Conscious of Our Uniqueness as Humans

Ainu of Northern Japan

Many aboriginal peoples have a name for themselves that simply means people, humans or human beings. In Genesis 1, Adam (adamah) means human, and in Genesis 2 Adam refers to a red human.

The ancient Akkadian word ḫāpiru means human being.

The Ainu are an aboriginal people of Northern Japan and the eastern seaboard of Canada. The word Ainu means human.

The ancient metal workers of Anatolia called themselves the Nes (NS) which means humans, and their language was called Nesli. There is a linguistic connection to modern Serbian. In Serbian nas means us, naš means our, naši means our people, naški means our language.

Naxi elders in Yunnan China.

There is a Tibetan-Burmese population with the name Naxi. Naxi means "honored people."

The natives of the Aleutian Islands call themselves "Anishinabe" which means "First Men" or "Original Men."

The Inuktitut word Inuit means "human beings." The Inuit are the "first people" of Baffin Island in Canada, the Northwest Territories, Greenland and Alaska.

The Shoshone call themselves Newe (nih-wih), meaning “the people.”

The Blackfeet people call themselves the Niitsitape (nee-itsee-TAH-peh), meaning “the real people.”

It appears that the earliest populations self-identified as human, as distinct from other creatures. This is explicit in the story of Adam naming the animals. The Man and the animals are created from the same substance. They are formed from the earth and are earth creatures. As the story continues Adam discovers that he is unique. There is no other creature like him. He is alone until God fashions a companion for him, the woman.

Even some names given by paleoanthropologists to archaic populations work like this. For example. "Sahelanthropus tchadensis" simply means the humans of the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin.


Related reading: Adam Was a Red Man; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; The Father of Adam and Eve; On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality; The Truth of Human Exceptionalism

Racism of Young-Earth Creationists

Alice C. Linsley

At the back of Young Earth Creationist books such as Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth by Terry Mortenson 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..."

This is the easiest of the Young Earth Creationist claims to refute since the evidence of many languages and skin colors before the time of the Tower of Babel is overwhelming and cannot be denied by reasonable persons. The spread of the early written marks is an example. Other examples involve the dispersion of peoples out of Africa and studies of phoneme variance among them. A recent phoneme study has identified the Nile Valley as the point of origin of modern languages. These dispersed peoples had a range of skin color and languages and they were already widely dispersed before the time of Noah and his 3 sons.

Tera means priest in the ancient Egyptian (and in Japan). Abraham's father was Terah (Tera). This is a title, as is evident from the Petrie image above which gives tera-neter as "one devoted to God." Tera is a title associated with the Ainu, the builders of the shrine city of On (Heliopolis) on the Nile. The Harris papyrus speaks of 'apiru (Hebrew) of Re at Heliopolis. Joseph married into this royal priest line when he took Asenath as his wife. She was a daughter of the priest of On, also known as Iunu, meaning "place of pillars."

The Horite priests of Heliopolis were known for their meticulous devotion to the Creator and his son, and for their sobriety and purity of life. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.” 

The Nilotic Ainu had a reddish-brown skin tone and their elders wore beards, moustaches and caps with frontal knobs, just as do the Ainu elders of Japan and Eastern Canada. The Ainu spread from the Nile to Japan and to Northeastern Canada via Scandinavia. In Canada they are known as the Micmaq. They came in two waves from the Middle East to Scandinavia, then to Greenland and to the Hudson Bay area of Eastern Canada. They are in haplogroup X2b5, which is traced by maternal line and dates to about 1,550 B.C.

There is evidence that the early written signs of the Nilotic Ainu may have become the basis for the Ainu script of Japan. It is perhaps the most lasting heritage of the Ainu of whom only about 300 pure-blooded remain. This explains why the Hebrew and Japanese alphabets are so similar.

Migrations Out of Africa

The negrito Andaman and Nicobar Islanders migrated between 70,000 and 50,000 years ago from Africa and Arabia along the coastlines, and eventually crossing the seas.  The Onges and Jarawas of Andaman and Nicobar belong to Haplotype D, a subtype of Haplogroup C, which is also common in Tibet and Japan. The Ainu aboriginal people of Japan are in haplotype D (Y-chromosome) and haplogroup X (mitochondrial chromosome).

Michael Petraglia, from the University of Cambridge, found stone tools at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India that were remarkably similar to those found in 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.

The 20,000 year old human skeletons found at Lake Mungo in New South Wales are likely descendants of early peoples who migrated from Africa, if we follow the red ochre trail. The Lake Mungo population buried its rulers in red ochre, derived from hematite (Fe2O3). This appears to have been a common practices among ancient peoples who dispersed out of Africa. The earliest known use of red ochre powder (300,000 years) is at the site GnJh-03 in the Kapthurin Formation of East Africa, and at Twin Rivers in Zambia.

The Kushite movement out of the Nile Valley is a more recent exodus. The Kushites went as far east as the Philippine Islands. (See Kushites in Mindanao.)


The Proto-Saharans (ca. 10,000-3000 BC)

Between 10,000-3000 years ago the Sahara was much wetter. Seasonal rainfall turned the Sahara into a fertile savannah with sedentary populations. The oldest known cemetery in the Sahara (ca. 7500 B.C.) reveals "The burial density, tool kit, ceramics, and midden fauna suggest a largely sedentary population with a subsistence economy based on fishing and on hunting of a range of savanna vertebrates." The discovery was made by National Geographic photographer Mike Hettwer in 2000.

Proto-Saharan peoples fished and hunted. Ancient Sudan rock paintings show fishing nets. The much older Khormusan sites of ancient Nubia (65,000 and 55,000 years) also reveal evidence of fishing and hunting.

The Proto-Saharans navigated the interconnected rivers which were their highways and trade routes. Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, and Niger had rivers and lakes that connected to major water systems that are identifiable today, such as the Niger, the Benue, Lake Chad and the Nile. The 8000 year old Dufuna boat, a fishing dugout, was found buried in the Sahara.

The cave paintings at Gilf Kebir in the Sahara date to about 6000 BC. At that time a sizeable community lived on this vast sandstone plateau near the Egyptian-Libyan border, about 400 miles from the Nile.

The Proto-Saharans raised cattle in the Lake Chad region which was a much larger lake. They venerated cattle and left behind engravings of bulls and cows with solar disc between their horns. This image was associated with Hathor, the Virgin Queen whose son was Horus. They built the oldest known fortress city dedicated to Horus and Hathor at Nekhen (4000 BC). At archaeologists have discovered a temple, elaborate burial sites, and evidence of animal sacrifice. The rulers of Nekhen had access to sub-Saharan mineral resources of the eastern desert. The high quality of the gold work at Nekhen is evidenced by the discovery of this gold plumed falcon representing Horus.

Proto-Saharan peoples moved into the Nile Valley as the Sahara began to dry. Some would later be called "Kushites." Some crossed the Indian Ocean from East Africa and settled in southern India. These are the Dravidians. There is a close linguistic and religious connection between the Kushites and the Dravidians. The Africanist Geoffrey Parrinder has noted that at least twenty-five tribes in East Africa worship Murungu as the Supreme God, and like the Dravidian god Murugan, the African Murungu self-reveals on sacred mountains.


The Kushite Expansion (ca. 3500-1500 BC)

Genetic research indicates that the term "Kushite" embraces a wide range of peoples. Some of Abraham's ancestors came out of the Nile Valley and are referred to as Kushites in Genesis 10:6-12. Kushite in the Bible refers to the descendants of Noah by his grandson Kush. However, the term includes many people of different skin tones and languages. The Amratian "Kushites" lived about 4000-3500 BC, before the time of Noah.

The Kushites included red and black Nubians, reddish Ainu, red, white and black Canaanites, red, black and yellow Nilotes, red-brown, light brown, black and yellow Egyptians, red-brown and black Sudra, and red, white and brown Mesopotamians. The variety of skin tones is evident on ancient monument paintings in Egypt, Sudan and in the Middle East and Turkey.

Red and black Nubian captives
(Detail from Ippolito Rosellini's drawing from the 1828 Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt)

Genesis 10 speaks of the migration of the Kushites into Mesopotamia. The Kushite migration has been confirmed by DNA studies. The Kushites were great pyramid builders and the ziggurats were a type of stepped pyramid similar to that of Djoser at Saqqara constructed between 2667–2648 BC. No pyramids had yet been built in Sumer/Kish. The ziggurats date to the Akkadian period, about 2334–2218 BC. The earliest monarch of Sumer whose historical existence has been independently attested through archaeological inscription ruled Kish about 2700–2600 BC.

Amenhotep III ruled between about 1382 and 1350 B.C. His name means "peace of Amen" and indicates a date when Amen, a name for God was favored over the name Set, which was favored in the Delta. It was during the 18th dynasty that the title 'King's Son of Kush' was first used. The earlier known Kushite ruler was called Kashta which means "The Throne of Kush." This is about 1000 years after the construction of ziggurats, so the Kushite expansion out of Africa is one of the most recent movements out of Africa.

The Kushite expansion out of the Nile Valley is one of the later migrations out of Africa, between about 3500 and 1500 B.C. The Kushites represent a highly organized people, consisting of numerous clans and castes. Their rulers controlled the major water systems and founded early mining industries along the Nile and in southern Israel. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder. He and his brother Ramah were the sons of Kush (Gen. 10:6-12).

The Biblical term "Kushite" refers to peoples, castes and specific culture traits that emerged from the archaic Proto-Saharans. This would include Canaanites, Hittites, Sumerians, Elamites, and the Horite Hebrew/Habiru. Among these peoples there was a wide range of skin color and a great diversity of languages. To this day, the greatest linguistic and genetic diversity exists in Africa, from which the ancestors of these peoples spread along the coastlines and by sea around 70,000 years ago.

Linguistic Diversity

There are hundreds of language families in the world. Each subdivides into hundreds of languages, dialects and sub-dialects. The most diverse of the language groups is the oldest group, the Afro-Asiatic language family. This includes Chadic, Kushitic, Ugaritic, Elamite, Semitic, Hausa, Amharic, Ethiopic, Magyar, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Babylonian, etc. There is also a linguistic connection to Dravidian and Yoruba.

All the peoples and rulers mentioned in Genesis 10 can be placed linguistically within this language family. The Bible is their story. It tells how God fulfilled the promise of the Son that was made to their ancestors in Eden (Gen. 3:15). These peoples exhibit a range of physical features so that it is impossible to speak of a "race" - a term that does not appear in the Bible. It is ignorant and groundless to assert that skin color is the result of God's judgment.

I agree with Dr. Joshua Zorn, a former young-earth creationist, who said: "The worst aspect of YECS teaching is that it creates a nearly insurmountable barrier between the educated world and the church."

Related reading: Bishop Ussher's Flawed Timeline; The Begats Speak of the First people on Earth?; The Tower of Babel; The Red-City of Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; The Nile and Tigris Linguistically Connected; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; Moses' Horite Family; Nilotic Cattle Herders; Genesis as History?

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

Adam Was a Red Man

Alice C. Linsley

The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Some of these people were rulers in Edom. These are listed in Genesis 36. Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger were among them. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26.

The name Adam is derived from the root אדם (A.D.M), which is a verb meaning "to be red or ruddy" (Strong’s #119).

The Hebrew word for red is edom and it is a cognate to the Hausa word odum, meaning red-brown. Both are related to the word dam, meaning blood, and to the name of the first man Adam, who was formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. It is evident then that the Upper Nile is the urheimat of the Adam and Eve story.

Jeff A. Benner, an expert on ancient Hebrew, explains:

We are all familiar with the name "Adam" as found in the book of Genesis, but what does it really mean? Let us begin by looking at its roots. This word/name is a child root derived from the parent דם meaning, "blood". By placing the letter א in front of the parent root, the child rootאדם is formed and is related in meaning to דם (blood).

By examing a few other words derived from the child root אדם we can see a common meaning in them all. The Hebrew word אדמה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning "ground" (see Genesis 2:7). The word/name אדום (Edom) means "red". Each of these words have the common meaning of "red". Dam is the "red" blood, adamah is the "red" ground, edom is the color "red" and adam is the "red" man. There is one other connection between "adam" and "adamah" as seen in Genesis 2:7 which states that "the adam" was formed out of the "adamah".

In the ancient Hebrew world, a person’s name was not simply an identifier but descriptive of one's character. As Adam was formed out of the ground, his name identifies his origins. (From here.)

Though the story of red Adam comes originally from the Upper Nile, the account was preserved by his Edomite descendants, one of whom was Abraham. Abraham's territory was between Hebron and Beersheba. As can be seen from the map below, his territory was entirely in the region of Edom. The people who lived there had a reddish skin tone. That is why the Greeks called this region Idumea, meaning "land of red people."

Isaac was Abraham's proper heir, and as such, he inherited Abraham's territory. Edom was under the control of Horites, what the Jews call their "Horim." Both Hebron (where Sarah lived) and Beersheba (where Keturah lived) are in Edom. Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his two wives, and included mountains, lowlands wells, and the water system at Engedi.

David is related to the Horite rulers of Edom and he is described in the Bible as red/ruddy. Samuel, the son of a Horite priest from Ramah, anointed him ruler.

And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are these all the children?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep." Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he." Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. (1 Samuel 16:11- 13)


Here are images of people whose skin tone ranges from brown-red to red-brown

Beja of Sudan

Egyptian man in red

Grieving Egyptian
Note the reddish-brown skin tone

A red people is mentioned in African creation stories. It is said that God created the first human by mixing soil with his blood. This is circulated among the Igbo, for example, whose ancestors originated in the Upper Nile Valley. The Igbo belong to MtDNA haplogroup L1, believed to have first appeared approximately 150,000 to 170,000 years ago in East Africa.

The red descendants of the Proto-Saharans appear mainly to be in Haplogroup R1b, the point of origin of which was the wetlands extending from the Nile to Lake Chad. Lake Chad was Noah's homeland. It is shown above in the dark red area in Central Africa.

Some of Abraham's Horite Habiru ancestors can be traced back to the shrine city of Nekhen. One of the more intriguing discoveries at Nekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The facial hair of the man in Burial no. 79 had been trimmed with a sharp blade. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this individual may have been Ainu (Annu). The Ainu were among Abraham's ancestors, and although they were widely dispersed before Abraham's time, the Nile Valley appears to be their point of origin. The Annu built the original shrine of Heliopolis which is called "Onn" in Genesis 41. Joseph married the daughter of the high priest on Onn.

The map shows that the red peoples extended into southwestern China. The Tarum mummies of China had red hair and beards. The oldest Tarum Mummies found in China date from 1900 B.C. The so-called "Ur-David" mummy (shown below) was tall and had red hair. This mummy, also called Cherchen Man or Chärchän Man, dates to about 1000 B.C.

Note the solar mark on the face of this archaic ruler.

Related reading: Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Archaic Rulers, Ascendancy, and the Foreshadowing of Christ; The Kushite-Kushan Connection;  Solving the Ainu Mystery; The Nilotic Origins of the Ainu; Abraham's Ainu Ancestors; Samuel's Horite Family; What Color Was Abraham?; Millions of Years Between Genesis 4:1 and 4:17; Theories of Primal Substance; Ethical Concerns of Archaic Communities

Solving the Ainu Mystery

Ainu couple with pet bear and Japanese visitor circa 1930

The man wears the distinctive head gear of Ainu elders,  
the same worn by Micmac Ainu elders of Canada and 
by the Annu chiefs of the ancient Upper Nile.

Alice C. Linsley

For some time I have been exploring the possible connections between the ancient Annu of the Upper Nile, the Ainu of Hokkaido and Okinawa, and the Ainu of Canada's eastern seaboard. Recent DNA studies have revealed that the Ainu of Hokkaido and the Ryukyuans of Okinawa have a closer genetic affinity than either group has to the Japanese. The Ainu of Japan possess almost exclusively Haplogroup D-M174 chromosomes.

One theory is that the Ainu migrated to Japan from the Nile Valley by a northern route.

It is likely that they migrated by a southern route also and that there were different periods of migration. There is no doubt that the Ainu dispersed widely during the late Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods. "Ainu moshir" refers to the Ainu homeland, which includes many regions in which Ainu live. Tessa Morris-Suzuki has written that the geographical boundaries of the dispersed Ainu populations have never been precisely identified, and even the Ainu themselves are not able to identify all of them.

The ancient Nilotic Annu/Ainu were associated with the shrine at Heliopolis (Biblical On), one of the most prestigious of the ancient world. Anu is also the name of their God in Akkadian, suggesting that the Nilotic Annu were a preist caste that also migrated into Mesopotamia.

San of Botswana
Note the skin tone

Still missing is a definitive DNA study of the Micmaq Ainu of Canada. The information I provide here comes from a Canadian Ainu informant whose grandfather was pure Ainu. There are also Ainu living in western China, but I have little information about them.

The connections suggest a dispersion of Proto-Ainu much earlier than I would have guessed. The Ainu today appear to be the descendants of the prehistoric Wa. This indicates a connection back to Africa and to the Y-chromosomal Adam and Haplogroup A. The San are in Y-DNA Haplogroup A. This group is the foundation of all known patri-lineages carried by modern humans. However, Haplogoup A is found only among men in Africa, or among men outside of Africa of recent African extraction. The Ainu are in Y-DNA Haplogroup D, found in Northern Japan and Okinawa.

The Khoisan-Japanese connection calls for further research. The Arabic name for the San is Wakwak. The Sandawe (Tanzania) call the Bushmen Wanege. Wa was the earlier name for Japan and the word appears in the name Okina-wa.

While the Khoisan do not have a word for priest, they do recognize the role of the holy man who makes pure after blood is shed. W'b in ancient Egyptian refers to the priest caste, the pure ones, and the healer priest was called wab sxmt (wab sekhmet). There is an interesting connection to the Sumerian word wasabu which means to sit. The Egyptian word wabau is likely related. It refers to a healer-priest, one is sits by the sick person.

A comparison of the Kata Japanese and Hebrew scripts reveals a connection that is likely explained by the fact that the earliest scripts were those used by priests attached to rulers over many regions worldwide.

A scribe called Wani Kishi is said to have brought Kata to Japan. It is used by the Ainu of Northern Japan. Japan's earliest known population was Ainu. The Kojiki indicates that Wani Kishi arrived sometime after 372, but before 375 AD. Kata was a priestly syllabic system, similar to Hebrew. Wa-kishi is an African term that refers to the ancestors.

There are many connections between Japanese and African words. For example, the name Isahi appears to be a variant of Esau or Issa. Kishi appears to be a variant of Kish and Kush. Obito, the title for a regional chief in Japan, is related to the Edo (Africa)/Edomite (Southern Arabia) word for chief, which is Oba. The first ruler of Petra was the Horite ruler Obodas. These ancient rulers were said to have a reddish skin tone (as was the case with Esau and David). The ancient Greeks called Edom "Idumea" which means "land of red people." The original name of Tokyo was Edo.

There is artifact evidence of connections also. Consider the similarity between these two garments.

Banana thread (ito basho) robe of Ryukyu

Kente cloth of Ashante ruler-priests

The Ainu attus is made from the fiber of an elm tree native to Hokkaido. This traditional robe bears close resemblance to the traditional African dashiki.

Ainu attus

African dashiki

Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance chart places the Ainu rather distant from the Bushman, but the anthropological and linguistic suggest a connection. Given this scheme, the dispersion of the ancestors of the Ainu out of Africa has to have taken place before the separation of Africans and Asians. Still, more research is needed.

Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's Genetic Distance Chart

places the Ainu at the center between Asian and African

The anthropological and linguistic evidence along with the evidence of migration studies strongly suggests that the urheimat of the ancestors of the Japanese Ainu and the Micmac Ainu of Eastern Canada may have been the Nile Valley. The genetic evidence is still outstanding. Molecular Geneticist, David Wilcox has written:

Let me clear up how the genealogies like Cavalli-Sforza's should be viewed. The position of the branches doesn't mean much - what counts is what they are connected to. Each branch point represents a point where two lineages diverged. The Japanese Aniu in the diagram are genetically closest to the group containing Japanese, Koreans, Mongols, Samoyed and Tibetian in their overall genomes. The present day Nilotic peoples are part of the African complex at the top. The distribution of the Haplogroup X (which did indeed arise from N in the Middle East - maybe 30 to 40,000 years ago), on the other hand, is interesting and might indeed indicate a migration from Europe rather than Asia - but it could also indicate an early migration from the west which was pushed eastward by the further migrations from Asia.  I'm not sure what to think about it, but I would suggest that a few of the Micmac people submit their DNA to the National Geographic project for tracing migrations and see what sort of result they get - preferably someone from the easternmost area which has the highest level of X, and thus probably the lowest level of Asian admixture.

Best wishes,

David Wilcox

The genetic evidence connecting the Ainu of Hokkaido and Okinawa with the Edo of Nigeria is rather more substantial. The latest writings indicate a consensus that YAP’s origin is in West Africa (Nigeria), with a founding derivative clade in the ancestors of the Shiya Muslims who made their way to South Asia (India), Central Asia and eventually to Japan.

Related reading: Japanese Author Traces Nippon Origin to Hebrew Race; Who Are the Ainu?; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; More East Africa-Asia Connections; Edo, Edom, Idumea; The ongoing mystery of the Ainu portraits in France

NPR's climate spin a distracton

Photo: Stephan C. Schuster/Penn State University

Some 22,000 years ago, they were the largest group of humans on earth: the Khoisan, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.

Today, only about 100,000 Khoisan, who are also known as Bushmen, remain. Stephan C. Schuster, professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has published new research about the tribe, many of whom now live in poverty, their cultural traditions endangered. We spoke to Schuster about his study and the lives of the Khoisan.

Read the NPR article here.


This NPR report barely scrapes the surface when it comes to putting the pieces of the ethnographic puzzle together. Study of the Khoisan and other "endangered peoples" is essential to seeing how the pieces fit together, but one wonders why someone felt it necessary to put the climate change spin on the report?

Keep in mind that genetic and linguistic diversity decrease the farther from Africa. Climate is a factor in why populations move, but it is not a factor in the loss of genetic and linguistic diversity. Climate changes are considered in migration studies.

The term "Khoi-san" represents the relationship between the Khoe-Khoe (Hottentot) and the San (Bushman). They are genetically kin, though not as close as researchers had expected. "San" is not what the Khoisan of Namibia call themselves. It is a term used among the Nama to indicate people who have no cattle; people of a lower social standing. "Koisan" in Japanese means "youngest daughter of an honored family" and this may provide a clue as to the original clan hierarchy of the Khoisan. Those without cattle were still family, but of a lower social status.

Notice the reddish skin tone of these Khoisan, an indicator of their genetic antiquity. The black tones came later with the arrival of the Bantu. There may be a connection between the San and the red Nubian Ainu, but more research needs to be done. There is evidence to suggest a connection between the Ainu of Northern Japan and the Micmac Ainu of Eastern Canada. Again more research needs to be done to solve the mystery of the widely dispersed Ainu.

The Ainu are at the center of Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance chart, which is what would be expected of a people whose ancestors dispersed widely following major water systems. Today Ainu populations are found along the Nile, in Western China, in Northern Japan, and along the eastern seaboard of Canada.

Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's Genetic Distance Chart

places the Ainu at the center 

The Khoisan-Japanese connection seems more probable when we consider the Arabic name for the San: Wakwak. The Sandawe (Tanzania) call the Bushmen Wanege. Wa was the earlier name for Japan and the word appears in the name Okinawa. Likely this is related to the Ainu word for water: Ainu: ワㇰカ [wakːa]. The African variant of Okinawa would be Jokinawah (akin to the Biblical names Joachin/Joktan?). W'b in Ancient Egyptian refers to the priest caste, the pure ones. Recent DNA studies have revealed that the Ainu of Hokkaido and the Ryukyuans of Okinawa have a closer genetic affinity than either group has to the Japanese.

There are many connections between Japanese and African words. For example, the name Isahi appears to be a variant of Esau or Issa. Kishi appears to be a variant of Kish and Kush. Obito, the title for a regional chief in Japan, is related to the Edo (Africa)/Edomite (Southern Arabia) word for chief, which is Oba. The region of modern Tokyo was called Edo. The people of Benin in Africa call themselves Edo and their ruler is called Oba. The first ruler of Petra was the Horite ruler Obodas. These ancient rulers were said to have a reddish skin tone (as was the case with Esau and David). The ancient Greeks called Edom "Idumea" which means "land of red people."

A comparison on the Kata and Hebrew scripts reveals a connection that is likely explained by the fact that the earliest scripts were those used by priests attached to rulers over many regions worldwide.

A Korean scribe called Wani Kishi is said to have brought Kata to Japan. It is used by the Ainu of Northern Japan. Japan's earliest known population was Ainu. The Kojiki indicates that Wani Kishi arrived sometime after 372, but before 375 AD. Kata was a priestly syllabic system, similar to Hebrew. Wa-kishi is an African term found among the Ba-Kaonde of Northern Rhodesia. It refers to the ancestors.

Note that Cavalli-Sforza's chart does not include Jews. Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the human genetics program at the New York University School of Medicine, led one of the studies that compared the genetic makeup of Jewish populations from around the world with African populations. Ostrer found that modern Jewish populations have African ancestry. David Reich, associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, explored further and found that Jews can attribute about 5 percent of their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africans. Where would they fit on Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance chart? Were I to venture a guess, I would say the urheimat of the ancestors of the Jews - their "Horim" - is the Upper Nile, and that these ancestors were red Nubian Ainu. This is why a reddish skin tone in mentioned in association with Biblical figures like Esau and David.

Linguistic research has demonstrated that about 30 percent of the Proto-Semitic roots are cognates to Sub-Saharan roots, including Proto-Bantu roots. Many of these roots express ideas found among the ancient Kushites and the Horim (Horites). In his study of the relationship of ancient Egyptian and Bantu languages, Ferg Somo wrote:

Proto-Bantu played an active part at the time of the expansion of Proto-Afro-Asiatic speakers in the Rift Valley of East Africa. These Proto-Bantu speakers going through the savannah formed part of the migration to Egypt. The Bantu languages together with other indigenous languages fused together and became embedded to form the Proto-Egyptian language. It is for this reason that the Ancient Egyptian language contains a substantial amount of Proto-Bantu or Bantu roots.

The Bantu expansion into the region of the Upper Nile and the Great Rift Valley had already taken place by 1500 BC. This is evident from the images of Nubian captives from the time of Ramesses II (1303-1213 B.C.) These images show red and black Nubian captives. The black Nubians have Bantu features. As the two groups were fighting together, it appears that they had already formed a moeity.

Detail from a Ippolito Rosellini painting 

done during the Franco-Italian Expedition to Egypt in 1828

There is archaeological evidence of the Khoisan peoples in Africa for at least 60,000 years, though the genetic evidence indicates a much longer existence. They are characterized by considerable diversity in customs and regional dialects. Some Khoisan inhabit regions closer to the Horn of Africa. The Hadza and Sandawe languages in Tanzania are classified as Khoisan also. The Hadzabe once roamed freely with their cattle over the Great Rift Valley. Genetic research has shown that the Hadzabe split from other Click-speaking populations perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, but definitely by 50,000 years ago. (Science, 27 Feb. 2004, p. 1320)

Before the 20th century, many Sandawe lived in tepee-like huts called "sandu." Today these are built only as temporary shelters at circumcision sites.

It is likely that the ancestors of the Khoisan and Ainu dispersed between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. Clearly some would have been able to migrate following the coastline of Africa and the once inter-connected lake basins shown in the map (right). These water systems expanded and contracted with changing weather conditions throughout the Late Pleistocene (125,000-5,000 years ago). There is conclusive scientific evidence that humans dispersed out of Africa, following the routes of major water systems, at different times and from different points during the Late Pleistocene.


Genesis data pertaining to the Ainu

Among the Nilotic Sandawe are the Bisa, a small population of people who conform to the older ways. The Bisa call their light skin cattle ánaku, which means "to bleach in the sun." (Eric Ten Raa’s The Couth and the Uncouth: Ethnic, Social, and Linguistic Divisions among the Sandawe of Central Tanzania, p. 148) The singular form of the word is ának. This is the probable origin of the Biblical term Anakim for Abraham’s Ainu ancestors who had a lighter skin. They are called the "mighty men of old" in Genesis. The NPR attribution: "kings of the planet" rightly applies to them.

Biblical On (Heliopolis) on the Nile was originally an Ainu shrine city. The Ainu were seafarers and had a priestly script which they introduced to the lands where they traveled and settled. Ainu scribe-priests had a syllabic writing system, like Hebrew and Kata.

The importance of the Anu shrine city of Heliopolis is indicated by alignment of the pyramids of Giza, Abusir and Saqqara to the the obelisk of Heliopolis. See the map above. The enigmatic Joseph married the daughter of the priest of On. Likely, she was a distant cousin.

Related reading: Solving the Ainu Mystery; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; Abraham's Anu Ancestors; Kushite Diversity and Unity; Climate Cycles Indicate a Dynamic Earth; Are the Igbo Related to the Israelites?

Making Sense of Genesis 10

Alice C. Linsley


Genesis 10 is one of the most fascinating chapters of Genesis from an anthropological perspective. It is mistakenly called the “Table of Nations” by Young Earth Creationists who believe that the peoples named here are the first peoples to populate the earth after Noah's worldwide flood.  Rather, we have an account of the dispersion of Nilotic peoples across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Among these were the Nilotic Ainu who have been identified through DNA studies as "first nation" peoples.

Genesis 10 provides a picture of how the descendants of Noah were linguistically related people whose point of origin was the Nile valley at a time when the Sahara was wet. All the peoples of Genesis 10 spoke “the same language, with the same vocabulary” (Gen.11:1). These languages are in the Afro-Asiatic group and can be traced back to the Nile Valley. Modern languages developed from the phonemes that were used among these peoples.

DNA studies have confirmed the Kushite migration out of Africa. However, there were already human populations scattered across the earth. Some of those populations resulted from earlier migrations out of Africa. The first took place about 120,000 years ago and the second about 70,000 years ago. The Kushite expansion coincided with the spread of the Horite religion by the Hapiru. In the proto-Saharan languages p is replaced by b so Hapiru also appears as Habiru. Habiru is rendered as "Hebrew" in English Bibles.

Their languages are now largely extinct, but the lexemes can be reconstructed through comparative linguistics. For example, the symbol Y is a solar cradle that represents a whole complex of related ideas including divine appointment, overshadowing, the ruler, the ruler's territory, the ruler's tent, and the ruler's people and herds. This lexeme is reduplicated in the Holy Name YHWH (of Nubian origin).

The linguistic relationship of the clans and castes is evident n the correspondence of their names. So we must look for a third familial phoneme to help us identify units. Consider, for example, this confederation:  Lehab, Lesha  and Letushim (Gen. 25:3). But wait! There may be a fourth: Leummim (Gen. 25:3). Le is a very ancient lexeme. There is also the confederations of Jubal, Jabal and Tubal, and Og, Gog and Magog.

Tsodila Hills of Botswana
Photo credit: S. Coulson

These people comprised a sophisticated network of clans and castes governed by great rulers. They forged the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which extended from Nigeria to India. Noah descendants did spread out of Africa. Genesis 10:8-12 tells us that Noah's great grandson Nimrod built an empire in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. These rulers were "the mighty men of old" or gibboriym (powerful ones) of Genesis 6:1-4.


Archaic Industry

The evidence of archaic human industry, religion, ritual burial, and domesticity in Africa, Arabia and China creates a more accurate picture of the earlier populations. On the Arabian Peninsula, the Qafzeh population was using tools 125,000 years ago at Jebel Faya.

Humans were making reed mattresses 77,000 years ago in South Africa. That is where the oldest mattress, made from compacted grasses and leafy plants, was discovered at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal. In this same region a stone carving of a python has been found that dates to 70,000 years.

There is the evidence of mining in South Africa between 80,000 to 100,000 years ago. These are major mining operations that included quarries and tunnels. It is estimated that a million kilos of red ocher ore was excavated from several mines. At one mine half a million stone-digging tools were found. The red ocher was ground to power and was used globally to bury rulers. Anthropologists agree that the red ocher symbolized blood. Apparently, it was connected to the people’s hope or expectation that the ruler might rise from the dead and lead his faithful people to immortality.

The Pengtoushan culture thrived along the Yangtze River between BC. 7500–6100, and the Yangshao culture flourished along the central Yellow River between BC. 5000 and 3000. Yangshao nobles wore silk garments.

About 4000 years before Noah people were using dugouts to navigate the rivers of the Sahara. This is attested by the discovery of an 8000-year old black mahogany dugout in Dufuna in the Upper Yobe Valley along the Komadugu Guna River in Northern Nigeria. At the time when this boat was used the major water systems of Central Africa and the Nile interconnected.

8000 year old dugout found in the Sahara

Cemeteries were established which reveal ritual burial. Paul Sereno unearthed 10,000 year old skeletons at Gobero in Niger. These were buried on the edge of a paleolake on the northwestern rim of the Chad Basin. The Gobero site is the earliest known cemetery in the Sahara and the skeletons found there indicated that some were at least 6 feet tall.

Gobero skeleton (G3B8) measures 6 feet 6 inches

Photo (c) Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration

At the time of the Gobero populations (9700-4400 years ago), humans were dispersed globally, and during the time of Noah these populations were not destroyed. Consider the following population estimates by urban center between 2400 and 2200 BC, the time when Noah's flood would have occurred:

Memphis, Egypt - 32,000 inhabitants

Lagash, Iraq - 60,000 inhabitants

Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan - 40,000 inhabitants

Mari, Syria -50,000 inhabitants

Baodun settlements, China - Baodun is the largest settlement, covering an area of about 373 miles. There is no evidence of destruction by flooding though all six Baodun settlements straddled the Min River in central Sichuan province. The Min is a tributary of the upper Yangtze River.

There is no evidence that any of these peoples were wiped out by a worldwide flood. The evidence simply does not support the interpretation that all the peoples of the earth were destroyed in a catastrophic global flood and that the earth was repopulated by Noah's descendants.

The Hapiru were a caste of priests who served in the temple. A temple was considered the house or pirû of the deity, so Ha-piru referred to priests who served at the temple or water shrine. In the case of Abraham's people this referred the Horite priests (Horim), devotees of Horus, the "son" or "seed" of the Creator God. His emblem was the sun. The ancient Dravidians referred to their east-oriented temples as Opiru, meaning "Sun House."

Some of these priests were called tera among the Ainu. This is the origin of the name or title of Abraham's father Terah. Among the Ainu of Japan tera refers to a temple. The Ainu people of Japan are in haplotype D (Y-chromosome) and haplogroup X (mitochondrial chromosome). Their elders are bearded and have a red skin tone similar to Abraham's Horite people. Genesis 36 names Seir the Horite as a ruler of Edom = red. The red skin tone Ainu migrated from the Nile to Japan and Eastern Canada, and the dark skin tone Onges and Jarawas (also Haplotype D) migrated to the Maldives, India and parts of Southeast Asia.


Related reading:  From the Nile to The Philippines: Tracing the Gurjars; Was the Earth Repopulated After Noah's Flood?; The Nubian Context of YHWY; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; Boats and Cows of the Nilo-Saharans; Scientific Verification of the Genesis 10 Dispersion; Noah's Flood: Where and When?

Millions of Years Between Gen 4:1 and Gen. 4:17

Alice C. Linsley

Queen Nefertiti
Note her red skin tone.

There are numerous gap theories but none has been so specific as my theory that, if Adam represents the first created human, there must be millions of years between Genesis 4:1 and Genesis 4:17. This is the only possible conclusion since humans have been on the surface of the Earth for over 3 million years.

If Eve is the first created female, there are millions of years between Genesis 4:1 and Genesis 4:17. However, this is not likely what is intended by the Genesis text.

If we look carefully at how Genesis only presents human origins, we come to the conclusion that the word Adam is used different ways. In Genesis 1 it simply refers to humans. In Genesis 3 Adam refers to to the founding father of the people who today we would identified with the Nilotic Ainu/Anu and with Haplogroup R1b. They are known for their distinctive red skin tone.

Support for this view, is found with the narrative of Eve giving birth to the first ruler. Eve is represented as the first mother of the Yahweh followers. In Genesis 4:1 (in Proto-Hebrew), Cain's mother declares, "Ka-niti (Qaniti); I have gotten a man, as has YHWH."

This is a Messianic reference. Kaniti is a reference to king (as Kandake is a reference to queen). This is the second time in the Bible that a woman of Abraham's bloodline is connected to the Messiah. The first is Genesis 3:15, which refers to the "Woman" and not Eve, as Eve is not named until Genesis 3:20.

Qanyty or Qanitti comes from Nilo-Saharan languages like Luo, Oromo and ancient Egyptian. These languages share many phonemes with ancient Akkadian, the language of Nimrod's kingdom. Nimrod was the son of Kush, according to Genesis 10. The Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, means "with the king" or "for the king." It is attached to the names of royalty. Even today the Oromo and the Luo attach itti to names: Onditi, Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name of the great Egyptian queen Nefertitti.

Kain has many linguistic equivalents: Qayan, Cain, and Kahn, as in Genghis Kahn, and the female variant is Candace or Kandake. All these words refer to a king/queen or ruler. The first kings named in the Genesis King Lists are Kain and his brother Seth. They were Middle Bronze Age rulers as is evidenced by the technologies mentioned in Genesis 4-6. They were not the first people on earth. The oldest human (fully human) fossils are about 3 .6 million years. Even if the dating is wrong by 50%, these humans still would have lived long before Kain and Seth.

Clearly there is a gap of millions of years between the creation of the first humans and the rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5. The Bible tells us very little about that span of time. However, it does trace Messianic expectation beginning with the red people of the Upper Nile. Abraham of Edom was related to those red people as were his Horite kinsmen of Edom whose royal lines are named in Genesis 36 (diagram below.)

Obodas, the first ruler of Petra in Edom, took his title from the Edo (Benin) name for ruler which is Oba. The prophet Obadiah was from Edom, according to the Talmud, and said to have been a friend of the Horite ruler Job of Uz. Genesis 36 lists the Horite ruling family of Edom. Among them were two Horite rulers named Esau, as shown in the diagram.

Adam is the first man in Biblical parlance, and he was a red man. The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Kain is the archetype of the worldly ruler. Jude's epistle (c. 68 AD) warns those who might abandon Christ because of their suffering and false teachers that God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain the ruler, Balaam the prophet, and Korah the priest. These were the three most sacred offices among Abraham’s people.

Note that the Holy Name YHWH appears in the text. The point of origin of YHWH has been traced to the Upper Nile, the area from which Abraham's Kushite ancestors came (Gen. 10). The Kushite dispersion out of Africa has been confirmed by DNA studies and linguistic studies.

Related reading:  Solving the Ainu Mystery; Genesis: On Gaps and Overlaps; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; Cain as Ruler; Kushite Kingdom Building; The Nubian Context of YHWH; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Is Scientific Dating Reliable?; Gap Theory or Gap Fact?; Nimrod was a Kushite Ruler; Languages of Africa