A very old problem

 

This was something I just asked ChatGPT when I had nothing else to do, but it struck me that it has a wider application. Cough, cough...21st century AD...cough cough.

Why did the Old Kingdom (Egypt) collapse? Was it related to the building of pyramids?

The collapse of Egypt's Old Kingdom (around 2180 BCE, at the end of the 6th Dynasty) is generally seen as the result of a complex combination of environmental, political, and economic factors—not directly because of pyramid building, though the pyramids play a role in the broader picture.

Here’s a breakdown of the main reasons:

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🏜️ 1. Climate Change and Famine (Environmental Factors)

• Evidence from Nilometer records and sediment cores suggests that the Nile’s annual flooding became irregular or very low during the late Old Kingdom.

• The Nile floods were essential for agriculture. When they failed, crop yields plummeted, leading to widespread famine.

• This likely caused social unrest, weakening central authority.

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👑 2. Weakening of Central Power

• Under kings like Pepi II, who reportedly ruled for over 90 years, the authority of the pharaoh became more symbolic than effective.

• Long reigns may have led to succession disputes and administrative stagnation.

• Local governors (nomarchs) gained more autonomy and power, acting independently of the central government.

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💰 3. Economic Strain—Possibly Related to Monument Building

• Building massive pyramids, especially in the 4th and 5th Dynasties, required enormous state resources, labor, and logistics.

• While the pyramids themselves weren’t the direct cause of the collapse, some scholars argue that they drained state resources, particularly if agricultural output declined at the same time.

• The redistribution economy—where the central government controlled and redistributed food and labor—started to break down.

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⚖️ 4. Religious and Social Shifts

• Over time, the sun cult of Ra and associated priesthoods (especially at Heliopolis) grew more powerful.

• The rise of private tombs and regional cults suggests a decentralization of religious power, paralleling political fragmentation.

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🗡️ 5. Fragmentation and Internal Conflict

• By the end of the 6th Dynasty, Egypt was likely in a state of political fragmentation, with rival factions and nomarchs asserting control.

• This led to the First Intermediate Period, a time of instability, with no clear central authority.

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🧱 So—Was Pyramid Building to Blame?

• Not directly. The building of the great pyramids (like those at Giza) occurred mostly in the 4th Dynasty, and the Old Kingdom continued for over a century afterward.

• However, the economic model and administrative systems that supported pyramid building may have become unsustainable, especially when environmental stresses hit.

• Later pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties were smaller and of poorer quality, possibly reflecting declining resources or shifting priorities.

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In Summary:

The collapse of the Old Kingdom was due to a perfect storm: prolonged drought, famine, weak central authority, economic strain, and political decentralization. Pyramid construction was part of the Old Kingdom’s centralized system, which may have become too rigid or costly to survive major environmental and social shocks.

Let me know if you’d like to explore how the First Intermediate Period contrasts with the Old Kingdom! 

Papyrus burns at night

 

So I just watched the French documentary "Giza Pyramids" from 2023, featuring both French-speaking and English-speaking Egyptologists. OK, fine, so the officialdom is finally paying attention to possible alignements between the pyramids at Giza and the stars in the night sky. They even mention Robert Bauval´s controversial Orion hypothesis. I must say that their criticism of it is extremely lazy, though! One prominent archeologist, Mark Lehner, claims that it´s hard to believe that the Egyptians could have made such correlations, since...it´s pitch dark at night, so they couldn´t see anything?!

Ahem, Mark, I´m sure the ancient Egyptians knew how to make flaming torches...

The other objections are of a similarly unserious character. Finally, we meet somebody who explains how these accursed Hamites could have made the necessary measurements with the aid of two instruments known as "merkhet" and "bay". 

The docu also proposes its own correlation hypothesis: the "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid are pointing at Orion, Sirius, Kochab and Thuban, which all play a prominent symbolical role in Egyptian mythology. For instance, Osiris is associated with Orion and Sirius with Isis. Pharaoh´s soul was presumably expected to rise through these shafts until it reached an immortal realm among the constellations.

So it seems the fringe speculations were kind of right, after all. 

Galileo event

Egypt: Neither White nor Black?

Is this a "Galileo event" for Afro-centrists? I think it´s offically over now. Martin Bernal and Black Athena lost. And that´s that. Speaking as a "recovering (moderate) Afro-centrist" myself. 

Old Kingdom Egyptians had ties to Mesopotamia

Of course, I also had to ask ChatGPT about this problematique...

To what "racial" group did the North African Neolithic population belong?

The North African Neolithic population belonged to a group that is best understood today as part of a "North African" or "Afro-Mediterranean" genetic continuum, rather than a clearly defined "racial" group in the older typological sense. However, if we examine this using modern genetics and anthropology, we can break it down more clearly:

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🧬 Genetic Affinities of North African Neolithic Populations

1. Main Components:

   • Maghrebi Ancestry (IAM Component): This is a deeply rooted North African genetic component seen in Early Neolithic populations in Morocco (e.g., the Ifri n’Amr ou Moussa or IAM samples, ~7,000 years ago). It's thought to be descended from local Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers.

   • European Neolithic Ancestry: Later North African Neolithic populations (e.g., Kelif el Boroud, ~5,000 years ago) show evidence of admixture from Iberian Early Farmers (carrying Anatolian Neolithic ancestry).

   • Middle Eastern/Levantine Influence: Some gene flow from the Levant, especially during and after the Neolithic, is also present.

2. Y-DNA and mtDNA Markers:

   • Y-DNA: Early Neolithic North Africans carried haplogroups like E-M78, typical of Northeast African and Mediterranean populations.

   • mtDNA: Mitochondrial DNA often included U6 and M1, which are characteristic of North Africa and likely derived from earlier Upper Paleolithic back-migrations from the Near East.

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🏺 Cultural and Archaeological Connections

• Archaeological evidence shows cultural exchanges between North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Near East.

• Neolithic sites in North Africa show a mix of indigenous development and incoming farming technologies, likely from Mediterranean Europe and the Levant.

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🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏼 In Racial Terms (Antiquated and Problematic)

If one were to try to use the now-outdated 19th–20th century racial categories, Neolithic North Africans might have been classified (in that flawed framework) as:

• “Mediterranean” or “Caucasoid”, due to their craniofacial traits and later genetic affinities with Near Eastern and Southern European populations.

However, this concept is now scientifically obsolete. Modern population genetics shows that ancient populations don’t fall into clean, static racial boxes—populations were fluid and mixed over time.

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🧭 Summary

Neolithic North Africans were primarily descended from local North African hunter-gatherers with additional input from Levantine and European Neolithic farmers. They form part of a distinct North African population cluster with some genetic links to both Europe and the Near East, but they were not "black" Sub-Saharan Africans nor simply "white" Europeans. They are best seen as Afro-Mediterranean in ancestry.

Let me know if you'd like a map, specific sample data (like from IAM or KEB), or a comparison to modern North African populations.

The greatest game?

 

Never heard this before...

Where do White people come from?

 

My race to make the blog an appendix to Artificial Intelligence continues, LOL. This time around, I asked the All-Knowing Systeme the Question of Questions: Where do White people come from?!

Do scientists know when humans first got a pale ("White") skin-coloring?

Yes, scientists have made significant progress in understanding when and how pale ("white") skin evolved in humans, especially in populations that migrated out of Africa.

Here’s what we know so far:

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🧬 Key Genetic Mutations Linked to Lighter Skin

Human skin color is influenced by multiple genes, but several key mutations associated with lighter skin tones have been identified:

• SLC24A5

• SLC45A2

• TYR (tyrosinase)

• OCA2

• MC1R (less involved in Europeans, more in redheads/freckling)

These genes influence melanin production, the pigment responsible for skin, hair, and eye color.

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🕰️ When Did These Mutations Arise?

📍 In Europe

• Pale skin evolved relatively recently in human history—only about 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, after early humans had already been living in Europe for thousands of years.

• Surprising fact: The first modern humans who migrated into Europe from Africa (~40,000 years ago) likely still had medium to dark skin.

• Ancient DNA from Mesolithic (hunter-gatherer) Europeans shows dark skin, blue eyes, and only later do we see the genes for light skin becoming widespread.

📍 In South Asia and the Middle East

• Similar light-skin mutations arose independently or spread through population mixing, particularly during the Neolithic (farming) revolution.

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☀️ Why Did Pale Skin Evolve?

The most widely accepted explanation is vitamin D synthesis:

• In lower UV environments (like northern Europe), darker skin blocks too much UVB radiation, which is needed to produce vitamin D in the skin.

• Lighter skin allows more UVB penetration, improving vitamin D production in places with weaker sunlight.

This adaptation would be especially important in agricultural societies where dietary sources of vitamin D were less available.

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🌍 Skin Color is a Recent and Adaptive Trait

• Skin color evolved after humans migrated out of Africa, making it one of the more rapid adaptations in human evolution.

• Different populations developed lighter skin independently, depending on latitude and UV exposure, which is why East Asians, Europeans, and some South Asians have different underlying genetics for light skin.

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Summary

• Pale ("white") skin in Europeans evolved around 7,000–8,000 years ago.

• Early Europeans were likely dark-skinned for thousands of years after leaving Africa.

• The change was driven by adaptation to low UV environments for vitamin D production.

• Multiple genes and separate evolutionary paths contributed to lighter skin across different regions.

Let me know if you want a visual timeline or a map of how these changes spread—happy to make one!

Do we know where the so-called Caucasoid race came from? That is, populations with "Caucasoid" anatomical features? (Not necessarily including the pale skin, since some Caucasoids are dark-skinned!)

Great question—and you're absolutely right to distinguish "Caucasoid" anatomical features from just pale skin. The term "Caucasoid" comes from outdated racial classifications, but the concept points to a range of physical traits once thought to define populations from Europe, West Asia, North Africa, and parts of South Asia. These traits included things like:

• Narrow noses

• Orthognathic (flat) faces

• High cranial vaults

• Thin lips

• Variable skin color (from very light to medium-dark)

So, where did these features come from? Here's what science has uncovered:

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🧬 1. "Caucasoid" Traits Are Polygenic and Ancient

These features didn't arise all at once in a single population. Instead:

• They're the result of natural selection acting on different traits over time, shaped by climate, diet, and sexual selection.

• The traits emerged gradually, across broad regions from the Levant, Anatolia, and the Iranian plateau, going back tens of thousands of years.

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🌍 2. Geographic Origin: The Fertile Crescent and Surrounding Zones

The core region where "Caucasoid" features seem to consolidate genetically and anatomically is:

• The Fertile Crescent (modern-day Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran)

• The Caucasus region, which gave the outdated term its name

• Anatolia (modern Turkey) and parts of the Levant

This area was a key center of population mixing and innovation, especially:

• Post-Ice Age (around 12,000 years ago) with the rise of agriculture

• Neolithic period, when populations started expanding and mixing due to farming

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🔀 3. Mixing of Ancient Populations

Genetic studies (e.g., from ancient DNA) show that modern "West Eurasian" populations—those typically labeled "Caucasoid" in the old model—descend from three major ancestral groups:

1. Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) – native to Ice Age Europe

2. Early European Farmers (EEF) – originally from Anatolia and the Levant

3. Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) – from Siberia and Central Asia

Their mixing, over time, produced the blend of features we now associate with many European and West Asian populations.

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🗺️ 4. Spread and Variation

• These populations spread outward in multiple waves:

  • To Europe via Neolithic farmers and Indo-European steppe migrations.

  • To North Africa through Mediterranean and Near Eastern contact.

  • To South Asia, especially with Indo-Aryan migrations (bringing steppe ancestry).

• The resulting people across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and India share overlapping cranial and facial features—though they vary widely in skin color and other traits.

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🧪 5. Modern View: Clines, Not Races

Modern anthropology and genetics have replaced the "Caucasoid" idea with the concept of population clines and admixture:

• Features change gradually over geography (a cline), not in discrete blocks.

• So-called "Caucasoid" features are just one cluster of variation among many, shaped by migration, isolation, and local selection pressures.

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✅ Summary

• The features once labeled "Caucasoid" likely originated in West Asia and the Near East, especially around the Fertile Crescent.

• These traits are not tied to a single race, but to millennia of mixing and adaptation.

• Skin color is separate from many of these features and has evolved independently in different regions.

• Today, scientists avoid racial labels and instead talk about ancestral components and population structure based on genetics.

If you’d like, I can show a map or genetic ancestry diagram to illustrate this story visually!

I´ve read somewhere that the oldest skulls with "Caucasoid" features were actually discovered in Africa. Is this correct?

Yes, you're tapping into a fascinating and often overlooked part of human history: some of the earliest skulls with what we would now recognize as "Caucasoid" features—narrow faces, high nasal bridges, orthognathic (flat) profiles—have indeed been found in Africa.

Let’s break it down:

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🧠 1. Key Examples: "Caucasoid" Traits in Ancient African Skulls

🏺 Nazlet Khater (Egypt, ~35,000 years ago)

• A nearly complete skeleton found in Upper Egypt.

• Shows a blend of traits:

  • Craniofacial structure with "Caucasoid-like" features (narrow face, non-projecting midface).

  • But also robust elements typical of earlier Homo sapiens in Africa.

🏺 Iwo Eleru (Nigeria, ~13,000 years ago)

• Mixes archaic and modern traits.

• Some anthropologists noted that its vault shape and face differ from recent Sub-Saharan African populations.

🏺 Jebel Sahaba (Sudan, ~13,000 years ago)

• A burial site with people showing morphological diversity, including skulls with high nasal bridges and narrow faces—features once labeled "Caucasoid."

🏺 Taforalt (Morocco, ~15,000 years ago)

• These individuals showed cranial traits intermediate between sub-Saharan and West Eurasian populations.

• Genetic evidence confirms a blend of African and "Eurasian" ancestry in North Africa before the Neolithic.

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🧬 2. Ancient Gene Flow from Eurasia Into Africa

• Genetics now confirms that some West Eurasian (non-African) ancestry entered North and East Africa as early as 30,000–15,000 years ago, maybe even earlier.

• This resulted in African populations with Eurasian admixture—long before colonialism or the Arab expansion.

• That Eurasian gene flow likely came back into Africa from populations who had migrated out of Africa tens of thousands of years earlier, then returned or mixed with groups near the Nile, Sahara, and Maghreb.

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🌍 3. Africa Was Always Diverse

• Africa has hosted an enormous range of human physical variation for tens of thousands of years.

• "Caucasoid" traits are not exclusive to non-African populations, and some of them originated in Africa or emerged there through convergent evolution or admixture.

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⚠️ 4. Modern Terms vs Ancient Reality

The word "Caucasoid" is outdated and problematic today. It was coined in the 18th century based on flawed racial models that tried to sort humans into rigid categories (like Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, etc.).

• Modern anthropology and genetics now emphasize continuity and admixture, not static races.

• Traits once called "Caucasoid" are now seen as variations on a spectrum—and many are found across multiple populations.

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✅ Summary

Yes, some of the oldest skulls with "Caucasoid-like" features were found in Africa, especially in North and East Africa. This isn’t surprising given that:

• Africa is the cradle of humanity.

• Ancient humans moved in and out of Africa repeatedly.

• Physical traits varied widely within Africa long before written history.

So the idea that "Caucasoid features" = non-African is not only outdated—it ignores the deep complexity of African prehistory.

Let me know if you want illustrations or reconstructions of any of these ancient skulls—there are some pretty compelling visuals out there!

Guilt by association or kook by any standard?

 

This is one of the guys who claims to have located hidden chambers below the pyramids at Giza. He´s evidently something of a kook. Apparently, Corrado Malanga believes that reptilian aliens abduct humans. One of them looks like a snake but has the face of a crocodile. This has been going on for 500,000 years. The establishment knows the TRUTH but are hiding it. 

Brother Malanga also knows the agenda behind the abductions. Humans have three souls (a male, a female and an androgyne) and the aliens want one of them, since they lack it themselves. This part of the presentation wasn´t entirely obvious. I assume it´s the female one? The Metatron (i.e. the content-creator who uses that moniker) believes that Malanga´s ideas are a blend of Scientology and sollipsism. Not sure why he doesn´t mention a certain David Icke!

Now, I suppose it´s possible that this is just "guilt by association" and that a UFO cultist might make sensational archeological discoveries with the help of state-of-the-art technology.

But probably not.   

The Queen of Heaven

 

AI´s fantasy picture of the Egyptian goddess Isis blessing a Knight Templar. A propos the conspiracy theory mentioned in the previous blog post... 

Fated

The Metatron has watched the hours-long press conference featuring the three Italian researchers who claim to have found evidence of underground structures at the Giza plateau. While our man doesn´t rule anything out, he is *very* critical of the presentations at the presser and wonders aloud (very aloud) about the underlying methodology. It seems to be some kind of "Alternative Egypt" esoteric mumbo-jumbo, put forward with all the usual fanaticized conviction of true believers. 

For instance, the claim that the Giza plataeu can be dated to 36,000 BC?! Or the claim that the researchers have located an underground "city" from Egyptian mythology. And when they used their radar technology to pick up vibrations from the ground, they "discovered" an ancient structure that looked like a tuning fork! It´s all "fated" and what not, even the fact that these three investigators met is "fated". 

What really seems fated here is that this will turn out to be another episode in the neverending saga of pyramidiocy. And yes, a reptoid alien was included in one of the team´s powerpoints. Probably a joke, but you´ll never know. The Schwärmers are already using the multi-color scans (which are extremely difficult to interpret - one of the researchers even admit that he is color blind!) as evidence for nuclear power plants, UFOs and what not. 

Over and out, my noble ones.    

Alien interference

 

Sabine says it, I believe it, that settles it. Seriously though, the recent pyramid stuff does sound too good to be true. And too strange, as well!  

I´m so sorry

 

Ancient aliens meets InfoWars. Three years ago. How annoying. For a moment, I actually thought they had found something, LOL. 

Zeitoun revisited

 

Not sure how interesting this is, but here you go...

Catholic content-creator Cameron Bertuzzi and his YouTube channel Capturing Christianity recently created quite the stir when Bertuzzi started arguing that the Marian apparitions at Zeitoun in Egypt 1968-71 provides better evidence for the truth of Christianity than even the Biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus?! Maybe I´m misunderstanding my man Cameron here, but it certainly sounds like a very "far out" thing to say (even for a Catholic). Even apart from the fact that the apparitions took place at a Coptic church!

The video above is an one-hour Protestant (Lutheran?) criticism of Zeitoun and Marian apparitions in general, framed as a response to Bertuzzi. I like the "moderate" style of the presenter, Gavin Ortlund, but it´s obvious that his position is also quite far out. Hint: demons, demons...

Make of this content whatever you wish.   

Gaz-a-Lago

 

Trump has started a trade war against the European Union (a US ally), and is thretening to stop all economic aid to Egypt and Jordan (two US allies) unless they support his MAGA Strip scheme (or is it Gaz-a-Lago).

I´m old enough to remember when the United States bombed or sanctioned, I don´t know, its enemies or something.

If Putin is smart, he´ll let the Chinese or India propose a peace plan that´s relatively favorable to the Ukrainians and when signed, let the fossil fuels flow into the EU...   

Our Lady for all Seasons

 

This is an extremely strange video, in which Catholic content-creator Cameron Bertuzzi (otherwise unknown) argues that the Marian apparitions at Zeitoun in Egypt 1968-71 provide better evidence for Christianity than the Bible?! Meltdowns from Protestants in the commentary section, but his claim *is* peculiar. 

Bertuzzi´s point seems to be that *to a modern skeptic* a contemporary miracle is better evidence than a 2000 year old scripture. While that may sound obvious, it really isn´t. For instance, while huge crowds did see something unusual at Zeitoun, the interpretation that this was actually Mary is rooted in the Bible and Church tradition. So the veracity of the Bible and later traditions about Mary remains at the core even of this contemporary event. Otherwise, we might as well interpret a white lady moving around in Egypt as the goddess Isis!

To Bertuzzi, the fact that many - perhaps most - of the eye witnesses were Muslims strengthens the claim that the apparition must have been Mary, since she was seen hovering above a Christian church. But Muslims also revere Mary and very few of them converted to Christianity. If we take the eye witness testimonies seriously, this suggests that they might not have been entirely convincing to non-believers (in contrast to how the Bible describes Jesus appearing to Thomas and Paul, or the Holy Ghost descending upon the apostles at Pentecost and converting thousands). As far as I understand, people in the crowds *did* see very different things during the course of the events at Zeitoun. 

Note also that Our Lady of Zeitoun didn´t appear above a Catholic church, but a Coptic Orthodox ditto. So if we accept their interpretation of the apparition at face value, we should convert to Monophysite Oriental Orthodoxy, not the Roman Catholic Church. If we, on the other hand, take our departure in the fact that many different people saw the apparition *without converting to the Coptic Orthodox Church*, the most reasonable pro-religious interpretation would be some kind of inclusivism or pluralism. Apparently, the Zeitoun apparitions were accepted as true by Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and even Nasser´s secular government! This sounds nothing like the Bible...

One person commenting the video states that the apparitions at most provide evidence for the supernatural in general. Not specific evidence for any one religion. This seems to be about right. In the Gnostic scriptures, Christ appears in different ways to different people: as a child, as an old man, and so on. Imagine if Christ would appear differently to each person in a large crowd. That wouldn´t be Catholic (or Coptic) Christianity anymore, but another religion entirely!

With those reflections, I end. 

Flooding the MAGA Strip

 

Trump recently floated the obviously insane idea that the United States should take over the Gaza Strip (and turn it into a "MAGA Strip") while removing all of the Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan (both of which will refuse to take them in). Has the Donald finally lost it? Even Netanyahu looked embarassed at that press conference! As far as I can tell, there may be three "rational" reasons for why Trump makes this kind of statement. All three are based on the assumption that he´s bluffing. 

1. "Madman Strategy". Does Trump want to scare Hamas and/or Israel and/or the Arab states into compliance by pretending to be insane? It doesn´t seem to work on Hamas. Besides, the Madman Strategy only works if the president pretending to be mad actually *isn´t* mad, but rather extremely sly and cynical (read: Nixon). 

2. Trump may want to throw out some red meat to the right-wing Zionists in Israel and the Christian Zionists in the United States, both of whom "should" be skeptical to the armistice and hostage deal with Hamas. After all, the deal looks like the policy favored by Joe Biden! By rhetorically pretending to be Meir Kahane, Trump can defuse the opposition. MPAI in action.

3. It´s a gigantic diversion from something else Trump wants really badly. Probably the approval of the Senate for his cabinet picks or DOGE´s purge of the administrative state. The YouTube clip above argues for this possibility. Note the bizarre fact that Trump makes his "proposal" during complicated peace talks between Israel and Hamas, a proposal that would make Hamas leave the negotiating table if they had taken it seriously. 

Probably number three or a combination of two and three. I suppose we all have to wait and see...