Igbo, Lejja, Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, Cavemen, Duat

THE DISCOVERY OF THE EGYPTIAN DUAT, TEMPLE OF THE SUN AND LOST CITY OF HELIOPOLIS IN WEST AFRICA, By Professor Catherine Acholonu. Before Egypt,  Was Sumer – An Igbo-Speaking Ancient Nigerian Civilization? Physical Evidence of the lost Egyptian

The late Professor Catherine Acholonu

‘Temple of Heliopolis’ Located in Lejja, Igboland, Eastern-Nigeria? Did Ancient Nigerians from Upper Egypt Rule Lower Egypt’s First Dynasty? Did Igbo Cavemen of Lejja Survive the World-ending Deluge! and Thus the Answer Suggest ‘Yes’?

The location of the Two Magical Trees One of Which is Called by the Name of the Sumerian Sky God, Utu? The location of "The Stairway to Heaven" in Egyptian Mythology?

The Geographical Environment of the Duat A place with a name that has the root DN or Dunu associated with three Hills and Two Hills, a mound? or A ‘Hole’ in the ground called ‘the Mouth of the Earth’, leading into an Underground abode of the gods (Duat)?

The kings of Heliopolis bear two Plumes on their heads, a white-feathered crown, a flail, a U-forked staff. (The fact that Osiris wears two plumes as on his conical hat, shaped like Igbo Okwu agu, and he carries the Igbo metal staff (Alo) and flies whisk (Nza), as seen in all his images in Egyptian texts, shows him to be an Igbo royalty)?

The second called 'correspondence', of the eight principles of natural law stated; as below so above, as above so below and what is unbeknown shall be made knowable. We will break all the answers to all these questions into a bite-size. Using, history, religion, philosophy, occultism, psychology, and logic. Let us start the process via Occulist Encrypted Creations Myths. It is speculated that our world has been created, then destroyed, only to be re-created again, specifically four times. We are living in the year of the Fifth Son of The Sun, while the year Sixth Son of The Sun is fast approaching.

Sphere Earth

The first replenishing of the earth first occurred during the time of Apsu (Freshwater) = “One who existed from the beginning” and Tiamat (Freshwater) = “The Maiden of life.” Both Fresh and Seawaters mingled together to become the first Adam and Eve, Nun and Naunet = the Primeval waters and the counter heaven, (Egyptian version).

All marine life-forms were supposed to have evolved from both Fresh and Seawaters. They existed during the period of the “First Moon or Silver Cycle,” known as “Morning.”

When on high the heavens had not been named, Firm ground below had not been called by name, Nothing but ‘Primordial Apsu’ the Begetter, [Fresh Water] and ‘Mummu Tiamat’, She Who Bore them All, [Salt Water] their waters commingling as a single body No reed hut had been matted, no marshland had appeared, Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined. Ile-Ife, ile Owuro Ile-Ife, the land of the most ancient days (Ile-Ife's version).

The second replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Lahmu (Mr. Mud) = “Deity of war” and Lahamu (Mrs. Mud) = “Lady of the battle,” Huh and Hauhet, = the boundless and its opposite, (Egyptian version). They existed during the period of the first Sun Cycle known as “Evening.” Then it was that the Gods were formed within them. Lahmu [‘mud’] and Lahamu ‘Mrs. Mud’ was brought forth, by the name they were called Before they had grown in age and stature. Ile-Ife, Oodaye Ile-Ife, where the word of creation took place (Ile-Ife's version).

The Egyptian Ogdoad

The third replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Anshar (Upper Firmament) = “Foremost of the heavens” and Kishar (Lower Firmament) = “Foremost of the firm-lands,” Kuk and Kauket, = darkness and its opposite (Egyptian version).

They existed during the period of the “Second Moon or Silver Cycle,” known as “Morning.”Anshar ‘Upper Firmament’ and Kishar [‘Lower Firmament’] were formed, surpassing the others. They prolonged the days, added on the years. Ile-Ife, Ibi ti ojumo ti mowa Ile-Ife, where the dawn of the day was first experienced (Ile-Ife's version).

The fourth replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Anu = “The Heavenly one” and his spouse Antum. Amun, or (Amon) and Amaunet, = the hidden and its opposite (Egyptian version). They existed during the period of the second Sun Cycle known as “Evening.” This cycle was the last cycle of an equinox which occurs every 24,000 years.

Anu was their heir, the rival of his fathers; Yes, Anu, Anshar’s first-born, was his equal. He begot in his image Nudimmud [Ea]. This Nudimmud was the master of his fathers; Of broad wisdom, understanding, mighty in strength, Mightier by far than his grandfather Anshar. He had no rival among the gods, his brothers. Ile-Ife, Ori aye gbogbo Ile-Ife, head of the whole universe (Ile-Ife's version).

The Sumerian depiction of Lahmu (Mr. Mud)

The fifth replenishing of the earth or the first replenishing of a new set of four cycles occurred during the time pertaining to the Bible Genesis Chapter 1. Adam (Kadmon) son of Atum and Lillith, and Eve daughter of Ptah and Anath. Ile-Ife, Ooye Lagbo Ile-Ife the city of the Survivors (Ile-Ife's version).

In addition, there are also, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Aboriginal and Native-Americans Creation Myths. If you search this blog using the keywords like Chinese Creation Myth,  Indian Creation Myth,  Aboriginal Creation Myth, or  Japanese Creation Myth, an so on, you can locate them in the archive, as being covered before.

The only thing debunked now that we know for a fact; is that the world creation and destructions stories, came for multiple myths, pertaining to many races.

And this is very important because it demonstrates Multiplicity rather than Singularity, even in the World's Creation Myths. Without any further delay let us start with assertions of Professor Catherine Acholonu and the evidence presented to make those bold assertions.

In December 2012, under the resourceful organization of the Honourable Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Enugu State, Barrister Joe Mmamel, a team of ten African American Tourists visited various parts of the Enugu State under the Ebo Landing Project. The project was designed by Professor Catherine Acholonu and Sidney Louis Davis of Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja in partnership with NAGAS International Consortium Inc., USA and Ebo Landing Incorporated, USA. The 2012 Ebo Landing tourism trip was facilitated by the Honorable Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke who personally wrote letters to four State governors in the Federation urging them to play host to the Tourists.

Ebo Landing was born out of the growing need by DNA tested African Americans, 85%? of which are of Igbo extraction, to return ‘home’ to Igbo land and support the course of development in the home country. Note: the statement above is problematic unless the 85% represent Igbo Immigrants living in the USA, after the slave trade. If it meant that 85% of African Americans DNA tested are of Igbo descendants, excluding  Igbo Immigrants after the slave trade living in the USA, after the slave trade. Then the latter statement is at best wild speculation and at worst totally incorrect. There is no singular or cumulative DNA evidence for her to boldly assert this point of view.

Map of Nigeria, pin-pointing Enugu State, Eastern-Nigeria

The team visited various tourist sites in Enugu State including the Institute for African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), which led an excursion trip to the Prehistoric Iron smelting site in Lejja in Nsukka. The Lejja visit proved to be a most auspicious event, for it exposed the visitors to the world’s oldest iron smelting technology lying unknown and unsung in Enugu State, South-Eastern region of Nigeria. The Head of the UNN Institute of African Studies Professor S.M.

Onuigbo informed the visitors that the Lejja prehistoric iron smelting site was recently dated 2,000 B.C. by the Oxford University laboratory in the UK and that this date confirms Lejja as the oldest iron smelting site in the world!

Egyptian Model of a Votive Temple Gateway at Heliopolis

The international visitors led by researchers Professor Catherine Acholonu and Sidney Louis Davis, initiators of the Ebo Landing project, therefore made a fervent plea to the Hon Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, that the government of Enugu State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria should quickly see to it that the Lejja iron smelting technology should be made known to the world, being the only physical proof that Africa was the origin of world civilization!

They promised to join hands with the government and people of Enugu state in spreading the word worldwide, and by so doing initiate global tourism to Enugu state. The Follow-Up Trip to Lejja: Subsequently in January 2013, a combined team of international researchers from the Institute for African Studies UNN the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Enugu South-Eastern zonal office visited the Lejja site for the second time to critically examine what is there. The research team who undertook this follow-up reconnaissance trip was made up of Professor S.M. Onuigbo, Head of the Institute of African Studies, UNN, Dr. Chukwuma Opata, Department of History and International Studies, UNN, Sidney Louis Davis, Fellow of the Catherine Acholonu Research Center (CARC), Professor Damian Opata, Department of English and Professor Catherine Acholonu, Head CARC.

That visit opened the floodgates of knowledge, throwing up more than enough physical evidence that Lejja is housing the most ancient and most world-renowned Shrine of antiquity – a shrine known in all world mythologies like the Egyptian ‘Temple of the Sun’. Ancient Egyptian records say that the ‘Temple of the Sun’ is located in Heliopolis – ‘City of the Sun’ – a city lost in antiquity; which means that to find the Temple of the Sun is to find Egypt’s lost city of Heliopolis – the world’s most famous city of mythology – a city dedicated to the Olden God Amun/Atum-Ra, the Father of all Gods and Creator of men.

Map of Enugu, Eastern Nigeria

Lejja/Nsukka - The World’s Oldest Prehistoric Iron-smelting Technology
Lejja is located in Old Nsukka division in Enugu State, in Igbo land, South-Eastern geopolitical zone of Nigeria in West Africa. It is one of the many communities in Old Nsukka that have evidence of Prehistoric iron smelting up to industrial proportions. Evidence abounds in these communities that a vast industry of iron smelting thrived in Old Nsukka involving entire populations of several communities.

In these communities which include Orba, Opi, Umundu, Owerri-Elu, Eha, Agu, Isiakpu, Eguru, archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric mining of iron ore as well as local furnaces used for smelting. Huge amounts of tuyere, charcoal and iron slag litter the villages, hills, and streams, attesting that in the dim past, these villages and towns had developed a thriving iron smelting technology and that Lejja, though the oldest by the current dating result, was not an isolated phenomenon in Enugu state.

Lejja Village, Enugu, Eastern-Nigeria

In Nsukka communities, iron ore is called Nne nkpume, slag is called Nsi Igwe and furnaces are called Utu. Knives forged in the area are called Idu. The Nsukka industry for iron smelting must have been the industrial hub of a very thriving prehistoric civilization long gone and forgotten.

There are 500 to a thousand huge lumps of slag in the Dunu Oka village square, Lejja site alone. Shaped like broken pillars, each weighs between 34 and 57 kilograms and measures up to 50 centimeters in diameter and more than 40 centimeters in height!

Lejja iron smelting technology was dated 2,000 B.C by Carbon-12 laboratory analysis conducted at the Oxford University Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, London in partnership with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, through the professional instrumentality of archaeologists Professor Edwin Eme Okafor, Dean of Archaeology, UNN and Professor Pamela Eze-Uzoamaka, Head of Department of Archaeology, UNN. These two have worked with Universities of Sheffield, London and Oxford University consistently for upwards of two decades to bring about the dating we now celebrate. In a recent interview on the Lejja archaeological dating, conducted in July 2012, Professor Edwin Eme Okafor elatedly announced that “2,000 B.C. is the oldest iron smelting date so far obtained for any smelting site in the world! There is no older date!”

Lejja/Nsukka Iron Smelting Technology Calls for a Rewriting of History:
The implication of this discovery is far-reaching for human history. It calls for a rewriting of the world’s history books to enshrine the achievements of the Prehistoric Nsukka iron smelters of Enugu State, Nigeria. Any nation that was the world’s “first” in the development of iron technology, was, without doubt, the Superpower of the ancient world, for it was the discovery of iron that fast-tracked world civilization in every respect. Iron technology brought about the development of Agriculture, trade, and commerce. It encouraged the drive for the building of empires through warfare and conquests.

Backdrop Image of one of the many Ancien Lejja Furnace, divided by Iron Slags

I buoyed the drive for expansion and migrations, all of which are present in Nsukka mythologies. As the Oldest Superpower of the Old World, the Igbo natural drive for itinerant trading and merchandising would have easily made Nsukka, nay Enugu zone, and Igbo land a global center of trade, commerce, industrialization, empire-building, education, military prowess and other forms of development.

It is claimed the global root of metallurgy and of civilization itself lies in Sumer. It is also claimed that the Bantus who occupy over two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africa were migrants “from South-Eastern Nigeria” and that it was their possession of iron technology that facilitated their migration and their development of Agriculture.

Map of Africa

The Bantu are said to have left South-Eastern Nigeria ca. 2,000 B.C. The presence of iron smelting technology in Lejja by 2,000 B.C. explains the Bantu connection to South-Eastern Nigeria. Heliopolis – The Egyptian ‘City of the Sun’ is Igbo Land – The Land of the Rising Sun!

What we know so far for sure via zooming into the map of the world, and away from World Creation Myths and into the map of Africa, followed by zooming into Nigeria, then Enugu and finally Lejja is that; there is an ancient metallurgy factory in pre-historic West-Africa incorporating Eastern-Nigeria in Enugu State called Lejja. Dated between approximately 10,000 and 2,000 BCE. Linking many of the very many different Igbo tribes from far and wide to a particular place called Lejja in their common history.

But yet to be proven are the assertions linking ancient Sumer to Igboland, linking Egyptian ‘Temple of Heliopolis’ to Lejja, linking Bantu peoples and their migrations to Igbo origin and specifically stating Igbo tribes as a singular entity rather than Multiple entities that it is. Including constantly painting the picture of Igbo evolution into Modern-Man without any contact from other tribes, cultures, other civilizations, or people from the North, East, West or South of West-Africa.

By looking at the map of Africa as a whole it is totally impossible for the Igbo tribe to evolve to modern-man independent of the many other African tribes all around them, including the San and Khoi people of Southern Africa. End of part 1 of 10. To be continued. Next blog 04/02/19.

King Niall of the Nine Hostages, Continued

Seeing Niall's popularity among the nobles, Mongfind demands that Eochaid name a successor, hoping it will be one of her sons. Eochaid gives the task to a druid, Sithchenn, who devises a contest between the brothers, shutting them in a burning forge, telling them to save what they can, and judging them based on which objects they choose to save.

Niall, who emerges carrying an anvil, is deemed greater than Brión, with a sledgehammer, Fiachrae with bellows and a pail of beer, Ailill with a chest of weapons, and Fergus with a bundle of wood. Mongfind refuses to accept the decision.

The Celtic Green Man also known as Celtic Knot

Sithchenn takes the brothers to the smith, who makes them weapons, and sends them out hunting.

Each brother, in turn, goes looking for water and finds a well guarded by a hideous hag who demands a kiss in return for water. Fergus and Ailill refuse and return empty-handed.

Fiachrae gives her a quick peck, but not enough to satisfy her. Only Niall kisses her properly, and she is revealed as a beautiful maiden, the Sovereignty of Ireland.

She grants Niall not only water but the kingship for many generations – twenty-six of his descendants will be High Kings of Ireland.

Fiachrae is granted a minor royal line – two of his descendants, Nath Í and Ailill Molt, will be High Kings.

This "loathly lady" motif appears in myth and folklore throughout the world. Variations of this story are told of the earlier Irish high king Lugaid Loígde, in Arthurian legend — one of the most famous versions appears in both Geoffrey Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale and the related Gawain romance, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell – and in John Gower's Middle English poem Confessio Amantis.

Ancient Monument on the Hill of Tara, County Donegal, Ireland

In another story, the succession is not settled when Eochaid dies, and Mongfind's brother Crimthann takes the high kingship. But while he is away on a tour of his lands in Scotland, Mongfind's sons seize Ireland.

Crimthann returns to Ireland intending to give battle. Mongfind, purporting to make peace between her brother and her sons, holds a feast, at which she serves Crimthann a poisoned drink.

Crimthann refuses to drink it unless she does too; they both drink, and both die. Niall succeeds to the High Kingship, and Brión becomes his second in command. Another version has Mongfind try to poison Niall, but she takes the poison herself by mistake. While Niall is high king, his brothers establish themselves as local kings. Brión rules the province of Connacht, but Fiachrae makes war against him. Brión defeats Fiachrae and hands him over as a prisoner to Niall, but Fiachrae's son Nath Í continues the war and eventually kills Brión. Niall releases Fiachrae, who becomes king of Connacht and Niall's right-hand man.

Mound of Hostages on Hill of Tara, County Donegal, Ireland

Fiachrae and Ailill then make war against Crimthann's son Eochaid, king of Munster. They defeat him and win great spoil, but Fiachrae is wounded in the battle and dies of his wounds shortly afterward. The Munstermen renew the battle, capture Ailill and cut him to pieces, and war continues between Munster and Connacht for many years.

Death: The Lebor Gabála Érenn says there was a war between Niall and Énnae Cennsalach, king of Leinster, over the bórama or cow-tribute first imposed on Leinster by Tuathal Techtmar. Énna's son Eochaid is named as Niall's killer in all sources, although the circumstances vary.

Phallus shape Obelisk, From the Hill of Tara, County Donegal, Ireland

All sources agree he died outside Ireland.

The earliest version of the Lebor Gabála says Eochaid killed him on the English Channel, later versions adding that Niall was invading Brittany when this happened.

Keating, quoting a Latin Life of Saint Patrick, says that Niall led Irish raids on Roman Britain, and in one of those raids Patrick and his sisters were abducted.

Keating associates these raids with those mentioned by Gildas and Bede and deduces that since some Irish sources say Patrick was abducted from Brittany, that Niall's raids must have extended to continental Europe as well.

In the saga "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages", Eochaid's enmity with Niall begins when he is refused hospitality by Niall's poet, Laidcenn mac Bairchid. He makes war and destroys the poet's stronghold, killing his son Leat (Keating has it that Laidchenn was a druid and that Eochaid killed his son after he used defamatory language towards him). Laidchenn responds by satirising Leinster so that no corn, grass or leaves grow there for a year.

Plate C, from the Gundestrup Cauldron

Note: The Gundestrup Cauldron is a religious vessel found in Himmerland, Denmark, 1891. It was deposited in a dry section of a peat bog, dismantled with its five long rectangular plates, seven short ones and one round plate. Each plate is made of 97.0% pure silver and filled with various motifs of animals, plants and pagan deities. Sophius Müller(1892) reconstructed these plates into the present form of the cauldron: five rectangular plates are placed in the inside of the cauldron leaving 2cm of space between each, and the seven (originally eight) plates form the outside of the cauldron.

The Anglicisation of the Irish Race

The round plate is assumed as the base of the cauldron. The reconstructed cauldron with its spherical base and cylindrical side is 69cm. in diameter and 42cm. high; both the inner and outer plates are almost of the same height ( about 21cm) forming the cylindrical side of the cauldron. As the largest surviving piece of Europian Iron Age silver work, the Gundestrup Cauldron has been given a special interest by many scholars. Especially, its high-quality workmanship and iconographic variety have generated an incessant inquiry into the origin of the cauldron.

Though the date of the cauldron is generally attributed to the 2nd or 1st century BCE (La Tène III), there still remains much room for controversy concerning the place of its manufacture. The main problem comes from the fact that its style and workmanship is Thracian rather than Celtic despite its decorative motifs manifestly Celtic. So far, scholastic opinions have been largely divided into two groups: those who argue for the Gaulish origin and those who argue for the Thracian origin. The former locate the manufacture of the cauldron in the Celtic west while the latter opt for the Lower Danube in southeastern Europe.

Plate A, from the Gundestrup Cauldron

Then Niall makes war against Leinster, and peace is concluded on the condition that Eochaid is handed over. Niall chains Eochaid to a standing stone and sends nine warriors to execute him, but Eochaid breaks his chain and kills all nine of them with it. He then kills Laidchenn by throwing a stone which lodges in his forehead. Niall exiles him to Scotland. The story then becomes confused.

Niall makes war in Europe as far as the Alps, and the Romans send an ambassador to parlay with him. Abruptly, the tale then has Niall appearing before an assembly of Pictish bards in Scotland, where he is killed by an arrow shot by Eochaid from the other side of the valley. Keating has Eochaid shoot Niall from the opposite bank of the river Loire during his European campaign.

His men carry his body home, fighting seven battles on the way, and his foster-father Torna dies of grief. His body is said to have been buried at Ochann, now known as Faughan Hill at Jordanstown, a few miles west of Navan in County Meath. He is succeeded by his nephew Nath Í.

Robert is listed as being born about 1820-21 somewhere in Ireland to Robert & Mary Ann (KNOTT) MORAN, though a few naturalization indexes list this as England, United Kingdom.

Robert Moran

 By 1845, he has traveled from Ireland and settled in Granby, Shefford, Quebec, Canada.

Here he marries Dorothea COOK on 5 August 1845. Robert and Dorothea’s first three children are born in Quebec.

After that, they travel around a bit, having a child in Illinois, then, Iowa, and finally settling in southwestern Wisconsin.

Dorothea passes away in 1872 and Robert remarries to a Margaret (KEARNS) ENYART. Robert, is R1b1b2a1a2f*. The interesting thing about that haplogroup is that it is part of the study of one of the ancient kings of Ireland: R1b1b2a1a2f2 reaches its peak in Ireland, where the vast majority of men carry Y-chromosomes belonging to the haplogroup. Researchers have recently discovered that a large subset of men assigned to the haplogroup may be direct male descendants of an Irish king who ruled during the 4th and early 5th centuries. According to Irish history, a king named Niall of the Nine Hostages established the Ui Neill dynasty that ruled the island country for the next millennium.

Northwestern Ireland is said to have been the core of Niall’s kingdom, and that is exactly where men bearing the genetic signature associated with him are most common. Genetic analysis suggests that all these men share a common ancestor who lived about 1,700 years ago. Among men living in northwestern Ireland today that date is closer to 1,000 years ago. Those dates neatly bracket the era when Niall is supposed to have reigned. End of part 2 of 2. Next blog 31/01/19. Before Thoth, Tehuthi, or Hermes, and the Bible, including the origin Occultism the mother of all the religion on earth. We will also refer you to previous articles.

Art of Seduction: YouTube Music Channel

Racialism, Khoisan, Black, Irish, King Niall of the Nine Hostages

Racialism is a nasty but profitable business, By Prof Tim Crowe - 25 April 2017, Rational Standard:
Races among humans are artificial, perverse constructs generated by misapplying the taxonomic category subspecies or by arbitrary socio-political construction. The subspecies, as a biological category, was formalized by Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-Century “father” of taxonomy. Linnaeus and contemporary racist theorists popularized human subspeciation using morphology and “demeanour” to divide us into a handful of “races”.  Homo sapiens europaeus was described as “white, sanguine, muscular”; Homo sapiens after as “black, phlegmatic, relaxed”.

Modern-day khoisan

‘Racialism’ was probably employed by the earliest humans.  Post-Linnaean racialism was further misused to identify a multitude of ‘racial’ groupings sharing a common language, religion, culture, class and/or national affiliation.  Within the “First People”, the Southern African KhoiSan, the pastoral Khoi (khoi literally means “People”) regarded morphologically similar, hunter-gatherers as “San” (“Others”).

The ‘San’ (perhaps the earliest genetically-definable modern humans), in turn, have no collective name for themselves and are highly diverse linguistically and genetically – self-identifying as more than ten ‘nations’.

Worldwide, over 200 ‘races’ have been recognized. Within Haiti alone, local people employed more than 100 different racial terms. Also in modern-day Nigeria there are over 1200 dilects. In extreme instances, ‘races’ in power used their ‘superiority’ (and inferred threat) to ’justify’ their hyper-oppression and even genocide of the ‘others’.

Regardless of the number of races‘ recognized’, the primary purpose of human ‘taxonomy’ is to denigrate ‘others’. This is unjustifiable: biologically, culturally, educationally or socio-politically. Nature's biology: Since World War II, there has been widespread agreement that human races have no biological basis. Homo sapiens evolved once, in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and cannot be subdivided further. So, pioneer Pan-Africanist Robert Sobukwe hit the racial ‘nail’ on the head in 1959: “There is only one race to which we all belong, and that is the human race”.

Genetics: Humans all share the same set of genes.  The DNA of any two human beings is 99.9% identical.  In stark contrast, genetically distinct populations of our nearest living relative, the Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes – confined to Central Africa and sometimes less than a mile apart – are more genetically distinct than humans that live on different continents.

Map of Southern Africa

There is greater genetic variation within human populations confined to a given continent than between populations from different continents.

For example, within KhoiSan-variation exceeds that among populations from throughout much of ‘non-Africa’, and many Brazilian “whites” have more African ancestry than some US “blacks”.

In short, we are all genomic ‘kissing cousins’.

If ‘genomists’ were forced to ‘discover’ geographically distinct groups from randomly-sampled humans, only a handful of African ones would emerge.  The rest of non-African humanity would fall within one or other of these groups. In short, non-African modern humans are genetic ‘paleo-refugees’. The major human genomic groups are not Asians/Africans/Europeans/Native-Americans!  Studies claiming the opposite (e.g. newsman Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History) and that societal differences reflect differential evolution in intelligence, impulsivity, manners, xenophobia, etc. are a “mountain of speculation teetering on a few pebbles”.

‘Racial genomists’ confirmed ‘racialization’ because they first separated the studied-humans by geography and ‘race’, avoiding individuals that don’t easily fall into these categories. Afterward, they searched for the few rapidly-evolving, adaptively neutral, bits of “junk DNA”  that can discriminate amongst them.

Modern-day San Bushman

This ‘strategy’ may recover some traditional racial groups.  But they are fabrications based on ‘cherry-picked’ samples.  Furthermore, if one pursued this genomic strategy to the extreme, humans could be ‘racialized’ much, much more finely – providing the apartheid-kindred with results that they could have used to ‘justify’ “separate development”.

Genetic Genealogy: This genomic capacity has been exploited by a growing, aggressively-advertised, genetic ‘ancestry’ industry. One can even get a ‘certificate’ indicating your ancestors’ geographical provenance and your geographic (read: racial) genetic makeup.

As far as I can understand, this makes some sense as a probabilistic, forensic scientific statement. But, the accuracy of the ‘diagnosis’ depends inter alia on the markers used and the scale of geographical coverage of the comparative material.

One thing is certain: this ‘genetic astrology’ is not legally actionable evidence of ‘racial’ or genealogical identity. For example, markers derived from one source (e.g. mitochondrial DNA) might place ‘roots’ in one area and suggest a certain ‘racial signature’, and those from Y-chromosomes others. A noteworthy example of human genetic ‘connectedness’ is the finding that millions of Americans may be descendants of the 4th century Irish King, Niall of the Nine Hostages.

During an Oprah Winfrey Show, eminent African-American Harvard historian and ardent ‘genome-genealogist’ Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. announced that he and an Irish-American police officer (who arrested him for trying to gain entry to his locked home) are among them!

Also based on this ‘diagnostic capacity’, some 21st-century ‘decolonist’ researchers, e.g. South Africa-based philosopher, Achille Mbembe, seem to advocate the biological rehabilitation of human races. Mbembe maintains that: “ongoing re-articulations of race and recoding of racism are developments in the life sciences, and in particular in genomics” and allow delineation of human races, making them “amenable to optimization by reverse engineering and reconfiguration”. This assertion is based on the above-mentioned blatant misuse of forensic genomics.

A painting of Caucasian-looking King Niall of the Nine Hostages?

Morphology (overall anatomical form) and Physiology:  Humans vary strikingly in whole-organism ‘appearance‘.  Potential diagnostic features include, inter alia, tolerance to alcohol, body odour, earwax, cold adaptations, eyelid folding, head hair structure, height/mass, high altitude oxygen metabolism, HIV resistance, microbiomes, menarche, pigmentation, steatopygia, prevalence of sickle-cell anaemia and other genetically-based diseases, ability to sense bitterness, toxin tolerance and osteology (especially of the cranium).

But, such physical and physiological variations tend to change clinally (geographically gradually), rather than abruptly and are generally inherited independently of one another. Furthermore, the clinal variation in one trait generally does not parallel that of others and those of genetic markers.  In short, they are ‘discordant’; rendering any attempt to establish lines of division among human populations both arbitrary and subjective.

Niall of the Nine Hostages Family Tree

Nial of the Nine Hostages
Niall Noígíallach (Irish pronunciation: [ˈniːəl noɪˈɣiːələx], Old Irish "having nine hostages"), or in English, Niall of the Nine Hostages, was an Irish king, the ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties that dominated the northern half of Ireland from the 6th to the 10th century. Irish annalistic and chronicle sources place his reign in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, although modern scholars, through critical study of the annals, date him about half a century later.

He is presumed by some to have been a real person, or at the very least semi-historical but most of the information about him that has come down to us is regarded as legendary. His lineage has possibly been traced using genealogical DNA testing. However, the conclusion that Niall is associated with the Y-chromosome SNP M222 has been called into question following further research. Notably, many O'Neills and McShanes (a surname associated with a line of O'Neill cadets) arise from an entirely different lineage.

The Celtic Gunderstrup Caldroun

Niall is presumed, on the basis of the importance of his sons and grandsons, to have been a historical person, but the early Irish annals say little about him. The Annals of Inisfallen date his death before 382, and the Chronicon Scotorum to 411 AD. The later Annals of the Four Masters dates his reign to 379–405 AD, and the chronology of Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn to 368–395 AD.

However, the early annals record the activities of his sons between 429 and 516, an implausibly long time-span for a single generation, leading scholars like Kathleen Hughes and Francis J. Byrne pp. 78–79 to conclude that the events of the latter half of the 5th century have been extended backward to accommodate as early a date as possible for the arrival of Saint Patrick, with the effect of pushing Niall back up to half a century.

St Patrick, patron saint of the Irish

Hughes says "Niall himself must have died not before the middle of the fifth century". Byrne, following James Carney, is a little more precise, dating his death to c. 452.

A legendary account of Niall's birth and early life is given in the possibly-11th-century tale Echtra mac nEchach Muimedóin ("The adventure of the sons of Eochaid Mugmedón").

In it, Eochaid Mugmedón, the High King of Ireland, has five sons, four, Brión, Ailill, Fiachrae and Fergus, by his first wife Mongfind, sister of the king of Munster, Crimthann mac Fidaig, and a fifth, Niall, by his second wife Cairenn Chasdub, daughter of Sachell Balb, king of the Saxons.

While Cairenn is pregnant with Niall, the jealous Mongfind forces her to do heavy work, hoping to make her miscarry. She gives birth as she is drawing water, but out of fear of Mongfind, she leaves the child on the ground, exposed to the birds. The baby is rescued and brought up by a poet called Torna. When Niall grows up he returns to Tara and rescues his mother from her labour.

Although it is anachronistic for Niall's mother to have been a Saxon, O'Rahilly argues that the name Cairenn is derived from the Latin name Carina, and that it is plausible that she might have been a Romano-Briton. pp. 216–217 Keating describes her not as a Saxon but as the "daughter of the king of Britain".

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Mongfind appears to have been a supernatural personage: the saga "The Death of Crimthann mac Fidaig" says the festival of Samhain was commonly called the "Festival of Mongfind", and prayers were offered to her on Samhain eve. To be continued. End of part 1 of 2. Next blog 25/01/19.