40,000 to 50,000 years ago something major occured to the human race. It
happened in Africa and spread world wide at a breakneck pace. Other hominid
species disappeared soon after as modern man spread globally. It is marked
by a sudden appearance of symbolic artifacs from cave painting to ritualistic
burials. Suddenly far more complex tools appeared and populations apparently
boomed.

In all probability this was the arrival of modern language. It was made possible
by the birth of a mutation with a supersized speech center. This individual thrived
and passed on his genes. He'd have been reasonably successful at teaching the
others new words as he invented them but lacking a supersized speech center,
many of the concepts would prove alien for them. His impact on his cohorts would
not have been so great as his impact on his off-spring and eventually, the species.

One of the first things the first thinker in words would do is want to pass on his
memory through a "in the beginning" type treatise which could be passed on from
father to son forever. The concept of writing wouldn't be thought of for tens of
thousands of years since these early humans weren't really any smarter than we
are today. It also would be largely impractical since there would be few options
available that lent permanence and none of these would be easily accomplished.

So the oral traditions persisted. Eventually around 3200 BC writing was invented
and one of the first things to be recorded were the oral traditions. This allowed the
priests and others who had maintained the traditions to do other tasks and allowed
important contributions to the knowledge base to accumulate at a much faster rate.
Specialization became more and more common as field after field became so com-
plex that a single person couldn't learn much more.

Most of these early writings would have been lost by 600 BC when work on the bi-
ble was begun. Not only were they lost due to natural calamities such as massive
flooding but also from catastrophic wars and, later, the systematic destruction of
books and libraries by both war and zealots of various stripe. Of course natural at-
trition and degradation of paper by both biological and chemical processes would
have destroyed most of the earliest writing anyway.

So. Are all these oral traditions lost?

Much of the first writing you speak of was preserved as it was incised on clay tablets!

The first things they recorded were things like how many sheep they had

Writing developed through book-keeping At least the writing we currently know about

When the writing developed they began to record their mythology... you can buy it to read today .. I will try to dig out some internet links for you if you are interested ...

native americans still practice a great Oral tradition today, as wel as many tribal people throughout Africa.....I odnt believe its lost, i just think in todays world of the internet and tv its harder to find and experience the oral tradition (keep it clean people!)

I'd go back as far as to say that maybe the first Adam and Eve of our world were a couple from another planet... who bit off the tree of knowledge..( I discovered some secret knowledge ) and were given the option of leaving their home planet...and start anew elsewhere..... They were polular...and well liked by the ruler... so were given enough tools and the wherewithall to start a new planet... eg ...a scientific lab... and other technology.. to start...seed a new world......( cloning)... IVFl... an Noah type Ark... ship of breedable species.... to help speed up evolution of this new world...and make it feel more like home... ... hence the sudden jumps of one species to another... or the sudden appearance of new birds and animals...


Much ..much later... the descendants ( from the other world) who were keeping an eye onthe results of Adam and Eve's work....
foresaw the potential danger of ... eg an asteroid...... a magnetic pole shift...... and managed to attract the attention.. of Noah..( possibly a descendant of Adam and Eve... and therefore aware of the truth...( their direct family line had probably accasionally been keeping in touch with those of the other world for thousands of years....*** note how it iseems always the descendants of Adam... or Moses.. or David... who get to communicate with 'God') well they got Noah to collect enough breedable animals... of all sorts.. to start off another new world!!!... Notice how everything spiritual in the bible takes 40 days and 40 nights??? Maybe that is how long it takes to do a return trip to that other world.....!!!! Moses was lost for 40 years!!!m shades of the 4400 here!!! http://www.usanetwork.com/series/the4400/t...w/overview.html




Just throwing around of few ideas here ...

Funny you should mention Adam and Eve since they are whom I have
in mind as the first residents of the planet and originator of the oral tra-
ditions.

Adam may well have been the first mutant and if we look at it this way
it lays genesis out as a sort of interpretation of literal meaning. Adam
did name the animals and it would seem much like language that created
the heavens and the Earth to the first modern man.

Perhaps it is our speech center that gives rise to the concept of a higher
power. Perhaps the bible is the result of the oral traditions and an appeas-
ment to the pagan religions to bring them all under a single unifying theme
and priesthood. It's interesting that you can substitute "language" for "God"
throughout much of the bible without alterring all the essential meanings
and making much of it literally true. It seems unlikely this was a conscious
effort among those who compiled it.

Sumerian writing did apparently evolve from tokens used in bookkeeping and
bookkeeping itself. Egyptian writing probably appeared about the same time
but its origins seem a little less clear. I'm aware of no Egyptian writing of any
import predating the Turin papyrus which, I believe, is incompletely translated
and only about 5,000 years old.

The Egyptian writings had a great deal more catastrophies to weather than the
other early writing.

I am interested in any of the oldest writing though and would appreciate links;
this is doubly true if you're aware of anything Egyptian.

Great read my friend!

I, unfortunatly do not have an answer to your question. I will, however, have to read into this more and do some bookwork myself. Quite an interesting 'think' you have going. I look forward to seeing how this all pans out, as well as contributing more (I hope)

My main area of interest is Mesopotamia... the birthplace of civilisation - they had cities while the Egyptians were still living in villages ...

Here is a link for you... (no Egyptian ones I'm afraid... !)

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/#

It contains electronic versions of most of the known Mesopotamian literature.... once you get used the navigation its a great place to find and read information...

Cladking,

Source: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature7/

Article on predynastic Egypt

Late predynastic Palettes

First Dynasty labeling tags

Enjoy if you haven't already been there.

Harte

One of, if not the, oldest oral traditions still being told today...

Dreamtime

...and who can forget the ancient Druids..Celts... and their woundrous poems... Chants... and Rhetorics... full of magic and wonder....

http://www.mythicalireland.com/mythology/excellence.html

http://dedanaan.com/

http://essenes.net/tancity.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/basque/index.htm




..and what is beginning to sound like one of the birth places or reintroduction of man.... is Botswana....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15970442/

http://www.2012.com.au/Credo.html

http://credomutwa.com/

http://www.lonker.net/art_african_1.htm

Is there actually a sudden "jump" in species evolution ? I mean most of what you said hinges on the fact that there was something 'unnatural' about human evolution. It's like man suddenly eveolved to a higher level than the one expected after his immediate predecessor, resulting in the present day human.

Wouldn't it then apply to other species as well and not just humans ? I mean take a look at present day animals such as the horse. Does it have a perfect chain of ancestors each a showing stepwise evolution pattern culminating in the present day horse ? I thought Man's evolution pattern had been perfectly mapped( For example the link below). And that there is no 'missing link' per se ?

http://talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html

Ps: Anyhoo I am not redoubting/debunking your theory . I am just curious and its been a question for which I have'nt gotten a satisfactory answer
yet

Evolution can occur in measured steps or in giant leaps.

The evidence seems to imply that there was a single change that occurred
suddenly. We don't really know how the peoples' brains immediately pre-
ceeding this change were wired so it's entirely possible that this change was
more subtle than I've presented it. It does seem as though there was a mass-
ive change in behavior toward represetational and symbolic thought. This may
have been the result of actual new structure in the brain involving the part we
use to speak and understand rather than mere rewiring.

If it were anything else then we'd have to ask why earlier peoples never in-
vented the more complicated tools. It's logical to assume that it was language
that allowed mankind to amass the knowledge over generations and generated
much more complicated activities.

If Adam was the first man who could speak why was he named after the Old Babylonian word for habitation which isn't attested until 2500bce
http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e135.html
seems like someones been stealing a religious concept or two and claiming it as their own
oh look
http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e1199.html
Eden is another stolen word and wasn't attested until 3000bce
it means "plain, steppe, open country"
so that means the Hebrews called this place the Garden of "plain, steppe, open country"
lol
boy were they dumb
thats the problem when you take mythology as real history I suppose
little errors creep in on the retelling

Oral tradition though is an established fact
a lot of the earliest stories from mesopotamia begin by saying that the events took place in the past before words were invented and things were named
so if that wasnt the case why bother to even write it
why not start with a different opening line like "once upon a time" instead
oh of course
thats exactly what they were doing
hehe

It took me a few days to catch up on all these links and I'd kind of
dropped this idea by the wayside by the time I did. Thanks guys, es-
pecially Harte's links were enjoyed.

I don't think it's impossible that The Garden of Eden was on the Giza
Plateau but with no evidence of geysers it loses its fascination for me.
It still seems likely that oral traditions played a great role in the bible.

Interesting info there on the meaning of Eden. Of course oral tradit-
ions are tough to pass on when they begin before language.

I'd have said they were impossible to pass on as an oral tradition is dependant on the fact of an established language
oh no wait I did hear of an oral tradition amongst the bonobo chimps of guatemala
it was "ook"

did you mean writing ?

I'm missing part of your thesis here
why do you think the garden of Eden was at Giza when the bible clearly places it somewhere in the Caucasus mountains of central Eurasia ?


the english pronounciation of Giza is derived from the Arabic district of Al Jizah so it has no connection with water spouts

while researching this post I discovered that the name "sphinx" is derived from the same root as the english word "sphincter"
I suppose if I were more humerous I would find a way of incorporating that into the story
but quite frankly I can't be bothered right now
lol