Ancient Information Lineage
Visual aid to vast connections
(Summary of “Could Masonic Secrets Lead to a Deeper Understanding of Gobekli Tepe?”)
The visual:
The theory:
During interactions between H. sapiens and Denisovans, there was not only a transfer of DNA, but other “information” was also passed down. Information regarding cosmic events and ways of “measuring” said events made its way to the the progenitors of the complex group who constructed megalithic works along the Levant and Anatolia, like Gobekli and the other Tepe’s. Descendents of this group disseminated information into succeeding cultures, causing an information flow through Egypt, down to the Phoenicians and eventually into Solomon’s Temple. Masonic rituals are a direct lineage from the masons of Byblos and Tyre, who constructed Solomon’s Temple, making it a lineage of Egypt and thus Gobekli Tepe and thus the Denisovans.
The “Map”:
*I wanted this to be a 30,000 ft view of a potential lineage, designed to be taken in parts, zoomed-in on and tested for validity. I am not saying any of these connections are strictly accurate, but given various arrays of evidence, and a long time synthesising theories, this is the best framework, thus far, I can come up with for a connection if such a connection was to exist.
**I also tried to map the “archaeo-genetic” link between the Denisovans and our ancestors to demonstrate how relations of people - groups sharing genetic information - moved over time across the planet. The thought being that, if humans can move, then so can the memory of the data1 we have observed and thought important to remember in the first place, and so can the information and perhaps the knowledge structured from such data.
***Dates on the left are supposedly in line with the corresponding period/site/location to the right, but labels have been added where I thought further clarity was needed, and some dates are located directly on the map itself.
****Red boxes indicate “choke points” - places along the network map where the connection is tenuous, based on speculation or theoretical leaps alone. Sometimes imagination is the answer. Other times imagining things can get us in trouble. Check the connections out for yourself before making any final decisions. Also of note: we can ignore the choke points located the right (Butovo and Kundo Cultures → Grooved Ware People and Neolithic Skara Brae → Canaanites & Phoenecians)2 because the blue “information link” does not need to pass through those nodes to complete its full chain. The major choke point connecting the Denisovans to the picture comes into play between the Swiderians and Göbekli Tepe. This will be discussed shortly. Note: from Göbekli Tepe down to the Freemasons there is a “clear” line of connection information can follow. Again, not saying it did, but it is interesting to see it from this 30,000 ft view and imagine what it would have been like for the people living in those connections.
The long version:
Cosmic events have rattled our planet since time immorial. In fact, it may be the basis for life. It can certainly end life. Catastrophism is the study of such incidents. Going out on a limb, what if we inherited the nack for catastrophism, for the study of the sky, for geometric reasoning, from another species?
It all started so well. Under the soft-hue of a falling dusk, somewhere between 70,000 to 40,000 years ago, our ancestors, perhaps at the unassuming mouth of a cave set back in a cliffside, encountered another hominid species.
Multiple types of exchanges no doubt took place and, as the fire burned down, so did the days. Eventually, for lack of a better term, the two groups converged. Socially, communicatively, culturally, perhaps technologically, and most certainly biologically. Some of our genes, especially around the Papua region and Han, China, still carry strong traces of Denisovan DNA to this day.
From around the plains of Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau, where this converging of species may have first taken place, the records of what the assumedly cognitively-capable Denisovans had recorded, may have first been transferred. “Assumed” in good faith; given the ongoing evidence for the intelligence of past hominin species like the Neanderthals, who also merged with us and the Denisovans, it can be assumed the Denisovans, who may already be tentatively linked to some pretty astounding creations, also exhibited strong cognitive abilities.
Speculations then arise over the “type” of information that would have been transferred hominin to hominin. Meeting a new species of hominin with similar cognitive abilities to us (as well as being bigger than us), is a pretty unimaginable thing, but for our ancestors this is exactly what happened. Whilst hard to frame under today’s modern lens, perhaps the differences between the two species may be thought about through the perspective of modernised-unmodernised interactions, occurring even today in areas such as the Amazon, Indonesia, and some remote islands. Do not mistake my point: we may well have had a lot to learn from the Denisovans, just like we have a lot to learn from indigenous people around the world. Only, in the imagined scenario, the Denisovans may well have been the “modernised” and us humans the “unmodern”.
For a while now “Uncertainty Reduction Theory”, “The Contact Hypothesis” and “Symbolic Interactionism Theory” all suggest that when groups of humans first interact with one another, they share information regarding a host of similarities and differences: hunting strategies, cultivation and farming techniques (e.g. Native Americans teaching early settlers about maize cultivation) social hierarchies (e.g. when Polynesian explorers encountered new islands, they assessed hierarchical systems to determine how to integrate or dominate), methods of communication, family structures, belief systems (e.g. the Silk Road facilitated exchanges of religious ideas like Buddhism and Islam), construction techniques - the list goes on.
(Assuming the 2+ groups assimilate to each other's presence cohesively and bind instead of cleave), information regarding collective danger is also shared. Wild animals, steep drops, other groups of people, a shared understanding of potential dangers becomes in the best interest of the collective. Ways to record that danger - methods of observation - and with it the development of mental models, may be second, third order effects of this convergence. Development of geometric logic, and with it intricate systems of symbology, whether that be captured through cave art or stone work, or some other method, may follow.
Could information like this - with the addition of stone tool technology - have been passed down via migrations south, through Central Asia, perhaps carried by Upper Paleolithic Steppe cultures around 30,000 to 13,000 years ago, and also west, through the Ural Mountains, past the Black and Caspian seas, through Mesolithic cultures like the Swiderians and right into the gem nestled within the cradle of history: Göbekli Tepe.
I have already mentioned how the first major choke point resides between Mesolithic cultures like the Swiderians, 15,000 to 12,000 years ago, and Göbekli Tepe. However, archaeo-genetetic links do seem to suggest a migration out of Siberia, towards modern day Poland, Estonia and the Black Sea region, notably converging with the Swiderian culture. Whatsmore, the similarities in stone tool technology, as popularised by researcher Andrew Collins, connects the Swiderian culture to the very genesis of Göbekli Tepe.
Whilst the choke point indicates a weakness in the information lineage, meaning any information originating from the convergence of the Denisovans and our ancestors may not have made it into the treasured pot-bellied hill, there are certainly some connections still to be made between Andrew Collins work, Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures around the Black Sea, and the theoretical work of Dr. Martin Sweatman that, if valid, support the idea that such information transferral did indeed occur.
Sweatman did what has not been done before: a statistical analysis on the high-relief symbology adorning Gobekli Tepe’s various pillars (e.g. Pillar 43, 18 & 56). By “decoding ancient representations of zodiacal constellations” Sweatman and his team concluded that (long-story short) the probability that the likelihood of the correlations between the decoded cosmic symbology and the date of the site, as well as the historical and ecological context of the site (at the end of the Younger Dryas ice age) “could have occurred by pure chance is around 1 in 140 million x 380 million, which is 1 in 53 quadrillion.”3
In other words, Göbekli Tepe’s pillars not only required complex stone-working techniques, but the symbology carved into the pillars encoded astronomical knowledge, involving comprehensive understanding of complex processes, including the precession of the equinoxes.
Andrew Collins’ investigation went a different route. Collins looked into the potential connection between the cosmic symbology present at Göbekli Tepe, and found that the underlying symbolism pattern matches to speculative theories regarding the Denisovans. His work, in other words, suggests an information transfer occurred at the convergence point of the two species, and ended up encoded in stone on the pillars of Göbekli Tepe.
If a true synthesis can be found, between the Denisovan lineage to Black Sea cultures, then from those cultures to Göbekli Tepe, well then this choke point diminishes and the information network, at least in part, stands. Whatever the case, the map above gives us clear points of reference to guide research, either adding weight to the links of the network, or cutting them. Either way, it is helpful to look a bit closer.
From there the information lineage may have branched south-westerly once more. Fluids flow into all available spaces, and information spreads just as indiscriminately, often reaching unintended audiences via networks, word-of-mouth, and shared or “sacred” symbology. Down the Fertile Crescent, ebbing across the Tigris and the Euphrates, gently flowing through the Cradle of Civilisation, through the Levant and the Sinai Peninsula, into some major cultural capitals of the ancient world - sites in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Israel - between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, over time, "sediments" of older ideas accumulate in certain cultural or social niches, forming the foundation of traditions or institutions. The cosmic symbology, especially the use of the ancient zodiacal symbology decoded by Sweatman, suggests an information lineage did move through here, most obviously in Egypt, but also through the Babylonians and Sumerians, who had a strong tradition of complex astronomy and related symbolism.
One major node of information transferral then becomes the Canaanites and the Phoenecians, who occupied the space between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago, and who were renowned for their cosmic, geometric and advanced stone working lineage, most notably through to the King Hiram of Tyre, the master mason Hiram of Abiff, and the selected Masons of Byblos, who helped create the original Temple of Solomon, just under 3,000 years ago.
Legend has it that under those stone foundations, passageways, like we see at other sites like in nearby Egypt, kept records of the information passed down by these master masons. If true, and if this information remained part of this extended network, then it could well have contained pieces - scraps of evidence - from untold generations of knowledge, of ancient cognitive convergences, from the time of Göbekli Tepe and beyond.
And from here? Well this is actually the most “secure” line of the entire map, funnily enough. We know the Templar Knight’s were in Jerusalem, around 900 years ago, digging under the Temple Mount for the foundations, and assumedly the tunnels, that were built underneath the original Temple of Solomon. Many accept that, with the full support of the Church behind them, they managed to find something. Whatever that something was, it is said that after their time excavating and digging under Jerusalem, the Templars became extremely prominent, ritualistic, and wealthy. That something seemed to change them.
Eventually the Templars, attacked by the church because of their increasing status and separation of beliefs, dissolved and some of the fragmented network spored the growth of Freemasonry. An order who fame themselves on the accurate recall and preservation of traditions, Masonic lore, interestingly enough, is known to contain layer upon layer of cosmic symbology (just take a look at their emblem), which they themselves trace back to the genesis of Solomon’s Temple and in particular the mysterious Master Mason Hiram of Abiff - those very same Phoenician wisdom-keepers who raised stone from the ground to build one of the most impressive architectural wonders of the ancient world.
Could any of the original ritual tradition remain encoded in the rituals and symbolism of the Freemasons?
That, in a rough sort of way, is how I arrived at the possibility that information, originating from the Denisovans, may have ended up in the rituals of the Freemasons.
I mean, if all my days spent catching seaweed has taught me anything, when the net is cast this wide you are bound to catch something. Now I just need a few people skilled enough with a rod to come in and fish the areas I am pointing to. Or at least let me know there are no fish over that way, so we can try somewhere else.
Be that orally recorded through myth, or physically recorded through megalithic architecture and systems of symbology.
Read the main article here for a more in-depth reasoning on why we can ignore these information choke points.