THE DELUGED CIVILIZATION

OF THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS

by

REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN

FORMERLY

HEAD CHEMIST TO THOMAS A. EDISON;

PROFESSOR OF POST-GRADUATE MATHEMATICS AND

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH;

ENGINEERING COMMISSIONER ONTARIO POWER COMMISSION

BOSTON

T. J. RUSSELL PRINT

32 HAWLEY STREET

1923

COPYRIGHT 1923, BY

REGINALD A. FESSENDEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

TO

 HELEN

MY WIFE AND PARTNER

WITHOUT WHOM I SHOULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED VERY LITTLE

INTRODUCTION.

The material for all of the chapters has been gathered and some of them are completed. The influx of settlers into the Caucasus isthmus and the commencement of construction work on the Manytsch canal have made it advisable to publish this portion of the work, to prevent if possible the loss of invaluable archeological material.
Well known and accessible authorities only have been referred to, in order that the reader may have the opportunity of verifying the facts himself. In translating, no changes have been made from the accepted meaning except where absolutely necessary. . E. g. in Homer's description o f the route to Erebus, "lacheia" is given by Liddell and Scott as "fertile" sand by other authorities as "rugged." But this misses the whole meaning of Homer, for "lacheia" means the kind o f a shore which, when you come to it, you know that something is going to happen to you. 1 have translated it as "ominous," and in the same passage 1 have rejected the generally accepted meaning of "euroenta" as "mouldy" because it really means something of great size and frightening, i.e. "monstrous."
It is hoped that this investigation will establish Greek mythology in the position it should have. It is not a collection of fables; it relates to the same place and to the same facts as do the Semitic mythologies. The northern races had their revelation, and believed in one god, Ur or Al, just as the Semites believed in El or Jah, and both degenerated for a time into polytheism and both emerged from it. The northern has a much higher spiritual significance (compare the lives of Solon, Socrates anal Leonidas with those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), but no theology is complete which does not include both revelations; which became united at the commencement o f the Christian era.

CHAPTER 1.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF GREEK AND SEMETIC MYTHOLOGY

In 1882, in the course of some work for honors in Classics, the writer was forced to give rather close attention to the problem of obtaining a more consistent concept of the geography of Greek mythology.

This had been a subject of investigation by the Greeks themselves. They considered it very important, and there are few Greek writers of reputation who have not discussed it. Comparing the conclusions of Herodotus, B.C. 484, with those of Eratosthenes, B.C. 276, and "of Strabo, B.C. 54, we find considerable progress in some directions but the larger fields inviate.

Anything the Greeks thought to be important we may be sure we shall find to be important, so soon as we really understand it. This may take time; Zeno's paradoxes were considered trivial up to the middle of the nineteenth century because we did not realize how slovenly and incomplete were our concepts of number and continuity, of the infinite and of infinitesimals; but a large part of our recent advance in mathematics is based on an apprehension of Zeno's real thought.

The Greeks had sound reasons for believing the geography of their myths to be important, and as we shall see, they were right. Primitive man was very literal minded. Nothing, it will be shown, was further from his thought than the idea of making up stories about the sun and the moon and other natural phenomena; any one doing this would have been considered feeble minded. The myth, in the modern sense of the word, is not found until a comparatively recent date. To the Greeks of time prior to this a myth was an accurate and literal statement of certain important facts; important 

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because, as will appear, the knowledge of them might be a matter of life and death, not only to individuals but to whole communities.

There was one very practical reason. The Greeks were great traders, and colonizers for purposes of trade. It many times happened that for very long periods trade with important customer nations or colonies had to be discontinued. Other nations might rise to dominance in sea power and block the ' route. The particular commodities traded in might be better obtained from other places. The customer nation itself or the colony might be substantially wiped out by war or pestilence or inundations, and under such circumstances that there was no prospect of re-establishment. The only record that such trade or such place or such colony had existed would be the myth preserved in the home temples. And when, perhaps many centuries later, new places to trade or to found colonies were being sought, the myths would be consulted. One instance of this is the remarkable and unsuccessful search of the Phoenician traders for the lost Pillars of Hercules. (Strabo, II. 5.) Remarkable because, as will be shown, it was the ocean (the "Asiatic Mediterranean" of geologists, see Encycl. Brit. art. Caspian; the Ocean of Atlantis of the ancients), which had disappeared and not the pillars marking its entrance. And unsuccessful because, owing to the changed meaning of a word, the search was made west instead of east. An interesting example in Greek history is the founding of Cyrene by the Theraeans. (Herod, IV. 155.)

Every precaution was therefore taken that the myths should be transmitted accurately. The term "muthologeuo" used by Homer means "to tell word for word." That the Greeks were convinced that the means taken had been adequate to ensure accuracy is shown by such incidents as the handing over of Salamis to the Athenians by the Spartans on the evidence of a single line of a myth.

They had much positive evidence of accuracy, evidence of extreme accuracy. Instances of this will be found in the 

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chapter on myths and omens. Where there was error it was substantially invariably due to a change in the meaning of a word, or the word had come to be pronounced in a different way, as our "wind" and "gold" have become "wind" and "gold." The oracle at Dodona was founded by three elders "palaiai," but when, in time, this came to be pronounced "palaai" the reciter of the myth, who could not change the quantity of the syllable, since it was in verse, was understood as saying that the oracle was founded by three "peleiai," i.e. pigeons. I have not been able to discover any instance of a myth having been incorrectly transmitted verbally, though in later times there were several instances of forgery.

It was therefore very disturbing to the Greeks that in some of the older myths the routes stated to have been taken on certain expeditions could not be reconciled in any reasonable way with the known geographical facts. Why did Hercules, returning to Tiryns with the oxen of Geryon, from Gades and the Pillars of Hercules, pass through the country on the north shore of the Black Sea. Why did not Mt. Atlas, in Libya, correspond with its description in the myths. How was it that the Argonauts, after entering the mouth of the Danube, passed through Egypt on their way to the Adriatic. Where were Hyperborea, the red island, Erythia, the islands of Ogygia and of the Hesperides. There were many writers on the subject but Herodotus and Strabo are perhaps the best to consult for examples of the difficulties met with and illustration of their apparently insuperable nature.

Lord Rayleigh had not then given his word of encouragement to those considering prospection of well worked fields; that the great discoveries of the future would be the result of investigation of apparently unimportant discrepancies, of "examination of the third decimal point," as he put it. It was not with any hope, acknowledged even to myself, of finding anything which would explain this question of a thousand years but to see the difficulties as a whole that as a preliminary substantially all the known myths which had geographi-

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cal relations were written out in standard form, with their local and temporal variants, and tabulated and compared.

 TABULATION AND COMPARISON OF MYTHS

From this tabulation it was apparent that:

a. The mythic expeditions were quite consistent and understandable as regards the first and last portions of the routes.

b. The inconsistencies with known geographical facts were consistent with each other.

c. The expeditions whose objective was in the far west, in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, e.g. the expeditions for the apples of the Hesperides and for the oxen of Geryon, always first went east, into and along the shores of the Black Sea, to the Caucasus; then, with some incoherency as to route, appeared in the Atlantic Ocean, accomplished their quest, and after a second vagueness as to itinerary, returned by way of the shore of the Black Sea to Greece.

d. In a number of instances members of the same family lived, some in the far east, some in the far west; no reference to or explanation of the separation is given, and the members apparently remained in communication. E.g. Prometheus was in the Caucasus, and Echidna and Typhon in its neighborhood; but Atlas and the Hesperides (the brother and nieces of Prometheus) and Geryon (the brother of Echidna) and Orthus (son of Echidna and Typhon) were beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the exit to the Atlantic Ocean.

e. In some instances there was contradiction as to locality. E.g. Mt. Atlas was usually placed on the shore of the Atlantic, but sometimes in the Caucasus; the country of the Hyperboreans was placed sometimes far west, sometimes not far from the Black Sea.

f. There is a gap in the geography of mythology. There are many myths connected with places lying east 

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of Sicily and west of the Caucasus, and many with places in the Atlantic Ocean, but none with the region between Sicily and the Atlantic Coast.

The results of this tabulation were collated with the following well known facts:

a. The early myth tellers, including Homer and Hesiod, had no knowledge of Spain or of the Atlantic Ocean. This did not come till several centuries after the time of Homer.

b. Not one of the places stated in the myths to have been in or on the Atlantic Ocean has ever been satisfactorily identified. E.g. the island supposed to be Erythia is not red; the supposed Gades is not well watered, on the contrary was notorious for its bad water; the mountain identified as Atlas is relatively low and is not near the shore; the Atlantic Ocean itself does not correspond with the description of the Ocean of Atlantis for it is not shoal and un-navigable opposite the Pillars of Hercules and is not entirely surrounded by land. No submerged area has been found in the Atlantic Ocean corresponding to a submerged Atlantis. It has been suggested that it might exist but have been missed between the successive soundings taken by wire, since the intervals are large. But in 1913 the writer invented the method of taking soundings and of locating icebergs by trains of sound waves (single impulses are diffracted), which gives continuous soundings by echo, and this has been used all over the North Atlantic; by the iceberg patrol in 1914 (see U. S. Hydrographic Office Bulletin, May 13th, 1914), by the United Fruit Co. in 1919 and 1920, and by the U. S. Navy, in 1922 and 1923 ; but no such submerged area has been discovered. Other discrepancies are pointed out by the authorities referred to.

c. The Caucasus is, in all the older myths, invariably placed "at the extremity of the earth, on the border of Oceanus."

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2. THE MISPLACED MYTH AREA

These data gave, so to speak, a sufficient number of equations for attack. The singular gap in the myth field, between Sicily and the Atlantic coast of Spain (Iberia), suggested that the problem was of the nature of a block puzzle, i.e. that a block of the myth map had been displaced.

Which was the misplaced block, and where did it belong. Several plausible solutions suggested themselves but on investigation had to be rejected. It was finally noted that there was a curious one-to-one correspondence between points on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and on the west shore of the Mediterranean, i.e.:

a. In the east we have a country, Iberia, stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian. In the west we have a country, Iberia, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

b. The northern boundary of both Iberias is a chain of high mountains; running from sea to sea, east and west, in both of which Mt. Atlas had been placed.

c. In the east we have the Hypanis; in the west, Hispalis and Hispania, and other pairs of similar or identical names, e.g. Aragon and Aragus.

d. In the east we have the country of the Libui, about the mouth of the Danube and inland; in the west we have Libya.

Placing the Black Sea block to the west of the Atlantic block would still leave empty the space between Sicily and the Atlantic shore of Spain; the mythic expeditions would be still more difficult to explain; there was a continuity between the Black Sea and Greek blocks which could not be disturbed by removal of the Black Sea block. Obviously it was the Atlantic block which must be transferred to the eastern edge of the Black Sea block.

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3. PROOF THAT THE PROPOSED LOCATION OF THE MYTH AREA IS CORRECT - THE LOST PILLARS OF HERCULES

The next step was to ascertain if the new arrangement could pass the severe tests requisite to establish its claim to be the correct solution, i.e.

a. It must be shown that, at the time at which the events related by the myths occurred, there was on the eastern edge of the Caucasus a body of water of such magnitude that it could be rightly called an ocean, and entirely surrounded by land.

b. It must be shown that at that time ships could sail from the Black Sea into that ocean.

c. It must be shown that the Pillars of Hercules were at the entrance to that ocean.

d. The place names of the former Atlantic block must be satisfactorily identified with localities in the neighborhood of the Caucasus, of the Black Sea and of that ocean (which we will call the Ocean of Atlantis, to distinguish it from the Atlantic Ocean).

e. The routes taken by the mythic expeditions must be consistent and in accord with the geographic facts.

f. There should preferably, but not necessarily, be some explanation of the misplacement of the Ocean of Atlantis block to the far west. Also some explanation of the fact that the misplacement was not discovered.

It was found that the new arrangement met the requirements, i.e.

a. There was such an ocean. It is known to geologists as the Asiatic Mediterranean. It was the original Atlantic Ocean. 

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Geologists say it was in existence as late as the time of which the myths tell. It extended from the Caucasus to Mongolia, 1850 miles, i.e. about the same distance as from England to Newfoundland. Its eastern portion was probably at one time connected with the Arctic Ocean. The Caspian, Aral and Balkasch Seas are what is left of it; i.e. the part which has not yet dried up. (See Encyc. Brit. art. Caspian.) The Caspian and the Aral were still connected as late as B.C. 200, and merchandise from India was still brought by boat from Faisabad to Sura, in the Caucasus Valley, but a few years later caravan routes were established. This date is confirmed by the Chinese histories. Excavations should be made at Faisabad.

For mission of the Three Wise Men of the East, their presents, attendants, see Strabo XV; 1; 73.

b. Strabo states that in his day, B.C. 50, there was a tradition that the Caspian had been connected with the Black Sea by way of the Sea of Azov. (Strabo, Book 11:7; 43.) This tradition is fully confirmed by geologists, i.e. not only that the Black and Caspian were at one time connected, but also that the connection was by way of the Sea of Azov. (Encyc. Brit. art. Caspian.) I have found that the connection was by way of the Manytsch Lakes. At the present time part of the water of these lakes flows into the Sea of Azov, and part into the Caspian. (Note. Since the above was written the Soviet government has announced its intention of re-establishing this waterway. On account of the fall in level of the Caspian, locks will be necessary. A practically unlimited amount of water power should be obtainable, by the method I have suggested in connection with the Dead Sea. Scientific Amer. April 30, 1921.)

A map showing this route, from the Black Sea to the Ocean of Atlantis via the Sea of Azov rind the Manytsch Lakes, is given in the chapter on ATLANTIS.

c. The Pillars of Hercules were found; and at the entrance to the Ocean of Atlantis.

For evidence of the fact that it was known to the ancients that the Pillars of Hercules were lost; for an account of the various expeditions sent out by the Naval College of the Phoenicians at Sidon to discover them; for the reasons why the Phoenicians decided that the capes of the straits 

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of Gibraltar were not the true Pillars of Hercules; for an explanation of their nature and use; for evidence that the true Pillars were known to two Asiatic kings in the seventh century B.C. and later mistaken for another monument by Ptolemy; see the chapter on PILLARS of HERCULES.

d. The identification :was complete. In addition it explained some difficult statements in the myths, e.g. the heptacyclic flow of the Styx; the origin of the name Phlegethon, of the names Hades and Tartarus; Solon's account of Atlantis and Aelian's of Meropia. See the chapter on
THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS.

e. The mythic itineraries now presented no difficulties. As regards Hercules, he drove the, oxen of Geryon back al.,.:g the north shore of the Black Sea because it was shorter, had good pasturage and water and was level. To have gone back by the south shore he would have had to take his cattle through the Dariel Pass of the Caucasus, which was impassable for cattle, and along the mountainous south shore. His expedition for the apples of the Hesperides presents no difficulty, for Atlas (Mt. Elbruz) is within sight of the mountain to which Prometheus was chained (Mt. Kasbek), and the Garden of the Hesperides was at the foot of Mt. Kasbek. See the chapter on EDEN, THE HYPIBEREANS AND THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES.

As regards the Argonauts, they sailed back by the north shore of the Black Sea to the mouth of the Danube; up the Danube, through the confusing channels of the Balta (Lake Tritonis of this myth; there was another Lake Tritonis in Africa), up the Save and Kulpa to above Karlstadt. Thence they portaged a short distance through the country of the Libui (Illiberi) and came out, at the point where Fiume now stands, into the Adriatic; thence south along the eastern shore of the Adriatic to Greece.

This route was a well used path of commerce between the Black Sea and northern Italy. It was in the possession of the Iberi and of their colonists the Illiberi and 

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Thrasi or Rasi (Etruscans). It avoided the long journey through the Dardanelles and around Greece with its heavy tolls and danger from pirates.

It was longer and harder for the Argonauts. They took it because they had carried off the daughter and murdered the son of Aeetes, king of Colchis. The Colchians were the original black Phoenicians, the Aethiopians of Ephorus (Aithiopis, Aieti-opis), had colonized Egypt and islands in the Aegean. They had many ships in the Black and Aegean Seas. The Iberians were their trade rivals. The Argonauts could not escape by the Dardanelles route so they took the Iberian trade route, up the Danube. See the chapter on THE DISPERSION.

For the object of the Argonaut's expedition see the chapter on THE OCEAN OF ATLANTIS AS A TRADE ROUTE; the section on Silk.

4. CAUSE OF THE MISPLACEMENT

f. The explanation of the misplacement was found to be connected with the reversal in meaning of the word Hesperus. This is derived from a root having the implication "coming up out of." The sun and stars were supposed to come up out of the ocean and to go down into it at night. Hesperus is Venus, which is both morning and evening star.

To a primitive people it was as a morning star that it was important. Travelers on the steppes have described the jubilation and songs with which the Kirgis children, who had to watch the cattle all night, welcomed it, for it meant that day was near. Even in such comparatively late authors as Homer and Hesiod it is called "heosphoros," the bringer of morning. Hesiod calls Hesperus the son of dawn.

All the associations of Hesperus were therefore originally with the east, and the Gardens of the Hesperides were so called because they were in the far east, on the edge of the ocean, in the eastern part of the Caucasus valley.

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THE GEOGRAPHY OF GREEK AND SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY

In Pindar the Black Sea is called the Axenus, or unfriendly sea. This was because long before the time of Homer, for a period of more than a thousand years, the Black Sea had, to quote the words of Strabo, "been closed to navigation," by something that had happened there, which appears (there is some evidence for this) to have struck an instinctive terror into the souls of even the descendants of those living in the neighborhood of the sea at the time and to have resulted in the absolute abandonment of that region by humanity until, long after, men began to filter back.

When they did return the Pillars of Hercules had been lost. They were never found but for lack of a better identification the na me was attached to the straits of Gibraltar and the myths relating to places beyond the Pillars of Hercules, Le. to the Caucasus region, were attached to the Atlantic and its seaboard.

5. WHY THE MISPLACEMENT WAS NOT DISCOVERED - HESPERUS THE MORNING STAR

This misplacement was clenched by a change in the meaning of the word Hesperus. It had come to mean the evening or western star. So no one thought of looking to the east for the Garden of the Hesperides. Atlas gave a good deal of trouble; there was no distinguished mountain near the straits which could by any image be considered as upholding the sky, but after a time Mt. Dyrin was accepted as being perhaps the best that could be done. Gades and Erythia also were never considered very satisfactory; in time the disagreements came to be overlooked, and there is evidence that the Homeric commentators piously, under the impression that they were correcting obvious mistakes in the text, reversed every, to their knowledge, phrase which indicated an eastern position.

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It is significant that a similar confusion of meaning is found to have existed in other languages besides Greek; in all which I have examined. E.g. Genesis, 11; 2; authorized version, reads: "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east," but the margin says "or eastward." Clay (Amurru, p. 108) shows that the word in Isaiah 24; 15; which has always been translated "east" should probably be translated `west," and he refers to the Talmudic Ur and the difficulty the Jews in Babylonia experienced in trying to understand how Ur, which ordinarily means light or the east, "in this connection (urya) meant darkness or the west." It existed in many other languages, and our own " east" or ' l est" appears to have been at one time "west."

The problem had then been solved. And with the more pleasure because there had been no anticipation.

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II

SEQUENCES

It was then apparent that there were other results, and of great importance. Heretofore old Greek mythology had been an incoherent collection of stories. This was incomprehensible, for nothing was farther from the Greek mind than incoherence. They could not be what is called "nature myths," for my .experience with primitive man is that he does not think that way; I feel that an attempt to introduce a. nature myth into primitive Greece would have been a source of quiet tribal amusement for several generations.

Likening them then to a jumble of blocks, so soon as the geographical problem was solved the myths all fell into place; it became clear that they were a rational and consistent account of the lives of certain individuals of prominence, the so-called heroes or gods, to whom the Greeks had erected monuments analogous to the Lincoln Memorial; or had even come to worship, as the Tibetans and some tribes of India worship Queen Victoria; and of certain pioneering commercial expeditions.

This was the first major sequence, that the old Greek myths are history, of the utmost importance to archeologists, and will well repay intensive investigation.

(Note. This has for some time been recognized to be true for the later myths relating to Troy and Crete.)

1. CAUSE OF CLOSURE OF BLACK SEA TO NAVIGATION

A second came from investigation of the exact nature of the catastrophe (the greatest of which we have historical knowledge), which had closed the Black Sea to navigation for so many centuries and had caused it to be called the "Unfriendly Sea."

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It was known to be an inundation, accompanied by storm and in some localities by slight earthquake shocks.

The traditions were collected, tabulated and compared. This developed the fact that there were only five traditions of an inundation of more than local character.

1. The Greek tradition; of Deucalion; the Aegean, 100 to 250 miles southwest of the Black Sea.

2. The Egyptian-Phoenician; of Atlantis and the Greeks; the western and northeastern shores of the Black Sea.

3. The Cimmerian; of the Crimea; the north shore of the Black Sea.

4. The Hebrew-Babylonian; of Noah and Atra-Hasis; the southeast shore of the Black Sea.

5. The Phrygian; of Noe; the south shore of the Black Sea.

Literal translations of these traditions will be found in the chapter on THE DELUGE; also evidence indicating that the Greek tradition was possibly transplanted from the eastern shore of the Black Sea; also discussion of the possibility that the Phrygian tradition was derived from a Semitic source.

2. TRADITIONS OF DELUGE

Dismissing for the present dubious and minor matters, the tabulation disclosed that:

a. Every known tradition of a deluge relates to some region in the neighborhood of the Black Sea.

b. The traditions, taken together, form a unit; relating to the west, north, northeast, southeast and south coast of the Black Sea.

c. The only tradition which does not relate to a region in the immediate neighborhood of the Black Sea coast relates to the coast of R smaller body of water, connected at one end to the Black Sea and nearly closed at 

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the other; which must have been affected by any considerable rise in the level of the Black Sea.

d. There was no tradition that there had been more than one deluge in the region in the neighborhood of the Black Sea.

e. The traditions were apparently consistent as to the time of the deluge.

f. There was no evidence of any deluge tradition not derived from regions bordering on the Black Sea. E.g. in India no deluge tradition is found before approximately the beginning of the Christian era.

g. The traditions were not derived from a common source. Three of them, relating to : the southeast, south and southwest of the Black Sea, tell of the survival of a few individuals in an ark, and as stated above, these may be branches of the same tradition. But the Cimmerians knew nothing of an ark; to them the deluge was the terror inspiring catastrophe which had caused their few surviving ancestors to abandon the Crimea and adopt a nomadic life. And the Egyptian-Phoenician tradition is not of an ark, but of a great and highly civilized nation, driven west as their successors were in later times, by long continued famine and drought, and while in conflict with the natives of the invaded territory, wiped out to the last man, they and their foes, by the deluge.

3. PHYSICAL CIRCUMSTANCES

The consistency of these traditions suggested an examination of the physical possibility of a catastrophy of such magnitude. The circumstances were:

a. To the east of the Black Sea and separated from it by an isthmus, the great ocean of Atlantis extended for 1,800 miles.

b. The present width of the isthmus is approximately 300 miles, the eastern side being 80 ft. below the level of the Black Sea, i.e. sea level. When the ocean of Atlantis 

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was at its normal level, the width must have been approximately 200 miles.

c. The ,greater part of the isthmus is very low. A rise of 25 feet in the ocean of Atlantis would have covered an area of more than 100,000 square miles of the isthmus, i.e. the entire isthmus except the Caucasus mountains and the central portion of the Caucasus valley; the ocean would have broken through into the Black Sea and inundated a much greater area there.

d. The Cimmerian tradition calls for an increase in level of the Black Sea of approximately 45 feet and a period of approximately twelve hours.

The Egyptian-Phoenician tradition requires a rise of 35 feet and a period of twenty-four hours.

The Hebrew-Babylonian tradition must have a rise of 40 feet on the southwest coast of the ocean of Atlantis, and of sufficiently rapid increment to carry a large vessel up the valley of the Arax into the great expanse at the foot of Mt. Ararat, and flood this expanse over an area of approximately 50 miles square. The period would not exceed a few hours, but the time taken to drain the expanse would be measured by weeks or even months.

The Phrygian tradition is not known with sufficient definiteness to calculate its requirements. It is probably a branch of the Semitic tradition.

The Greek tradition would necessitate a rise of 125 feet, on the assumption that there has been no change in the level of the region between the Black and Aegean seas; and also on the assumption that the tradition is not derived from the Caucasus region.

e. The traditions, taken as a whole, require a tidal wave on the southwest shore of the ocean of Atlantis, of a height of approximately 40 feet, lasting for approximately 12 hours, and sufficiently rapid in its onset to produce bores up the river valleys of that shore. 

The evidence that the Deluge had a tidal wave character appears to be conclusive. The traditions are in agreement, and the Babylonian tradition specifically says "Like a war engine it (the Deluge) comes upon the people."

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f . The ocean of Atlantis was shoal over a great portion of its area, approximately of the same depth as Lake Erie, i.e. 80 feet; but with considerable areas of much greater depth.

g. The ocean of Atlantis is known to have been at one time connected with the Arctic Ocean; in the opinion of geologists, quite recently. It is shown so connected on Strabo's map of about the beginning of the Christian era, but this feature of the map was based on tradition from time long prior to Strabo's day. The connection was wide, about 400 miles at the narrowest part, but shoal, probably not more than 30 feet deep. It was northeast of the ocean of Atlantis, where the Obi and its tributaries now are. Even at the present time the greater part of this area is below the level of the Sea of Aral.

h. The ice of the fourth and last glacial age was just passing away. The date of the deluge, from the EgyptianPhoenician tradition, is about 9,500 B.C. De Geer and Liden's date (obtained from counting the 'varves'' or annual layers of the glacier deposits, and which gives very accurate results) for the beginning of glacial recession from southern Sweden is 11,500 B.C. At 9,500 B.C. there must still have been considerable glacier ice north of the ocean at Atlantis. For references and details see chapter on A POSSIBLE GLACIAL AGE FACTOR.

i. The weight of the Glacial Age ice in what is now the Obi region probably depressed the earth surface below sea level. Estimates based on Joly's investigations of mountain flotation show that the ice need not have been more than 100 feet thick. This ice would have acted as a dam to restrain the Arctic Ocean from flowing into the ocean of Atlantis if the surface of the latter were below sea level.

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j. From the Babylonian version of the Semitic tradition, the flood was preceded by an intense drought lasting for six or seven years. No rain fell during the entire period, and all rivers and wells were dried up.

k. According to the Semitic or Hebrew-Babylonian tradition there was warning of the advent of the Deluge, and so far in advance as to afford time for the construction of a huge vessel. Giving due weight to the fact that the rule of the head of a family was autocratic and to the announcement of a revelation, it is difficult to conceive that such a gigantic task could have been carried to completion without some outward and visible sign. Noah was living to the east of Eden (Aetan), i.e. where the Arax flowed into the ocean of Atlantis, not far from the present Shamash. The indication of the coming Deluge was probably a continued and fairly rapid creeping up of the ocean level. This is purely hypothethical; it is inserted to show that preparation for a Deluge so far in advance is not inconsistent with the known facts. Also because it is in accordance with the hypothesis that the ocean of Atlantis was not, immediately prior to the Deluge, in connection with the Arctic Ocean, and that its surface was somewhat below sea level.

Calculation of possible rates of no inundation from the Mediterranean side could have produced flow and other even more conclusive considerations demonstrate that a deluge of more than a fraction of the required magnitude. And aside from the matter of. magnitude an inundation from the west would be hopelessly in disagreement with the other features of the traditions, e.g. the destruction of the Athenian army without any inundation of Italy or of Egypt or of the coast of Asia Minor.

4. CAUSE OF DELUGE

The problem having been formulated, the following solutions present themselves:

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     1. Abnormal and long continued rainfall. This must be rejected as a prime cause, though it may have been accessory.
If all the air above the ocean of Atlantis were saturated and then all the water fell as rain, it would only increase the level about 2 inches. Even with winds bringing in moisture laden air at a velocity of 60 miles per hour the total daily rise could not exceed 2 inches per day, or 7 feet for 40 days. Small areas may have a rainfall of several feet per day, but no large area can have a fall of more than about two inches; and no larger fall has ever been known over any considerable area. This fact is well known to meteorologists.

In addition it would not give the requisite rapidity of rise.

     2. Abnormal winds. High winds will undoubtedly pile up water on the lee shore of a sea. If the sea is deep, the amount will vary with the latitude, since it is a function of the earth's rotation, and may amount to as much as 30 feet. But the piling up is at right angles to the direction of the wind and would not supply the water fast enough for the flow into the Sea of Azov.

If the sea is shallow we may also get sufficient increase in level on the lee shore, but there is the same difficulty in regard to the supply of water.
It would not give the requisite bores up the rivers.

Though insufficient in itself, it may have been an important accessory.

     3. Earthquake. Only one tradition mentions an earthquake, and this probably of minor intensity. An earthquake which raised the level of the Obi district or that of Ust-Urt would undoubtedly have produced a tidal wave of sufficient intensity.

     4. Slippage of sedimentary deposits. This is one of the most common causes of tidal waves. The Caspian is even now over 3,000 feet deep in places, and the rivers flowing into it are notorious for carrying large amounts of sediment.

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A seven years drought followed by heavy rainfall might well have produced slip of sufficient amount.

     5. Slipping of a dam of Glacial ice holding back the Arctic from the ocean of Atlantis. This is less probable than some of the other possible causes, but certain facts entitle it to consideration.

A combination of 1 and 2 with 4; or of 1 and 2 with 5; would have produced the Deluge of the traditions. The relative probability of these combinations is discussed in the chapter on THE DELUGE, but is of slight interest except to geologists; the important thing is the fact that there were in existence at the time of the Deluge physical causes competent to have produced the Deluge; and the Deluge traditions are at every point in complete agreement with, and consistent with, the known physical circumstances.

The second major sequence then was that the Deluge of the traditions actually occurred and substantially exactly as they describe it.

ORIGIN OF MANKIND - CONSCIOUSNESS - RESPONSIBILITY

The traditions are agreed that mankind was substantially entirely destroyed by the Deluge. That an inundation of the west shore of the ocean of Atlantis and of the coast of the Black Sea should have substantially wiped out mankind implies that, at the time of the Deluge, mankind had not dispersed beyond this region, and that the place of the origin of mankind lay within it; and was most probably the isthmus between the two inundating bodies of water, i.e. the Caucasian isthmus.

As a preliminary it was necessary to define precisely what was meant by "origin of mankind."

The existence of a mankind is a very rare, possibly a unique phenomenon. When we knew but little of the stars we thought of countless worlds; but now we know that very few stars can have a planetary system; that the planetary condi- 

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tions for life are very numerous, rigid and interlocked; we may be a solitary race.

In a paper on "Molecular Physics" read before the Franklin Institute in September, 1896, I demonstrated that ability to remember and to act in accordance with that memory did not imply consciousness. Two mannikins were exhibited. One mannikin on being brought within a few inches of a candle, and facing it, thrust its hand into the candle flame, and so soon as it began to burn, drew it back. But so soon as the hand had cooled off it was thrust in the flame again.

The second mannikin was given a memory by means of the molecular hysteresis of a wire forming part of its mechanism. On being brought up to the candle it thrust its hand in the flame and withdrew it, as had the first mannikin. But it would not thrust it in the flame a second time, and if brought closer would draw its hand back, and this memory governed reaction would persist until the hysteresis effect had, in the course of some months (depending on the temperature), died down.

(Note. This demonstration was given as illustrating a theorem on responsibility, i.e. that though circumstances are responsible for man's actions, man is responsible, because he is at all times the majority of his circumstances. At any given instant his individuality is the sum of the activities of three sets of hysteresis effects, those of heredity, those of past circumstances, and those of immediate circumstances, and the measure of his responsibility is the ratio of the sum of the first two to the sum of all three. Except in the case of infants, defectives, or occurrences of very short period this fraction will always approach unity. Other deductions are contained in a paper on "Hysteresis in Moral, Social and Economic Functions," presented at the 1899 meeting of the Amer. Ass. Advancement of Science, Economic Section.)

Omitting for the present an exact definition of "consciousness" (ability to inactivate hysteresis effects, i.e. to inhibit, might perhaps do), we cannot consider the second manni-

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kin to have been conscious. Until, then, it is shown that ability of the individuals of a species homo to react to circumstances as a man does, i.e. to chip flints, plant grain, etc., necessarily implies consciousness, we cannot say that the absence of anatomical differences between that species of homo and mankind proves that the species is mankind. This point does not affect what we are now considering but this is the logical place to call attention to it, as it will be f ound important; see the chapter on "THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL."

It is only quite recently that archeological results have been collated in a scientific way, and up to the time that this was done it seemed a thing to be expected that mankind should have appeared on the world in due time, and if not in one place then in another. Archeologists are now substantially agreed that the early chimpanzee type of man-like beings which we call Homo Neanderthaliensis, and which existed for possibly more than 100,000 years and used rough chipped stone implements and fire, passed out of existence, possibly 25,000 years ago, as completely, as regards the origin of man, as if it had never been.

A later type, the ape type, of man-like beings, Homo Sapiens, having deer-horn flakers and making better implements of stone and bone and making painted and carved representations of familiar objects, came into being perhaps 40,000 years ago. This too passed, about 15,000 years ago; though some anthropologists believe local vestiges remain. For a clear and concise account of these two types see Wells, "Outline of History."

The authoritative doctrine at present is that mankind of today was developed from the latter of these types, gradually, and possibly in more than one place; but it will be shown that there was only one place of origin, a valley of unique characteristics, and that if mankind developed from this second type the development was not a gradual but an abrupt change.

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6. BIRTH PLACE OF MANKIND

In determining the birthplace of mankind we have the following "equations."

a. Wild wheat. Wheat has been found growing wild in

1. The east Caucasus valley. Strabo, XI; 4; 3.
2. The south Caspian littoral. Strabo, II; 1; 14.
3. In the upper valley of the Euphrates. U. S. Bureau of Agriculture.

Localities 2 and 3 are separated by difficult mountain ranges, but 1 is in connection with both.

b. General archeological evidence. America appears to have been populated quite recently; farther India and China, and probably Africa south of the equator, at a comparatively late date. The earlier populated region appears to lie between Spain on the west, Burmah on the east, Finland on the north and the Indian ocean on the south.

The Caucasus isthmus is in the centre of this region.

c. Centre of gravity of nationalities. Giving a weight 1 to each distinct nationality, and locating the centre of gravity of the combined weight, it is found to be in the Caucasus isthmus.

The dispersion in the Caucasus isthmus itself was great. Some writers say that 70 interpreters, others that 300, were needed at the western terminus of the Caucasus isthmus. See Strabo, XL; 2; 16, and Pliny, N. H. VI; 5; 15. In the eastern valley they spoke 26 different languages. Strabo, XI; 5; 6.

d. Origin of religions. It was found that

1. The religion of the Egyptians was derived from the mother country of the black Phoenicians, i.e. Colchis, the western Caucasus valley, originally Eadon.

2. The fundamental Greek religion was derived from Hypiberea, i.e. the eastern Caucasus valley; with additions from Egypt.

3. The Syrian and Babylonian religions (worship 

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of Thammuz, Adonis, etc.), were derived from the northern slopes of the Caucasus, i.e. from the neighborhood of Mt. Tamischeira, the river and peninsula of Acheron or Apscheron and the river Udonis. Thammuzon is "land of Thammuz" and is the origin of the name Amazon. Adonis is "man of the land of Ea." Acheron or Apseron is "land of the burning" or " Land whence fire arises," i.e. the present Baku oil district.

4. The religion of the Aryans was derived from the Apseron district.

5. The religion of the pre-Mosaic Ibri (Hebrews), was derived from the mid Caucasus valley, i.e. Iberia or eastern Eadon.

6. The religion of Crete was from the same source as 1, with additions from a district just north of source 3. These additions were perhaps of a civil rather than a religious character.

It was further found that source 3 may have been originally in the eastern portion of the region given.

7. IDENTITY OF GREEK AND SEMITIC MYTHS

e. Origin of myths. When the geographical misplacement referred to above was corrected, it was found that the Semitic and Greek myths of the origin of mankind referred to the same place and were in agreement at all substantial points. E.g.

1. Eadon of Greek mythology and Eden of Semitic are the same region, i.e. the west and middle Caucasus valley. The word means "Land of Ea," and the eastern part was later called the land of the Iberi or Ibri (Hebrews).

2. The Garden of the Hesperides wad the Garden of Eden were in the same place, i.e. the eastern part of Eadon or Eden.

3. The dragon guarded tree of the Apples of Hesperides and the kirubi (flying serpent) guarded tree of 

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Life were in the same place, i.e. a garden in the eastern portion of Eadon or Eden.

4. Both Greek and Hebrew traditions place a phenomena of fire to the east of Eden (i.e. in the Baku oil district); the Greek tradition flaming fields; the Hebrew tradition a sword of fire which turned every way.

The sacred fire of the early Aryan religion was there also.

5. Zeus, according to the Greek mythology (Smith, Classical Dict. art. Prometheus), "created men out of earth and water and caused the winds to breath life into them." in Eadon.

God, according to the Semitic tradition (Genesis, chap. 2, verse 7), "formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul," in Eden.

6. Both the Greek and Hebrew traditions place the institution of the rite of the sacrifice of animals in Eden, and both lay stress on the fat of the offering.

7. The Greek tradition in regard to Prometheus and the Hebrew tradition in regard to Cain are similar in many respects. E.g.

Prometheus incurs the displeasure of Zeus, and Cain that of God, on account of the nature of their sacrifices.

Both are exiled to the same place, to the east of Eden (i.e. the Baku oil district).

Both are the originators of metal working and other useful arts for which fire is necessary.

     f. The place names of the district are of such character that I think anyone who has done much work in this line will feel, as I feel, that in the Caucasus isthmus we are working in a district where Aryan and Semitic shade imperceptibly into one another.

     g. An origin in the Caucasus isthmus would explain Mommsen's observation (History of Rome, chap. 3) that the two branches of the Indo-Germanic race have different 

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names for the sea. The wild honey bee and the birch beech are also found in this district.

     h. The known facts in regard to the dispersion of mankind are consistent with an origin in the Caucasus isthmus. See chapter on THE DISPERSION. It will be shown that the home of the negro race was Colchis, the western portion of the Caucasus valley. In connection with this rather unexpected discovery see Herodotus, II; 104. Also Pindar, Pyth. IV. Also Homer, Odyssey, I; 23. It will be noted that Homer antedates the expeditions of Sesostris. For other evidence see the chapter referred to above.

     i. An origin in the Caucasus isthmus is the only one in agreement with and consistent with all of the traditions of the Deluge and with all other old traditions having relation to the place of origin.

No way was apparent of avoiding the conclusion that the place of the origin of mankind was the Caucasus isthmus. This was the third major sequence.

8. MYTHS As HISTORY

A fourth sequence was that the old Semitic traditions must be regarded with respect, not as myths but as accurate historical relations. The Old Testament in particular (additional evidence of this will be found in the following chapters) appears to compare favorably as regards accuracy in all essential matters, with any history of which I have knowledge.

There are exceptions to many rules, but it is thought that a good working motto for the young archeologist will be, "Mythus solus, sunt mythi." I.e. "The only myth is, that there are such things as myths."

9. DISTRIBUTION OF MANKIND AT TIME OF DELUGE

It was found possible, from these and other traditions, and from known facts, to obtain what is believed to be a sub-

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stantially accurate and complete knowledge of the distribution of mankind before the Deluge. Briefly (the data and conclusions are .given in detail in the chapter on THE DISPERSION), man occupied the Caucasus valley, what is now the south shore of the Caspian, the Caucasus isthmus between the Caucasus mountains and the line of the Manytsch lakes, and the shores of the Black Sea, with possibly a few settlements in the Aegean.

As was pointed out to Solon in Egypt, in droughts the shepherds and herdsmen perish, in inundations the cities are destroyed. A seven years' drought during which all springs were dried up would have brought the surviving inland dwellers down to the river bottoms and the coast. The subsequent tidal wave and river bores of the Deluge must have substantially wiped out mankind; there can have been very few survivors.

Though simplified, the problem was by no means an easy one, for:

a. The main dispersions took place from a region which has not been archeologically explored.

b. In the earlier stages of the dispersion the differences between the dispersing races are not so well marked as later.

c. There were in some cases difficulties due to interpenetration. As if, e.g. a number of Germans, living in the United States were to form a settlement in the Philippines and the Philippines later became a part of the Japanese empire.

d. Races which had reformed their theology frequently relapsed to a particular element of the primitive type.

On the other hand it was made more easy by the fact that the dispersion proceeded less rapidly at first. And most of all by the fact that I had at my disposal the results of the archeological investigations carried out with modern scientific methods in Egypt and Babylonia by men having a very special knowledge of their subject. I am especially indebted 

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to Dr. Clay's work (Amurru, and The Home of the Amorites) which has shown that the old Babylonian traditions came from a Semitic source; progress in this portion of the problem was halted for some time because this was required by my solution, but until the publication of Dr. Clay's papers the weight of evidence was decidedly against it.

The principal methods used were:

1. Triple place names. To illustrate: If the name "Boston" is found in the U. S. as the name of a city, it may be an Indian word, and a pure coincidence that there is an English city of the same name, and of older foundation. When we find that both cities have a "Lynn" near them on the coast, the probability that both are Indian names is not great, but there is a possibility. But when we also find that both cities have a "Cambridge" inland the probability of a triple coincidence is so small that we may be fairly sure that the founders of Boston in the U. S. were of English descent. By this method identification is made a matter of mathematical probability and it is possible to express the certainty of the identification as a numeric by means of correlation formulae, but this is only useful in double place names as the correlation factor is so high with triple names that it approaches a certainty.

Single names are useful but require careful investigation, for:

a. There are the changes in form in transmission and with time. The laws of these transformations are well known, the result of the work of philologists.

E.g. Haburi may become Khaburi, Khuburi, Huburu, Hyperi, Heb'ri, Hib'ri, Iberi, Tiberi, Tiburi, Tib'li, Tif'li, Habiri, Haburi, Abari, Arberi, Arbeni, Armeni, Ormeni.

b. Compliance with the rules is not sufficient, the history of the word and the route by which it came must be investigated, e.g. one might think that the name of the river Araxes was derived from the Sanscrit "rasa"

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unless one knew that Sanscrit was a comparatively modern language and that the river flowed through a region settled at a very early date. The name is found in that form in early Greek literature, and one's suspicions would be aroused by finding that there was a river Araxes in Greece and further search would show that the Caucasian River received its name from the leader of a Greek expedition on account of its resemblance to the Greek river Araxes. (Strabo, XI; 14; 13.) Application of the triple place name method shows that the original name of the river was "Aragh" or "Araghw" and was probably connected with a pre-Sanscrit root "Ur-ab," "Erib."

Note. Zenophon's mistake in calling the Habur the Araxes was probably due to the fact that the upper portion of the Araxes was known as the Abar. Times Atlas, 71; H; 6. Alterations of this character are frequent. Bosporos and Bursa are instances. Bosporos is the Thracian form of Phosphoros ( Wecklein) "Light bearing." The original Phosphoros Straits, at the entrance to the Sea of Azov, had Pillars of Hercules, i.e. Phoenician lighthouses, but showing red and yellow instead of red and green. See Herodotus, 2;44. Bursa, as has been shown by Smith, did not derive its name from Dido's trickery, but was the Phoenician word for "citadel."

Strabo says, Book XI; 11; 5; "Aristobulus calls the river which runs through Sogdonia, Polytimetus, a name imposed by the Macedonians, as they imposed many others, some of which were altogether new, others were deflections (paranomasan) from the native names." The Greeks were not the only offenders, the Semetic nations were frequently guilty of these geographic puns.

There is also one instance of a wholesale transference of names to points in the far east, made to flatter the vanity of Alexander the Great. This fortunately only affected regions east of the Persian gulf, and the Greek origin of the names is very obvious.

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c. Much dependence cannot be placed upon the vowels, or whether they are long or short. E.g. in the Septuagint, a translation made by Greek scholars of repute and with accuracy as a prime objective, the name of the well known city Samaria appears in four forms in different codices and in different forms in the same codex; Sameron, Semeron, Somoron, Saemeron; in Hebrew it is Shomeron, and it was named after Shemer. The River Habur appears as Chaboras and Aborrhas; we have Ebura, Ebura and Ebora; and Iberus becomes Ebro. Nevertheless the vowels are important guides and warnings.

d. The laws of transformation are not given quite fully by the rules. Herman transforms in