Mesopotamia - X marks the spot
It all begins a long long time ago, 500,000 years ago. It was a time of the arrival of the prince’s staff when primitive man was still in the stone age. Prince Caligastia, who was chosen as a member of Lucifer’s personal staff, departed with his entourage from the celestial abode Jerusem and arrived at their headquarters in Dalamatia located in what was to become Mesopotamia. You could say that Caligastia arrived on earth from a location in "Heaven". This large group of celestials were assigned to advance the welfare of the human races. At that time, this first city was located at the center of population of early man. Included with the various angelic orders were the Caligastia one hundred. They were Jerusemite volunteers (celestials) who received the Andonic (human) germ plasm when they were repersonalized here with material bodies. (“And much of your subsequent mythology grew out of the garbled legends of these early days when these members of the Prince’s staff were repersonalized on Urantia as supermen.” Urantia Book, Paper 66 The Planetary Prince of Urantia p743-4.) None of the 100 came from the planet earth - Urantia. They were all from different planets - the universe is unimaginably huge and teeming with life. These volunteers were graduates of the seven mansion worlds (the biblical seven Heavens). It was this one hundred that was organized into the ten councils. The councils were:
1 Food and Material Welfare: Ang*
2 Animal Domestication: Bon
3 Conquest of Predatory Animals: Dan
4 Conservation of Knowledge: Fad*
5 Industry and Trade: Nod
6 Revealed Religion: Hap*
7 Health and Life: Lut
8 Art and Science: Mek
9 Tribal Relations: Tut
10 Tribal Co-operation: Van*
* Those who remained loyal

Writing is attributed to the Nephilim and that is correct by understanding who the Nephilim really were. They advanced cuneiform into real writing which surpassed simple scripts. More on this subject is covered later on this site. "...Penemue: this one showed the sons of men the bitter and the sweet; he taught men the art of writing with ink and paper, and through this many have gone astray" (Enoch 69:8-9). The "ink and paper" is most likely a reference to the Phoenician city of Byblos. Byblos got its name from the Greeks who imported papyrus from there. It is also where the Egyptian god Thoth invented writing. The Egyptians did rule over the Phoenicians for a period of time. It is in Phoenicia that the alphabet was invented. Writing itself was, of course, invented earlier by the Sumerians. The name Byblos became the word "book" and "Bible". Early on writing was considered by early man as magical and in part became associated with the black arts thus the "gone astray". Fad was in charge of Conservation of Knowledge within the Council of the Ten and remained loyal (Urantia Book, Paper 66 The Planetary Prince of Urantia p. 746). How much of an impact he had, if any, on all of this cannot be determined.

The celestial plan for uplifting the planet continued on for 300,000 years. Then the outbreak of the Lucifer Rebellion. Approximately 40 of the staff remained loyal and 60 went into rebellion. The number that the Bible quotes is also a close approximation for the rest of the celestials who went astray on the planet at that time. Of Lucifer it is written, "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:" (Revelations 11:4). Van became the leader of the faithful 40 and Nod led the rebel 60. Nod and his followers migrated to the north and east and became the progenitors of the Nodite race living in “the land of Nod” (the eastern or Elamite Nodites - the east of Eden where Cain went to find a wife (Gen 4:16)). It was right after the Rebellion that the rebel members of the 60 had sex with the humans on earth. These men and women of the 100 became the gods of these early men and were the origin of the Watchers. On page 857 the Urantia Book says that the offspring of Nodite and Andonite were far superior in almost every way to aboriginal humans “...These mutant traits appearing in the first Nodite generation resulted from certain changes which had been wrought in the configuration and in the chemical constituents of the inheritance factors of the Andonic germ plasm. These exceptional Nodite/Andonites were numbered as the “mighty men of old”. The biblical reference to these people is “Nephilim”" (Urantia Book, Paper The Midway Creatures p.856). These children of the gods were the first hybrid humans.

"The Book of Jubilees gives another account of how the Watchers fell that is similar to 1 Enoch. It explains that the Watchers originally descended to the earth to teach mankind and do what is just, but they 'sinned with the daughters of men because these had begun to mix with earthly women so that they became defiled.' (Jubilees 4:22)"
(http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/mythology/watchers.asp)

Sitchen has translated tablets about gods who came from heaven named the Anunnaki who came to earth over 400,000 years ago and about 250,000 years ago genetically engineered humans to become their slaves to mine gold for them. It is remarkable that the arrival date of the “gods” is so close to the the date of the prince’s arrival. And too about genetic engineering which the 100 themselves underwent. All of this seems very sophisticated for primitive humans living in the stone age. The Sumerian civilization is documented by the temple scribes as a gift from the gods. The Book of Enoch is perhaps the most complete ancient record of what supposedly the gods taught man and the repercussions of this revealed knowledge.

Early Man
1,000,000 BC Homo erectus
What you may not have thought of concerning these amazingly early dates is that when the "gods" descended to this planet (about one half million years ago) there were no Homo sapiens running around. What greeted these "gods" were Homo erectus. H. erectus is the earliest hominid known outside of Africa. H. erectus is one million years old having made the evolutionary leap from an earlier primate which may be Homo habilis at that distant time. The other candidate is Homo ergaster which some authorities consider as the African Homo erectus. The earliest to date H. erectus fossil in Europe at present is Tautavel Man at 450,000 BC (1984). The oldest H. erectus site is currently in Britain on the North Sea and dated to 700,000 kyr. H. Erectus was first discovered in Asia, 1893. It would be by today's science another three hundred thousand years (roughly from 500,000 kyr) before Anatomically Modern Humans Homo sapiens even appeared and we not talking about Homo sapiens sapiens (us). The skeleton of this first human has some resemblance to moderns from the neck down but being more robust, having an opposable thumb, no opposable toe and on average almost as tall as us. From the neck up, well, that's a different story.

500,000 BC Archaic Homo sapiens
At about 500,000 BC another player emerges and that is archaic Homo sapiens. For some paleontologists there is no clear dividing line between AHS and H. erectus . The earliest date for these archic forms is 500,000 kyr with 200,000 kyr for the latest. What is interesting is that the Urantia Book tells about another evolutionary leap at about 500,000 kyr. They would have been the Sangiks (the origin for the races of color). The Urantia Book also includes that they were much more intelligent. Although the Book does not specifically cite anatomical features it is most likely they resemble archaic H. sapiens who have a larger cranium, a more modern face still with the brow ridge but no chin. The definition of this category is still in dispute but is considered as "transitional" by its adherents. It is also considered a dead end by others and would include Homo antececessor and Homo heidelbergensis. Its assembly is determined by who is included under the umbrella of Archaic Homo sapiens.
"Problems arise because there is very little fossil record and they are too young to date with pot/argon and too old to date with radiocarbon." (http://www.paperlw.net/html/Political-Science/200807/21-5361.html)

200,000 BC Anatomically Modern Humans/Homo sapiens
At about 200,000 kyr these AMH were not behaviorally modern and culturally resembled the Neanderthals. The all important skull shape now has a forehead with a significantly reduced brow ridge and a chin. Sometimes the term Early Modern Humans is used which some see this as a grab bag of descriptions and is more of a gray area rather than being specific. Paleoanthropologists have differing opinions as to when modern behaviors actually appear and are working on finding the convergence for modern anatomy and modern behavior. The discussions and publications about AMH are as varied as all other subjects on early man concerning who, when and where.

35,000 BC Cro-Magnon/Homo sapiens sapiens
Cro-Magnon is estimated to have arrived "suddenly" about 35,000 years ago as dated from the soil samples by geologist Edouard Lartet in 1868. At least this is the assumed time for when they moved into France. The term Cro-Magnon is now being replaced with Anatomically Modern Humans as the earlier term (in use for about 130 years) is not precise enough for today's paleontologists. Cro-Magnon is Homo sapiens sapiens. Neanderthal now is labeled as anatomically archaic. As with all dates pertaining to events during the Paleolithic such as the ages of man's evolution there is a wide variety of opinion. Who came from who and when and where has not been resolved. There are two major groups each with their own theory. They are the Out of Africa (replacement model) and the multiregional camp (continuity model). Neither side has proved itself concerning the origin of humankind. Nor have they come to a conclusion on the origin of Cro-Magnon, Homo sapiens sapiens. The odd man out in all of this are the Creationists (Adam and Eve model). An unexpected result of comparing these three theories is that the Creationists are in one respect the closest to the truth. The Urantia Book states that the origin of the human race is from the first two humans. Not Adam and Eve but the first two Andondites the Book's term for Homo erectus. Which I deduce the reason a wise choice given all the in fighting, large theories based upon parsimonious evidence and widely conflicting dates between these three groups. I see the term Andonite as a simple, understandable and easily followed explanation for our evolution from first man to us today.

There is one small but significant inclusion concerning the OOA theory. This landscape includes more than just the continent of Africa. It also includes the Middle East something not stressed, certainly not like the Olduvai Gorge in the Great Rift Valley. So technically speaking with this inclusion of the Middle East first man could have originated on what today is called the Arabian peninsula and not in Africa per se. The Urantia Book would agree on this location with these two clarifiers. One, there was the expanded Mediterranean Sea to the south cutting off the continent of Africa from our earliest ancestors. This expanded sea connected with the Indian Ocean. Two, the Arabian peninsula is called the Mesopotamian peninsula which may hint at the size of the land mass at that time. The Arabian peninsula is on its own Arabian tectonic plate which has been known to have been partly submerged in the distant past. Also the African Rift Valley fault continues up through the Jordan Valley containing the Dead Sea and ends towards Turkey. This is where the Arabian plate has seperated from the Nubian plate. And as you may know, the Dead Sea is below sea level, 1,300 feet below sea level and bottoms out at 2,300 feet below sea level.

One last comment on tectonic plates:
"For instance, it is known that the Sumerian port city of Ur is now many miles inland in the desert. Yet, in 4,000 B.C. Ur was a major port city. Obviously, the shores of the Persian Gulf must have come farther inland, yet, if we assume that this was just because of higher sea levels, Bahrain would probably have been underwater! Rather, it seems we are talking about a tectonic shift of some kind, that not only changed sea levels, but shifted the relationship between Bahrain and Sumer, as well as lifting up the entire Arabian plate, thereby draining the Arabian Sea and leaving behind it the vast sands of the empty quarter."
(Lost cities & ancient mysteries of Africa & Arabia By David Hatcher Childress p. 192)

Back to Cro-Magnon:
"The Paglicci 23 individual carried a mtDNA sequence that is still common in Europe, and which radically differs from those of the almost contemporary Neanderthals, demonstrating a genealogical continuity across 28,000 years, from Cro-Magnoid to modern Europeans. Because all potential sources of modern DNA contamination are known, the Paglicci 23 sample will offer a unique opportunity to get insight for the first time into the nuclear genes of early modern Europeans." (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002700)

The above quote is an important one. The Paglicci 23 individual was Cro-Magnoid from 26,000 BC whose mtDNA was sequenced after its discovery in 2003. This date of 26,000 BC is considered as after the final demise of the Neanderthals. This sequence is one of only two published on material from the Cave of Paglicci in Italy. Both examples show a sharp difference from Neanderthal mtDNA but carry a sequence still common in Europe today and thereby falling within the range of modern variation. (Cro-Magnon is us and not them.) For more information on the Paglicci 23 individual and his DNA sequencing go to: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002700. As concerning the HGP, the Human Genome Project, its official completion date was April 14, 2003 which is before the sequencing of Paglicci 23. Nice to know sequences other than DNA. The first Neanderthal sequence was competed in July of 1997 and the second March of 2000. In August of 2008 came another announcement and that being of the first complete Neanderthal mtDNA genome sequence.

The following concerns Madame Blavatsky's teachings of Theosophy. And my usual disclaimer of not being a follower of such I state - but present here because I think it has traces of the "paper trail" technique used on this site to explain more fully our ancient history. I do not discriminate on what I consider facts as found in what are considered alternate fields of study and belief. (This site can be considered as alternative as well.) But it is always supported by the thrust of what this site is about. You, the reader, believe what you will. All I can do is to present what I have found and place it within a context.

"CRO MAGNON WHO?
Basic facts: Cro Magnon Man appeared abruptly in Europe and North Africa. He lasted from 40,000 years ago to about 12,000 years ago. The first recognized discovery of a Cro Magnon was in 1868, only 20 years before the Secret Doctrine was written.

Blavatsky quotes a man of science as saying:

    On the contrary, one of the oldest types, that of the men of the sepulchral cave of Cro-Magnon, is that of a fine race, tall in stature, large in brain, and on the whole superior to many of the existing races of mankind. (SDii678)

The scientist is quite right. Skull types are known after the name of the place where they are first discovered and Cro Magnon was discovered in a cave in France. He is still considered by scientists today to be taller and larger brained than the average human living today."

"A second and major puzzle for anthropologists is that Cro Magnon man appears to arrive with his culture from no discernible origin. He does not show any discernible development. His culture was distinctly superior to others around him. This could be seen clearly in the nature of his tools. His art work was also seen to be superior. He painted those cave walls that we hear about and that Blavatsky commented upon. His culture does not appear to come from any source that we can identify. That culture gives all the appearance of arriving from elsewhere already developed."

"To show you this yet more emphatically, here are a series of quotes showing the "developed somewhere else" nature of Cro Magnon culture:

    According to Prof. Francois Bordes, world renown archeologist and former director of the Laboratory of Prehistory at the University of Bordeaux, the Aurignacian [Cro Magnon ] tool tradition without doubt originates outside of Europe, ready-made, although from where is still a mystery (Bordes, 1968).

    Dr. John E. Pfeiffer, professor of anthropology at Rutgers University observes: "The Aurignacian is quite distinct from the Parigordian" [ a separate older European style ]; they arrive "from some area outside of Western Europe"; with an already "established way of life."

    Archeologist Frank Hibben states that the Aurignacian industry is "indubitably non-European in origin";

    These "invasions" [ of earlier Cro Magnons in Europe ] are all associated with waves of Cro-Magnon occupation. No formative, or "gestation," stages have ever been found on any continent for any of the Cro-Magnon tool industries.

    Professional anthropologists haven't the foggiest idea of the origin of these invasions. (Bordes, 1968) They invariably appeared on the western shores of Europe and Africa, even including some of the Atlantic isles next to those continents. Always the sites are clustered in the west, the number of sites diminishing towards the east [with an exception in the Levant]. Combe Capelle sites [of more ancient European man] are more or less evenly distributed all over Europe and the Near East. This has been a mystery that has plagued anthropologists for over a hundred years. To the west, there is nought but empty ocean: how could the invasions come from there?

    The mystery of these invasions has been so embarrassing that today anthropologists don't want to talk about it any more. Some have gotten around the problem by blurring the distinction between true "Atlantic" Cro-Magnons and the "eastern" European types. Calling all modern men "Cro-Magnon," is merely skirting the issue; but this is not a scientific way to deal with the problem. (R. Cedric Leonard, author of Quest for Atlantis at http://atlantisquest.com/Anthropology.html ) "

"Here she [Blavatsky] is quite clear:

    The Guanches of the Canary Islands were lineal descendants of the Atlanteans. This fact will account for the great stature evidenced by their old skeletons, as well as by those of their European congeners the Cro-Magnon Pal�olithic men. (SDii791)

And finally, she claims all of European paleolithic man as Atlantean:

    Pal�olithic European man of the Miocene and Pliocene times was a pure Atlantean, as we have previously stated. The Basques are, of course, of a much later date than this, but their affinities, as here shown, go far to prove the original extraction of their remote ancestors. (SDii790) "
(http://www.blavatsky.net/newsletters/cro_magnon.htm)

I think she was on to something at least in regards to physical appearance and culture. On the page The Garden of Eden I write why I think Atlantis is Eden and if you substitute Eden for Atlantis in the above quotes it does come together as one complete package of migration, culture and physical appearance. I do have one major question and that is of dates. If we go by some of today's accepted dates then Eden is almost but not quite out of the picture. It is a slim wedge of time and invites controversy. It is because of this cusp of time that there needs to be a clear demarcation between Neanderthal and the arrival of Cro-Magnon. 

As for H. P. Blavatsky and her theory that Cro-Magnon is from Atlantis and therefore of a further west origin has no scientific support. Cro-Magnon or the Aurignacian culture can be found in Eastern Europe. It can be found in the Levant. Further east it can be found in the Zagros Mountains (at the Yafteh Cave for one) between Iraq and Iran. The easternmost Aurignacian sites are in the Altai Mountains and located where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. With these far eastern locations presents the question of the origin of modern humans. Today it is generally accepted that modern humans came from Africa widely known as the OOA - the Out of Africa theory. It is also generally agreed that modern humans derive from Cro-Magnon the now labeled Anatomically Modern Humans. However, no Aurignacian-like tools has ever been found in Africa.

"There is thus absolutely no archaeological evidence for an Aurignacian migration from Africa through the Near East to Europe; not a single Aurignacian-like tool has ever been found on the African continent." (The early Upper Paleolithic beyond Western Europe, By P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Steven L. Kuhn, Kristopher W. Kerry p. 144).

"Aurignician sites are found from the Altai to the Zagros Mountains. Although poorly dated up to now, the wide geographic area represented by these sites suggests that the Near East and central Asia could hold the origin of the Aurignician. Regardless of the biological point of origin of modern human populations - either Africa or Asia - they converged upon a common cultural tradition, which was well adapted to open landscapes and represented by a specific lithic and bone technology. Subsequent population expansion would have been more or less along the same latitude as Europe, lateral movements that would have transported new ideas as well as new genes to Europe. From an anatomical point of view, there seems to be no reason to suggest that these migrating populations came directly from Africa at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic." (Ibid p 145-6)
For the original source and more information go to:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sYW3ChXeyIEC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=aurignacian+central+asia&source

"Tracing the movement of Europe's Aurignacian into other countries for thousands of miles can be confusing. Different names are sometimes used to label a similar cultural tradition but it appears that the use of well made long narrow core blades began in Europe and expanded outward from there." (http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2002marchaurignacianpage1.htm)

Some additional info:
Dates. There are various dates for the arrival of Cro-Magnon into Western Europe. 40,000 years ago is popular and many sites use this date. Even 40 to 50,000 years ago is used. But that is not correct. These dates are based upon the supposed presence of the Aurignacian culture which is associated with Cro-Magnon or as today we would say Anatomically Modern Humans. The Mousterian tools are traditionally associated with the Neanderthals. The Châtelperronian tool kit is assumed Neanderthal. Therefore the problem with these dates. One argument is this: The Châtelperronian tool kit displays an evolution that appears influenced by Aurignacian culture. But there are no dateable human remains with these tools to substantiate these claims. It is only by empirical evidence for the association when in fact Neanderthal could be the soul author for the Châtelperronian tool kit. Another problematic gray area for paleoanthropologists to duke it out.

"...the oldest, dated, unquestioned, anatomically modern human in Europe is 33,850 years ago (Smith 1982, p. 680)." (http://www.asa3.org/archive/ASA/199707/0015.html).

Also: "The view that the Châtelperronian is the acculturation of late Neandertals brought about by contact with nearby moderns assumes an age of ca. 40,000 years ago for the earliest Aurignacian. However, the cultural meaning of the dated samples is dubious, either because they were collected from palimpsests containing other archaeological components or because the definition of the associated artifact suites as Aurignacian is not warranted. Wherever sample context is archaeologically secure, the earliest occurrences of the Aurignacian date to no earlier than ca. 36,500 B.P." (http://www.springerlink.com/content/q567007582561697/). All dates for the Aurignacian are after the establishment of Eden. These new arrivals were not only physically advanced in stature (read genetics) but they were far superior culturally (and read technology). There is one more piece to this unresolved story and that is the disappearance of Neanderthal with the arrival of AMH. The Urantia Book states "Slowly these migrating sons of Eden united with the higher types of the blue race, invigorating their cultural practices while ruthlessly exterminating the lingering strains of Neanderthal stock. This technique of race blending, combined with the elimination of inferior strains, produced a dozen or more virile and progressive groups of superior blue men, one of which you have denominated the Cro-Magnons." (Urantia Book pg 890 paper 80 Andite Expansion in the Occident.) The date of 35,000 years ago (BP) for Cro-Magnon is accurate and is most likely based on the 33,850 date for the earliest substantiated date for AMHs. 

The search for the human genome starts in 1976 when Walter Fiers of the University of Ghent, Belgium, was the first to complete a nucleotide sequence for an RNA-genome. After that landmark, the race was on to complete the first human genome. With the sequencing of mtDNA this new tool has established the basis facts of genetics. The recognition by the majority of scientists is that Cro-Magnon is not related to Neanderthal and therefore Neanderthal is not of human lineage. (Some still are not convinced.) These findings support what the Urantia Book says and it was first published in 1955.

Added June 2010:
A further investigation into the Neanderthal genome has yielded a surprise for the scientific community. A tiny mixture of Neanderthal and Cro Magnon seems to have happened. It is only 1 to 4 per cent according to those involved with the Neanderthal genome project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Here is a portion of what they had to say:

"Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neanderthal DNA in us," said Dr Svante Paabo, director of evolutionary genetics at the German institute, who led the international project. The discovery emerged from the first attempt to map the complete Neanderthal genetic code, or genome.

Around 400,000 years ago, early Neanderthals stepped out of their African cradle, where Homo sapiens were still evolving, and headed for Europe and Asia. At least 300,000 years later, the early modern humans followed the Neanderthals out of Africa. The two populations are believed to have coexisted in Europe and Asia until the Neanderthals vanished forever around 30,000 years ago - probably driven into extinction by the smarter and more competitive modern humans. Previous genetic evidence had cast doubt on the likelihood of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbreeding. But this was based on the analysis of a limited form of DNA locked in the mitochondria, passed down from mother to daughter. The new genome sequence published in the journal Science covers around 60 per cent of the whole Neanderthal genetic code, as imprinted in the chromosomes of cell nuclei. To highlight any differences, scientists compared the Neanderthal genome to that of present-day humans from southern and west Africa, China, Papua New Guinea and France. They were surprised to find that Neanderthals were more closely related to modern humans from outside Africa than to Africans. Even more mysteriously, the relationship extended to people from eastern Asia and the western Pacific - even though no Neanderthal remains have been found outside Europe and western Asia."
(http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326334,there-may-be-a-neanderthal-in-your-family-tree-after-all.html   Copyright DPA)

If you were a student of the Urantia Book the above statement would not seem strange or out of place. The Book says that the Neanderthal came into existence in Asia and only later migrated into Europe and North Africa. Since at this time of the ice age sea levels would have been lower, that situation would have allowed both H. erectus and Neanderthal to walk to Indonesia, New Guinea and perhaps to Australia. And as a footnote the Book also says that there was slight interbreeding between species but that Neanderthal is not of our lineage.