TOPICAL NOTE 3B: EARLY CIVILIZATION, WORLD HUMAN MIGRATION

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Archaeology shows the most ancient post-Flood human settlements and cities that boast of being the world’s oldest are found not far from where Genesis 8 records Noah's ark landed after the global Flood (Topical note 4) described in Genesis 6:13-8:22. This was high in the mountains of Ararat in present eastern Turkey. These most ancient cities are all in the middle east{17} and their radiocarbon dates are several thousand years ago (below).

Human settlements before Noah’s Flood:

The Sumerian King list{28} that is described more fully in Topical note 4 includes “antediluvian” rulers from five cities in pre-Flood Sumer in Mesopotamia at the head of the list.  The ruins of these five ancient pre-Flood cities are associated with the oldest archaeological sites in Iraq{28}. Their city names Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Zimbir (Sippar), and Shuruppak are active web links to visit. A photo shows the present remains of the oldest city, Eridu{27}. At least Eridu and Shuruppak were rebuilt after the Flood because Shuruppak historically continued until c2000BCE and Eridu until c600BCE.  These cities are covered more in the Genesis 2 commentary- The four rivers and the location of Eden, and Topical note 4- The Sumerian King List and “antediluvian” (pre-Flood) rulers. 

Some early human settlements in the Middle East have been dated as over 6000BCE using radiocarbon methods, but these dates are before Adam’s creation c5400BCE by Josephus’ scripture-compatible chronology. Pre-Flood settlements and events would have historical dates more recent than c5400BCE (creation week) and post-Flood settlements and events would be more recent than c3200BCE (Noah’s Flood), according to Josephus. (Topical note 4,{2}). Back to about 1400BCE radiocarbon dates closely agree with historical dates. However for earlier than 1400BCE radiocarbon gives excessively ancient dates with the error increasing with age due to the methods and assumptions used*. Some creation scientists refer to published radiocarbon dates as “carbon-14 (14C) years” ago to alert readers they are not necessarily the same as historical dates. *See Topical note 7 for more about radiocarbon dating.

Where does scripture record Noah’s descendants first settled after the Flood?

According to the historian Josephus, after the Flood (Topical note 4 below) NOAH and his wife remained near Ararat{1}, but the families of their three sons, SHEM, JAPHETH, and HAM migrated southward from the mountains of Ararat into the flatlands as they grew in number.  They passed through Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and they settled in the fertile, southern plain of Shinar in Nesopotamia (Genesis 9:18-19, 11:1-2){17}.  Genesis 11 describes their early building achievements there{1}. Ruins of many ancient cities and ziggurats that are the oldest large buildings of human construction are found in Mesopotamia which has been called the “cradle of civilization”.   Sumerian proto-cuneiform inscriptions, the world's oldest writing (Topical note 4{15}) that predates 3000BCE, were discovered there. Genesis 11:1-4 records that all the people spoke one language up to this time. 

Worldwide human migration from Shinar:

The people began to build a city with a tower that “reached heaven” when they reached the fertile plain of Shinar (see The first civilization… below),  Genesis 11:7-9 records God confused the speech of Noah’s descendants so they couldn’t understand each other. This forced them to stop building in Shinar and migrate worldwide to fill the earth as God had previously charged them to do in Genesis 9:1. If the people reached Shinar from Ararat 100 years after the Flood (that was c3200BCE by Josephus’ chronology), then this worldwide dispersion from Shinar began c3100BCE, about one thousand years before Abraham.

The Confusion of spoken language: 

A single spoken language was God’s gift to mankind beginning with Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28-29, Genesis 2). By remaining in Shinar to build a city for all the people, they were abusing this gift of a common language to thwart God’s plan for them to populate the whole earth (Genesis 9:1). So, confusing human speech that forced them to disperse was God’s prerogative.

Surely God hurried humanity’s departure from Shinar so the people could migrate worldwide before the ice age was to end and sea levels rose and would cover land bridges.  This would hinder their worldwide migration to fill the earth as He planned (Genesis 9:1). 

The confusion of spoken language in Shinar c3100BCE (Genesis 11:5-8) was apparently referred to extra-biblically as a historical event in the ancient Sumerian epic tablet, Enermerkar and the Lord of Aratta (modern Armenia){34}.  Enermerkar was the 2nd leader of the 1st dynasty of Uruk (c2600BCE) in Shinar on the Sumerian King list (Topical note 4{8}). In this tablet he wrote to the king of Aratta that “he wished fervently that men could address their gods again in one single language, like they used to”{34}.  Enemerkar lived over 1000 years before Genesis 11 was penned by Moses (c1450BCE) so he must have referred to this actual event that Genesis 11:7 recorded.

Notice God erased the memory of their spoken language, so people groups would later learn new languages but remain separated. Then nearly everyone migrated away from Shinar, and Genesis 10:4,20,31 records they resettled worldwide. Then they developed their own new spoken languages and eventually written languages. Apparently before the Flood, and early after it the people used their ancient pictographic writing, “proro-cuneiform” that was historically in use in Mesopotamia before 3000BCE, and evidently before the Flood because it required a long time to develop. Importantly, proto-cuneiform writing used pictographic symbols (not written phonetic sounds). So the pre-Flood accounts kept in the Ark were still understandable after the confusion of spoken language.  Shem inherited these records so he and his brother Japheth and their families had access to them. Evidently some of Japheth’s descendants made notes from them in proto-cuneiform or memorized portions before they migrated worldwide (below).  (Ham’s descendants didn’t have access to these records because of the family split after Canaan’s misdeed, Topical note 4, Noah’s Vineyard. Ham’s descendants later developed Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics that became the world’s earliest post-Flood written languages starting c2900BCE. Originally these used pictographic symbols but soon symbols for phonetic sounds were added. (Topical note 4, world’s oldest writing).

Genesis 10:25 records that a descendant of Noah was named “Peleg” (meaning “division”), because “in his time the earth [Hebrew “e.artz”] was divided”. It is not clear if this referred to the breakup of the single land continent into smaller pieces (Topical note 4, plate tectonics) or the dispersion of mankind worldwide after the confusion of languages recorded in Genesis 11:8. Hebrew “e.artz” may refer either to “the land” (earth) or “the world” (humanity) was divided. However, both events occurred closely in time before c3000BCE (Josephus’ chronology).

Table of the first nations (Genesis 10):

The famous Table of Nations list in Genesis 10 and the corresponding maps{8} that conservative bible scholars prepared show the first nations in the middle east, Europe, and northern Africa. They resulted from the dispersion of Noah's extended family from Shinar in Mesopotamia to new places in Europe, the Middle East, and northeastern Africa. Each region in the Table and maps was named after the first descendants of Noah’s sons to settle there. Notice Genesis 11 that follows gives reason for the human dispersion from Shinar and the resulting nations list in Genesis 10. So the account in Genesis 11 historically precedes Genesis 10. 

JAPHETH'S descendants then mostly migrated northward from Shinar into the region of Europe in time for the beginning of the post-Flood ice age. Genesis 10:5 records that some of his descendants settled along the Mediterranean coast.  Although not recorded in Genesis others evidently migrated eastward into Asia since the Hmong people of Indo-China claim Japheth was their ancestor{32a}.  The rigorous cold climate in Europe lasted about 1000 years (Topical note 4, Earth’s Ice Age…) that evidently preserved their robust bodies during this period.  So Japheth’s descendants were the stocky bodied Neanderthal population of “cave men” named after their first discovery. Conventional scientists claim Neanderthals died out in Eurasia by 40,000 years ago but these are “carbon-14 years”.  Events before 1400BCE when dated by radiocarbon appear older than historical dates, with the error increasing with age (Topical note 7, Dating living things).  Archaeology shows Neanderthals lived in the stone age (“Mousterian” style tool culture) until the ice age ended, while the first civilizations of Ham’s descendants blossomed in warmer Mesopotamia and Egypt (below).  Buried Neanderthal skeletons and their characteristic hand-crafted flaked stone tools and exquisite cave art are found mostly in Europe and a few sites in the middle east that border Europe and possibly costal North Africa.  They are recognized today as a human subspecies, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis{7).  Another human subgroup, European Homo heidelbergensis ("Heidelberg man"), is believed to be a variety of Homo erectus{6b} that was adapted to life in a cold climate{6a} and had some skeletal features that were like Neanderthal man.  Possibly this early human population was a bridge between the pre-Flood Homo erectus population and the post-Flood Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis (Neanderthal) population that northern humans evidently developed into during the ice age. 

Evidence that European Neanderthals were Japheth’s descendants:

A British historian and prolific author researched and published the ancestries of early European rulers as recorded by earlier modern and ancient historians.  He provides solid genealogical continuity through the Franks, Celtics, Anglo-Saxons, Bavarians, Danes, Norwegians, and early Britons back to Japheth and Noah that corroborates Genesis 10{21}! His book also includes descriptions of the large ancient reptiles people encountered in Europe. This actual historically-based genealogy confirms that during the Ice Age Japheth’s descendants comprised the European “Neanderthal” population who were the ancestors of modern native Europeans. (The Ice Age lasted about 1000 years after the Flood, Topical note 4- Earth’s Ice Age…, c3100-2100BCE by Josephus’ creation chronology.) The Atlas of Fossil Man states the form of modern humans (H. sapiens) evolved gradually from Neanderthals, and their tool-making traditions developed out of their Mousterian [Neanderthal culture] predecessors in those parts of the Old World where the cold-adapted Neanderthals had previously prevailed [Europe]{30a}.  A modern Russian boxer of Eurasian descent that was described above shows that genes for these robust physical traits continue to exist in people from Eurasia{10}, although they rarely still recombine this way since these traits are no longer environmentally favored (Topical note 7, Micro-evolution).

Neanderthals coexisted with a group of migratory modern humans in Europe

Recent discoveries revealed that a group of modern Homo sapiens who appear to have migrated from the middle east coexisted with long-time resident Neanderthals at a rock shelter in the Rhone Valley of France about 50,000 years ago, by radiocarbon dating.  The researchers say flint used by migratory H. sapiens to make stone tools must have been acquired with the help of local Neanderthals who knew the area.  Genetic evidence also points to mating between these Neanderthals and H. sapiens at the French site{40}. These discoveries contradict the evolutionary model that modern humans evolved by evolutionary speciation and natural selection from Neanderthals then replaced them. These migratory H. sapiens discovered in France would have been Ham’s descendants (not mentioned in Genesis 10) who lost their robust skull features after living in the warm Middle eastern climate since the dispersion.  After the European ice age, climate warmed for over 1000 years and resident Neanderthals lost their robust features and become modern Europeans. (The H. erectus, now reclassified H. sapiens discovered in Kow Swamp, Australia described above were ancestors of the aborigines. They provide evidence environmentally-induced modernizing morphological changes gradually occurred within human populations{39}.)   

Did Neanderthals populate Africa?

Fossils classified as Neanderthal have been identified in Morocco and Libya, as described in the Atlas of Fossil Man{30}. A Neanderthal skull discovered at nearby Gibraltar{30,p71} suggests they migrated from Europe, where Neanderthal fossils were well represented during the Ice Age, and they crossed from there into north coastal Africa.  The lengthy ice age surely delayed Japheth’s Neanderthal descendants as they migrated west from Ararat to settle across Europe.  Travel then likely was possible only during the warmer months, and they spent the long bitterly cold winters living in caves where their exquisite wall paintings of hunted animals and the accumulated bones, signature Mousterian-style tools, and buried fossil remains have been discovered clearly show.  Long before Japheth’s west-bound descendants reached Gibraltar, Ham's descendants (below) from NE Africa would have quickly migrated the shorter distance across the then habitable "green Sahara”{19}, and into sub-Saharan Africa.  Had Neanderthals from Europe attempted to settle south of costal Africa they would have found the land was already occupied with humans.  So the Mediterranean coast would be the southern limit of Neanderthals in Africa, which agrees with the Neanderthal discovery site map in the Atlas of Fossil Man{30, p71}. Neanderthal fossil sites in Europe and surrounding the Mediterranean Sea are distributed in agreement with the Table of Nations maps and Genesis 10:5 that pertain to Japheth’s descendants.  Fragments of 50 skeletons classified as Homo sapiens found in coastal Algeria are said to show “traces of Neanderthal ancestry”{30,p136}. Climate warming, diet change, and intermarriage after the ice age would have gradually caused the loss of their robust features to become Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man).

A hand axe very similar to those of “Neanderthal man” (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) an uncontested European human, was found at a Kenyan Homo erectus site{30b}. A comparison of stone tools on p47b with p72a-h of this cited text shows African Homo erectus and Neanderthal tools appear indistinguishable. This may indicate African Homo erectus either had the same tool making skills as African "Neanderthals" or the African "Neanderthal" fossils were misclassified and actually were Homo erectus. The two are hard to distinguish based on fragmentary fossilized skeletal fossils. 

Conventional scientists claim humans evolved by mutation and natural selection from apes in sub-Saharan Africa over 1 million years ago, then migrated worldwide.  Many ancient fossil human discoveries from Africa are described in the Atlas{30}.  Scattered incomplete human skulls from sub-Saharan Africa are nearly all categorized as Homo erectus (Pithecanthropine) and Neanderthal.  Only one ancient skull portion that was classified as Homo sapiens was discovered in southern Africa{30,p132}.  Presumably it was an early descendant of Ham who migrated there.  These broken skulls all were assembled from fragments by researchers and usually many pieces were missing, which would have made categorizing them more challenging.  Both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis populations have heavy brow ridges and there is much variation in individuals by size, age, and gender{26}.  The Atlas admits classification confusion between them by describing some discoveries as being “intermediate”, in “transition” between, or “variations” of Homo erectus and Neanderthal{30,pp48-114}. Secular scientists place Neanderthals after Homo erectus in their human evolutionary sequence.  The Atlas further admits that categorizing some of these fossil humans as Neanderthal was guided by evolutionary principles and dating rather than strict morphology{30,pp62,96}.  So, classification of these most ancient African human fossils was subjective due to their perceived evolutionary status, fragmentary remains, and individual and gender variation.  As covered earlier in this “Ancient humans and civilization” section, fragments of ancient human skulls having robust brow ridges that are discovered without lower skeletal bones or human artifacts suggest they are scattered remains of pre-Flood Homo erectus humans.  They lived widely in ancient Pangea that includes the region of modern Africa.  Somewhat similar appearing uncontested European Neanderthal skulls were commonly buried in sheltered places.  They included intact skeletons and nearby artifacts (characteristic tools, art, and animal bones) which the Atlas seems to indicate are absent from African “Neanderthal” discovery sites.  Stone tools reported to be Neanderthal are also found in Africa but the Atlas shows little difference exists between some of the Homo erectus (Acheulian) and Neanderthal (Mousterian) flaked tool shapes{30,compare p47b and p72a-h}, that presumably would make them hard to distinguish.  Had humans evolved in Africa, a mix of early H. erectus, H. s. neandethalensis, and H. sapiens fossils would be expected to be found there.  The evidence suggests that human skull parts and stone tools classified as Neanderthal in sub-Saharan Africa could all instead be pre-Flood Homo erectus from before the breakup of Pangea.  If true, this would ruin the claim that Neanderthals evolved in sub-Saharan Africa and later migrated from there to populate Europe. 

SHEM'S descendants then migrated out of Shinar into the surrounding middle east, as shown by the names of his descendants in Genesis 11 that appear there on Table of Nations maps{8}.  One of Shem's descendants, Havilah (Genesis 10:29), not to be confused with Ham’s descendant with the same name, settled in what is now western Arabia (Genesis 10:24). Other Semites also settled western Arabia.  Eber [Heber, Septuagint bible] was the ancestor of Abraham who came from Chaldea (now southern Iraq). Abraham’s descendants eventually became the Hebrew nation (Genesis 17:8){1}.

When did the Hebrews and Israelites become known as “Jews”? 

Scripture referred to these descendants of Abraham as Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews. The name “Israel” came from God who renamed Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, “Israel” after he “strived” (fought) and prevailed all night with Him in human form.  This struggle left Jacob with lifelong a limp as recorded in Genesis 32:24-30. Individual descendants of Abraham were called Israelites or Hebrews before they became a nation, and the 12 tribe confederacy was called Israel prior to the first monarchy of King Saul. Much later during the divided kingdom after Solomon’s reign, the geographical northern kingdom of 10 tribes was named Israel. The southern kingdom then was known as Judah.  After the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria c722BCE the people of Judah continued to use Israel as the name for their ethnic and cultural entity, rather than a geographical country.  Their expression “all Israel” meant everyone of them.

“Hebrew” was the original name for these people who originated from their ancestor Eber [most bibles] (or Heber [Septuagint bible]) as recorded in Genesis 11:14.  The last chronological scriptural use of “Hebrews” as a people was in Jeremiah 34:14[NIV], just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon 586BC. The name “Hebrews” was first chronologically replaced by “Jews” in scripture in Esther 2:5[NIV] when they lived as subjects in Persia 480BC, after release from their 70-year captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 39:1-10).  However, “Jew” was in secular use earlier after the northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive by Assyria in 722BC which left only the free kingdom of Judah in the south.  As early as 701BC, King Sennacherib of Assyria, a Gentile outsider, referred to “King Hezekiah the Jew” (of Judah) on a royal stone prism.  The name seemed to have a derogatory connotation from their being a captive people in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, then subjects in Persia.  The Jewish remnant returned from captivity in Babylon 538BC under Persian rule, then Greek rule (323BC), and finally Roman occupation.  By the 1st century AD “Jew” was in popular use among themselves under Roman rule (New Testament John 9:22).  After rebelling against Roman rule, the Romans evicted the Jews from their land (70-135AD) and for the past nearly 2000 years they became worldwide “wandering Jews” while God continued to preserve them because of promises He made to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3, 15:18). Today Jewish people call themselves “Jews” worldwide.

HAM'S descendants nearly all left Shinar.  The nations they formed elsewhere were named after these first settlers, so their locations on the Table of Nations maps that conservative bible scholars prepared suggest the migration routes they took.  An ancient map shows the family of Ham's son, Cush initially settled near Shinar{18} and his sons' families migrated nearby into what is now eastern Arabia{8}.  Then evidently Cush’s family migrated away from his first settlement in Mesopotamia as a group with some of the nearby families of his older sons Havilah and Seba, and his brothers, Mizraim, Put [NIV] (or Phut), and Canaan.  These related Hamites apparently traveled back around the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and turned south along the eastern coastal Mediterranean Sea where Canaan’s family settled. They also moved inland and this land became known as “Canaan”. Later it was hotly fought over because, unknown to these settlers, it was a land bridge between three continents. The remaining Cushites pushed south into northeastern Africa.  Mizraim’s family settled in what is now called Egypt. Some elderly Egyptian people and one Egyptian bank still use the ancient name Mizraim for Egypt.  The Hebrew scriptures refer to Egypt as the lands of “Mizraim” (Hebrew mtzrim, Exodus 1:15), “Ham” (Hebrew -chm, Psalms 78:51), and “Cush” (Hebrew –kush, southern Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia, 2 Kings 19:9).  The modern English name, Egypt was derived from Greek “Aígyptos” used by Alexander the Great who conquered it in 322BC.  Before all this the country was known as “Kamit”, that meant “black land” (Wikipedia). Some believe Kamit referred to the black banks of the Nile river caused by its annual flooding with rich soil or the dark skin of its inhabitants. However, a biblical ancient language scholar claims Kamit originally meant the “land of Ham”{32}. Table of Nations maps show Put settled the region of Libya.  The remaining Cushites migrated further south presumably following the Nile River and settled in what became ancient Nubia (modern Sudan) and Ethiopia {8,18,33}.  So second settlements that were named for Cush and his son Havilah (Ham’s descendant) appear on Table of Nations maps that include Africa.  Notice their genealogical information helps to confirm the modern location of pre-Flood Eden from clues in Genesis 2 (Genesis 2 commentary, v10-14).

From northeast Africa some of Ham’s descendants by his son Cush would have migrated west into the uninhabited and then “green Sahara” region and were greeted by an endless grassy savanna with fish filled lakes before it dried to become a desert more recently{19}. Others evidently continued moving south to inhabit central and southern Africa that would have shown the beginnings of the later dense tropical jungle as forests regrew after the Flood. So Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa were populated by Ham’s descendants after the Flood.  Their discovered early human fossils in Africa would be expected to appear as early Homo sapiens similar to the Mesopotamians{25} since they migrated from there. They would be commonly buried intact skeletons distinct from the scattered broken fossil bones of Homo erectus from before Noah’s Flood.

The first civilization after the Flood

Ham’s grandson and Cush’s youngest son, Nimrod and his extended family alone remained in Shinar after all the other people dispersed.  According to Genesis 10:10, Nimrod became the famous warrior-king and builder of the most ancient cities of Mesopotamia after the Flood, starting in Shinar. They included Uruk (Erech) and the oldest part of Babylon.

Their first building project was “a city with a tower” that reached “to the heavens”[NIV] but God thwarted their plans (above).  According to Genesis 11:5-9 He confused their spoken language and dispersed them worldwide (c3100BCE).  Different cities in Shinar have been proposed for the site of the ancient so-called “Tower of Babel”{1} but this presentation describes the ziggurat in ancient Babylon since many bible archaeologists and commentators believe the name “Babel” in Genesis 11:9 referred to Babylon (see footnote in 1984 NIV bible).  Archaeology shows only one ziggurat was in ancient Babylon so these scholars believe the giant ziggurat Etemenanki (“E-temen-ank-i”)   there was the Tower of Babel.  This tall, massive brick-and-tar building became a regional historic landmark apparently with a nearly 3000 year history of destruction, decay, and renovations{24}.   A cylinder seal discovered in its foundation left by King Nabopolassar (658-605 BC) of Babylon describes at length the work he personally did to rebuild the then crumbling ancient structure{23}.    And a royal stele inscription by his son, King Nebuchadnezzar II complete with finished relief drawings described how he embellished it for his capital city{23}. It was buttressed on the sides and ancient record shows the height of this rebuild was 91m or 298ft.  In a later unsightly, decaying state Alexander-the-Great had his army demolish it in 323BCE{23}.  He intended to establish Babylon as the capital of his empire and also rebuild this grand ziggurat, but he died suddenly and it was never rebuilt.  Only its brick-and-tar foundation remains today{23}.  Archaeology shows three concentric foundations extend deep into the ground and the outer, most recent one that was added by King Nebopolassar (with his seal) is of baked brick. Apparently the two rebuilds were each constructed as a brick shell around the crumbling, inner ziggurat.    

Nimrod built the original part of Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia (Genesis 10:8-12).    Nineveh later became a metropolis of three cities surrounded by a huge wall that was the capital of Assyria, a regional power for centuries.   He also built the cities of Nimrud (identified with biblical Calah), Nimrod-Tuppe, and Larissa (identified with biblical Resen), whose more modern names locals supplied to early archaeologists from their historical traditions about Nimrod.  Ruins of his ancient cities have been excavated and relics from them are on exhibit in museums worldwide{22}, so Nimrod was a historical figure.

Nimrod’s descendants (and perhaps others who migrated there) began the world’s earliest post-Flood civilization. This was the Sumerian civilization of Sumer on the plain of Shinar in southern Mesopotamia.  According to a Wikipedia article the name “Sumerian” was coined by the Akkadian civilization that later inhabited the land about (radiocarbon) 4500 BC{25}. This radiocarbon date is too old for events after Noah’s Flood (historically c3200BCE according to Josephus). Nimrod’s early kingdom pre-dated the later post-Flood rulers of Sumer and it eventually spanned all of Mesopotamia (Genesis 10:10). He ended his reign while he lived in his cities in northern Mesopotamia (above) soon after Noah’s Food. So he is not listed in the Sumerian King List of later rulers there.  This king list contained the later local rulers of the cities of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia such as Kish and Uruk (Erech), but it also included the pre-Flood rulers of the five cities of Shinar (Topical note 4).  The Sumerian King list ended c2000BCE with the rise of the Babylonian civilization in Mesopotamia (Topical note 4{8}). 

Although the later Akkadian civilization (that preceded the Babylonian civilization) originated the name “Sumerian”, the Sumerians referred to themselves as “noble lords”.  Sumer is a very ancient name.  Conventional science claims it was populated 4500BCE but this is a carbon-14 date.  Post-Flood events should date more recently than 3200BCE (according to Josephus’ biblical chronology).

The “black-headed” Sumerians

Sumerian sculptures and deco panels of their leaders show Homo sapians skull features, so the robust skulls of the H. erectrus pre-Flood human population were lost by this time in Mesopotamia.  They also show permanent black skin color was prevalent there, at least for some people (Topical note 6, Micro-evolution).  A stone sculpture of the head of a stated black-skinned, clean-shaven Sumerian ruler and a decorated panel shows him with his attendants all dressed in pleated skirts{25}. They suggest that loom woven textiles hadn’t been developed yet. These “black-headed” people were mentioned in the Eridu Genesis tablet as being original Mesopotamian inhabitants from before the Flood (Topical note 4,{9,22}). However, some believe they might have migrated from Egypt or elsewhere in northeastern Africa{25} after the Flood.  Another explanation that is consistent with their apparent history was they migrated from further south in the supercontinent of Pangea to Mesopotamia before Noah’s Flood and intermarried with local lighter-skinned inhabitants and their genes persisted.   Since everyone after the Flood descended from Noah’s family, then perhaps Nimrod’s family who would have originated the Sumerians, carried genes for black skin (see Human race below). Topical note 4{14}) shows a bass relief sculpture of a later Mesopotamian leader (perhaps Gilgamesh) who had different physical features and wore the famous braided hair and beard style from this time.

Overview of the early civilizations of Ham, Japheth, and Shem.

Environment played a big role in the formation of human civilizations. Ham’s descendants produced the earliest great human civilizations that flourished in the warm climates of Mesopotamia and Egypt.  Some of Ham’s descendants migrated to China (below), that positioned them to continue moving further east to the Americas.  

Japheth’s descendants in Europe got off to a slow start.  They formed small people groups that lived in caves during the frigid ice age as the “Neanderthal” people and they slowly migrated west from Ararat to Gibraltar while travel was possible only during the warmer months. Neanderthal fossil remains suggests they eventually reached northern costal Africa (below). The Europeans are a great people today but they lived as warring tribes long after the ice age, and then in feudal states until after the Renaissance period c1500CE. History shows some of Japheth’s descendents, the Hmong people, migrated to Indo-China (below) which positioned them to continue moving further south to Indonesia and Australia.

Shem’s descendants remained in the Middle East and became the Hebrews and some of the Arabs and Persians. The climate and diet in the warmer southern regions favored less robust bodies and more recent human remains of Ham's and Shem's descendants in the Middle East show modern Homo sapiens sapiens features. The European climate warmed after the biblical 1000 year ice age (Topical note 4) ended so Japheth's descendants gradually lost their robust Neanderthal features to become modern Homo sapiens.  Intermarriage blended these changes throughout their populations.

Worldwide human migration to Asia and beyond

This worldwide human migration topic continues in Topical note 4. Genesis 9:19, 10:32, and 11:9b record humans migrated to inhabit the whole earth as God originally commanded in Genesis 9:1,7, and as archaeology shows (below).  However, scripture doesn't follow human worldwide migration from Shinar in Mespopotamia beyond the Table of Nations region listed in Genesis 10 because it was written by Moses to pertain to the Hebrews, and the nations neighboring Israel.  Cultural and archaeological evidence shows some descendants of Ham and Japheth also migrated east into Asia{32a}. Others continued to Indonesia, Australia (see Kow Swamp burials above), and the Americas. Ham’s descendants migrated the furthest of Noah’s sons worldwide and spread their pagan religions wherever they went{21a}. Shem’s descendants remained in the Middle East. Eventually only Shem’s Hebrew descendants from Abraham continued to worship the original God, Yahweh Elohim. So God had only this one special people, the Hebrews, to be His example to the rest of the world from their small beginning with Abraham starting c2000BC until the advent of Christianity c30AD- about 2000 years. God was patient and long suffering with the Hebrews then, but there were periods of redemptive chastisement when He used nearby nations, including Assyria and Babylon for this.  

Across Central Asia

Japheth’s eastward migrating descendants from Mesopotamia and his “Neanderthal” descendants from Europe apparently met Ham’s modern-appearing descendants as they migrated east across central and southern Eurasia.  Archaeology shows two Homo heidelbergensis (Neanderthal-like) finds and several ancient Homo sapiens sapiens finds all in China{6} corroborate that different human populations migrated across Asia.  Recent study of fossil human remains in Asia shows there was intermarriage between Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens there.  This may have produced the recently discovered Denisovan humans{29}. 

To China and Indo-China

After the Flood the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in China c2000BCE* about the same time as the Hmong people who were also modern humans were migrating to Indo-China{32a}. Historically the first Chinese dynasty was the Xia dynasty that began c2000BCE (internet), but the articles state evidence is so sketchy that some historians consider this dynasty was legendary which corroborates they were the first humans to settle China.  This was over 1000 years after both groups dispersed from Shinar c3100BCE (above). These original settlers of China were Ham’s descendants who called the Hmong people “miaotsu” when they met that meant “barbarian outsiders”{32a}. The two people groups naturally had different characteristic physical features since each originated entirely from one of Noah’s sons and his wife. The Hmong who settled Indo-China kept accurate ancestral records and today claim they descended from Jah-phu (Japheth), the son of Nuah (Noah){32a}. Why the Hmong can claim ancestry back to Noah is explained above and in Topical note 4, in the later section about Japheth’s descendants.

* Earlier fragmentary human fossil discoveries from China (“Peking man”) were pre-Flood Homo erectus humans. They lived in this land when it was part of the Pangea supercontinent (above) before its breakup during Noah’s Flood c3200BCE (see Topical note 4, Geology of the Flood)

To Australia and the Americas

The people continued to migrate east and crossed ice-age land bridges between the nearly separated continents.  They reached Australia (Kow Swamp fossil humans, below) and finally the distant Americas{41}. The animals migrated ahead of them so there were always plenty of game animals for food. Discovery of ancient human remains in these distant lands and islands show they completed God's charge to Noah's family to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). 

Fossil human burials in Kow Swamp Australia

An ancient burial site for fifty individuals was discovered in Kow Swamp, Australia in 1972.  Their skull features are unlike modern aboriginals.  They were first classified as Homo erectus purely by morphology by their characteristic prominent brow ridges, sloping foreheads, prognathism, minimal chin, and large teeth.  Currently they are re-classified as [early] Homo Sapiens{38} by their young carbon-14 ages: The remains of over thirty individuals were dated as only (by H. erectus standards) 10,000 years ago{36,37}. A skull photo shows their archaic robust H. erectus features are modest compared to other fragmentary, unburied pre-Flood H. erectus finds.  This suggests they were post-Flood settlers who were among the first to migrate to Australia from southeast Asia and their skull features were becoming modernized in the new environment. Morphology of today’s Aboriginal people has become more modern both in skull features and smaller stature since these original humans populated Australia{39}. The humans in this burial site would have descended from Noah’s family who left Shinar in Mesopotamia after their dispersion (Genesis 11:8) c3100BCE and migrated to settle Australia and became the ancestors of the aboriginals.  Ham’s and Japheth’s descendants respectively first settled China and Indo China historically c2000BCE{32a}. However, Japheth’s descendants, the Hmong of Indo China were southerly situated to continue south and cross the covered Ice Age land bridge by boats to New Guinea and then Australia, likely at the narrow islands crossing at modern Cape York perhaps historically around 1500BCE (3500 years ago). The “10,000 year ago” (8000BCE) carbon-14 burial date{36} appears to be before creation week c7400 years ago (c5400BCE) by Josephus’ biblical chronology. (Note: published carbon-14 dates before c1400BCE are excessively old, with the error increasing with age. See Topical note 7, Radiocarbon dating.) 

Radiometric dates for human camp sites in the Americas are somewhat scattered but indicate the first humans arrived in the Pacific northwest from Asia{41} around 14,000 “carbon-14 years” ago, and they reached the southern end of South America about 1000 years later{15} so they migrated rapidly.  Since creation week was only about 7,400 years ago according to Josephus’ biblical chronology{1}, these radiometric dates appear too old, evidently due to assumptions made in their methods (Topical note 7, Radiometric dating).  Since no Homo erectus or Neanderthal remains are found in the Americas{9,7} the people finally completed their global trek all blended by intermarriage into Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man).  The robust skeletal features of the original Homo erectus and Neanderthal human populations were lost along the way.  Then after living in their new post-Flood geographical regions for millennia they differentiated into the modern “races” of Homo sapiens sapiens. 

Human races:

Races are human populations that have distinct morphological characteristics.  All humans have the same fixed gene pool and can intermarry to produce fertile offspring, but their unique association of genetically expressed skin color, hair color and texture, general facial appearance, stature, and vocal tone varies characteristically with race. Based on morphology (physical appearance), three major modern races are Caucasian, Black African, and Asian. Modern races developed in human populations after the Flood that were produced by exposure to various environmental factors for thousands of years.  They included diet and food preparation, climate, and sunlight intensity while each population lived in the geographical terrain of their home region.

Fossil Homo erectus, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens sapiens were apparently different human populations that had some unique distinguishing skull characteristics, so they could be considered as ancient human races. However, they were a progression of human forms so their coexistence was brief and today only Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans) persists.

Modern racial morphologies are produced by micro-evolution within the human species (Topical note 6, Micro-evolution within species): Various genes in peoples’ fixed genomes modify their expression levels and the biochemical products they make by their cells by sensing the changing environment. Also traits caused by changing chromosomal associations in cells accumulate due to long-term exposure to different environments. So racial differences in people have formed that optimize survival in their original home geographical regions. Today, when people of different races relocate to other world regions these potentially reversible traits may begin to change after a few generations even without intermarriage to locals. 

After the Flood human populations also became separated linguistically.  Unique languages further isolated people from neighboring outsiders.  Certain characteristic sounds they use in their native spoken languages developed so one can immediately recognize people from specific world regions (European, Middle eastern, African, Asian) even without understanding their language. And when they speak (any language) outside of their native region, they carry distinct “accents” that identify them to even a particular part of it (eg., a native from Boston speaking English in Los Angeles would be noticed).          

Click on active links to read internet references:

{21} Cooper, Bill, 1996, After the Flood, New Wine press publ., pp46-129,198-205, book. (Table of European nations back to Noah). Saxon date for creation is c5200BC, p122.

{21a} ibid. p186 (Report by William Stachey, 1612)

{22}  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrud  (Historical Nimrod)

{23} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etemenanki (Great ziggurat Etemenanki)

{24}https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/3858/2/TowerOfBabel.AfO.pdf 

(Historical Tower of Babel)

{25} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer (Sumerian civilization)

{28} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List (Sumerian King List)

{29} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan (Denisovan humans)

{30} Atlas of Fossil Man, 1971, Brace, et al, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pp46-114. (Illustrated skull fragments of Homo erectus {Pithecanthropines} and Neanderthals)

{30a} ibid., p115. (Modern humans in Europe evolved from earlier Neanderthals when the climate warmed)

{30b} ibid,. p47.  Homo erectus Acheullian tools. The flaked hand axes  are indistinguishable from Neanderthal Mousterian hand axes on p72.                                                      

{31} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus (The first humans)

{32} Cooper, Bill, 2011, The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, Creation Science Movement, p212.

{32a} ibid. pp239-241 (Hmong people).

{33}https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00R2_BzAAp4SXv52HrcFoilDFt49w:1617662400855&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=table+of+nations+maps&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiovpOGlujvAhWJsJ4KHVXJD2gQjJkEegQIBxAB&biw=1920&bih=1089#imgrc=suR4E7pnW-MqcM (Table of nations map showing Shem, Ham, and Japheth’ settlements)

{34} Cooper, Bill, 2011, p383, The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, Creation Science movement, (Confusion of language).  See also Wikipedia, “Enermerkar and the Lord of Aratta”.  Aratta may have been in Armenia.

{36} Thorne, A.G. and P.G. Macumber. 1972.{21} Cooper, Bill, 1996, After the Flood, New Wine press publ. (book)        Discoveries of Late Pleistocene Man at Kow Swamp, Australia. Nature 238: 316-319.

{37} Tomkins, Jeffrey, Acts&Facts magazine, October 2019, Homo erectus: The Ape Man that wasn’t.

{38} https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/kow-swamp

{39}https://www.peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net/KowS.html (“Terminal Pleistocene skeletal remains from south-eastern Australia can be distinguished from their recent counterparts by their greater size and robusticity. This includes greater average stature, larger mean head and tooth size, thicker bones in the cranial vault, larger and more rugose areas of muscle attachment and greater mean endocranial volumes. There appears to have been a gradual reduction in body size after 9,000 years BP, with people of modern body size and shape appearing at around 6000 to 5000 years BP.”)

{40} Science News, March 12,2022, Homo sapiens’ foray into Europe revised, p10. 

{41} 2025, MSN March 11. DNA Study Uncovers Stunning Truth — The First Ice Age Humans to Arrive In America Were Actually From China (msn.com)

January 2025

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