New humanoid species discovered!!

New human-like species discovered in S Africa

By Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News, Johannesburg

10 September 2015, From the section Science & Environment

 

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa. The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors. The studies which have been published in the journal Elife also indicate that these individuals were capable of ritual behaviour.

The species, which has been named naledi, has been classified in the grouping, or genus, Homo, to which modern humans belong. The researchers who made the find have not been able to find out how long ago these creatures lived - but the scientist who led the team, Prof Lee Berger, told BBC News that he believed they could be among the first of our kind (genus Homo) and could have lived in Africa up to three million years ago.

"What we are seeing is more and more species of creatures that suggests that nature was experimenting with how to evolve humans, thus giving rise to several different types of human-like creatures originating in parallel in different parts of Africa. Only one line eventually survived to give rise to us," he told BBC News.

I went to see the bones which are kept in a secure room at Witwatersrand University. The door to the room looks like one that would seal a bank vault. As Prof Berger turned the large lever on the door, he told me that our knowledge of very early humans is based on partial skeletons and the occasional skull.

The haul of 15 partial skeletons includes both males and females of varying ages - from infants to elderly. The discovery is unprecedented in Africa and will shed more light on how the first humans evolved.

"We are going to know everything about this species," Prof Berger told me as we walked over to the remains of H. naledi.

"We are going to know when its children were weaned, when they were born, how they developed, the speed at which they developed, the difference between males and females at every developmental stage from infancy, to childhood to teens to how they aged and how they died."

A chronology of human evolution

Ardipithecus ramidus (4.4 million years ago) : Fossils were discovered in Ethiopia in the 1990s. Pelvis shows adaptations to both tree climbing and upright walking.

Australopithecus afarensis (3.9 - 2.9 million years ago) : The famous "Lucy" skeleton belongs to this species of human relative. So far, fossils of this species have only been found in East Africa. Several traits in the skeleton suggest afarensis walked upright, but they may have spent some time in the trees.

Homo habilis (2.8 - 1.5 million years ago) : This human relative had a slightly larger braincase and smaller teeth than the australopithecines or older species, but retains many more primitive features such as long arms.

Homo naledi (Of unknown age, but researchers say it could be as old as three million years) : The new discovery has small, modern-looking teeth, human-like feet but more primitive fingers and a small braincase.

Homo erectus (1.9 million years - unknown) : Homo erectus had a modern body plan that was almost indistinguishable from ours. But it had a smaller brain than a modern person's combined with a more primitive face.

Homo neanderthalensis (200,000 years - 40,000 years) The Neanderthals were a side-group to modern humans, inhabiting western Eurasia before our species left Africa. They were shorter and more muscular than modern people but had slightly larger brains.

Homo sapiens (200,000 years - present) Modern humans evolved in Africa from a predecessor species known as Homo heidelbergensis. A small group of Homo sapiens left Africa 60,000 years ago and settled the rest of the world, replacing the other human species they encountered (with a small amount of interbreeding).

I was astonished to see how well preserved the bones were. The skull, teeth and feet looked as if they belonged to a human child - even though the skeleton was that of an elderly female.

Its hand looked human-like too, up to its fingers which curl around a bit like those of an ape.

Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders. But it is put into the same genus as humans because of the more progressive shape of its skull, relatively small teeth, characteristic long legs and modern-looking feet.

"I saw something I thought I would never see in my career," Prof Berger told me.

"It was a moment that 25 years as a paleoanthropologist had not prepared me for."

One of the most intriguing questions raised by the find is how the remains got there.

I visited the site of the find, the Rising Star cave, an hour's drive from the university in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind. The cave leads to a narrow underground tunnel through which some of Prof Berger's team crawled in an expedition funded by the National Geographic Society.

Small women were chosen because the tunnel was so narrow. They crawled through darkness lit only by their head torches on a precarious 20 minute-long journey to find a chamber containing hundreds of bones.

Among them was Marina Elliott. She showed me the narrow entrance to the cave and then described how she felt when she first saw the chamber.

"The first time I went to the excavation site I likened it to the feeling that Howard Carter must have had when he opened Tutankhamen's tomb - that you are in a very confined space and then it opens up and all of a sudden all you can see are all these wonderful things - it was incredible," she said.

Ms Elliott and her colleagues believe that they have found a burial chamber. The Homo naledi people appear to have carried individuals deep into the cave system and deposited them in the chamber - possibly over generations.

If that is correct, it suggests naledi was capable of ritual behaviour and possibly symbolic thought - something that until now had only been associated with much later humans within the last 200,000 years.

Prof Berger said: "We are going to have to contemplate some very deep things about what it is to be human. Have we been wrong all along about this kind of behaviour that we thought was unique to modern humans?

"Did we inherit that behaviour from deep time and is it something that (the earliest humans) have always been able to do?"

Prof Berger believes that the discovery of a creature that has such a mix of modern and primitive features should make scientists rethink the definition of what it is to be human - so much so that he himself is reluctant to describe naledi as human.

Other researchers working in the field, such as Prof Stringer, believe that naledi should be described as a primitive human. But he agrees that current theories need to be re-evaluated and that we have only just scratched the surface of the rich and complex story of human evolution.

 Who...What am I?!!

Extraterresterials: List of some important names.

Below are names of some of the Sumerian gods and goddesses. Some of these names i linguistically; etymologically and phonemically, have connections to words and sounds still used today in different languages.

Anu, The god of Heaven (Pan-Mesopotamian) at the E'anna temple - Uruk. He is the father of Enki, the eldest son who was born to Anu by a woman who was not of royal blood, and Enlil, the youngest son who was born to Anu by a woman of a royal blood. The city of An or On in Egypt where a landing capsul revered by the Egyptians were kept, was built in his honor. 

Enki, The god of water and the fertile earth (Pan-Mesopotamian) at the E'abzu temple - Eridu also Babylonian Ea, who is also the god of magic, wisdom and intelligence. Eldest son of Anu and born by a woman of no royal blood. It is also worth mentioning that “Eridu” which is the first city built on Earth, means “Ardh” in Arabic, “Ertez” in Hebrew, “Earth” in English. It is quite obvious that the Arabic, Hebrew, English names are derived from the word “Eridu”. 

Enlil, The god of the air (from Lil = Air) and storms (Pan-Mesopotamian) at the E'kur temple - Nippur.  He was usually portrayed in human form but also appears as a snake to the humans eyes.Youngest son of Anu and born by Ninlil; a woman of royal blood. 

Ki, or Ninhursag The mother-goddess representing the earth (Sumerian) at the E'saggila temple - Eridu, and also at Kish.Scientist, nicknamed “Mamma”, who helped Enki in creating the first human by cross-breeding his DNA with homo-erectus who roamed Africa at his time. Hence, the Darwinian theory of evolution is partially right. As I mentioned in my previous articles, the sound “M” is part of words lik: In Arabic “uM”, in English “Mother”, in French “Mere”, in German “Mutter”, in Sanskrit “Mutter”. Humans, at the time, considered Ninursag to be their creator mother
.

Ninlil,or Nillina :goddess of air (possibly the south wind) and wife of Enlil (Sumerian) - at the E'kur Temple – Nippur. Wife of Enlil, mother of Ninurta from Enlil and a woman of royal blood.

Inanna, The goddess of love and war (Sumerian) - at the E'anna temple – Uruk. She is the one who stole the MEs from her grandfather Enki. A sleazy woman reputed for sleeping with many men both Gods and demi-Gods. Her story with Gilgamesh is wel-known. Also known as “Ishtar”. It is also worth mentioning that in Arabic, the verb “Ashara” means "to impregnate", and “Ashira” means "members of a family who descended from the same womb". Hence, it is obvious that these words were derived from the word “Ishtar”, the sleazy Goddess of love and sexuality.

Marduk, originally Ea's son and god of light, Marduk (bibilical Merodach; Mordechai was named after him) was the main god of Babylon and the sender of the Babylonian king (Babylonian) - at the E'saggila - Babylon. Eldest son of Enki (Ea), and known to have had disputes and wars with his cousins, the Enlilites.

Nannar - Suen (Sumerian) or Sin (Akkadian) God of the moon - at the E'hursag temple of Ur and Harran

  

Utu (Sumerian), Tutu (Akkadian) or Shamash (Akkadian) God of the sun - at the E'barbara temple of Sippar and in Babylonia the god of justice as well.  It is worth mentioning that “Shamash in Hebrew means “Sun”, In Arabic “Shams” means “Sun”. 

Sherida, a mother goddess and consort of the sun god Utu. She later developed into the Akkadian deity Aya, consort of Shamash. The reader might have noticed from the above that I have highlighted the words “Royal Blood”, because “royal blood” played an important part in the animosity that arose between Enki and his brother Enlil as regards authority and ruling of Earth, which reminds me with the Biblical story of Abraham, Sara and Hager and the "inherited rights of the first born".

"The dismissal of Hagar" Pieter Pietersz Lastman

There is no doubt that Ishmael was the first born of Abraham, but his mother was an Egyptian maid as mentioned in the Bible. Isaac, though he was the second born, his mother was the first wife of Abraham and of the same blood of Abraham. When Isaac was born, Sarah wanted Abraham to dismiss Hagar and her son believing that the "rights of inheritance" are the entitlements of her son Isaac who is of the same blood of his mother and father (royal blood).

Extraterresterials: Creation Epics (What Do They Imply?!)

In my introductory artilcle: Extraterrestrials: My Personal Journy That Got My Foot Into The Loop, I mentioned that I embarked on a long journey that started with linguistic curiosity about certain words mentioned in the holy books of the three major religion; Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 

Language, words, sounds - what are these things?: Scholars believe that primitive human language developed greatly over thousands of year. It then branched into thousands of dialects creating a cycle from which evolved independent languages which branched again into dialects. The human language, as a highly organized system of communication, has three elements functioning dependently and inseparably: 1) Individual sounds called PHONEMES, 2) combination of these sounds into meaningful units called MORPHEMES, and 3) combination of these meaningful units into a larger utterance called SYNTAX. Human language also has certain features: A) it has to be aquired, B) it has to be intentionally expressed, C) it must comprise of vocalized syllabic utternace, and D) it must express thoughts on our minds.

Some of the fascinating sounds in the human languages which seems to be a common denominator in so many languages spoken today are the sounds (not letters) "P", "B", and "M".which are parts of the words "Parent" and "Mother". Example: the word "Mother" in English is "Mother", in German "Muter", in Sanskriti "Muter", in Arabic "Um", in French "Mere". And in the ancient Sumerian mythology, Enki  was helped to create the first Adam by a scientist whose nick name was "Mamma". As for "Father", in English and French "Parent", in French "Pere", in Arabic "Ub". It is also worth mentioning that the sound "M" exists in the word "Mumal".  Now, after this little linguistic prologue, let us go back to the main issue which is: Extraterrestrials - Creation Epics - What Do They Imply?! 

Creation stories are so many all over the world. Some are similar in their basics, and some completely different. The most distinguished one is the Sumerian epic of creation (which is similar to the Biblical story of creation) in so many ways. 

THE SUMERIAN: The Sumerian people settled in the land they called Sumer, in a region of the Fertile Crescent that lay along the southern portions of the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.  The Greeks called the area “Mesopotamia”, meaning “between the rivers”. What occurred there some 6,000 years ago, has been called “the most crucial event in human history.” Literally, seemingly out of nowhere, a highly advanced, thriving culture appeared sometime after 4000 B.C.E. (although some argue that Sumerian may have arrived as early as 8500 B.C.E., or even much, much earlier). What is clear is that the Sumerian developed a highly sophisticated system of irrigation and agriculture, which took full advantage of the waters of the two rivers. They quickly established magnificent cities, advanced governing laws, and a written language.

SUMERIAN LANGUAGE: The Sumerian language itself has been an enigma to linguists and scholars ever since the first tablets of this ancient language were re-discovered in the nineteenth century. It bears no relation, for example to ancient Arabic, Assyrian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Indian, Hebrew, Persian, or Phoenician, nor to any language from contemporaneous African, Asian or European dialects. As might be expected, the Sumerian language did leave a significant heritage. For example, there are significant similarities among various agglutinative languages like Mongolian, Turkic, and Hungarian. In fact, in the process of deciphering Sumerian, the Hungarian (not Indo-European languages) was very useful. See for example HERE,  just one of many sites with information on this topic.

Sumerian Etymological Dictionary: For example in his Sumerian Etymological Dictionary and Comparative Grammar, Kálmán Gosztony, professor of Sumerian philology at the Sorbonne, demonstrated that the grammatical structure of the Hungarian language is the closest to that of the Sumerian language; out of the 53 characteristics of Sumerian grammar, there are 51 matching characteristics in the Hungarian language, 29 in the Turkic languages, 24 in the Caucasian languages, 21 in the Uralic languages, 5 in the Semitic languages, and 4 in the Indo-European languages.

The Sumerian language is the oldest sophisticated form of writing in existence, and dates from at least 3400 B.C.E. These early writings, however, are neither crude nor primitive, and no other source has been identified as to where it might have been developed. As Laurence Gardner has said in Genesis of the Grail Kings, “It appeared in a complete and composite form, as if from another world, in the style known as...

Cuneiform (wedge-shaped): There are now tens of thousands of clay tablets and cylinder-seals containing Sumerian texts describing everything from taxation and administrative records to essays and literature. It is a unique phenomena.

SUMERIAN PEOPLE AND CULTURE: The most intriguing aspect of the Sumerians is their arrival on the scene with all of the attributes of civilization already formulated in what they termed the ME. The Sumerian literature descripes the ME as: “the holy laws of heaven and earth.” In one particular tale, the goddess, Inanna, decides to obtain for her followers the ME from her maternal grandfather, Enki. Inanna (Ishtar) does this by getting him thoroughly drunk, and skirting off with the goods. Enki apparently tries to stop her, but fails. At the same time, however, there is the very real possibility that Enki had determined all along to give Inanna the ME, but went through the pretence in order to avoid the wrath of the other gods and godesses, i.e., the Anunnaki. (those who from heaven descended). Regardless of his true motive, however, the MEs are worthy of mention.

Sumerian Enana and Babylonian Eshtar:Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, in their book, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, describe the ME in the following terms: "...to keep the cosmic entities and cultural phenomena operating continuously and harmoniously without conflict and confusion, they devised the Me -- that set of universal and immutable rules and limits which had to be observed by god and man alike.". The MEs include and/or involve (among other things): 1) kingship and priesthood , 2) the holy measuring rod and line, 3) shepherdship, quiver, dagger and sword, 4) loosening and binding of the hair,5) the art of love making, the art of prostitution, procreation, the art of song, resounding musical instruments, the art of being forthright, the arts of power and treachery, deceit, plundering of cities, and of being slanderous and adorning, the art of kindness, 6) lamentations and rejoicings of the heart, 7) crafts of the wood and copper worker,  crafts of the scribe, builder and leather maker, 8) perceptive ear, power of attention, 9) holy purification rites, 10) fear, dismay, consternation, 11) kindling and putting out of fire, 12) counseling, giving of judgments, making of decisions, 13) assembled family, and 14) the making of beer!

The Sumerian culture also included Sumerian Ethics which were a quantum leap above anything known before, and in many ways, definitively superior to modern day morality.

Fundamental to anything regarding the Sumerians are their gods and goddesses, whom as a group they called the Anunnaki (literally, “those who from heaven to earth came”). As in any later pantheon, the Anunnaki consisted of a number of very different personalities, that clashed with each other often and in an enormous variety of ways. While their very distinct personalities can be used to establish Archetypes, all of the evidence suggests that the Anunnaki were historical figures and not mythological.

ANU (AN), ENLIL, AND ENKI (EA):The Sumerian Family Tree, in fact, distinguishes between those Gods and Goddesses who were born on earth (the new generation) and those born in heaven. The first trinity of gods is: Anu, the father, Enki, the eldest son, and Enlil, the youngest son.

The Sumerian texts also describe the Epic of Creation (of which Genesis is a condensed version), as well as a continuing semi-sibling rivalry between Enki and Enlil, their offspring, and those humans who voluntarily or otherwise began the process of choosing up sides. Sumerian wisdom was also prevalent at an early stage - the so-called father of mankind, Enki, being noted as extremely wise.

Extraterrestrials: My Personal Journy That Got My Foot Into The Loop

I was born in a small village overlooking the river Nile, and located 35 miles away from Cairo, the Capital of Egypt.

At age 5, I was sent, as is the custom in most Egyptian villages, to "Al-Kuttab"; a kindergarten-like school to learn how to read and write. The Holy Qur'an was the text book from which verses were quoted for reading and writing. "Sayyidna"; literally meaning "our master" was the teacher, and he was not necessarily well-versed in the interpretation of the Qur'an, but in teaching how to read and write it. In a few years I was able to memorize the whole Qur'an by heart, read and write it perfectly.

Ancient Egyptian Depiction of submarines, airplanes and a chopper misinterpreted as unknown Egytian hieroglyph or a sub-hieroglyphic language.

My father had a copy of the Christian Bible that had very beautiful pictures related to stories mentioned therein, like the stories of the flood, the Israelites exodus from Egypt and Moses' parting of the sea. At my young age, I was fascinated by these stories, and by the basic similarity between them and the same stories mentioned in the Qur'an, although the Qur'an narration varied  a bit from that of the Bible. I began to notice a few things. At the same time, I was also fascinated by mythological stories from the East and the West; Ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Indians, Chinese, native Americans, Greek and Roman.

Could they be?

My journey at a young age stared based on linguistics queries; certain words, their meaning, etymology and philology, a few mystic meanings. Hence, in pursuant of my goals, after I matriculated from high school, I joined the university and majored in comparative linguistics and comparative religions. At the university, beside my main curriculum, I was attracted to reading anthropology, ancient philosophy, ancient history, secret societies: the Frreemasons, and the Brethren of Purity, which led me to more reading about, the Illuminati, the Shriners, the Carbonaris, and the Skull and Bones as well as certain books like the Zohar and the Kabbalah.I have read about all that because I felt that they were all related to each other in a way or another, and intertwined in a fascinating and peculiar way.

So I started my inquiry by quoting certain words from the Qur’an: Adam, Adn (Aden), Ameen (Amen), Utoon, Maseeh (Messiah), Eesa (Jesus), Surah (verse), Salah (prayer), names of the months in the Coptic calendar (Christian Egyptian calendar), names of the months in the Lebanese and Syrian Calendar, ancient Egyptian. Words that survived in the ancient Coptic language and still being used today in the Egyptian Arabic slang, etc.

I’ll demonstrate by talking about a few words: 1) the word “Adam” is mentioned in the Jewish Bible, the Christian Bible, the Qur'an and surprisingly in the Sumerian mythology that existed thousands of years before the three religions were born, 2) the word “Amen” is used after prayers by followers of the three religions, though there is a very strong possibility that it was derived from the name of the ancient Egyptian God “Amon”, or “Amen”, 3) the Arabic word “Utoon” which means “fire/oven/inferno” must have been derived from the name of the ancient Egyptian God “Aton” who is represented by the sun (which in itself is an inferno).

Some of the Eyptian Gods

left to right: Amon-Ra (amen-Ra), Aton, Osiris

Well, it is believed among all Muslims that the Qur’an was revealed in Arabic (no foreign word included), and it is stated so in the Qur’an itself. How to solve this contradiction then?

Well, those non-Arabic words were arab-nized long before Islam, and have been used by the Arabs after submitting the words to the Arabic language rules. For example the word “Amen/Ameen” conformed to the Arabic three-letter verb rule, and from which the Arabs derived verbs. Hence, the word has become totally an Arabic word. This is a linguistic phenomenon exists in many languages, including English. Remnants of a mother language sometimes lingers compared to her daughter languages that branched out from the main tree-trunk. Hence, there is no contradiction that the Qur’an is totally revealed in Arabic.

The point is why those words are still alive?

There are other things that made me wonder. When I was young, I knew what was meant by saying that God is omnipresent and omnipotent. But when I have read in the Qur’an that when God decided to create Man, He informed the angles of his decision. But the angles interjected: AL-BAQARAH 2:30 "And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" Allah said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know."

I’ve read three interpretations in regards of the above: 1) the angles must have peeked in “Al-Lawh Al-Mahfooz”, which means “the preserved tablets”, where everything in the past, the present and the future is recorded, and knew that Adam and his descendants will sin, 2) the earth was inhabited before by the “Jinn”; a race who inhabited the earth before man, and committed atrocities. Hence, by analogy,  the angles thought that Adam was not going to be any different, 3) Earth must have been inhabited by different Adam(s) who shed blood and spread corruption. Therefore, by analogy, this Adam is going to be the same.

The amazing thing about the above interpretation by Muslim scholars is the possibility that a pre-Adam's life existed on earth.

Mesopotamian Gods

On top of the above, I always wondered, why would God, the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, need to keep things written on a tablet.  As narrated in the Bible, why would God, walk in the garden, and when Adam heard his footsteps, he hid himself in the bush. Is God corporeal, and if he is, wouldn't this limit him?

Another thing I wondered about when I was about 9 years old. I asked my father why was  it mentioned in the Qur'an that God wouldn't change people, their frame of mind, attitude, way of thinking, unless they change their selves first. He said that people's change has to come from within not without. I asked him why would God change them then after they have changed their selves...wouldn't that be redundant? He then explained to me the meaning of a word included in the verse which can be interpreted in different ways. The word is "hatta", a very peculiar word in the Arabic language, which means "unless, untill...", which could also means that God , though being able to change people, He wouldn't, and people have to change their selves first.

When I grew up and got more involved in studying all what I mentioned above; enigmatic things in the Qur'an became clear to me. And then I started reading the Hindu scriptures; the Vedas, where I found many stories of many Gods, their flying machines and fights with each other. I then started connecting the dots between these stories and similar stories in the Bible (Ezekiel's chariot of the God, Jacob's ladder), as well as what is mentioned in mythology worldwide, especially the Sumerian's and the Babylonian's.

Many questions, I asked myself while embarking on a very long journey  that took me 35 years or so to finally see things starting to fall into the proper slots, including parts of the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Thank you for reading this introductory article, and welcome to sharing my own personal journey of searching for the truth, and please don't hesitate to comment, post your own comment whether you're a skeptical or a believers.

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