CAUCASIA, MOTHER OF THE GREAT CIVILIZATIONS

THE writer's prediction that " the eastern shore of that inland ocean known to geologists as the `Asiatic Mediterranean', and more particularly that part in the neighborhood of its eastern vestiges, the Balkhash and Dschalantschash Seas, will be found to have been the seat of a great civilization at least as old as that of Babylon" cannot of course be verified until the sites are excavated. But we have now news of two discoveries which are in agreement with it.

The first is the statement by the great Russian authority Professor Rostovtzeff (Irans and Greeks in South Russia, page 197) that " In the Altai region" (north west of the Dschalantaschash Sea) " tombs have been discovered resembling those of the Kuban."

The second is the discovery, by the eminent explorer Sir Aurel Stein in the Tarim Basin and by Russian archaeologists in the region south of Lake Baikal, of evidences of European contact.

Neither of these is proof, or even evidence, but so far as they go they are consistent.

DETERMINATION OF SHORES OF OCEAN OF SELENTUSH

One way is by the old beaches, shell deposits, etc., as described in the geologies, or in the Encyclopedia Britannica article " Caspian". The other is by the place names. If the Atlantic Ocean were to dry up and we wished to find its western shore we would note groups of names, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Boston, Lynn, New London, New York, Maryland, Louisiana, etc.; and would say that those places were settled from England and France and not from the intervening nations which occupied the former ocean bed. And, from the type of names and knowing something of the history of England and France, we could fix, within a century or so, the date of colonization.

Now, starting from the south shore and going east, we find a long string of place names distinctive of the Caucasus Isthmus. There are three main groups of these

1. In the neighborhood of Faizabad in Buchara.

2. In the neighborhood of Kohan in northern Ferghana.

3. West of Lake Balkasch, the Land of the Seven Streams, near the Dschalantaschash Sea.

Many are of a type which we can date as not earlier than 6, 000 B.C. But in the second and third groups we find names not later than 2, 500 B.C. and in the third group names not earlier than 1, 000 B.C. This we can understand if we remember that the Ocean of Selentush (the " Asiatic Mediterranean" as geologists call it) dried up gradually. First Lake Balkash was cut off from water communication with the Caucasus, isolating the Seven River district and the Dsungarei district. But boats could still go from Ferghana and from Buchara down the Sir and Amu rivers to the Sea of Aral, then called the " Lake of Kithay" (Cathay? ), and thence into the Caspian. The authority for this is Strabo. But about 250 B.C. the waterway between the Aral and Caspian had apparently nearly dried up for, about that time, the Sirici, living in the north Caucasus isthmus, instituted caravan transportation between India and Babylon (Strabo, 11.5.8). It will be noted that Faizabad is only 100 miles from Chitral, from which another hundred miles down the Kunar valley brings one to the Khyber Pass and India. From Kokan it was only a very short distance to the Tarim Basin, and a clear route thence to China.

In the district south of Lake Baikhal where the Russian archaeologists have just made their discoveries the place names can hardly date earlier than 250 B.C. For example " Ekure Chalcha", about 200 miles south of the lake. This is good Babylonian or Baku Peninsular for " Principal Place of the Great (or Mountain) House (or Temple). But the form is one which can hardlyhave come in before 400 B.C. so we may perhaps say that this is a land caravan
importation.

WHY THIS CIVILIZATION HAS NOT BEEN DISCOVERED

One sufficient reason is that all explorations, so far as known, have been made in the Tarim and similar districts on the east side of the mountain ranges bordering the Selentush Ocean. Any old civilization would have been on the west sides of these ranges where we find such names as Chabar; Kent; Urdshar; Kok-su; Sarkansk; Ak-su; Tschingis; Arganatinsk; Bakanass; Chan-tau; Sarkansk; Dschangys-agatsch; Kara-bulak Ubinsk; Urunchai; Talawka; UstKammenorgorsk; etc. Many of the terminations are of course modern Russian; the last two names for example would be Talonta and Kammeno. When these sites are excavated we may reasonably expect to find something of the civilization we are seeking.

WHY IT WAS LATER THAN THE CAUCASUS CIVILIZATION

Primarily the evidence is in the form of place names. The other evidence is slight. For example, the name of the Chinese Empress who is said to have discovered silk is given as Se-lin-tschi and there is some reason for believing that this was simply the name of the sea of Selentchu or Selentash, (the Sea of Selene, possibly because it had tides and the Black Sea had not), the Gelenchuk, Selentchuk, Olontchuk, Alontas and Asslandus, of the maps of the Caucasus Isthmus.

October 6, 1924.

 

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