Ancient DNA and Sumerians

In this episode we bring you the origins of the Sumerians with none other than the geneticist Razib Khan.



In this episode Mr. Khan explains passionately that if we could genetically type any ancient People, he would choose the Sumerians. Why? Because these are arguably the first historic nation. The first self-conscious ethnic group which operated by the rules which we define as the fundamentals of literate civilization. Strangely, they are an ethno-linguistic isolate.

He goes on to explain what the term ethno-linguistic isolate means and how it applies to these ancient peoples, who even though they interacted with their neighbors stood apart from their Semitic neighbors like the Akkadians until later they became absorbed entirely through military and cultural conquests but that their legacy stays with us today in various forms including how we tell time.

He goes on to explain what his original model was for the origins of the Sumerians and how it changed over time and why?

What does his current model tell us about the Sumerians and their origins and foundation within ancient Mesopotamia?

Why are we struggling to genetically type populations in modern Iraq and Iran? How has Covid 19 made studying ancient history and peoples harder?

And finally, Mr. Khan hits us with his predictions of what we will learn the next decade when it comes to ancient DNA studies.

Results
The Niger-Congo Speakers probably played an important role in the peopling of the Sahara. Drake et al make it clear there was considerable human activity in the Sahara before it became a desert[1]. Drake et al [1] provides evidence that the original settlers of this wet Sahara, who used aquatic tool kits, were Nilo-Saharan (NS) speakers. The authors also recognized another Saharan culture that played a role in the peopling of the desert. This population hunted animals with the bow-and –arrow; they are associated with the Ounanian culture. The Ounanian culture existed 12kya [2].
The Ounanians were members of the Capsian population.There was continuity between the populations in the Maghreb and southern Sahara referred to as Capsians, Iberomaurusians, and Mechtoids [3]. The Niger-Congo speakers are decendants of the Capsian population.
Capsian people did not only live in Afrca, they were also present in South Asia. Using craniometric data researchers have made it clear that the Dravidian speakers of South India and the Indus valley were primarily related to the ancient Capsian or Mediterranean population [4-9].
Lahovary [7] and Sastri [8] maintains that the Capsian population was unified over an extensive zone from Africa, across Eurasia into South India. Some researchers maintain that the Capsian civilization originated in East Africa [7].
The Ounanian culture is associated with sites in central Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Mauretania and Niger [10]. The Ounanian tradition is probably associated with the Niger-Congo phyla. This would explain the close relationship between the Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages.
The original homeland of the Niger-Congo speakers was probably situated in the Saharan Highlands during the Ounanian period. From here NC populations migrated into the Fezzan, Nile Valley and Sudan as their original homeland became more and more arid.
The Niger-Congo speakers formerly lived in the highland regions of the Fezzan and Hoggar until after 4000 BC. Originally hunter-gatherers the Proto-Niger- Congo people developed an agro-pastoral economy which included the cultivation of millet, and domestication of cattle (and sheep).
This was probably the ancient homeland of the Dravidians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Niger-Kordofanian-Mande and Elamite speakers. We call this part of Africa the Fertile African Crescent [9-10,13-14]. We call these people the Proto-Saharans [9,14]. The generic term for this group is in the ancient literatures was: Kushite.
Origination of these diverse Kushite tribes in the ancient Sahara, explains the analogy between the Bafsudraalam languages as outlined in Figure 1. These Proto-Saharans were called Ta-Seti and Tehenu by the Egyptians.
The Niger-Congo inhabitants of the Fezzan were round headed Africans [13]. The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to the C-Group culture items and the people of Ta-Seti. The C-Group people were the Proto-Saharan or Niger-Congo speakers who occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 BC [13].
The inhabitants of the Fezzan were called Tmhw (Temehus). The Temehus represent the Proto-Niger- Congo speakers.
The Temehus were organized into two groups the Thnw (Tehenu) in the North and the Nhsj (Nehesy) in the South [14]. A Tehenu personage is depicted on an Amratian period pottery vessel. Some Tehenu wore a pointed beard, phallic-sheath and feathers on their head
The Temehus are called the C-Group people by archaeologists [13,15]. The central Fezzan was a center of C-Group settlement. Quellec [15] discussed in detail the presence of C-Group culture traits in the Central Fezzan along with their cattle during the middle of the Third millennium BC.
The Temehus or C-Group people began to settle Kush around 2200 BC. The kings of Kush had their capital at Kerma, in Dongola and a sedentary center on Sai Island. The same pottery found at Kerma is also present in Libya (and even India) especially in the Fezzan, which was one of the ancient homelands of the Niger-Congo speaking people. The C-Group founded the Kerma dynasty of Kush. Diop [14] noted that the "earliest substratum of the Libyan population was a black population from the south Sahara".
Kerma was first inhabited in the 4th millennium BC [16]. By the 2nd millennium BC Kushites at Kerma were already worshippers of Amon/Amun and they used a distinctive black-and-red ware [16]. Amon, later became a major god of the Egyptians during the 18th Dynasty.
Niger-Congo speakers in Eurasia
Using boats the Kushites moved down ancient waterways many now dried up, to establish new towns in Asia and Europe after 3500 BC. The Kushites remained supreme around the world until 1400-1200 BC. During this period the Hua (Chinese) and Indo-European (I-E) speakers began to conquer the Kushites whose cities and economies were destroyed as a result of natural catastrophes which took place on the planet between 1400-1200 BC. Later, after 500 AD, Turkish speaking people began to settle parts of Central Asia. This is the reason behind the presence of the K-s-h element in many place names in Asia e.g., Kashgar, HinduKush, and Kosh. The HinduKush in Harappan times had lapis lazuli deposits.
Kushites expanded into Inner Asia from two primary points of dispersal: Iran and Anatolia. In Anatolia the Kushites were called Hattians and Kaska. In the 2nd millennium BC, the north and east of Anatolia was inhabited by non-I-E speakers.
Anatolia was divided into two lands “the land of Kanis” and the “land of Hatti”. The Hatti were related to the Kaska people who lived in the Pontic mountains.
Hatti
Some of the Tehenu or Kushites settled Anatolia. The major Anatolian Kushite tribes were the Kaska and Hatti speakers who spoke non-IE languages called Khattili. The gods of the Hattic people were Kasku and Kusuh (< Kush).
The Hattic people, may be related to the Hatiu, one of the Delta Tehenu tribes. Many archaeologist believe that the Tehenu people were related to the C-Group people. The Hattic language is closely related to African and Dravidian languages as illustrated in Figure 2.
Hattians lived in Anatolia. They worshipped Kasku and Kusuh. They were especially prominent in the Pontic mountains. Their sister nation in the Halys Basin were the Kaska tribes. The Kaska and Hattians share the same names for gods, along with personal and place-names. The Kaska had a strong empire which was never defeated by the Hittites.
Singer [17] has suggested that the Kaska, are remnants of the indigenous Hattian population which was forced northward by the Hittites. But at least as late as 1800 BC, Anatolia was basically settled by Hattians.
Anatolia was occupied by many Kushite groups,including the Kashkas and or Hatti. The Hatti, like the Dravidian speaking people were probably related.
The languages have similar syntax Hattic le fil 'his house'; Mande a falu 'his father's house'. This suggest that the first Anatolians were Kushites, a view supported by the Hattic name for themselves: Kashka.