that is similar to that found on the headdress of the Ife kings and Pharoahs. Perhaps this solidifies assertions about Ainu links to the Levant.


See also
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=8;t=004578

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/they-all-look-like-all-them/10050-japanese-african-language.html

Anonymous said...

What might be the relationship of the Annu to the Ainu, a group of ancient Japanese? Are they the same peoples? Thank you.

Alice C. Linsley said...

The Annu are the Ainu. Don't be thrown by the spelling difference. The Ainu originated in the Nile Valley and spread far and wide, going to Japan, where they are considered the first people of the island.

DDeden said...

The Ainu claim that people lived there before they came, the Koropokguru, who lived in semi-subterranean huts. (My guess is that they were jomon/ryukyu folk, with ground tuber/yam diet and clay pot making.)

Alice C. Linsley said...

Jomon is another name for Ainu in Japan and their pots has a distinctive egg shape with a rope pattern.

Susan Burns and I have discussed the yam connection between Africa and Asia. There is a rice connection also, as a unit of rice was used as the weight measurement.

Koro is another form of Horo or Horus, and gur is an ancient word for merchant. The Horites have been identified with references to Khar, a unit of measurement used in trade in the Egyptian inscriptions (See James Orr, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 1421.) The word khar is related to gur. In Akkadian gurguri means metalworkers or copper smiths. In Oromo gurguru means to sell (gurgurtaa = sale, gurguraa = seller). In Somali gur- means to collect something and gurgure means one who Collects and Keeps Collecting. The Gurgure clan of the Dir refers to traders who collect wares and resale them. Among the Dir guri means stick, rod or firearm.

The Persian and Urdu word Saudagar also refers to traders. Horite traders dispersed across the ancient world. The association of the roots gr (trader) and hr (Horite) is evident in India in place names such as Gurgaon Haryana.

Alice C. Linsley said...

Joktan is Arabian. Peleg is Mesopotamian.

Richard Høy said...

Those Kushites (Nubian was never a name for a people) aren't red. That's a BROWN color with a reddish undertone, at best. Red is a shade of brown, so all "red/adam" peoples of the ancient would have had a brown skin-color, so King David (and others) would naturally have been as brown-skinned as any average African today.

Alice C. Linsley said...

There were red and black Nubians. This has been verified by archaeological finds and textual references. The Nilotic peoples had a wide range of skin tones, as is true even today.

The Tuatha De Danaan of Irish tales were a ruler caste. Some of the rulers were regarded as deified rulers (a idea that was also held among the ancient Egyptians). I believe that there is a connection between the Tuatha De Danaan and "Khan O Dan." Khan O Dan is the older name of the region of Eastern Canada where the Ainu settled. The Ainu originated in the Nile Valley and migrated via the British Isles, Finland and Scandinavia to Greenland, Labrador and the eastern seaboard of Canada. The word "Canada" comes from Khan O Dan. The Ainu of eastern Canada are now called "Micmac" (meaning friend) but earlier they were called the "Beothique" by the French and "Beothuck" by the English. Thique and Thuck may be variants of Tuatha. I'll keep researching this possible connection.

The Ainu rulers were bearded and had a distinctive red skin tone. Reddish-brown is a good description of the average Egyptian today who works in the sun, but when we speak of Africa we must acknowledge the broadest genetic diversity of anywhere in the world.

IsaacBG said...

Hi,

What are your thoughts about the Annunaki? Are these gods refering to anu people?

Regards

Alice C. Linsley said...

The term Annunaki is Akkadian and likley it is related to the word Anakim. The Anakim were deified rulers; what Genesis calls the "mighty men of old" who were heroes and men of renown. Anak and his Anakim people lived in the region of Hebron, Sarah settlement. Hebron marked the northern boundary of Abraham's Edomite territory. Anak's father was Arba. Hebron was called Kiriath-Arba.

In Numbers 13:33, the Anakim are associated with the Nephilim. In Deuteronomy 2:10, they are associated with the with the Raphaim, and in Joshua 15:13, they are associated with the Calebites. Supposedly, Caleb drove the Anakim out of the region, but there is much evidence that they remained established in Canaan. Shrine cities, such as Hazor, were governed by Ha'biru (Hebrew) ruler-priests, so the attempts of Caleb and Joshua to capture these settlements suggests a power struggle between kinsmen, rather than an attempt by strangers to uproot people from the land.

The Anakim and the Nephilim are linked to the giants, the "sons" of God, and the "powerful ones of old" in Genesis 6:1-4. The word npyl (nephil) in Aramaic means giant or great one and is equivalent to nfy in Arabic, meaning hunter. It is said concerning Nimrod that he was a mighty hunter or a mighty man before the Lord.

The clue to understanding Genesis 6 is the word gibbor-iym (powerful ones). This passage is speaking about ancient rulers who were regarded as the "sons of the gods" or deified kings (elohiym). The gibbor-iym are referred to as elohiym. Elohiym is usually translated "gods" but really it means deified rulers.

Unknown said...

hello Alice,
Love your blog been reading it for a few years now but first time to comment. My husband is Punjabi from the Indian side and so his "mother tongue" is Punjabi which is also a tonal language and very difficult to learn and a lot of times when he speaks English, he sounds like is singing the words or sentences. My question to you is why only African languages and Chinese language and Punjabi in India and Pakistan seems to be the only tonal language. And tonal language where the original way of speaking why did we humans stop speaking that way. Thank you, Evelyn

Zerubbabel said...

Very interesting and intriguing research. You may also be interested in the work of another Mi'kmaw storyteller, the late John Bear MacNeil, who also spoke about similar subject matter. Your correspondent, Sea'Kay - if he's who I think he is- should know about it.

Alice C. Linsley said...

Evelyn, Asian and Central Asian classified as tonal languages include Japanese, Hmong, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Thai, and Punjabi. African tonal languages include Amharic, Shona, Yorùbá, Igbo, Luganda, Ewe, and Zulu. Turkish has elements of a tone language, but there is disagreement about how much prominence pitch must have in order to label a language tonal. In tonal languages, the pitch accent must be present. That makes classification even more difficult. Hungarian is an example. Although Hungarian (a Uralic language) is not a pitch-accent language, Hungarian has four distinct tonal melodies: The 'raising' and the 'falling' and the first syllable of each word is stressed. Also the vowels have different tones.

Among the ancient languages, Sumerian and Akkadian had tonal features that resemble some East African languages like Amharic which is spoken in Ethiopia. Not all ancient languages are classified as tonal. It is not possible to say that the earliest humans spoke tonal languages, but it is certain that they expressed themselves by using pitch changes.This is evident in the Latin languages where the pitch rises at the end of a sentence when asking a question or drops at the end of the sentence when making a statement.


Anonymous said...

Dr Lindsley, The Mississippi Native American Culture has researched the mounds and found haplo-group X, and numerous other ancient haplo-types, indicating a number of people coming in. They have some designs that look very similar to your friend's ancestor. The culture was so far advanced from the tribes we find after these people that I couldn't help but think of the Middle East. There are some interesting YouTubes on the Mississippi Culture mounds, and some dissertations can be found on it too. One writer mentions the "otherness" of these original immigrants. Thank you and your friend who was willing to share his story!