In the thread about the "<i>Underwater city out of the coast of India</i>", arised the subject of ancient civlizations in India and their mythological chronicles known as Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Rig Veda, etc., and the similarity of those accounts with other mythological chronicles from other parts of the world, as the Parsi people in Persia, and the ancient Tairona people in Colombia, whose descendants the Kágabas, and today's kogi indians keep legends that tell stories about the Universal Deluge, with the same precise details and almost the same historical characters and events. As I posted in that other thread, legends and mythology have have a root in the historical truth, so it cannot be totally discarded as a source of valuable information about the events that made the chroniclers start telling the people the events they witnessed. Of course, we must consider the difficulties those early chroniclers had in translating into understandable words the fantastic events they wanted to tell their friends and neighbours. How could an aborigin of the Serenguetti desert explain to his friends the launching of a Jupiter rocket carrying a Space Shuttle to orbit? Wouldn't he be talking about a "angel with legs of fire"?. He couldn't even describe the "angel" as made out of crystal or silver --as they don't know what these things are. So, if somebody is interested in trying to investigate together the issue of these inexplicable events like the Universal Deluge --as recorded by different civilizations worldwide-- let's give it a try. My first contribution to the subject will be the legend of the <b>Tairona</b> people in Colombia --about 8,000 - 5,000 years ago. The Colombian Institute of Anthropolgy and Archaeology has been studying the Tairona's lost city in the jungle near Santa Marta, in the north of Colombia. This huge ruins --that dwarfs Macchu Pichu in any account-- is called "<b>Buritaca 200</b>", and I think there must be some information in the Internet about it (I have not checked yet), but the information I have will be enough for the time being. The German etnologist, Dr. Konrad Theodor Preuss (1869-1938), director of the Etnological Museum in Berlin, studied the Kogi indians of Colombia, and researched on the legacy of the "Kágabas" (as the kogis were known many centuries ago). He made a sketch of the Myth of the Creation by the kágabas, in a well written account of 30 pages, (Preuss, T.K., <i>Monumentale vorgeschichtliche Kunst</i>, Gottingen, 1929), were there are stories about the fight of the four Great Priests against demons and beasts, throwing "rays", "flying in all directions", and bringing down to Earth seeds of all kind of plants..The gods wore masks and one of them was hidden in a mountain. The most important versicles that deserve to be mentioned are: <blockquote> <b>Vers. 30:</b><i> "Today this mask was used, for acting upon diseases and all evil, so novices that have learned in the temples can talk with the mask. Thus was told later by the fathers, the priests and the elder brothers."</i> </blockquote> From the account, it seems that priests used to "talk" with the masks, in order to "act" thgrough them upon diseases. A fertile imagination would say the masks were helmets with a built-in radio, which the priests used to get medical advice. Myth, lies, an explanation with simple understandable words for people with a primitive culture? Let's hear some possible explanations from the board. <blockquote> Vers. 38: "The centuries passed and this world produced men with inclinations contrary to Nature, so they "rested" with any kind of animals. The mother had desires of her son, and the father of his daughter, from the same blood of the brother, the daughter". <b>Vers. 39: </b><i>"Seeing this, chief Santana opened the gates of the skies so the rain will pour down for four years."</i> <b>Vers. 40:</b><i>"When the priests took notice of this, the priest Seizankuar built a magic ship and put there all kind of animals and other things: he put four-legged animals, birds and all class of plants. Afterwards, the elder brother Mulkueikai went aboard the ship and closed the door."</i> <b>Vers. 41:</b><i>"Then it started to pour down red and blue rain that would not cease for four years, and the rain formed lakes all over the world."</i> <b>Vers. 42:</b><i>"Elder brother Mulkeikai was insde the ship that stopped at the mountain top of Sierra Negra. There he went out of the ship, however he did not get away from it, and he rested for nine days at the Sierra Negra mountain top."</i> <b>Vers. 42:</b><i>"After those nine days, nine centuries passed until all lakes dried up, as the priests say."</i> <b>Vers. 44:</b><i>"Now, all evil had been destroyed, and <b>the priests, the major brothers descended from the skies</b>, and Mulkeikai opened the doors and set on the ground all birds, quadrupeds, trees and plants. This is what the divines did, the persons named Father Kalgusiza." </i> </blockquote> How much the ancient legends resemble each other! The Kágaba myth talks about sodomy, as Moses in Book I, vers. 19, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha (that apparently was blasted with an A-Bomb). The Gilgamesh epic poem tells about a similar event. The Kágabas say: "All came down from the sky", The Sumer legend say: "When the flood was over, the royalty came back from the sky"; Gilgamesh say that after the flood "the Gods descended to Earth". So the mythic accounts tells us about a Universal Deluge. Did it happen? Did the flood covered the whole Earth, or were just local floods? How much water would be needed to cover the Earth with about 5,195 meters of it (the height of Mount Ararat)? And, where did such an amount of water come from? Was the Deluge responsible for covering the lost city in India? (the dates seem to fit, but the paleoclimatic studies show the sea level 8,000 years ago were only between minus 20 to 10 meters below today's levels), Many hard questions for this board, I think.
