Uralids
and Sibirids: Asiatic Tribes of Hunters and Herdsmen
Altaic nations separated from
other stocks by producing flake-tool industry of two types. Their flakes were
manufactured either by the Levalloisian technique of knapping thin chips from
a well-prepared core or by the Mousterian technology of retouching bifacial
leaf-shaped lance-heads out of flint or quartz. These methods achieved
highest perfection as late as in the Upper Palaeolithic, so their
identification in earlier Clactonian and Tayacian finds has to consult
additional criteria such as the manner of hunting game. These complexes show
Proto-Mousterian relationships by inclination to chase big mammals while the
Levalloisian stock focused primarily on fish and deer. As far as skeletal
anthropology is concerned, their difference made itself felt in gracility.
Paradoxically enough, earlier Neanderthals of Levalloisian stamp looked more
gracile than later Neanderthals of Mousterian provenience. The former are
sometimes classified as Early or Progressive Neanderthals,
whereas the latter are valued as Classic or Late Neanderthals. This incongruity is explained by
their homeland. The Levalloisians came from the Near East while the
Mousterians departed from Mongolian steppes and inherited some regressive
traits from their ancestor Choukoudian Peking man, who mixed with local
varieties of Homo erectus. Their layers have to be
arranged into four temporal horizons:
Neanderthal A → Levalloisians ← Homo sapiens aniensis (Sergii
1935),
Neanderthal B → Mousterians ← Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
(King 1864),
Neanderthal I → Clactonians: Swanscombe man
← Homo steinheimensis (Berckhemer 1935),
Neanderthal II → Tayacians: Fontéchevade man, Ehringsdorf man,
Neanderthal III → Mousterians: La Chapelle aux Saints, Le Moustier,
Neanderthal IV → Solutreans:
Solutré skeletons.
The ethnic evolution of Neanderthals
lasted more than half a million years and they cannot have perished without
meaningful consequences upon recent varieties of mankind. Only few authors
doubt close kinship between the Turcoids and Tungids because comparative
linguistics takes for granted the inseparable Nostratic unity (cca 47,000 BP)
of Indo-European, Altaic, Dravidian and Kartvelian families. They do not
realise that Altaic flake-tool cultures were incompatible with European
axe-tool makers and their inner differentiation was of much earlier date. The
Turco-Tungusoids used cutting weapons of crescent shape (throwing
knives, boomerangs, sabres) for hunting small game and their morphology
conspicuously contrasted with the Ugro-Scythian straight stabbing point
weapons (lance-heads, spearheads, swords, daggers) suitable for butchering
big game such as the mammoth, buffalo or horse. Their opposition corresponded
to the wide abyss gaping between the leptolithic assemblages of
nomadic fishermen and the lanceolithic
complexes of big-game steppe hunters.
To put these distinctions in terms of
genetics, the Europoid and Causacoid axe-tool makers differed from Altaic
lineages by exhibiting the blood group O and two heterogeneous haplogroups:
their Y DNA belonged either to the European haplogroup I or to the Central
Asian haplogroup J. Altaic big-game hunters were of different extraction,
Uralids and Mongolids fell to the Y DNA haplogroup N, while Ugroids and
Scythoids pertained to the DNA haplogroup Q. The former ranges along a long
belt of northern Eurasia from Scandinavia to the Far East. The latter is
very abundant in American prairies.
In the New World Eurasian
colonists split into the Algonquin buffalo-hunters and the Uto-Aztecan
fishermen. The Algonquins and Quechuans lived in dome-shaped wigwams and
displayed the haplogroup Q. The typological patterns of Algonquin tribes
corresponded to their Palaeo-Siberian ancestors (Koryaks, Chukchee, Ostyaks,
Mansi) with the haplogroup Q but its higher rates remained perceptible only
in northern Eurasia. On the other hand, the
Uto-Aztecan group continued the ancestry of Tungusic fishermen by building
conical tepee-tents and adhering to the Y DNA haplogroup C. The Inuits
exhibited the mutation R1-M173 and their overwhelming prevalence in northwest
Canada confirmed Eskimo
myths about their arrival from Greenland.
Eurasian haplogroups show a high
prevalence of the Y DNA genome C in the Tungusic population, while the Y DNA
type N prevails in the Uralic ethnic group. The Y haplogroup R tends to
dominate among all branches of the Turcoid stock but it is too wide-spread
for drawing accurate conclusions. The higher rates of Y DNA haplogroup Q show
high agreement with the westward spread of Scythian and Chudic kurgans. Their
funeral architecture propagated to Scandinavia and emerged in
western Europe as an offshoot of cairns piled up by
Scottish megalith-builders. The Basque megalith-builders in southern Europe descended from
Berber colonies in North Africa and inherited also their
high rates of Rh-negativity. All megalithic peoples diverged from their
Altaic kinsfolk by exhibiting a pronounced predominance of the blood group O.
This incongruity concerns the megalithic tribes of Berbers and Basques as
well as all Amerindians and undermines the general belief in their
appurtenance to Asiatic Mongoloid races. As far as the genetic ABO type O of
Amerindians and Eurasian cairn-builders diverges from the blood group B
common to other Altaic nations, there exists a simple elucidation for its transmutation
at hand. The Asiatic mammoth-hunters drifted to Europe from the Middle
Palaeolithic Mousterian culture in Siberia and their tall
robust stature was due to contacts with Homo lantianensis and H.
erectus in China. Their genetic
patterns were distorted by overlapping with the blood group O.
An unconquerable hindrance in the ethnic
identification of Altaic peoples is classic comparative linguistics and its
assimilated language families. The chief superstratum in the Uralic family is formed by ‘Estono-Marian’
nations (Estonian, Mari, Mordvin, Murom, Merya and Norva
or Neroma) with t-plurals. Their fraternal subdominant of
kurgan-builders with k-plurals included a group of ‘Chudic Ugrians’ such as Ingrians, Hungarians, Mansi, Khanty, and
Veps. A different race was represented also by the Lappish reindeer
breeders (Lapps, Samoyeds, Enets, Nenets, Sel’kup) with i/e-plurals.
The first two penetrated also into the Iranian area and got Iranised under
the Indo-European influence. In their middle the ‘Chudic Ugrians’ reappeared
as horseback-riding Scythians (Saka,
Sakae, Sogdians) and Medes (Μῆδοι,
Madai). Another alien intrusion was due to Uralic ‘Estono-Marian’
people who infiltrated into the Iranian neighbourhood as Sarmatians
(from Uralic Cheremiss), Ossetes (Yaszy,
Yazygi), Roxolanoi (Rushani), Vakhi and Aryans. Uralic
ancestors maintained the original hunting economy whereas the Iranian
colonists mastered horseback-riding and their militant cavalry began to invade
vast territories of Eurasia. If we abstract from their
secondary Iranian surrounding, their long-range travels support the proposal
to classify them as Sarmatoids and Scythoids. In case these terms could
not surpass the insuperable influence of traditional ethnology, their pair
might be denoted by alternative Non-Iranian designations of Uraloids and Abkhazoids. The suffix -oid
denotes kindred populations resemblant to the staple group. The suffix -id
may be reserved for their corresponding racial varieties.
All Altaic tribes professed
religious ideas anticipating the later doctrines of Islamic monotheism. Their
universe was torn asunder by the dualistic opposition discerning
deities of the good (Yahve) and the evil (Satan). Judging by their names,
they came into being as ancestors of the two opposite tribal moieties and
phratries. Nomadic fishermen prayed to Tengri and Baal (Apollo), while the
Siberian big-game hunters and Iranian horse-breeders adored Mazda (Mazdaism,
Zoroastrism), Mithra (Mithraism), Indra and Marduk. These positive godheads
had antipodes in negative evil deities such as Satan, Ahriman, Veles, Esetan
and Yezdan, the chief demiurge in Yazidis’ Yazdânism. The origins of such a bipartition inhered in the
distinction between clans of ruling chieftains and shaman medicinemen.
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Phratries
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Yaszy/Yazygoi/Osi
(duck) – Aorsi/Roxolanoi/Russians/Rushani – Mari/Amorites/Marsi
(wolf, woodpecker) – Sarmatians/Cheremiss –
Wallachians/Volcae (wolf) – Boii/Boiates (Mount Buyan)
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Ecotype
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steppes,
grasslands, savannahs, mountainous grazing pasture lands, hill-forts and
fortified oppida, castles on rocky promontories towering over rivers
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Nutrition
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hunting and breeding the
horse, cattle breeding, warriors’ crafts, slavery, blood-letting,
fermenting kumys and milk products, sacred soma drink
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Abodes
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marquee tents, Bedouin beyt,
Russian shater, quadrangular towers with a flat roof and side
crenels, granges with inner courtyards, atria with an opening at top
and impluvia for rain drops
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Cult
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totem cults of
the World Egg, the World Tree and the World Bird, monotheistic dualism adoring good gods of heavens and bad
demonic spirits reigning in the underworld
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Burials
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burying children in hollow
trees and the grown-ups on the wooden scaffolding, dispatching the dead
corpse on long travels on sledges, skis, horses or chariots, exposition of
the dead to birds of prey in the desert or wilderness, sky burials,
lycanthropy, werewolves
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Death
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nagualism, belief in an animal
alter ego, enemies can be killed only by shooting down their soul’s bird
and crushing its egg, enemies’ heads, skulls and bodies are impaled on
pointed stakes of a palisade, vampires killed by stabbing a stake into the
bosom
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Visage
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brachycephalous
skulls, Mongolian epicanthus, flat broad face
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Weapons
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Mousterian bifaces,
leaf-shaped lance-heads (lanceoliths)
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Clothing
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Mongolian long
asymmetric ankle-length gowns bound with a band, ladies’ tiara or
head-dress, broad-rimmed hats, leggings for riding horses
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DNA
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ABO group B,
Y-DNA haplogroup N, mtDNA haplogroup A
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Poetry
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heroic sagas
and epics, rhymed octosyllable and dodecasyllable
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Tongue
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agglutination,
postpositive inlaut gemination, tenues-to-lenes opposition, fricatives þ,
θ, γ, χ, collective t-plurals,
SOV word-order, analytic syntax with auxiliaries and participles
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Table 1. The cultural paradigm of
Sarmatoid tribes
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Uralo-Sarmatoid Religious Beliefs
There exists sufficient
evidence proving that the prehistoric supreme deity of Ossetes, Yaszy, Osi and Yazygoi must
have borne the noun root As-/Es-. The Buryat god of
heaven was known as Esege Malan, the creator of all living and existing
things. The Kazakhs were infiltrated by Mongolian steppe horse-breeders and
adored Jasagnan as the supreme god-creator. The Tungus took over from
Palaeo-Siberian neighbours the cult of the heaven-god Eskeri, who created the
world by fetching a handful of mud from under deep waters. The Japanese
venerated and blessed the deity addressed as Izanagi. He won merits for
creating the world by fishing out the mainland with a spear. The Guanches on
Tenerife Isle beheld the lord of all gods in the deity called Akhaman. There
can be no casual coincidence in the fact that Nordic gods were referred to as
aesir. They were described as demiurges occupying the mythical
pantheon Asaheim. The Etruscan word for gods eisar ‘gods’ or
the Old Iranian word yazata ‘divine being’ is not accidental either. Such
attribution is controversial only in case of the Hebrew Yahve.
The Estonians (king Alfred’s Aeste)
and ‘Iranian’ Yaszy included a fraternal moiety of Maris, Marians and
Narts, whose names crop up in most terms for Uralic nations (Mordvin, Murom, Merya, Neroma).
One host of colonists imported horseback riding and two-wheel chariots from
the south Ural to Sumer and became
feared as the warrior race of Assyrians and Amorites. Their victory in Babel was probably
celebrated by enthroning the sun-god Marduk as the ruler in the pantheon of
Babylonian gods. Their remote Nuristani relatives managed to enthrone the god
Imra or Mara as the supreme deity in their celestial hierarchy.
Their Aryan kinsmen launched a bloody invasion into North India and instated the
cult of Indra there. He was regarded as a twin brother of the Egyptian god
Ra, while the Ossetic tribal moiety had to do with a less respectable
position of Aśurah, a title given to all Aryan deities in general.
The sect of Yazidis of Kurdish
stock revered the heavenly being Yezdan or Êzid ‘God’ and
made libations to the evil satan-like spirit Peacock Angel. The latter
brought them the ill repute of worshippers praying to the devil. A similar coup-d’état
probably overthrew the ruling hierarchy among the Maasai in Africa. They also made
living as pastoralist cattle-breeders and professed the religion of Asiatic
dualism, but their Satan was embodied by the red god Esetan, a symbol of evil, blood and war. His lifelong antipode was the
black god En-Kāī, lauded as the embodiment of the good and justice. The Maasai living in tunnel huts must be classed as a Scythoid import
from Asia, while t-plurals of Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk
cattle-breeders indicate Sarmatoid origin. Moieties and phratries obviously
distributed morals according as they sympathised with the righteous majority
of kinsmen or with the narrow elite of warriors’ secret sodality. Toponymic
studies prove that in processions of colonists all tribal phratries marched
together as one host. When they settled down, their progress along ancient
routes could be detected in series of ethnonyms alluding to all tribal
factions. This tendency is of great import for toponymy since it allows us to trace prehistoric migrations according
to associations of tribal ethnonyms.
Table 26 sums up the typological pattern of recurrent traits that
simultaneously crop up along most branches and migration routes of the
Sarmatoid tribes (Map 9). Their tribal structure can be deciphered from
sacred animals and guardian spirits of divinities patronising various
phratries. Totemistic counterparts of Sarmatian tribal factions are not
entirely clear but they tend to adore birds (duck, peacock, woodpecker).
Their theogonies derived the earliest beginnings of life from the World Bird
nesting on the World Tree and hatching the World Egg. Almost all crucial Uralo-Sarmatian
mythic motifs were encoded in the Russian folktale about Koshchey (Boney-Man)
the Deathless. His figure illustrated
the Uralic beliefs in nagualism implying that human existence is hidden in
various material or animal fetishes. He was immortal unless somebody
disclosed a needle in the egg nesting on an oak-tree on Mount Buyan. Uralic nations imagined the World
Bird as a duck, the Yazidis fancied the supreme deity as a peacock and the
ancient Romans identified their god Mars with a woodpecker. European oral and
literary folklore cannot be understood without elucidating that the Hallstatt
culture of allegedly Celtic provenience actually originated in the Sarmatian
Sintashta-Osipovka complex with chariot burials. Its heroes bogatyrs
became the ruling aristocracy occupying hillforts, oppida and castles in most
Eurasian countries and created the backbone of their heroic literary
tradition.
European oral and
literary folklore cannot be understood without elucidating that the Hallstatt
culture of allegedly Celtic provenience actually originated in the Sarmatian
Sintashta-Osipovka complex with chariot burials. Its heroes bogatyrs
became the ruling aristocracy occupying hillforts, oppida and castles in most
Eurasian countries and created the backbone of their heroic literary
tradition.
Extract
from Pavel Bělíček: The
Atlas of Systematic Anthropology I. The Synthetic
Classification of Human Phenotypes and Varieties. Prague 2018,
pp. 84-88
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