Khoisan (Khoi + San), Grimaldi

 Ancient Southern Africa: Khoi, San Tribe

Khoisan (Khoi + San) - Is the name for the two original ethnic groups of Southern Africa.

Siberian 21,000 BCE

From the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic period, a hunting and gathering culture known as the Sangoan occupied this area. Khoi people resemble their ancient skeletal remains and are believed to be their descendants. The Khoisan people were the inhabitants of much of southern Africa before the southward Bantu expansion, and later European colonisation.

Both Khoi and San people share physical and linguistic characteristics, and it seems clear that the Khoi branched forth from the San when they adopted the practise of herding cattle and goats from neighbouring Bantu speaking groups. Culturally they are divided into the hunter gatherer San people (commonly known as Bushmen) and the pastoral Khoi. In the Khoisan language, consonants are pronounced with a clicking sound.

This prompted their Dutch invaders to call them “Hottentots” – a derogatory word meaning "stutterer" in the language of the Dutch invaders; who, together with British and German settlers, would eventually exterminate them with the Herero and Namaqua Genocides.

Venus of Willendorf

Today's San and Khoisan: The world’s oldest human group. According to Knight et al. (2003) Y-haplogroup A, the most diverse or oldest-diverging Y haplogroup transmitted purely by patrilineal descent, is today present in various Khoisan groups at frequencies of 12-44%, and the other Y-haplogroups present have been formed by recent admixture of Bantu male lineages E3a (18-54%), and in some groups, noticeable Pygmy traces are visible (B2b).

The Khoisan also shows the largest genetic diversity in matrilineally transmitted mt DNA of all human populations. Their original mt DNA haplogroups L1d and L1k are one of the oldest-diverging female lineages as well.

Grimaldi Skeletons

Around 75,000 years ago, in a cave near the southern Cape shoreline in South Africa, a human drilled tiny holes into the shells of snails and strung them as beads to make the oldest known jewelry.

The shells are marked with traces of red ochre, suggesting they were either decorated with iron oxide pigment or; they were worn by someone wearing primitive makeup with iron oxide pigment.  They are the first evidence of artistic creativity and symbolism in Modern Man. This artistic creativity in the Khoisan; would be continued and improved upon.

Grimaldi

One of the first evidences of this historic journey of Grimaldi, was found at the caverns of Grimaldi (Baousse-Rousse), between Mentone and Ventimiglia and on the Italian side of the international boundary, these caverns form one of the most compact groups of Palaeolithic caverns in all Europe. Counting two small rock-shelters, the group includes nine stations, the most important being the Grotte des Enfants, La Barma Grande, Grotte du Cavillon and the Grotte du Prince.

General attention was first called to this region many years ago by Dr. Paul Riviere's discovery of a human skeleton in the Grotte du Cavillon, the so-called homme de Menton, now in the Natural History Museum, Paris.

Here Rivière demonstrated the presence of deliberate burials and ornamented clothing in 1872. Later five skeletons in all were found at La Barma Grande, and two of children, in the Grotte des Enfants, whence its name. Interest in archaeology and ownership of one of the caverns (Grotte du Prince), led the Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert I Grimaldi (1848-1922), to provide for a systematic exploration of the caverns: thus the fossils became known as "Grimaldi" in his honour.

Fossil remains of these ancient Africans have also been found in France, Switzerland, Central Europe, Bulgaria, Russia, and as Far East as Siberia. The African Khoisan nature of the Fossils was first documented by Boule, Marcellin & Vallois, in their book "Fossil Men" The Dryden Press (1957).

Just as exciting as the fossil finds, were the artifact finds at the Balzi Rossi, or Red Rocks (also known as the Grimaldi Caves), were Louis Alexandre Jullien, carried out the excavations that led, at the end of the last century, to the discovery of fifteen figurines, called the Balzi Rossi Venuses. Many other sites across Europe and Asia have also produced Grimaldi Venuses: many of them Steatopygia Females, and many of normal proportion females.

Notable of these are the Venus of Willendorf: found near Krems, Austria. The Venus of Brassempouy, found in France in 1892.

Grimaldi Cave Painting

 It should be noted; that though all Grimaldi figures are not of Steatopygia Females, that style of figure, is the signature of Grimaldi. As demonstrated by the Venuses, Bust reproductions of Skulls, and other artifacts. The Grimaldi people, like modern day Africans, show great variation in facial features, hair styles, clothing and adornment. They show a particular liking for bracelets, necklaces, and pendants.

Please note: One of the sad, and unfortunate facts of life, is that many Anthropologists, Researchers and Academics, still refuse to acknowledge that Africans were the first Human colonisers of Europe. To hide this fact, they prefer to use the terms Aurignacian and Gravettian cultures; which is fine, it still means Grimaldi. However, the current fad of attributing Grimaldi artifacts to the Humanoid Cro-Magnon is in all ways, mystifying. After all, thought different, Cro-Magnon like Grimaldi, was a Black African. 

DNA: Knight et al.
Researcher:  Dr. Paul Riviere, Book: Fossil Men Boule, Marcellin & Vallois

Ancient Malaysia, Australia, Siberia, Aborigines, Kostenki Man

80,000 years ago, a group of approximately 250 people undertook a single exodus via the southern route, according to (Dr Steven Oppenheimer) of Oxford University, his evidence? 

Genetic tracking of Mitochondria D.N.A., shows that only one line of humans came out of Africa. On the left: Malta, Siberia female figure carved from Mammoth tusk 21000 B.C.E. On the right: Kostenki Man, Ukraine, Russia 34000 B.C.E. Bust created by Professor M M Gerasimov.

Climate maps and sea level charts that shows that the Northern route of Africa was impassable around this time, but the sea level was low enough to make travelling from Africa to Yemen more feasible.

Using the Euro-centric timeline again, which -indicated that the first fully fledged human migration from Africa, was between 100 to 80,000 BCE. Following the single exodus to Yemen, our ancestors dispersed to colonise other part of the world.  On the left: Kostenki Man, Ukraine, Russia 34000 B.C.E. Bust created by Professor M M Gerasimov.

Geneticist: Dr Steven Oppenheimer,  Bust Artist: Professor M M Gerasimov

Ancient Malaysia
Some group stayed within the region, others moved east.

Aboriginal Cave Painting

In Malaysia traces of ash-dating back to the great Mount Toba eruption in Sumatra 74,000 years ago, we found on stone tools left by modern humans in Kota Tampra, a wooded valley near Penang. Anthropologist Zuraima Majidr director of the centre for archaeological research Malaysia discovered this evidence.

Anthropologist Zuraima Majidr

Ancient Aboriginal Australia
The Aboriginals believe that dream-time is the period when ancestral beings shaped the land, creating all species and human beings. Human beings are believed to be part of nature, closely associated with all other living thing.

Images of lightning man cover sacred cliffs and caves in tribal areas. Aboriginals left plenty of evidence about their presence in many sacred places, such as Uluru rock (Ayers Rock). The local Aranda People reveres the Uluru rock area, as a sacred place.

Uluru Rock

Australian Aborigines have a number of unique genetic lines that leads straight back to the first modern human to survive outside of Africa. The first group arrived 70,000 years ago and Top right cave paintings showing creatures from a vanished world dated 61,000 BCE.

Left, Uluru Rock. En route to Australia from Africa our ancestors left behind colonies that made their own journey further to the east from Middle-East.

Ancient Nigeria, Lejja, Nsukka, Ugwuele

Igbo,  Ele, El, Aka Ushi, Gods

Archaeologists of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in their excavations carried out in the early 1970s discovered huge stacks of various kinds of stone tools – hand axes, knives, picks, cleavers - in the Igbo town of Ugwu-Ele (‘Hill of Ele’), Isuikwuato, Abia State, Nigeria. The archaeologists concluded that the tools spanned the period from the Early, Middle to Late Stone Age (at least 500,000 – 80,000 B.C.)

The British member of the UNN Archaeology department at the time, Professor D. David concluded that “the site was the largest stone axe factory in the world!
We are not aware of any other site in the world with such an enormous amount of stone axes and other tools.” Anozie argued that since “the technology and typology of Acheulian culture is very similar everywhere in Africa and other parts of the world, (and) the hand-axes from

Ugwuele very much resembles those from (Stone Age sites in) France, England, India, East Africa, North Africa, etc., in terms of form and techniques of manufacture. It is mainly because of this that the Acheulian culture is regarded as a worldwide culture and a heritage of all humanity”.

The ‘Out of East Africa’ phenomenon, as the world has been made to believe, was based on the discovery of a three million-year-old ancestor of Homo-erectus (Lucy) in East Africa. In 2002 a joint French and Chadian team of palaeontologists led by Professor Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers, found a seven million-year-old ancestor of Homo-erectus in the southern Chad region, close to the Nigerian border.

This means that Igbo Homo Erectus could be a direct descendant of the seven million-year-old Proto-Hominid of what could have been a Niger, Chad and Nigerian migration. We can theoretically put, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, the Congo in general and Gabon as one of the cradles of humankind.

Atum is Ele - the Manu of the Igbo Cavemen of Ugwuele (500,000 B.C.) According to Professor Achonolu "Ele Biblical El, El-Elyon - the ‘God of the Heights’ whom Melchizedek represented in the Old Testament - is the God/Manu/Group Soul of the cavemen of the wilds (Homo Erectus).

This is consistent with our thesis propounded in all our previous publications on this and related subjects. This God, also called Sokar lives in a Tomb in the lowest rung of the Duat called Restau. Sitchen further reveals that “in Olden Times, El was the Principal deity of Heaven and Earth. He lived in semi-retirement (Hidden), aloof from daily affairs.

His abode was in the mountains (Lejja Hills) at the two headwaters (Niger and Benue)”, El is the ruler of the affairs of the gods, Judge of the Dead and author of Destiny".  "El/Ele began his entry into human affairs as the Group-Soul of the first ape-men/cavemen.

As the First Human to rise from the Deep Waters of Nun, he was the Group-Soul of the First Hominids - the cavemen of the wilds, otherwise called Homo-erectus”. Yoruba people also have their own narratives about these myths, albeit slightly different.

The Grave as a Pyramid Representing the Womb of the Earth Mother: Pharaoh Dan/ Du Dunu was said to have called his grandfather, Gani Eri/King Eri, by the title “Shukunni, the Great Ukush, the Gut/God”.

This obviously translates into Igbo as, “Chukwuani, Chukwuini or Chukwunna – God of the Earth/God in the Tomb/God the Father, Great Aka Ushi"!

Aka Ushi implies this Immortal God is dwelling in the circular Womb of the Mother. It is also a collective term for all Ape-men. Aka Ushi is nurtured in the pyramidal womb of the Earth Goddess, which the Igbo call Akwu, ‘Nest’ (Egyptian Akh/Akhet is a term for the pyramid) - the Igbo concept of the Earth-Mother as the Womb that incubates the embryo and harbours the dead.

Ancient Igbos were buried in huge step-pyramids the size of single-storied buildings. The Nsude pyramids. Osiris wears traditional Igbo double plumes with his Igbo conical hat and carries the Igbo flail (fly whisk) and metal staff – all part and parcel of the traditional Igbo regalia of kings and Nze na ozo initiates.

Archaeologists: Professor Michel Brunet, Professor D. David UNN
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Professor Achonolu

Ancient South Africa, Blombos Cave

Blombos Cave, Adams Calendar, Red Ochre Stone

Early symbolic activity. (475,000 years ago). Long before people first engraved and painted on stones and rock faces, they invested the rituals and objects of their existence with symbolic meaning.
We can see indications of care and thought that go beyond mere functionality in the deftly reworked flaked stone tools from the Middle and Late Stone Age sites.

Ochre tablets bearing cross-hatchings found at Blombos Cave in the southern Cape (South Africa) and dated to around 75,000 years ago are thought to be some of the earliest examples of abstract representation.

Archaeologists excavating the Blombos Cave in South Africa, have stumbled upon a hoard of art materials which include everything an ancient artist might have required to be creative. Including Paint pots used by humans more than 100,000 years ago. Red and yellow pigments, shell containers and grinding cobbles and bone spatulas - to mix up a paste - were all present in the discovery that, researchers say, is proof that our early ancestors were more modern than once thought.

The oldest man-made structure on earth is in South Africa, it is known as Adams Calendar, and more recently as Enkis Calendar.

Adams Calendar is southwest of Kruger Park.
The site is estimated to be around 75,000 years old, as dated by rock art in the area. This Red Ochre Stone is engraved with what must be “tally” marks. It is one of two such stones recently found in the Blombos Cave in South Africa is 77,000 years old, making them the oldest form of recorded counting ever found.
These Aboriginal Africans would later become the ancestors of the so-called Grimaldis of Europe.

Lion Cavern, Ngwenya, Mountain, Swaziland

The Lion Cavern at Ngwenya Mountain, just north of the Swaziland Capital Mbabane, is thought to be the oldest evidence of human mining in the world.

Carbon dating has shown mining activity for red ochre (haematite) within this cavity dating back to a period between 41000 and 43000 BC. The site is preserved as an open-air museum of visitors and is a popular tourist attraction. In the case of this mine, it is even known where the ancient miners "mined" their tools.

Dart and Beaumont (1967, p. 408) wrote: "Quartz, white quartzites, grey and white dappled quartzite, black indurates shale and greenish cherts were the principal materials used by the miners. These rock types occur mostly on a ridge overlooked by, and about 0.25 miles from, the cavern. Left, inside Ngwenya Mine and bottom right, outside Ngwenya Mine.

The exposures there are patently flaked. Dappled grey and white quartzite exposures occur about a mile and more northwest of the site." The interesting thing about this mine is what was being mined. The ancient peoples were not mining flint, which would be considered useful for obtaining food.

Lion cave is a pigment mine. They were mining red ochre, a pigment used by primitive peoples as body paint for their rituals. The amount of material moved is quite impressive. In the literature, I have heard estimates of 50-100 tons.

But if the entire cavern carved out by the miners was hematite, I calculate that nearly 2700 tons of material was removed from this site. This is an incredible amount of material for Paleolithic man to have removed from the site. Obviously, red ochre was an important item. What was it used for?

Field Researcher: Mr Adrian Boshier, Museum of Man and Science, Johannesburg, South African