Ancient lakes of the Sahara

Innovations Report ^ | Jan 19, 2006 | University of Reading

[blam]

3. Schwarzer Deutsch or Black Germans, found along the Danube River in Austria and Germany, in the Black Forest and, to a lesser extent, along the Rhine River, have dark hair and eyes, unlike the fairer people both north and south of them.
Their descendants in America may be called either Black Dutch or Black German.
The origin of their dark coloration is ancient, from the Roman army in the third and fourth centuries, C.E.
The Roman army of this time period was mostly made up of German mercenary soldiers, but along the German border, the Romans preferred to station non-Germans. The army on the Danube was mostly drawn from Black African soldiers from Nubia (northern Sudan and southern Egypt) and Numidia (Libya).
One significant Numidian people were the Garamante, who were fierce warriors and long resisted Roman conquest, but were later incorporated in the Roman legions and particularly sought as soldiers.
The Garamante (called Tubu now) were Black Africans from the central Sahara. Now the Tubu live in northern Chad, eastern Niger and southern Libya.
They are not usually found north of Marzuk in Fezzan or Kufra in Cyrenaica now, but in Roman times they ranged north to the central coast of Libya and to Ghadames in southern Tunisia.
As well as Garamante and other Africans, there were some Iranic people stationed on this frontier, especially Sarmatians (called Ossets now) and Scythians (Ashkenazi in the Bible) from southern Russia and the Ukraine.

Beethoven and Hitler are two famous examples of this group. It is interesting to imagine Hitler's reaction to someone telling him he probably got his heavy, black hair from Black African ancestry.
Since this was so long ago, with population movement and inter-marriage, all Europeans must have some ancestry from these Black African soldiers.
In sixty generations, a person could leave 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 descendants with just two children per person each generation so long as no descendants married each other.
Obviously, after a time, many descendants will marry each other, but still it works out statistically that most people from that long ago who left descendants at all are ancestors of everyone in Europe today.
The tendency for people to stay in their own community explains why we can see the effects along the Danube and in the Black Forest in the people with black hair and dark eyes but do not see it far afield like Iceland.
The concentration is far greater at the point of origin, but the dispersion radiates out to everywhere given enough time.

[litehaus]

The Garamante Family is now in Southern Italy? ;^)

[zakbrow]

Thanks for the further info.

[Dustbunny]

Excellent article.

[phantomworker]

Thanks for pointing out the Garamantes civilization. I would have missed it.

[SunkenCiv]

I think Sgt. Pepper had a microwave band. Somethin' like that. Hmm. Must be late, I'm lame.

[SunkenCiv]

:') You are too kind. Here's a snip from Herodotus regarding Lake Tritonis, which had declined to marshes by his time.

"Histories"
Book IV "Melpomene"
Herodotus
tr by George Rawlinson

The sea-coast beyond the Lotophagi is occupied by the Machlyans, who use the lotus to some extent, though not so much as the people of whom we last spoke. The Machlyans reach as far as the great river called the Triton, which empties itself into the great lake Tritonis. Here, in this lake, is an island called Phla, which it is said the Lacedaemonians were to have colonised, according to an oracle.

The following is the story as it is commonly told. When Jason had finished building the Argo at the foot of Mount Pelion, he took on board the usual hecatomb, and moreover a brazen tripod. Thus equipped, he set sail, intending to coast round the Peloponnese, and so to reach Delphi. The voyage was prosperous as far as Malea; but at that point a gale of wind from the north came on suddenly, and carried him out of his course to the coast of Libya; where, before he discovered the land, he got among the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As he was turning it in his mind how he should find his way out, Triton (they say) appeared to him, and offered to show him the channel, and secure him a safe retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason complying, was shown by Triton the passage through the shallows; after which the god took the tripod, and, carrying it to his own temple, seated himself upon it, and, filled with prophetic fury, delivered to Jason and his companions a long prediction. "When a descendant," he said, "of one of the Argo's crew should seize and carry off the brazen tripod, then by inevitable fate would a hundred Grecian cities be built around Lake Tritonis." The Libyans of that region, when they heard the words of this prophecy, took away the tripod and hid it.

The next tribe beyond the Machlyans is the tribe of the Auseans. Both these nations inhabit the borders of Lake Tritonis, being separated from one another by the river Triton. Both also wear their hair long, but the Machlyans let it grow at the back of the head, while the Auseans have it long in front. The Ausean maidens keep year by year a feast in honour of Minerva, whereat their custom is to draw up in two bodies, and fight with stones and clubs. They say that these are rites which have come down to them from their fathers, and that they honour with them their native goddess, who is the same as the Minerva (Athene) of the Grecians. If any of the maidens die of the wounds they receive, the Auseans declare that such are false maidens. Before the fight is suffered to begin, they have another ceremony. One of the virgins, the loveliest of the number, is selected from the rest; a Corinthian helmet and a complete suit of Greek armour are publicly put upon her; and, thus adorned, she is made to mount into a chariot, and led around the whole lake in a procession. What arms they used for the adornment of their damsels before the Greeks came to live in their country, I cannot say. I imagine they dressed them in Egyptian armour, for I maintain that both the shield and the helmet came into Greece from Egypt. The Auseans declare that Minerva is the daughter of Neptune and the Lake Tritonis -- they say she quarrelled with her father, and applied to Jupiter, who consented to let her be his child; and so she became his adopted daughter. These people do not marry or live in families, but dwell together like the gregarious beasts. When their children are full-grown, they are brought before the assembly of the men, which is held every third month, and assigned to those whom they most resemble...

Thus from Egypt as far as Lake Tritonis Libya is inhabited by wandering tribes, whose drink is milk and their food the flesh of animals. Cow's flesh, however, none of these tribes ever taste, but abstain from it for the same reason as the Egyptians, neither do they any of them breed swine. Even at Cyrene, the women think it wrong to eat the flesh of the cow, honouring in this Isis, the Egyptian goddess, whom they worship both with fasts and festivals. The Barcaean women abstain, not from cow's flesh only, but also from the flesh of swine.

West of Lake Tritonis the Libyans are no longer wanderers, nor do they practise the same customs as the wandering people, or treat their children in the same way. For the wandering Libyans, many of them at any rate, if not all -- concerning which I cannot speak with certainty -- when their children come to the age of four years, burn the veins at the top of their heads with a flock from the fleece of a sheep: others burn the veins about the temples. This they do to prevent them from being plagued in their after lives by a flow of rheum from the head; and such they declare is the reason why they are so much more healthy than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the healthiest men that I know; but whether this is what makes them so, or not, I cannot positively say -- the healthiest certainly they are. If when the children are being burnt convulsions come on, there is a remedy of which they have made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's water upon the child, who thus treated, is sure to recover. In all this I only repeat what is said by the Libyans.

The rites which the wandering Libyans use in sacrificing are the following. They begin with the ear of the victim, which they cut off and throw over their house: this done, they kill the animal by twisting the neck. They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but not to any other god. This worship is common to all the Libyans. The inhabitants of the parts about Lake Tritonis worship in addition Triton, Neptune, and Minerva, the last especially.

[Bellflower]

Very interest ping!

[S0122017]

I, like many, believe in God & Evolution.

Does that make you like me better?

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[Larry Lucido]

Good, if I wait 5000 to 10,000 years the lakefront property I bought there will be worth millions.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. Very interesting.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I found this especially interesting: "A prolonged arid phase from about 70,000 to 12,000 years ago apparently drove humans out of the region, but then the rains returned – along with the people."

The prolonged arid phase from about 70,000 to 12,000 years ago corresponds to the last "ice age" in North America, and the return of the rains corresponds to the melting of the North American ice sheet.

The lack of ice in Africa at that time suggests it wasn't a global ice age, but an arctic ice cap centered on what is now Hudson Bay, Canada.

[blam]

Here's the source of the information you requested in a FReep mail.

Black Dutch

[GreyFriar]

Thank you.

[Arthalion]

There's not an incredible amount known about them because they didn't leave much of a written record (they did write, borrowing the written language from the Berbers). We know that they were black, that they were slave traders, and that they had some sort of historical association with Egypt since they worshipped Egyptian gods and buried their people in tiny pyramids. They were able to hang on so long as the savannahs turned to desert because they also developed what may have been the worlds most elaborate underground irrigation system at the time. Some of their tunnels were miles long and were brilliantly engineered and sloped just right.

There are many indicators that Islam may have been instrumental in their final demise. They were certainly dhimmi's after the Muslim conquest, and the taxes imposed on them would have been devastating for a society that was already on the verge of collapse. Even their irrigation system wasn't keeping up with their needs and many fields were being abandoned for lack of water. When the Muslims imprisoned their king and subjugated their people, it was simply the last blow for an empire that was once so strong that even the Romans couldn't conquer them (though they did try).

If you can get a copy of American Scientist, it has some great photos of the ruins and diagrams of the irrigation systems they used. Many of the sites are faily untouched because of their remoteness, so archaeologists are really just now getting a good look at what these people were actually like.

[blam]

"... but an arctic ice cap centered on what is now Hudson Bay, Canada."

I've read that it collapsed/melted in the 7-8,000 year time frame.

[zot]

The end of the Wisconsin Glaciation was about 10,000 years before present or 8,000 BC.

[blam]

"The end of the Wisconsin Glaciation was about 10,000 years before present or 8,000 BC."

Yup. That's what I mean. There were three melt periods, this was the third and last.

[zot]

Yes, there were three phases of Wisconsin Glaciation, but no total melt-down between them. More important for my point on this thread, there was no ice-age in Africa at any time during the period 70,000 to 10,000 BP which indicates that it wasn't a world-wide ice-age.