Monuments of the Ancient Kushites

Alice C. Linsley

The King Lists of Genesis tell a fascinating story of the succession of rulers from their Proto-Saharan ancestors to the time of Abraham. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these ruling families drove dispersion into Syria, Anatolia, India and beyond. Some sons were sent away to establish territories of their own. These rulers are ethnically Kushite.

The connection of these rulers to ancient Kush is confirmed by Genesis 10:6-8 which tells us that Ham's son Kush had two first-born sons: Ramah and Nimrod. Ramah's territory was in Arabia. His two first-born sons were Dedan and Sheba. These ruling houses intermarried. The ruling houses of Dedan and Sheba were aligned with the Horite rulers of Edom. The Dedanite and Edomite ruling lines intermarried.

Nimrod's territory was in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. His first-born son by his cousin bride was Asshur the Younger, named after Shem's son, Asshur the Elder. To understand how Abraham is a descendant of Nimrod, study the diagram below.

Nimrod is a Nilotic title. It means "ruler over all the waters." His Akkadian name was Šarru-kīnu, which is usually translated “the true king.” He is described as a warrior-hunter or a mighty hunter. The term is related to the Hausa sarkin maharba, meaning chief or lead hunter. Sar means king in Sumerian. Sar-gon means high king or king of kings.  In the Targum nah shirkan refers to a great hunter.

The "mighty men of old" (Gen. 6:4) are called "nephilim" which comes from npyl in Aramaic, meaning "great one" and is equivalent to nfy in Arabic, meaning hunter.

The archaic rulers controlled the major water systems such as Lake Chad, the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates. A shrine associated with Seth (Kain's brother) called Ka-ta-seti (Sanam) connected Gebel Barkal and Meroe, and was one of the important ports of the river trade that extended from ancient Nubia to the Orontes in Turkey. That is why there are two sites named "Meroe." The best known is Meroe of Nubia. The lesser known was built on the precipice of Mt. Silpius. This is Meroe overlooking the Orontes.

Genesis refers to these rulers as the "mighty men of old" because they controlled the major water systems and the high places. They dispersed into Southern Europe and the Hindu Kush, a melting pot of ancient peoples. They likely controlled commerce through the Pamir Junction. These were aggressive kingdom builders who regarded themselves as divinely appointed to disperse and subdue the earth. Later rulers, such as Alexander the Great, sought the same divine legitimacy.

Alexander the Great sought such validation for this conquests from the oracle of Amun-Ra at the Siwa shrine in the Libyan Desert. This coin shows his image with the ram horns associated with Amun-Ra.

Monuments and pyramids

The archaic rulers built monuments throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion like these at Jebel Barkal in ancient Nubia (Upper Nile Valley). 

Standing stones at the temple of Amun at Mount Barkal

The ancient Nilo-Saharan kings built fortified shrine cities and pyramids. Pyramids built near the city of Karima in Sudan date to the eighth century BC.  The word "Karima" refers to a rock shelter or fortified elevated shrine city. Likewise, the word "Karnak" (spelled "Carnak" in Brittany) refers to a rock shelter or enclosure of standing stones where religious rites were performed such as circumcision and the removal of teeth - naak. Similar standing stones have been found in the Judean higher elevations.

At Mount Barkal the rulers constructed a shrine city with a temple dedicated to the Creator Amun-Ra. Other Amun sanctuaries were constructed at Kawa (Gematen) and at Sanam.

Relief of Amun-Ra, temple of Amun at Kawa, in Ancient Nubia

Amun-Ra is the Creator whose solar emblem rises and sets each day. This speaks of the resurrection of the dead ruler, an expectation of Abraham's Habiru (Hebrew) people. This is the meaning behind the narrative of Abraham with his son on Mount Moriah. The son of Ra was Horus. Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength. Both lamb and ram are associated with the resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox.

The oldest known temple (c. 5000 BC) to have association with Abraham's ancestors is the predynastic temple at Nekhen (Greek Hierakonpolis). The temple was located on the Nile, making it easier for temple officials to weigh and measure goods and assess tolls on the vessels that docked there. Many artifacts of great importance have been found at Nekhen. These include funeral masks, statues, jewelry, beer vats, large flint knives, and the pillared halls characteristic of later Egyptian monuments and temples. Nekhen is where the oldest life-sized human statue was found: a priest from the temple of Horus, c.3000 BC.

An intriguing discovery at Nekhen involves the recovery of a beard associated with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this ruler was in Haplogroup R1b. It appears that the "red" features were found widely among archaic rulers. The Bible associates the red feature with the Horite rulers of Edom, like Esau, and with David who had Edomite blood.

Noah controlled the region around Lake Chad - the "Land of Noah" or "Bor-no" - which is also one of the hot spots of the R1b rulers as shown on this map at the southernmost dark red dot.

The ancient stone monuments and sacred circles of the British Isles were likely the work of the R1b stone workers and mining experts who arrived there between 8000 and 4000 BC.  Genetic research indicates that about 70% of British men are in Haplogroup R1b.

Related reading: Kushite Shrines; The High Places; The Nubian Context of YHWH; Stone Work of the Ancient World; The Religion of the Archaic Rulers; Sent-Away Sons; Dispersion of the Archaic Rulers; Abraham and the Hittites; Circumcision and Standing Stones in the Judean Hills; INDEX of Topics at Just Genesis

Kushite Shrines

Alice C. Linsley

A reader recently asked why I maintain that Abraham's ancestors came out of Africa. The anthropological evidence of Genesis and other Old Testament  passages indicate that Abraham's ancestors were descendants of Kush. They were Kushites. The term "Kushite" does not designate a single people but rather a regional identity that includes many peoples of the Nile Valley, Lake Chad, and the Sahara during the African Humid Period.

Kush is first mentioned in the Bible as the father of Nimrod and Ramah. Kush and his sons were great rulers who controlled the water ways in their territories. The rivers were used to transport cargo and supplied the necessary water for mining industries. Kush was famous for gold, a fact to which Genesis alludes when speaking of the river Pishon that flowed through the land of Ha'vilah, where there is gold (Gen. 2:11). Havilah speaks of the place where the waters part, probably the point of separation of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. Another river mentioned is the Gihon which flowed through the land of Kush (Gen. 2:13).

The Kushites built shrines and temples along the rivers. The Egyptians continued this practice. The shrine cities were at the highest elevations to prevent flooding and also for defense. The fortified shrine cities held temples, palaces, quarters for priests and their families, barracks for warriors, sections of the city where castes of artisans and metal workers resided. These elevated cities or "high places" were known as kar. Karnak on the Nile and Carnak in Brittany are examples. In Dravidian car means "sheltered together" and kari refers to a river. In Manding kara means "to assemble." In ancient Sumerian é-kur refers to a mountain house, pyramid, or elevated temple.

The kars of the archaic world were mainly circular. Ki-kar refers to a circle, as in Exodus 25:11: ki-kar za-hav ta-hor, meaning "circle of pure gold." Among the Nilotic Luo kar specifies a place with boundaries, such as a rock shelter or a fortified settlement.

Since the kar were places of burnt offerings, the term is often associated with charcoal and soot. In Magyar (Hungarian) korom refers to soot, as does the Korean word kurim. The Turkish kara means "black." Priests living in Greece often held names with the word kar, such as Karampetsos. This refers to their ancestral service at the high places. Some have mistakenly assumed that because the word means "black" in Turkish, these priests had a black skin color.

The Carpathian mountain range is called Karpaty in Czech, Polish, and Slovak, and Карпати in Ukrainian, Carpați in Romanian, Karpaten in German, Kárpátok in Hungarian, Karpati in Serbian, and Карпати in Bulgarian. In Albanian karpë means "rock."

Kushite shrine at a 3rd century BC trade center near ancient Meroe.

The Kushites were a highly organized people, consisting of numerous clans and castes. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of their rulers drove their expansion into new territories. They were skilled in hunting, combat, sailing, astronomy and metal working. Their rulers controlled the major water systems and founded early mining industries along the Nile, in Arabia, Palestine, Mesopotamia and southern Europe.

The Kushite rulers were great patrons of artisans, especially stone and metal workers. Kushite mining operations have been identified in Sudan, the Nile Valley, and southern Israel.

In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000 year gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles from Khartoum. More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold and the water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found in Egypt and at Timnah in southern Israel.

The oldest mines at Timnah are at least 6,000 years old. The miners at Timnah recovered turquoise and copper. They followed ore veins underground and created shafts with stone chiseling tools. These galleries spread in all directions, following the ore. The mines were worked by Kushite metal working clans between 2000 to 1500 BC. Ancient rock carvings showing Kushite warriors in chariots, holding axes and shields have been found in the area. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

The gold mines of Kush were described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus. He mentions fire-setting as a method used to break down the hard rock. The ore was then ground to a fine powder before washing. The process required a substantial source of water, such a river. 

Related reading: When the Sahara Was Wet; Kushite Gold; The Saharan Antecedents of Pharaonic Egypt; Stone Work of the Ancient World; Meroe on the Orontes; Kushite Diversity and Unity; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; Kushite Wives; Kushites in Mindanao

The Religion of the Saka

The stiff front piece on the head covering 
is like those worn by Ainu chiefs.

Saka Yuetzhi warrior












Alice C. Linsley

There has been some fascinating speculation about the Israelite origin of the Saka Scythians. Indeed, there are indications of a connection between the Saka and the biblical rulers known as Horites. The Horites dispersed very widely in the ancient world, taking their religious practices with them.

The Saka ruled in India, Syria, Anatolia, Serbia, Bactria and Southern China. These rulers were kingdom builders, like Nimrod. They also appear to have been devotees of Horus, the "son" of the Creator. The eye of Horus is called vidjet. In Serbian vidjet means to see. There are many linguistic connections between words in Serbian, Nilo-Saharan languages and Sanskrit.

The Saka rulers appear to have the same marriage and ascendancy pattern as the Horite rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 10. These rulers had two wives, as did their descendants Abraham, Jacob, Amram, Moses and Elkanah. Horite ruler-priests were found among the Saka.

According to Hindu sacred texts, the Saka ruled the ancient world for 7000 years. They were ethnically Kushites. Genesis calls these rulers of the archaic world "the mighty men of old"(cf Nehemiah 3:16). Some of these rulers dispersed far from their ancestral homes and established kingdoms in Syria, Southern Europe, Northern India and the Tarim Valley of China. In all the regions to which their ancestors dispersed we find a common toponym: Tamana. Proto-Saharans formerly lived in these areas. Tamana means "great place." The ancient Tamana sites were rock and river shrines established by Proto-Saharan peoples.

The Saka are grouped into Eastern Scythians and Western Scythians. The Western Scythians were followed by the Sarmatians, then the Alans and finally the Ossetes, but they share a common patrimony. They are related to the Yuezhi of Bactria and China. Both the Saka and the Yuezhi are ethnically Kushite.

The Yuezhi from around 176 BC to 30 AD

The Kushan-Yuezhi called themselves Visha or the Vijaya. This is usually rendered "tribes" although the word refers to their two ruling royal houses, as in vijana, the splitting of wisdom. The honorific title Pharaoh originates in the term pr-aa, which means "great house." In Vedic tradition, pra-jna means "wisdom of the great house." The words have multiple, related meanings (polysemic). In Vedic tradition the a-laya-vijña-na is the seed of the receptacle-world, but literally it means the receptacle of the seed, as in va-gina, symbolized originally by the pictograph V.

Karmic seeds - bija - are laid down in Alaya-vi-jña-na to produce karmic fruition. Alaya (aalaya) refers to a house, dwelling, or a receptacle. Bi is a variant of vi.

vi or bi - separation, division into two parts (social moiety)
jna - wisdom / to know
pra- intensifier

The divine Seed was regarded as giving life on earth and also immortality. Consider how the Bible refers to Christ our God as the Seed. Genesis 3:15 foreshadows the Christ's birth to the Woman who shall bring forth the Seed that will crush the serpent's head. Jesus refers to Himself as the Divine Seed in John's Gospel.

The Solar Arc and Animal Symbolism

The Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative involves the sun as the emblem of the Father and Son. This is represented in images of Ra's solar boat upon which Horus is often shown as a falcon perched on the mast. "

Horus of the Two Crowns" Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man, and as a man he wears the two crowns. This is alluded to in the account of the priest Yeshua/Joshua who receives the c owns in Zechariah 6:11: "Take the silver and gold, and make crowns, and set it upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest..."

The expectation of a Righteous Ruler-Priest who would overcome death and save his people has a very early expression in the Re-Horus-Hathor narrative. Horus was regarded to be co-equal and co-eternal with his father Ra. He was spoken of as the fixer of cosmic boundaries. Horus was invoked to send favorable winds. The four winds often appeared as birds at the four quarters of the heavens announcing the accession of Horus' deified ruler on earth. On the walls of Amenemhat III's burial chamber at Hawara Horus is depicted at the cardinal points and associated with the resurrection of the ruler. The four forms of Horus: the man, the jackal, the falcon, and the baboon top the canopic jars holding the ruler's organs.

Depending on the cultural context the animal symbolism changes. In the story of the binding of Isaac, the lamb is exchanged for a ram, signifying resurrection of the appointed ruler for which Horus stood as the archetype. "Horus of the two horizons" was the sacred calf on the western horizon who rises as a bull in mature strength on the eastern horizon. In another version, Horus was a lamb who rises as a ram. The ram was the symbol of the Giving God. All stories about a dying deity who returns from the grave are essentially the same myth with variations. This myth has a wide global dispersion, indicating that it is very old. Joseph Campbell called it the "monomyth" of the hero's journey.

The expectation of a divine ruler who would overcome a sacrificial death was expressed in the religion of Ammon as a ram. Believing that he might be the living god, Alexander the Great made a pilgrimage to the Ammon shrine at Siwa in the Libyan Desert to consult the oracle there. He became known as Dhul-Qarnayn, the two-horned one because coins minted during his rule show him with ram's horns.

Among the Nilotic peoples, the sun is shown between two lions. The Nilotic Luo speak of piny horu (soft h), a reference to the dawning of a new day. Horu refers to Horus of the two horizons, the son of Re. Horus was said to have fixed the rising and setting of the sun. The temporal sacred center was high noon when the sun rested exactly over the Nile. This is depicted by the Egyptian Akar, an image of twin lions carrying a sun disk on their backs.


Akar relates to the solar arc, the sun's big stride over the earth, a sign of the Creator's sovereignty over all. The two lions are called ruti (or rute/ rude) which in Luo means twins or things coming in pairs.

Long before Abraham's time, the Giving God was associated with the Sun. He was sometimes portrayed as riding the sun as a chariot, or as sailing in a solar boat. He was sometimes portrayed as a bull calf with the sun cradled between his horns.

This Giving God was also associated with the constellation of Leo. The bull was often shown in ancient European images between two lions, just as the Sun was shown between two lions among the ancient Nilotes. The Giving God was called Horus among the Saharo-Nilotes and the Kushite Saka called him Hromi Daba, the "Giving God."

Hromi Daba was also known by the names Crom Dubh and Grom Div. His association with the Sun is seen on the Triglav Stone (below) from Istria which shows the Giving God haloed by the Sun. This Giving God was also understood to be a Trinity. Triglav refers to trinity or triune.

Among the Saka the Siberian deer was a symbol of the Giving God. Deer antlers are found in many Saka burial sites. This creature was associated with gold and the Sun, the emblem of the Creator.

British archaeologists are aware that long before Stonehenge was erected, ancient inhabitants of the British Isles used such head dresses in religious ceremonies dating back to 9,500 BC. At Starr Carr, 21 such red deer skulls with antlers were discovered. All had holes that would have been used to tie them to the head with a leather thong for ceremonial use. (For more on this go here.)

The Red Deer of Europe, western Asia and North Africa is a distinct species from the red elk of eastern Asia and North America. These red stag and hinds roamed from North Africa to Ireland. The red color symbolized revitalizing blood and may have had the same significance for the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles and their kinsmen living in Serbia. That would explain the presence of red-deer antlers at Stonehenge and in the graves of the Saka of Northern India, Bactria, Thrace, and the Steppes of central Eurasia.

Here is a description of Christ as the "true sun" in Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae:

Meanwhile, to the island stiff with frost and cold, and in a far distant corner of the earth, remote from the visible sun, He, the true sun, even Christ, first yields His rays, I mean His precepts. He spread, not only from the temporal firmament, but from the highest arc of heaven beyond all times, his bright gleam to the whole world in the latest days, as we know, of Tiberius Caesar. At that time the religion of Christ was propagated without any hindrance, because the emperor, contrary to the will of the senate, threatened with death informers against the soldiers of that same religion.

Related reading: The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Haplogroup R1b; Was Constantine a Saka Ruler?; The Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; The Red Heifer; Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion; Aramaic Documents of Sogdiana and Bactria

Kushites in Mindanao

Mindanao Sultan Jamal ul-Kiram (seated at center), with his chiefs. 
They are holding knob sticks as the sign of their rank.
Also shown US Army officers and some visiting Muslims
Photo taken c. 1899-1901

Dear Madame Linsley,

I have additional thoughts I wish to share with you. Historically, what is now called Philippines in the period 600 AD - 1300 AD is part of geopolitical area called Tanah Melayu or Malay Lands under or allied with the Malay Shri Vijaya empire based at Palembang, Sumaterah, now part of Indonesia. What is now called Philippines is a groupings of Kingdoms or Rajahnates.

Central of this grouping of kingdoms is the Uranen Kingdoms. The people in these Kingdoms are called Iranun. Iranun Kingdom was centered in what is now present Lanao provinces in Mindanao. It was said that before the Spanish conquest of Visyas and Luzon on the Philippines, Mindanao was never conquered by the Spanish empire in its 377 years of colonial occupation, kingdoms in what is now Philippines is peopled by Iranuns and only broken down into various tribes during colonial occupations to divide and rule. Historically Iranun are skilled sailors and fierce warriors that Spain and America was not able to subdue Mindanao during its colonial occupation. In 1515 a Shariff from Johor, now part of Malaysia, arrived in Mindanao and began Islamization, and married to Iranun and thus the present Muslim family in Mindanao come about.

I am wondering about the word Uranen, Ir-anun, Bul-Anun. I am thinking that word Uranen is composed of two words combined together the word UR and ANNEN wich may have come from the word ANNUN. And if it is both a noun UR being place and ANNEN or ANNUN being people it would translate into PEOPLE OF UR. I was reading ancient history about the kingdom of UR a port city in what is now Iraque (aque is an Iranun word which mean friend) and it flash to my mind that an Iranun in the Philippines are people from UR Kingdom, what you think Madame Linsley. and in fact these people, or some of them belong to royalty; claimed they are descendants of Abraham or related to Abraham and even to Adam.


Dear Mr. Bulang,

The Vijaya empire was ethnically Kushite. "Kushite" is a general label for many peoples whose ancestors lived in prehistoric times in the Upper Nile-Lake Chad area.The Kushites spread from the Nile Valley into Ur of Mesopotamia and into the Tarum Valley of Southern China. These people were great warriors, sea travelers, astronomers, pyramid builder, and mining experts. They mummified their dead rulers.

The Kushan-Yuezhi of Central Asia called themselves Visha or the Vijaya. They are Kushites also. They spread through Central Asia, from around 180 BC to 30 AD. Some Vijaya went to Madagascar, Borneo, and Sulawesi in Indonesia. Your family is probably part of this group of Kushite Vijaya. They were famous as rice merchants, sea travelers, and scribes. It appears that there were two ruling houses that intermarried, but at some point the two groups separated.

Annen or Annun does mean people, but it also is a reference to a Nilotic people of very ancient genetic lineage. They are called Ainu or Annu. They spread across the earth from the Nile-Lake chad area. They are a "first empire" people. Some live today in Western China. Some Ainu live on the islands of Hokkaido and Okinawa, and some live in the Hudson Bay area of Eastern Canada. Abraham ancestors were Ainu. The Ainu spread out of Africa before the Kushites moved into Central Asia. Bul-Anun means kingdom or territory of the Ainu, the same as Bul-Gharia (Bulgaria) means kingdom or territory of the Ghar/Gur/Gurjar.

I hope that this is helpful. Here are some articles with more information:

The Kushite-Kushan Connection

More East Africa-Asia Connections

Solving the Ainu Mystery


Best wishes to you in the pursuit of your ancestry!

Alice C. Linsley

Related reading: Pythons Used for Sea Navigation; Sun Symbolism and Blood Guilt; From the Nile to the Philippines: Tracing the Gurjars; Kushite Kingdom Building

Scientific Verification of the Genesis 10 Dispersion

The dark red spot in central Africa is Lake Chad, Noah's homeland.

Alice C. Linsley


Findings in archaeology, linguistics, and genetics indicate a Nilo-Saharan dispersion across a vast expanse of the globe. The dispersion aligns with the movement of peoples in the R1b haplogroup (shown above). This dispersion is described in Genesis 10.

This could rightly be called the Afro-Asiatic Dominion since the rulers of these areas were related and shared common religious practices, such as falcon-shaped fire altars; elevated shrine cities ("high places"); and castes of royal priests, scribes and artisans. The priests served at Sun temples, that is, stone edifices that were aligned to the solar arc.  These were called "O-piru" and the priests who served at the temples were called 'Apiru or Habiru. From Habiru comes the English spelling of Hebrew.

In this article I will trace the dispersion of the Nilo-Saharans through investigation of tools, pottery, ancient texts and genetics. I have discussed the evidence of molecular genetics in Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists.


Tool evidence

Discoveries made by Michael Petraglia, from the University of Cambridge, cast doubt on the theory that the volcanic eruption of Toba in Indonesia was catastrophic for humans living even great distances from the mountain. The Toba super eruption has been dated to 74,000 years ago by multiple methods from multiple locations.

Petraglia's team found stone tools at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. These were above and below a thick layer of ash from the Toba eruption of the Toba. The tools from each layer were remarkably similar and suggests that the huge dust clouds from the eruption did not wipe out the population or force them to relocate.

“Whoever was there seems to have persisted through the eruption,” Petragalia says.

Petragalia's team notes that the Indian tools found in southern India are like those from the African Middle Stone Age about 100,000 years ago.

He states, “Whoever was living in India was doing things identical to modern humans living in Africa.”

Thomas Strasser and his team found hundreds of  tools of African origin on Crete dating to between 100,000 and 130,000 years. Others have been found on the Iranian plateaus. Ancient African artifacts have even been found in China. There is considerable tool and pottery evidence indicating prehistoric movements out of the Nile Valley.

In a recent paper, Christine S. Lane, Ben T. Chorn, and Thomas C. Johnson describe core samples from Lake Malawi that reveal ash from the Toba eruption. The Toba ash was found 28 meters or about 92 feet below the most recent sediments to have fallen to the lake floor. The ash clearly dispersed as far a East Africa, but did not cause a significant change in climate or habitat. There is no evidence of a volcanic winter, as once supposed.

Pottery evidence

We can verify the connection between the Nile and Indus Valley by comparing the Egyptian and Indus pottery inscriptions in which 17 figures are virtually identical (see below).

As recently as 1000 BC the Nubian-Dravidian connection, based on pottery samples, seems definitive. The Indian archaeologist B.B. Lal believes that the Dravidians belonged to the C-Group. C-Group people spread culture from Nubia into Arabia, Iran and India between 2300-1500 BC as evidenced by the presence of Black-and-Red Ware (BRW).

Lal writes: "At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical."

The C-Group people of Nubia, southern Egypt and Sudan are commonly called Kushites. Their black and red pottery that has been found from the Sudan, across Southwest Asia and India to China (Singh 1982). This BRW was used as early as the Amratian period (c.4000-3500 BC).

The C-group people - who we might call "Proto-Saharans" - maintained herds of cattle which were used for sacrifice and food. Bovine skulls were used to decorate their graves in archaeologically rich Sudan.

Many ancient C-Group people were agro-pastoral. They were the first to cultivate wild sorghum and millet. These became staple grains in Egypt and were taken to Pakistan and India between 3000 and 1000 BC. The evidence indicates that all of the African domesticates arose north of the equator and were introduced to the south relatively late. (Salas 2002)

Clyde A. Winters believes that the Dravidian speakers of C-Group took millet to India. B. B. Lal contends that the Dravidians/Proto-Dravidians came from southern Egypt and Sudan. This explains the darker complexion of the "Sudra." Lal also noted common burial practices incorporating megaliths, circular rock enclosures and rock-hewn tombs.

The origin of genetic diversity found in South Asia is much older than 3,500 years when the Indo-Aryans were supposed to have migrated to India. The Indo-Aryan migration theory was proposed in mid-19th century by German linguist Max Muller. Muller suggested that 3,500 years ago, Indo-European speakers from Central Asia introduced the Indo-European language family and the caste system in India. However, genetic studies indicate that this is not the case. A study led by scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, India (published in American Journal of Human Genetics in December 2011) shows clearly that there was no genetic influx 3,500 years ago.

The Proto-Dravidians apparently migrated from ancient Nubia across Arabia to India. The oldest known civilization in Arabia was the Tihama culture which flourished on the coastal plain along the Red Sea in present day Yemen. Rodolfo Fattovish believes that the Tihama civilization originated in Nubia, exactly what Genesis 10 indicates. He also recognizes the societal organization of chiefs in the Gash River region in Sudan (2,700-2,300 BC). Fattovich's excavations in the Gash Delta demonstrated a clear relationship between the C-Group and Kerma cultures in northern Nubia. His findings were confirmed by the Italian expedition to the eastern Sudan of 2011.

Horite fire altars at the Harappan water shrines of Kalibangan and Lothal provide further evidence for the dispersion of the Nilo-Saharans. The Dravidian word Har-appa means "Hor is father" and these altars are built in the shape of a falcon in flight. The falcon was the totem of Horus, called "Son" or "Seed" of Ra. The Shulba Sutras state that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Evidence of ancient texts

The Indian historian and anthropologist Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has written: "We have to begin with the Negroid or Negrito people of prehistoric India who were the first human inhabitants. Originally they would appear to have come from Africa through Arabia and the coastlands of Iran and Baluchistan." According to the Matsya, an ancient book from India, the world belonged to the Kushites (Saka/Saki) for 7000 years. 

Homer (ca. 8th century BC) alluded to the diversity and unity of the Kushite empires when he wrote, “a race divided, whom the sloping rays; the rising and the setting sun surveys.”

A seventh century Assyrian text says that Sargon's birthplace was a city on the banks of the Euphrates called Azu-piranu. It was a Horite shrine as evidenced by the word piranu. The ha-piru were a caste of priests devoted to Horus. They called their water temples and shrines O-piru, meaning "Sun House." Azu/Asa is an East African name for God. Azu-piranu means “House of God” and is equivalent to the Hebrew word Beth-el. Hur-azu was a title for Horus and the Babylonian word for gold.

A recent phoneme study has identified the Nile Valley as the point of origin of modern languages and the comparison of African phonemes with those found in ancient Hebrew suggest that Hebrew is an African language.


Evidence of genetics

In human mitochondrial genetics, L is the mitochondrial DNA macro-haplogroup that is at the root of the human mtDNA phylogenetic tree. As such, it represents the most ancestral mitochondrial lineage of all currently living modern humans. L3 is the haplogroup from which the vast majority of modern humans outside of Africa are descended, beginning about 70,000 years ago. The “Indians” bearing these genes live on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and have negroid features. They represent this early, though probably not earliest, migration out of Africa.

Onges of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Onges and Jarawas belong almost exclusively to Haplogroup D

An estimated 60% of Indian DNA consists of haplogroup M which emerged from haplogroup L3 emerged. The apparent point of origin for M is the Nile and Sudan. A study by Afonso et al. (2008) found M in over 72% of the population of Sudan (112 samples). Molecular genetics has shown that Dravidians are phenotypically Africa.The most frequent haploids in India belong to L3M and L3N lineages. 

According to Maca-Meyer et al. (2001), "L3 is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent African clusters L1 and L2".

The Eurasian populations to which Maca-Meyer refers are mainly in Haplogroup D, believed to have arisen in Asia some 48,000 years ago. It is a descendant of haplogroup M. Haplogroup D is of special interest for Biblical Anthropologists as many of the peoples identified in Genesis fall into this mtDNA group. Here we find the Habiru (Hebrew), the Ainu, black and red Nubians, and other Kushites, such as the Afro-Sumerians and the Proto-Dravidians.

Source: Metspalu et al. Haplogroup D
Likely time of appearance about 40,000 years ago

There is much evidence for the Kushite migration out of Africa, as it is described in Genesis 10. DNA studies are but one method of tracing the Kushite dispersion. As Clyde Winters states, "The archaeological and molecular evidence provides footprints of a recent hg M ancestral migration from Nubia to India."

This is not the first migration out of Africa, but it is the one to which Genesis refers when it speaks of Kush's sons and grandsons moving from the Nile Valley into Arabia and Mesopotamia.

Kushite rulers were great kingdom builders who controlled the major water systems and the ancient world. Nimrod, the son of Kush, is but one example.

There is genetic evidence that the Proto-Saharan ancestors of the Kushites moved west along the interconnected water systems between the Nile, Lake Chad, and the Niger-Benue Trough. Outside of the Nile Valley and some north African countries, this is the only other place in Africa where the M haplogroup is found. The Nigerian historian, Dr. Catherine Acholonu, regards Iboland as the cradle of Afro-Sumerian peoples. Genetics does not support this view, however. The percentage of the population living at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers with M lineage is extremely small.

Related reading: Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Clyde A. Winters, Origin and Spread of Dravidian Speakers; Egyptian Shrines on the Horus Way; Blood and Crosses; The Nilotic Origin of the Ainu; Genetics Confirms Biblical Migrations; More East Africa-Asia Connections; Abraham's Ainu Ancestors; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion

YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical

Young Earth Creationism has been criticized for lacking a solid scientific basis. It also should be criticized for lacking a solid Biblical basis.


Alice C. Linsley

Young Earth Creationists use Archbishop James Usher’s chronology to date the age of the Earth. They believe that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are chronological and can be used to estimate when God created the Earth. They calculate the earth's age at 6000 years on the basis of lifespans assigned to the men named in Genesis 5 and 11. They ignore the line of Cain in Genesis 4 because they assume that his line became extinct in Noah's flood.

Biblical studies and discoveries in various sciences have left Usher's erroneous interpretation in the dust.

Usher lived before the development of molecular genealogy which has shed much light on human origins, and especially on the dispersion of the ancient Nilotes and Kushites. He also lived before the development of kinship analysis which makes verification of the Genesis King Lists possible. It can no longer be claimed that these rulers did not live in history. Their marriage and ascendancy pattern is authentic and can be traced from Genesis 4 to the New Testament records of Mary and Joseph's families. It is not possible that this aspect of Biblical history could have been written back into the texts since the 66 books of the Bible represent the contributions of numerous scribes and authors over about 1200 years.

Usher's scheme is terribly flawed. He failed to recognize that the so-called "genealogies" are actually King Lists. These lists are not generational, but regnal, and the reigns of some kings coincided. Tubal-Cain (Gen. 4) and Methuselah (Gen. 5) ruled at the same time. Tubal-Cain's sister, Naamah, married Methuselah. (See diagram below.) This is an example of how people abuse Biblical lists.

Usher also missed the fact that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, and as St. John Chrysostom recognized, the line of Cain received great mercy. Not only 7 fold for Cain, but 77 fold for Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4:24), and 777 in the case of Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5:31).

Further, these men are not the first humans on earth, but rulers of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion. They were kingdom builders, like Nimrod the Kushite (Gen. 10:8). This was a time of  law codes such at the Law of Tehut, warriors, weapons, shrine cities such as Nekhen in Sudan, and numerous technologies associated with the Neolithic Period. These earliest rulers of Genesis lived between 6000 and 3000 B.C., millions of years after the appearance of archaic humans. The evidence of the Bible and the various sciences indicates that they lived in Africa or migrated out of Africa.

This last fact reveals the un-biblical and racist nature of YEC dogma. At the back of YEC books one finds the 12 Affirmations and Denials. Affirmation XII claims that the diversity of languages and skin color came about as a result of divine judgment at the Tower of Babel.

XII. We affirm that all people living and dead are descended from Adam and Eve...and that the various people groups (with their various languages, cultures, and distinctive physical characteristics, including skin color) arose as a result of God's supernatural judgment at the Tower of Babel..."

Africa always has had the greatest genetic and linguistic diversity of any continent. Long before the earliest Genesis rulers there already existed diversity of skin color. Here are images of red, black and brown Nubians.

Red and black Nubians
(Ippolito Rosellini)

Red and brown Nubians
They resemble the warriors of Petra who had long wavy hair and wore feathers.
(Dr. Arthur Brack)

The Habiru (Hebrew) marriage and ascendancy pattern

Usher's errors reflect ignorance of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's ancestors as it is revealed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. This same pattern characterizes Moses' family and Samuel's family. It is the distinctive pattern of the ancient Habiru (Hebrew), a caste of ruler-priests.

Ussher did not understand that the rulers listed had two wives so there were two first born sons. The first born son of the half-sister wife was heir to his father's throne. So Isaac was heir to Abraham's territory between Hebron and Beersheba. The first born son of the patrilineal cousin wife was named after his maternal grandfather and served as a prime minister in his grandfather's territory. So Joktan, Abraham's first born son by Keturah, was not Abraham's heir. He would rule in the territory of Joktan the Elder.

Judah likely had two wives. In Genesis 46, we read that Judah went into Egypt with his brothers and presumably settled in the land of Goshen with his wife and children. In Genesis 38, we read that Judah had sons by Shua who lived in the region of Adulla, Mareshah and Chezib in Horite territory.

Some lists provide the names of the first born sons of half-sister brides. Other lines are traced through the cousin bride who named her first born son after her father. This is the case with Methuselah's wife, Naamah, who named their first born son "Lamech" after her father (see bottom of diagram).

Let us examine in greater detail the problems with Ussher's scheme.

Ussher did not recognize that the Genesis genealogies are regnal, not generational. They cannot be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously. Others ruled for short periods, and still others ruled for longer than a generation (40 years).

Usher insisted on reading Genesis as chronology, and therefore missed that some rulers were contemporaries. Lamech the Elder was a contemporary of Enoch, Methuselah's father. Abraham was a contemporary of Job. Nahor's son Tahash was a contemporary of Isaac.

None lived the lifespans assigned to them. These numbers are symbolic, with Kabalistic meanings coming from a later period. (Kabal is derived from the Egyptian words ka and ba which in modern parlance would "body and soul.")

Ussher did not recognize that some of the Biblical lists are telescopic. Telescopic lists leave out some names. Such lists give the names of only the most famous rulers. This means that we cannot use the king lists to date the earth.

Ussher ignored the later king lists, such as the Horite rulers in Genesis 36 and their royal kinsmen in Genesis 22:20-24. Here we find the identical marriage and ascendancy pattern as among the Genesis 4 and 5 rulers.

Ussher did not recognize that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, as did the lines of Ham and Shem and the lines of Abraham and Nahor.  Each ruler had two wives. The cousin bride named her first born son after her father. Thus we find Esau the elder and Esau the Younger, Joktan the Elder and Joktan the Younger,   Kenan is a variant of Kain, and could be called Cain the Younger. Likewise, Irad is a variant of Jared and could be called Jared the Younger.

In the case of Lamech's daughter, Naamah, the pattern is quite clear. She married her cousin Methuselah and named her first-born son Lamech after her father. This pattern of marriage can be traced from Genesis 4 and 5 to the lines of Joseph and Mary in the New Testament, demonstrating that Jesus is a direct descendant of the people to whom God made the first promise of the Bible that a woman of their ruler-priest lines would bring forth the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15).

Jesus' mother's name was Miriam daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From predynastic times, ntjr designated the ruler among the Kushites. The name Panther or p-ntjr meant "God is King." It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.”

Ussher didn't know about the cousin bride's naming prerogative which meant that the cousin bride's father and her first born son had the same name. This explains the recurrance of names skipping a generation. There are two named Enoch; two named Lamech; two named Joktan, and two named Sheba. There are also two named Esau, as shown below.

Here we see that Esau the Elder married Adah. Esau the Younger married Oholibamah, a prefigurement of the Virgin Mary.





Seir is identified as a Horite in Genesis 36. The names Esau, Dishon, Uz, Lot/Lotan and Timna are Horite names. The name "Adah" can be traced back to Lamech the Elder. One of his wives was named Adah (Gen. 4:23).


Related reading: Facebook Conversation on Creationism; Evidence of an Old Earth; Smoking Gun Evidence of an Ancient Earth; Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; Cain as Ruler; Lamech's Story and Horite Kingship; Bishop Ussher Goofed; DNA Research Confirms Kushite Migrations; Biblical Anthropology...the Science, not speculative theology; Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs; The Genesis King Lists; Two Named Esau; Abraham and Job, Horite Rulers; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Objections to the Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis

Phoneme Study Pinpoints Origin of Modern Languages

Alice C. Linsley

Scientists agree that the point of origin of modern humans is Africa. Evidence in support of this theory is found in DNA studies, climate studies, and linguistics.

As early as 200,000 years ago humans began to move out of Africa. Another major movement came around 120,000 years ago. Subsequent movements happened between 80,000 and 70,000 years ago, and between 20,000-10,000 years ago. This last period involved Proto-Saharan Sumerians, Nilotes and Kushites. The most recent migration took place around 6000 years ago.

Genetic research indicates a common African ancestor for the Chinese about 80,000 years ago.

Quentin Atkinson of Auckland University in New Zealand believes that the point of origin of modern languages is somewhere in the southwest of Africa (the region of the Khoisan). The 2011 report, which appeared in Science, caused something of a sensation. Michael Cysouw published a commentary in Science which argues that this neat "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis for the origin of language is not adequately supported by the data presented. Atkinson's phoneme study can only be traced to about 10,000 years ago.

According to this theory, the phonemic complexity decreased as human populations dispersed farther from their point of origin in Africa. As can be seen in the map above, the further away from Africa a language is spoken, the fewer distinct phonemes it has.

Dr Atkinson believes that every language in the world developed from a prehistoric 'mother tongue' first spoken in Africa tens of thousands of years ago.

• 500 languages traced back to Stone Age dialect
• The further away from Africa a language is spoken, the fewer distinct sounds it has
• English has around 46 sounds, while the San bushmen of South Africa use a staggering 200
• Study finds speech evolved 'at least 100,000 years ago

The findings suggest that human speech was a reality at least 100,000 years ago, far earlier than previously thought.


Related reading: The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; DNA Evidence of the Kushite Expansion; Is Hebrew an African Language?; Migrations Out of Africa

Kushite Diversity and Unity

Alice C. Linsley


The Kushite rulers held a theology that Biblical Anthropologists recognize. This can be determined from artifacts such as the Sheba-qo Stone which describes the theology that held sway at Heliopolis (Biblical On) and Memphis. The Stone dates to the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, but the theology is much older. According to this theology the Creator is the great Craftsman who gives wisdom and skill to the King and his craftsmen. This is expressed in Proverbs 25:2 - "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."

The royal craftsmen worked with visible things such as tools of stone and metal. The Creator, on the other hand, works with what is concealed and mysterious like the wind or breath (ruach). The breath of the Creator went forth at the beginning of creation and things were created out of His mouth/word, and not from a pre-existing substance. He crafted the heavens above and the earth below, and separated the light from darkness. This theology is expressed in Genesis 1 and in the Wisdom Tradition that regards God as the architect whose wisdom is evident in the order of creation.

The seats of wisdom that have been identified in the Bible include Tema, Edom and Tyre, all of which have a history of metal work and connection to the Horite ruler-priests.

The Feminine Principle (Heb: hokma, Gr: sophia) is described in language that identifies her with the ruach of God. She says, “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist… I walk in the depth of the abyss.” (Wisdom of Ben Sirach 24:3,5) Here we have echoes of Genesis 1 where we are told that the Spirit of God went forth over the chaotic waters and brought order, separating the waters above (firmament) from the waters below, and the seas from the day land. This ordering Principle is sometimes called Tehut, and the oldest known moral code is the Law of Tehut.

Tehut is sometimes likened to the Egyptian Ma'at, but there is a significant difference. Ma'at was created whereas Tehut appears to be the generative and uncreated Word of God (logos). Proverbs 8:22-31 and 9:1-6 appear to be about Ma'at. She says that "Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works... the deep was not, when I was born..." Whether Proverbs is attributed to Solomon or to a time well after Solomon, the theology concerning Ma'at comes from a period much later than Abraham's Kushite ancestors.


The Kushites reflect the genetic diversity of Africa

Among the Kushites are the dark skinned Dravidians, the Sudra, who established their religious practices in southern Pakistan and India. This is called the Harappa culture. Har-appa is Dravidian for "Horus is Father". The Dravidians have much in common with the Nilotic people living in the Horn of Africa.

"Kushite" is a general term that includes many people groups who lived along the Nile and in the Chadic Basin. Some were light skinned, some black, some reddish, some reddish-brown, and some were brown. To this day Africa has the greatest genetic diversity of any place in the world.

Ancient Nilotic cattle herders were red and black.

Among the Kushites we find Nubians, Beja, Copts, Egyptians, Proto-Saharans, Horites, and their kinsmen who were living on the western and southern coast of Arabia.

DNA studies of the Sudan show "genetic unity and linkage" between the Sudanic, Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples, as well as some populations of the Horn of Africa (Yurco (1996), Keita (1993, 2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003, 2007). Genetic and linguistic research indicates that the Copts are one of the oldest Egyptian populations. This is based on the relatively high frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early pre-dynastic colonization of Egypt by Upper Nilotes.

From the University of Khartoum we have this report:

The area known today as Sudan may have been the scene of pivotal human evolutionary events, both as a corridor for ancient and modern migrations, as well as the venue of crucial past cultural evolution. Several questions pertaining to the pattern of succession of the different groups in early Sudan have been raised. To shed light on these aspects, ancient DNA (aDNA) and present DNA collection were made and studied using Y-chromosome markers for aDNA, and Y-chromosome and mtDNA markers for present DNA. Bone samples from different skeletal elements of burial sites from Neolithic, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods in Sudan were collected from Sudan National Museum. aDNA extraction was successful in 35 out of 76 samples, PCR was performed for sex determination using Amelogenin marker. Fourteen samples were females and 19 were males. To generate Y-chromosome specific haplogroups A-M13, B-M60, F-M89 and Y Alu Polymorphism(YAP) markers, which define the deep ancestral haplotypes in the phylogenetic tree of Y-chromosome were used. Haplogroups A-M13 was found at high frequencies among Neolithic samples. Haplogroup F-M89 and YAP appeared to be more frequent among Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods. Haplogroup B-M60 was not observed in the sample analyzed.For extant DNA, Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup variations were studied in 15 Sudanese populations representing the three linguistic families in Sudan by typing the major Y haplogroups in 445 unrelated males, and 404 unrelated individuals were sequenced for the mitochondrial hypervariable region.

Y-chromosome analysis shows Sudanese populations falling into haplogroups A, B, E, F, I, J, K, and R in frequencies of 16.9, 8.1, 34.2, 3.1, 1.3, 22.5, 0.9, and 13% respectively. Haplogroups A, B, and E occur mainly in Nilo-Saharan speaking groups including Nilotics, Fur, Borgu, and Masalit; whereas haplogroups F, I, J, K, and R are more frequent among Afro-Asiatic speaking groups including Arabs, Beja, Copts, and Hausa, and Niger-Congo speakers from the Fulani ethnic group.

Accordingly, though limited on number of a DNA samples, there is enough data to suggest and to tally with the historical evidence of the dominance by Nilotic elements during the early state formation in the Nile Valley, and as the states thrived there was a dominance by other elements particularly Nuba/Nubians."

Correlating the data with the Bible

It is difficult to correlate the Kushites with the peoples living in Arabia and the coast lands who are listed in Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and Joshua. It is evident that Canaan, Phoenicia and greater Arabia were populated by many peoples, including Amorites, Dedanites, Horites, Jebusites and Kenites. The tent-dwelling Kenites were in Canaan during Saul's reign, as evidenced by I Samuel 15:6 - "Saul sent this warning to the Kenites: 'Move away from where the Amalekites live, or you will die with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up from Egypt.' So the Kenites packed up and left."

The Kenites were itinerant metal workers and probably related to the metal working Nes of Anatolia. In ancient Egypt the term Nesu biti refered to the ruler of a united Upper Nile and the Lower Nile. Nesu biti contains the signs for papyrus sedge and bee. Sedge symbolized the Upper Nile and the bee was the symbol of the Lower Nile.

Genesis 10:15-19, traces the Canaanite peoples to an otherwise unknown descendant of Noah: "Canaan fathered Sidon his first-born, then Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later Canaanite clans spread out. The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lehsa."

The root of the names Arkite and Arvadite is AR and its origin is likely Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The ancient Egyptian Asa-ar means the Serpent of Asa (Deity). The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples and shrines.

A Jebusite ruler called Araunah sold King David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. Araunah means "the lord".

In II Chronicles and I Kings 9:20 only the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are identified as living in the land.

Exodus 3:8 provides this list: "The Canaanite, and Hethite, and Amorite and Perizzite, and Hivite, and Jebusite."

Joshua 12:8 provides this list of peoples living in Canaan in the hill country, the western foothills, the Jordan Valley, the mountain slopes, the Judean wilderness, and the Negev: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Another list appears in Deuteronomy. "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you..." (Deut. 7:1)

Genesis 15:19-21 lists "the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

Some names are descriptive. Perizzites, for example, means "scattered people." The Hivites are connected to the Hittites. These were metal workers who introduced iron work to Anatolia. They called themselves the Nes (NS) and their language was called Nesli.

The proto-root for vein, river, tongue, sinew, lightening and serpent was NS. The S originally would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). NS suggests connection between heaven and earth, and between deity and man. The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans, such as the Hittites.

The names Hittite and Hivite share the root HT (same as the name Het or Heth). Genesis 10 tells us that these two clans form a Heth confederation. HT in the Hebrew and Arabic refers to copper - nahas-het. Nahash means serpent. As an adjective it means shining bright, like burnished copper. So the evidence suggests that the clans of HT were Bronze Age coppersmiths. The serpent image was sacred for them, as it was for Moses and the people in the wilderness.

We note that the Horites do not appear in any of these lists. That is because they were not a people, but rather a caste of ruler-priests who lived dispersed among the peoples from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates (cf. Gen. 15:18). The Septuagint incorrectly identified the Horites (“Choraios”) with the Hittites, though doubtless there here Horite Hebrew priest serving among the Hittite rulers.

The only peoples that appear in all these lists are the Amorites and the Jebusites. The Biblical writers are in agreement that these two peoples inhabited Canaan from very early. They are probably related clans, not different ethnic groups.


Who were the Amorites?

The Amorites, also called the Amurru, lived in ancient Egypt and are shown on tomb as light skinned with reddish brown hair. This has been confirmed by Flinders Petrie and Archibald Sayce. According to Sayce, "The Amorites… were a tall, handsome people, with white skins, blue eyes and reddish hair, all the characteristics, in fact, of the white race." (The Hittites, 1889)

The Amorites are represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, and pointed beards. Tomb No. 34 at Thebes (18th Dynasty, c. 1550-c. 1292), shows a bearded Amorite chief with white skin and red-brown hair. Henry George Tomkins (1897), a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, also concluded that the Amorites were fair haired with blue eyes.


Who were the Jebusites?

The Jebusites likely ranged from reddish-brown to black with dark hair and dark eyes. Some may have had green eyes. Prince Rotimi Obadofin believes that “perhaps the Jebusites, that is the original inhabitants of Jerusalem were Ijebu people of today, since Oke-Eri is owned and inhabited by Ijebu people.” Eri is connected with the huge archaeological monument of Eredo. Eridu is also the name of the oldest known Sumerian city.

The Jebusites may indeed be the Ijebu who are an extant people and related to the modern day Edomites who are called "Edo." Both peoples live in Nigeria and Benin. The Jebusites had close connections with the Horites of Edom. Melchizedek, the Priest-King of Jerusalem (Jebu/Yebu), was Jebusite and a kinsman to Abraham. Melchizedek was probably the brother-in-law of Joktan, Abraham's father-in-law.



Related reading: Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Jebusites Unveiled; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom; Canaanite Origins of the Alphabet; The African Background of Genesis; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Kushite Gold; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Kenite-Horite Connection